Why I Still Build Turkey Calls One at a Time
Twenty years ago, I wasn't thinking about building a brand or selling calls to turkey hunters across the country. I was trying to build a turkey call that sounded right.
At the time, I certainly didn't know where any of it would lead.
I just enjoyed building calls, experimenting with different woods and surfaces, and trying to figure out how to get the sound I wanted out of them.
Twenty years later, I'm still doing basically the same thing.
The Sound Still Comes First
There are a lot of beautiful turkey calls being built today. Exotic woods, burls, figured grain and different combinations can make a call look incredible.
I love that part of callmaking too. I probably wouldn't spend as much time searching for interesting pieces of wood if I didn't.
But I've always believed that a turkey call has one job before anything else:
It has to sound like a turkey.
A beautiful call that doesn't sound right doesn't do much for me.
That's why every call I build is individually tuned. Two pieces of wood from the same board can behave differently. Two calls built from the exact same materials can need slightly different adjustments before they're where I want them.
You learn that after building enough of them.
There isn't a measurement or a machine setting that can completely replace listening to the call and knowing what you're listening for.
Built One Call at a Time
I could probably find ways to make some parts of the process faster.
But faster has never really been the goal.
Whether I'm building a pot call, a long box, a striker or one of my other calls, there are still a lot of decisions being made by hand along the way.
The parquet-style box calls are a good example.
Before you ever see the finished call, individual pieces of wood have to be selected, cut, fitted and brought together to create the pattern. Then that piece becomes part of a call that still has to be shaped, fitted, finished and—most importantly—tuned.
It's a lot of work for one turkey call.
That's also exactly why I enjoy building them.
No Two Are Exactly the Same
One of the things I've always liked about working with wood is that I don't completely control the finished product.
I can choose the species. I can choose the piece of wood. I can decide how I want to orient it and what I want to pair it with.
But nature already decided what the grain is going to look like.
That's especially noticeable in some of the woods I use in the M6 Series. Figure, grain, color and character can change dramatically from one call to the next.
I don't see that as something that needs to be corrected.
That's what makes each one its own call.
Built to Hunt
For all the work that goes into them, I don't build these calls just to sit on a shelf.
I want them in a turkey vest.
I want them getting scratched up.
I want somebody reaching for one on a spring morning when a gobbler is hung up 80 yards away and needs to hear one more series of yelps.
That's the final test.
I've been fortunate enough over the years to have calls win awards, and I'm proud of that. But some of the messages and pictures that mean the most to me come from hunters who carried one of my calls into the woods and killed a turkey with it.
That's what they were built for.
Twenty Years Later
A lot has changed since I started building calls.
The woods have changed. The designs have evolved. I've learned a tremendous amount about sound, materials and call construction. What started years ago has grown into Greens Run Calls and, eventually, the M6 Series of custom calls I'm building today.
But the basic idea really hasn't changed much.
Build them one at a time.
Pay attention to the details.
Don't take shortcuts.
And don't let one leave the shop until it sounds right.
After twenty years, I still get excited when a combination of wood and calling surface comes together and produces exactly the sound I was hoping for.
As long as that feeling is still there, I'll keep building them the same way.
Crafted by Hand. Tuned by Instinct.
— Mark Six
Greens Run Calls | Mark 6 Customs