# some wild game calls



## brown down (Mar 2, 2010)

here are just a few i have made


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## Mr Mac (May 31, 2010)

Just gorgeous! Water fowling is one of my many passions! Do you use a 'mini' lathe to turn those or a full sized one? Also, where do you get the innards and is it easy to tune them?

Mac


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## misfire (Oct 27, 2008)

Nice grunters. Seeing your name, kinda figured you like getting after thicket goats


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## brown down (Mar 2, 2010)

Mr Mac said:


> Just gorgeous! Water fowling is one of my many passions! Do you use a 'mini' lathe to turn those or a full sized one? Also, where do you get the innards and is it easy to tune them?
> 
> Mac


thanks, i use a rikon mini lathe! I get the lanyards from hut industries, and i had a custom mandrel made from aluminum to fit perfectly inside the 3/4 hole drilled in the blank. the mandrel expands with a slight twist of a 5/16 tapered screw. cost me 60$ and well worth it. i have made a few goose and duck calls, but what i have found is that they just don't have the sound i am looking for. I also hunt geese, and own a few calls my favorite is a tim grounds short reed and that is what i base my sound off of, which i can't reproduce. so i got into making grunt calls, predator and turkey pot calls. The Grunt calls take some time to tune them up perfectly, sometimes a little frustrating but when tuned up they sound great, deep and loud. if you go to my website you can here one in an actual hunt. 

http://backwoodsgamecalls.com/


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## brown down (Mar 2, 2010)

and the guts also from hut sorry was in a hurry when i posted this


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## thekctermite (Dec 23, 2007)

Brown Down, you should try THO Game Calls for your calls' guts. He has deer grunters, crows calls, and many more. His quality is probably going to be a lot better than the stuff that Hut sells. He also has an excellent callmakers forum.


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## misfire (Oct 27, 2008)

thekctermite said:


> Brown Down, you should try THO Game Calls for your calls' guts. He has deer grunters, crows calls, and many more. His quality is probably going to be a lot better than the stuff that Hut sells. He also has an excellent callmakers forum.


 
I second that, Al is a great guy and his products are exceptional


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## brown down (Mar 2, 2010)

thekctermite said:


> Brown Down, you should try THO Game Calls for your calls' guts. He has deer grunters, crows calls, and many more. His quality is probably going to be a lot better than the stuff that Hut sells. He also has an excellent callmakers forum.


I have heard of him but will give him a try now knowing some people work with his products. hopefully i won't have to change to much in the design, but i will try a couple out, always looking to make the better call. depending on what time of the year that is what really helps put meat on the table


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## thekctermite (Dec 23, 2007)

brown down said:


> I have heard of him but will give him a try now knowing some people work with his products. hopefully i won't have to change to much in the design, but i will try a couple out, always looking to make the better call. depending on what time of the year that is what really helps put meat on the table


You'll find Al really good to deal with. In callmaking circles he's the go-to guy. Very few pro callmakers use much of anything from Hut, and I think you'll understand when you try Al's products. Another good source is Grassy Creek Came Calls but I can't say if his deer grunters are good or not. He does have a pretty good following though.


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## brown down (Mar 2, 2010)

thekctermite said:


> You'll find Al really good to deal with. In callmaking circles he's the go-to guy. Very few pro callmakers use much of anything from Hut, and I think you'll understand when you try Al's products. Another good source is Grassy Creek Came Calls but I can't say if his deer grunters are good or not. He does have a pretty good following though.


I have been using Grassy Creek for turkey calls for years now for my turkey calls, i have found they are the cheapest. i did order 1 grunt call gut from them and it sucked!!! I will order a few of them today and give them a try.


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## thekctermite (Dec 23, 2007)

brown down said:


> I have been using Grassy Creek for turkey calls for years now for my turkey calls, i have found they are the cheapest.


If you're talking about slate and glass surfaces, no they're not. :no: Stumpy the glass man is a lot cheaper and the quality is as good or better. PM me if you want his email address. I do buy my aluminum and copper surfaces from Grassy Creek though.


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## Bob Willing (Jul 4, 2008)

Well gentleman I have used Hut Products for years and have made many calls that my customers have come back and complimented me how much they liked the call. I added Echo inserts to my call making efforts thanks to *thekctermite. **The**down side is every time you switch vendors you need to buy more tooling like drill bits, and mandrels etc. I also use Brookside as another source for turkey and grunts. The best goose calls that people select over Echo are the Hut Canadian goose call reed and I agree they have a better range of sound, but can be a bear to tune. I guess it is all in what you get used to and most important customer feedback. I am no professional by any means but like **brown down** said “*depending on what time of the year that is what really helps put meat on the table.” In my case between my gun racks, pens, bottle stoppers, duck, goose and predator calls my customers keep my hobby and tool buying going (I am retired). By the way the deer grunt from Hut really brings in the bucks because this is the first year I have used one. I recently had a customer who bought a cotton tail game call, the next day call me all excited that he called in a coyote followed by a black bear from his back deck. Like the info on Tho-game call form says “*1) If you just have to trash another call maker or their calls, do it on another board. It will not be tolerated here.**http://thogamecallsforums.com/index.php?PHPSESSID=2d1d9d344611dd8ea34b44b0b8ae18c1&/topic,7.0.html *
*Maybe the hunters in Wisconsin and the UP of Michigan don’t know what a good game call really is but just before Christmas last year a young man and his father from Arkansas stop by my booth at a gun show and were impressed with both my Echo and Hut duck calls. I also receive an email from a hunter in Illinois who received a goose call as a Christmas present from his workers saying how much he like the call and it was a Hut! Sorry if I sound negative but enjoy what you do and keep experimenting and learning.*


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## thekctermite (Dec 23, 2007)

Bob, nobody is trashing anybody's work here, and if you think that's the case then you need to thoroughly re-read this thread. You'll never catch me trashing another callmaker's work....And certainly not the good looking grunters posted on this thread. If you've had good success with Hut's products that is great. I simply recommended what I feel is a better source (Al @ THO) for better products.


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## brown down (Mar 2, 2010)

sorry but i did not take this personal, what i find nice about this site, is you run into a jam with a project, people respond back with great ideas! I don't think it was wrong to offer another route for reeds. I am always up for trying new reeds, and with a good forum to show off calls or get new ideas from another call maker should be a good thing!!!!!!


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## Bob Willing (Jul 4, 2008)

Sorry if I came across negative but don’t put down Hut because a lot of guys start out there and he is very easy to deal with as well in fact I still buy all of my lanyards and pouches from him. When I sell a call I include a pouch and lanyard. I guess I was combining threads from Misfire. “Misfire's right when he says Hut duck calls are the worst sounding duck call you've ever heard”. I am not a sales person for Hut but, between the two threads numerous suppliers are referenced and the only one that is bashed is Hut that is my point. 
By the way brown down I really like the way you blend the stopper into the barrel and carry over the same flow of the design. That is not always easy to do since the two are made separate with different mandrels. I also like the unique way Misfire utilizes wood and other media to make the bands for his calls. That is great idea to blend and contrast different woods. Those are signature pieces.


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## thekctermite (Dec 23, 2007)

Point understood Bob, but I stand behind what I said about their products in both threads. In my opinion there's a huge difference between pointing out one's opinion about the sound quality of a manufacturer's product and actually bashing a callmaker's work. The latter did not and will not ever happen in one of my posts. It is no different than speaking of one's negative experience with, or opinion of a power tool and recommending an alternative...You always run the risk of offending someone loyal to the brand you don't like. I'm not breaking any callmaker's code of conduct here.

Let's quit arguing and make room for more folks to post positive comments about Brown Down's good work here. :thumbsup:


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## misfire (Oct 27, 2008)

Bob Willing said:


> I also like the unique way Misfire utilizes wood and other media to make the bands for his calls. That is great idea to blend and contrast different woods. Those are signature pieces.


Thanks Bob, I take great pride in selecting woods that compliment each other but also are huntable calls. I love contrasts, and wood allows a flexability unlike any other that is so readily available. 

As for Hut, everyone needs to start somehwere, I started with the Hut duck call and it was a good learning point. I still utilize their woodduck/hawk screamer to make my woodduck calls. Have tried others but am never as satisfied as I am with the Hut product.


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## Bob Willing (Jul 4, 2008)

misfire said:


> Thanks Bob, I take great pride in selecting woods that compliment each other but also are huntable calls. I love contrasts, and wood allows a flexability unlike any other that is so readily available.
> 
> As for Hut, everyone needs to start somehwere, I started with the Hut duck call and it was a good learning point. I still utilize their woodduck/hawk screamer to make my woodduck calls. Have tried others but am never as satisfied as I am with the Hut product.


I guess I am very interested in burls of any kind. My favorite is amboyna, but the cost has kept me from making duck and slate calls with them so I just use it for pens. I like to hit burls with CA glue just to stabalize the wood just before I start to sand them. 
I am not sure how you market your turkey calls but I have found Brookside has a great clam shell blister pack to sell and display my slate and box calls. http://brooksidegamecalls.com/gamecallpackaging.aspx
I also buy their slates and glass sound boards. Their striker and handles are also very reasonable and I really like the hickory dowels to go with the purpelhart handles. My customers really like them. If you don't mind selling a premade push button call with a lanyard and they have ones that snap onto a 10, 12, 20 gauge shot gun. I buy them and coat them with three coats teak oil. If you have a booth they are a good conversation piece sometimes if a customer is not interested in a box or slate call they will buy one of these. I don't think I have seem their woodduck/hawk screamer calls I'll have to try them.


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## misfire (Oct 27, 2008)

I get all my glass and crystal from Chad Hutcheson, great guy and awesome service. I just box my calls up for the most part, havent tried any clamshells. As for the woods, I lucked up and found a place close to my job that sells a ton of exotic burls, and the owner gives me all the cutoffs that he cant sell easily. Most are good for duck calls, but occasionally he gives me pieces big enough to make pot calls out of them. He has given me some very interesting burls too, red and brown mallee, yellowbox, corrugata and several others. I have one friction call made from red malle that I filled all the inclusions in with silver and a hand rubbed finish, WOW!!!!! I will try to get a good picture of it and show you. Beautiful wood


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## LSJ (Jun 22, 2010)

I am a little late on this one, I just joined the group. I use the Echo insert with my Deer Antler calls. It is easy for me to drive by Ricks place and pick some up. 

I have been calling ducks all of my life and some people can call on one type or another. I started on the Chick Majors "Dixie Mallard" and I can tell you not everyone has the wind to use that call. So it goes to reason that if you are using more than one type of insert more people might buy one of your calls.


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