Pot calls?

[noggin buster]

 Looking to expand on my turkey call arsenal.    What is the most forgiving, easy to use surface? What are the pros and cons of each surface?  I have very limited experience with pot calls and want to add a few to my vest. 

[unclerick]

A good slate is the most forgiveing and easiest to run and quickest to learn on, there are some types of glass that easy

[pappy]

I agree that slate is the easiest to run and the most forgiving of the choices out there. Next would be ceramic, low maintenance and runs good, then glass, copper and other metals.

[scoot12]

Slate is very easy to run and forgiving.  I believe a correctly conditioned glass or crystal will run just as easily as slate.  Anodized aluminum is a surface that I really like,  easy to run and will give you a real variety of pitches.  You can get soft and loud really easy on a good aluminum.  It is one of my favorite surfaces.  Scoot

[870BkWht]

Ceramic would be an excellent choice due to very forgiving, almost no maintainence or conditioning needed, and a great sound.  Copper would be on the other end of the spectrum as it needs to be conditioned more frequently than slate or glass but it also requires less striker pressure.  No surface is hard to master and sound good on, but you just need to play around with it. 

There are several excellent call makers on this board that can build you a call you will love and the birds will love as well.  Jack Lewis (pappy) and Andy Kaiser (Gobblestopper) make excellent calls as do others. 

[stone road turkey calls]

Slate, GET ER DONE

[blacky]

My favorite is a slate over slate in a cherry pot with a cherry striker. Sounds so sweet and has real turkey in it.

[Gobblerstopper]

I believe a correctly conditioned glass or crystal will run just as easily as slate.  Anodized aluminum is a surface that I really like,  easy to run and will give you a real variety of pitches.  You can get soft and loud really easy on a good aluminum.  It is one of my favorite surfaces.  Scoot

I agree completely but would also add ceramic. It is very easy to use and maintain.

[noggin buster]

Thanks for the replies.

[tomanyturkeycalls]

My favorite is a slate over slate in a cherry pot with a cherry striker. Sounds so sweet and has real turkey in it.

blacky makes a sweet sounding cherry slate/slate... he makes a pretty dang good glass to... got both and can't wait for the season to open this saturday

[noggin buster]

Whats the advantage of a 50 to 60 dollar custom call? Dont get me wrong im sure a ton of work goes into them and they sure are purdy.  Will a custom call have better sound than production call? 

[TauntoHawk]

i owned 4 popular production calls that all had killed turkeys and made plenty gobbles.. got a custom anodized aluminum at a good price, BLOWN AWAY the thing sounded so much better than my other calls. More life like, better tone, more versatile.. I bought a bunch more in all different surfaces and sold all my old calls

now i'm buying hand turned strikers in a verity of woods and styles and opening a whole new world

its like going from a cheap box store mouth call to a hand stretched custom, you wont go back!

I dont care how the call looks but how they play is worth the price

[pappy]

The dollars spent on good custom built calls serve two very important measures.....#1.....they are MADE IN THE USA BY US CITIZENS made with pride and quality in mind.....#2.....they continue to keep the flame of the hunting heritage burning bright, the art of call making alive and old guys like me busy doing something instead of sitting in a rocking chair watching the sun go down....I am one firm believer in supporting the call maker, who takes the time and effort to produce the best looking and sounding calls out there today, from the "Old Timers" who forged the craft to today's modern interpreters who keep it going!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!   

[TauntoHawk]

well said pappy

its a passion for the guys that make them.. and its an addiction for the guys that buy them 

[dreis3]

I got it bad... I have the passion for making them and an addiction to collecting them... Thankfully the passion helps support the addiction... After I started making calls my admiration of other call makers grew exponentially... Each and every thing made (pot, striker, box, whatever it be) is true work of art that an individual puts his heart and soul into, that's what makes them what they are. The time and passion call makers put into their craft is hard to put a price on, although most of us try to keep to keep the price comparable to something you could buy off a shelf, which in most cases is cutting ourselves short and leaving us with just enough profit to continue doing what we love to do. I will never buy a call off a shelf again, not because I make my own, but because I want something made with passion by an individual who put his heart, time, and dedication into something made for me and took time out of his life to work with me for something to meet my needs, just as I'd do for someone who wanted me to turn them a call.

-Derick