From humble beginings...

My first successful mallard call from 2003

Well, you've got to start somewhere and I started 10 years ago in a friend's work shop.  It was his late father's and no one was using it.  I lived about 2 hours away and it was a hit it and get it situation.  I had a great deal of wood working experience, but I was new to turning.  I swear I spent more time prepping and cleaning up than turning.  I would go in and make as many call parts as I could at a time and finish and tune them on my own later.  Which wasn't much.  Without checking my notes, I may have turned 8 or 9 call barrels and about a dozen inserts.  About 6 complete calls came out of the process, and I was hooked.  Less than a year later and after only about five sessions with the lathe, I lost access to the work shop.  The family had to move on, and I couldn't afford to purchase any of the equipment.  So there I was, hooked on call making and not in a position financially to pursue it.  I considered myself lucky though, I had a handful of calls that worked and I spent the next 10 years hunting with them.  Life was good then, and continued to get better.

My latest: a gift for my Dad.

Flash forward to present day.  I'm in a position to pursue call making again! I've got a shop all my own, and a handful of call making tools to boot.  I was first exposed to carpentry and learned the basics in seventh grade shop class. My first employment in high school was at a custom mill shop making cabinet doors and such.  In college, I built houses and later worked in another custom mill shop making moldings and doors.  Carpentry has been a part of my life ever since.  Pursuing call making is a great way for me to merge two of my life's passions, hunting with wood working!