Big Game Hunting Guides & Outfitters

Turkey hunters throughout American history have searched for ways to imitate the vocabulary of the wild turkey. The most successful discoveries have been mouth operated calls, and calls operated by scraping a host of different objects together. Most of the early designs remain in use today in their original forms, with an expected amount of evolution in the materials used.

Through the years, turkey calls settled into two basic groups; friction calls including box calls, slates, and plungers, and mouth calls including diaphragm calls and trumpet yelpers.

Antique and rare turkey calls are considered as American folk art and are highly collectable. Calls produced by many of the famous makers are valuable, but the friction box calls made by Henry Gibson top the list.

In 1897, Gibson of St. Louis patented the first box call. In addition to his standard design, he sometimes decorated the sides and the paddles of a call with his home-style calligraphy and rudimentary etchings. He somehow left the R out of the word turkey on one of his earliest and fanciest designs, and now the famous “Tukey Call” is valued at more than $50,000. The Tukey Call is the centerpiece of Len Guldman’s extensive collection of all things turkey, right up to and including the weathervane from Neil Cost’s barn. A personal gift to Guldman by Cost, the large silhouette of a wild turkey wears the soft green patina that metal gets after years of exposure to South Carolina weather.

Another name on the shortlist of most-valuable turkey calls is the Fat Lady. The Fat Lady is the last box call produced by legendary call maker Neil Cost. After writing a short farewell and signing the call, Cost enlisted artist Paul Yong to etch the paddle with the figure of an opera singer with her arms stretched outward and wearing a Viking outfit. Cost died in 2002 and the Fat Lady exchanged hands at auction for $11,000.

The Fat Lady rests now in Howard L. Harlan’s collection, the largest collection in the land. Harlan, of Memphis, also is the author of “Turkey Calls, An Enduring American Folk Art.”

Other friction calls that evolved from old designs include slate calls and plungers. Slate calls consist of two parts, a flat piece of material such as slate, copper, glass, or aluminum and a striker made of wood, plastic, or carbon. By scratching the striker against the slate, hunters can produce the sounds of a hen turkey.

Plunger calls are small wooden boxes with a spring-operated plunger that can be held and operated with one hand. Plungers are effective, easy to use, and a good choice for beginners.

Wingbone yelpers are not as popular today as they were in the 1930’s, when Tom Turpin was setting the standard with calls made of ivory mouthpieces and cocobolo wood trumpets. Turpin yelpers are highly collectable.

According to Harlan, yelpers have been around for centuries, and were used by Native Americans. Turkey sounds are produced by sucking short bursts of air through a slender tubular mouthpiece. Early mouthpieces were made of the hollow wing bone of a turkey.

The most popular mouth calls today are the diaphragm calls. Harlan says that diaphragm game calls have been around since man figured out that blowing on the edge of a leaf produces a range of sounds. The earliest appearance of a commercial diaphragm call is the H.P. Bridges Wild Turkey Call that appeared in Field and Stream in 1923.

Diaphragm calls are U-shaped discs about the size of half-dollar with a membrane stretched across the open end of the U. The call fits in the roof of the mouth where it is held in place with the tongue. Modern call makers use one or more layers of latex to get the desired sounds.

Experienced hunters may carry several types of calls, but most prefer the diaphragm call for its accuracy of tone and its versatility, and because it leaves both hands free. Some hunters claim that becoming proficient with a diaphragm call is like having a second set of vocal cords just for talking turkey.

Happy Hunting,
Michael
OutfitterPros.com