When I was a kid I had the chance to meet Dick Kirby long before his company became the big name it is, and after that I always felt compelled to build a turkey call. Because of that meeting, I built a handful of pot calls about ten years ago using wooden pots turned on a machine, and aluminum or glass cut by someone else - so I don't call myself a "callmaker."
That said, the only thing that I ever took from raw to finished were a dozen strikers I whittled with a pocket knife, sanded, decorated and coated.
But this I do know for sure: I'll never forget the overcast, cool predawn morning few years back, when I took one of those strikers to a pot I built, and had a gobbler answer those light yelps. What an indescribable feeling that was to have a bird gobble on the roost to something of my own work. It didn't compel me to continue building them, but instead seemed to settle that goal to build a call after meeting and shaking hands with Mr. Kirby as a young kid.
For whatever its worth, just my two cents. But had I not met Dick all those years ago, I don't think I would have had that experience in the woods. (Nor would I have that sweet little cherry/walnut scratcher Bob Fulcher built for me from Mr. Kirby's personal wood pile!)
