Part Three of a Three Part Series

This is the final part of a three part series on making the “pot” portion of your own turkey friction call.   You can find Part 1 here and Part 2 here.  There will be another series on making the striker.

Safety
Be sure to follow all eye, ear, and body part control safety precautions when working in the shop.

15) I’ve formed the rim, sanded from 150-220 and marked some lines for grooves I’ll cut with the skew and burn in with some wire.  Then I sand to 320.  I’ve also applied two coats of cellulose sanding sealer to the inside. Read the rest of this entry »

Part Two of a Three Part Series

This is part 2 of a three part series on making the “pot” portion of your own turkey friction call.   You can find Part 1 here.  There will be another series on making the striker.

Safety
Be sure to follow all eye, ear, and body part control safety precautions when working in the shop. Read the rest of this entry »

First of a Three Part Series

This is the first of a three part series on making the “pot” portion of your own turkey friction call.   There will be another series on making the striker.

Terminology

First off, I don’t like the name “friction call”.  Box calls, scratch boxes and pots and strikers (what I am making here), among others, are all friction calls.  Similarly, “slates” don’t cover it all either.  There are crystal, glass, aluminum, copper, slate and other surfaces available.  Here I’ll refer to them as “pots and strikers”.

Secrecy

I think it is illegal to share these instructions in several southeastern states, so please keep the contents of the following to yourself. Read the rest of this entry »

The Call Doesn’t Make Much Sound

I looked at the call in my hand incredulously.  I kept silent out of respect for a fellow hunter and in the interest of passing on the hunting tradition.  He said it didn’t make much sound.  I wasn’t surprised.  I held a M.A.D. Heavy Metal turkey call.  Someone had attempted to “condition” the recessed portion of its back side.  I dug a Primos Slick Stick from my fanny pack and conditioned the call’s pristine striking surface.  The sounds were much more “turkey like” then.

To “Condition” the Call

To get consistent sound from our glass friction or “pot” calls we must keep them conditioned.  People often don’t know what I mean when I say “conditioned”.  I’m talking about breaking that hard, clear crust on the glass and giving it some texture so that the striker has something to “play” against and make turkey sounds.  We need a couple of things for this.  I condition a lot of calls every year and highly recommend the previously mentioned Slick Stick pictured below.  Read the rest of this entry »

Up North Journal Interview

Listen to dustyvarmint discuss custom turkey calls on the Up North Journal podcast here for tips, tricks and discussion on custom turkey calls.

Check out dustyvarmint woodworks custom turkey calls here.

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Coming up on Mostly Archery

• Outfitter Reports – Why We Should Be Doing Them
• Overhauling My Bow
• Support Our Outdoors Troops

Join dustyvarmint on the Up North Journal podcast call-in show tonight, Saturday, February 7, 2009 at 8:00 p.m. EST as we discuss custom turkey calls.  

For log on information and more visit Up North Journal.

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