Call making

[Jeff Kapsiak]

Anyone done any call making? I have made a few. I'm looking for some different suppliers for the call guts. I have used HUT and have looked at CS and Packard. Any others ? Any and all help would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks Jeff

[Bonnie Campbell]

Check this place out. Al is great to deal with.....

http://thogamecalls.com/

[Ben Gastfriend]

I do know that PSI has them. pennstateind.com (http://pennstateind.com)

[Marvin Hasenak]

Do like Bonnie said, go to Al Woodard's site. He has a good a selection and he is a callmaker so you will get what works the best. He carries nothing but the best. He also had some great tutorials on call making but he currently updating them to pdf format, but they should be back up soon. Any questions on callmaking send me a pm. When you need that special mandrel for callmaking let me know, I can probably fix you up with something that will work.

Marvin

[Mark Hulette]

Ditto what Bonnie & Marvin said about Al... top notch guy.

Also check out allpredatorcalls dot com for supplies...

[David Fried]

My first call is now two or three years old and I got a call saying it had broken. I made it for a friend from California so I thought some Claro Walnut burl would be nice. Turned much darker than I anticipated. ( As a wood turner not a call maker, I used inerds from Hut.)

I mention it because now I wonder it using a straight grained wood might not have been wiser. The bell broke off right where it enters the body of the call. Undoubtedly the weakest point.

Consider the conditions the call will be exposed to (wet, cold, etc.) when picking your wood!

[Mark Hulette]

My first call is now two or three years old and I got a call saying it had broken. I made it for a friend from California so I thought some Claro Walnut burl would be nice. Turned much darker than I anticipated. ( As a wood turner not a call maker, I used inerds from Hut.)

I mention it because now I wonder it using a straight grained wood might not have been wiser. The bell broke off right where it enters the body of the call. Undoubtedly the weakest point.

Consider the conditions the call will be exposed to (wet, cold, etc.) when picking your wood!

I think your choice of claro walnut is fine as far as durability goes as long as it's not turned too thin... I've made some predator howler calls out of spalted maple that were pretty thin (and loud :D) and they would take some pretty good abuse. Of course there are field grade calls that are meant to be used and collector calls that were made to sit on a shelf and I've both made from Claro.

Good advice to consider the conditions your call will be exposed to... AND be sure to finish the inside of the call as there is a lot of moisture (aka spit) the inside of the call will be exposed to and this can have a detrimental long-term effect on the wood.

For some inspiration check out the hand calls section of predatormasters dot com.