Making a Box Call for Spring Turkey

The other day I was watching a video of turkey hunting and I kept seeing the people in the video using a box call. So, I got to thinking that it would be kind of nice if I had one of those to go hunting with. After looking on eBay for awhile I got discouraged at how much money some of the calls were costing. Then I noticed that some of those guys on there were selling calls that they had made themselves. Then the thought struck me, that I do not need to buy a box call, all I needed to do was make my own.

Googling how to build a box call I found customsawing.com that sells wooden kits for making calls for $25. Well, the whole idea of building my own call was to not be spending money so the kit was not for me, but the plans for building the kit they have posted on their web site are very exact and easy to follow. To substitute for the wood in the kits I cut up an old oak skid which I got for free.

After messing around with a band saw, router, and hand saw for a few days trying to downsize the width of the wood to the proper size, I finally figured out that a wood jointer was the best available tool for the job. Next, I copied the shape of each of the parts from the plans to the wood, then cut them out on the band saw. After some sanding I glued the parts together. I bought some chalk at Wal-Mart, chalked the call up, then tried it out. At first it made horrible high pitched sounds, but then after sanding down the sides down like the plans say to I now have it sounding pretty close to what it should be. Not counting the time I spent sanding the sides down it took me a little less than a week working every afternoon on it to build the call.

Hopefully with turkey season coming up this Saturday I can find some turkeys to test the call out on!

The Fur Sale

On the 23 of February I sold all but one of my furs at the district 2 fur sale. I decided to keep the Red Fox hide since it was my first fox.

Heres what I sold and what I got for them:
1 Grey fox = $35
1 raccoon = $5
3 possums = $9 ($3 a piece)

So, I made $49 this year? Not really, because I spent $69 on traps (not counting traps I got for Christmas) and other needed items, also you have to figure in my cost of opportunity. So I really made no money, but I had fun, got tons of exercise and learned lots of things about the animals I trapped.

Turkeys For Spring Turkey Season

Now that the fur season is over, it is time to start looking forwards to the next hunting season which Spring Turkey.

For three days now I have been seeing a small flock of turkeys. There seems to be one bearded bird and four to five hens in the flock.

My Fur season Total

Well, my second trapping season is over. I did better than last year I actually caught something this year!
Using 15 sets (8 steel traps, 7 cable restraints) I caught:
1 Red fox
1 Grey fox
1 raccoon
5 possums

Non-target:
2 rabbits
2 squirrels

On Saturday, I am planning on going to a fur auction to sell my fur. From the prices that I have heard I do not think I am going to break even this year, but maybe with the fur prices rising, in the future I will be able to.