EP:424 | Friction Calls and Turkey Hunting with Pat Strawser

On this episode we’re joined by old school custom call maker and turkey hunter Pat Strawser. He has a great story and his calls are incredible. He is also a successful competitive caller so he understands how to get the best sounds out of a friction call. We learn about different slates and why he thinks the slate call is one call worth learning to master. It’s an interesting discussion with stories that will take you back in time. 

Listen, Learn and Enjoy 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

I'm Jeff Foxworthy and welcome to Gamekeeper Podcast. If you want to learn more about farming for wildlife and habitat management, everybody you are in the right place. Join the Gamekeeper crew direct from Officer Land and Hashman Studios as they discuss the latest wildlife and habitat management practices. News, and of course, money. There's no telling what you'll learn, but I'm gonna tell you, I bet it's interesting. Enjoy.

SPEAKER_01 0:26

We're live in three, two, one.

SPEAKER_07 0:29

All right, everybody, Landy, it is finally March. I'm telling you, spring has sprung up on us. The groundhog was wrong. We went from winter to spring. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 0:39

It's so fast.

SPEAKER_05 0:40

I noticed pollen on my windshield today.

SPEAKER_02 0:43

Bobby. I noticed pollen on my sneezing. Bobby.

SPEAKER_06 0:47

Go ahead.

SPEAKER_02 0:48

Have you heard any turkeys?

SPEAKER_06 0:49

I have heard one turkey. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Long way off. But yeah, I did hear a turkey. Well, good for you. So I'm excited. It won't be long. No.

SPEAKER_02 0:59

Youth season starts this weekend. Toxie, have you been listening? Yeah, Bob Dixon said they were going to do a uh like a G.I. Joe doll, but it's gonna be a Toxie doll. And he pulled the cord and let go and it goes, I heard one turkey one time, way off. You pull it again. I heard one turkey. Wasn't even on me. Sounded like a Jake to me.

SPEAKER_06 1:17

So look, today we're gonna be talking with a legendary custom call man. Yeah. And when you when you talk about custom calls, this guy's name bubbles up to the top. Let me get him introduced. We've got Mr. Pat Strauser in the house. Right here. Looking, he's in Middleburg, Pennsylvania, wherever that is. How are you doing, Pat?

SPEAKER_02 1:40

Good. How are you guys doing? Glad to be here. It's in the middle of the burg, obviously.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

Evidently. Yeah. There's a lot of burgs up there. We're right at uh right about the center of the state, just a little bit south.

SPEAKER_07 1:52

There's a big, big turkey hunting culture in Pennsylvania. It is huge. Enormous.

SPEAKER_05 1:57

I would almost argue that it's bigger than a lot of the southeast.

SPEAKER_02 2:01

It's bigger than Mississippi, for sure. Yeah. We think we're the center of the universe, right? No, but PA was kind of the Yeah, I grew up hunting in Alabama and I sure thought that was the center of the universe, but it dwarfs the number of hunters in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania dwarfs the number of hunters in the southern states. How many hunters y'all got up there, Pat?

SPEAKER_04 2:20

I don't know how many licensed uh turkey hunters, but licensed hunters overall, there's I think about 900,000 now in the state. That's big.

SPEAKER_07 2:29

That's big. I mean, because there's 13 men in the whole country.

SPEAKER_05 2:32

What was that trade show every year? Harrisburg, the Eastern Sports Show.

SPEAKER_02 2:37

Yeah, the Harrisburg Show. Yeah. That was the home of the blue striped whistler. It sure was. Gopher. Blue striped whistling gopher. That's right.

SPEAKER_05 2:44

And it didn't last just a week or a long weekend. It was 10 days. 10 straight.

SPEAKER_07 2:50

12 hours a day to let school out for the house. How many people come through that?

SPEAKER_04 2:54

A million. Used to. Several hundred thousand go through there. Yeah, it's a it's a big show. It's still going on today. The NRA took it over now and uh called the Great American Outdoor Show. And it's still 10 days and it's still very popular.

SPEAKER_02 3:07

Wow. And y'all have had some little bit better weather than usual, I guess. No, but it's been raining, hasn't it?

SPEAKER_04 3:13

Yeah, we we're we're raining right now, but I still have just a little bit of snow on the wood pile, but it's about all gone.

SPEAKER_03 3:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 3:20

Uh we had a very cold, very cold January. That was I'm glad that's over.

SPEAKER_02 3:26

Yeah, we did we actually did have a late January cold. It was very warm to start it, but uh we had about a three-week winter, maybe. Yeah. We had one cold snap back in the early fall and then summer and then winter for three weeks and then summer again. We just kind of skipped. It just seems like it greened up in two days to do it.

SPEAKER_06 3:46

Yep. Let me say this about our guest. Lenny, he is a three-time grand national friction champion. Champion. Three times. That's three times more than you've been. Yes, it is. He is a three-time masters winner. That's three times more than you. It is. And he is twice. He has won the U.S. Open. Boom. And he recently, he and Josh Grossenbacher. Oh. Who were you know how we uh you know we pick about Josh.

SPEAKER_04 4:12

Yep, you know. Yeah, they got sex. Josh is my Josh is my man. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_02 4:17

Josh is my um how do I say this? I don't know. He's my supplier. He's your dealer. He's my dealer. I didn't try to be politically right. He's one of my dealers, but he's a really good dealer. But they got they got second place in this uh two-man team competition.

SPEAKER_05 4:37

I bet that's a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_07 4:39

And that's one of the most entertaining ones to watch, too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

That's a good one. And I talked to Josh this morning, and we wanted to make sure that we mentioned that we beat Mr. Pinhodie in that one.

SPEAKER_07 4:47

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:50

We tied with him and had to have a call off. Look at here. Squeezed it out.

SPEAKER_05 4:54

I think he may be talking a little trash over here.

SPEAKER_04 4:57

You hear that?

SPEAKER_06 4:58

A little trash talk. You hear that, Dave? How about that?

SPEAKER_02 5:02

Wow. Well, I tell you. I would just if you beat him, you're bringing the heat. Yeah. Big time. Congratulations.

SPEAKER_04 5:10

With Josh as my partner, I don't have to do a whole lot. I just sort of stand around and let him do all the work and then I celebrate with him when it's over. Well, he can sure run a mouth, Colin. There's no doubt about it. He's one of the best. He's one of the best we have, no doubt. Yeah. Yeah, he's a great one.

SPEAKER_06 5:27

Pennsylvania is so such a historic hunting state. I was doing some reading today. Toxic, do you know when the first when they when they legally brought back and had the first spring season? In Pennsylvania. In Pennsylvania. Do you know the date on that? 1968. Oh, wow. Way before us. Yeah. That's that's a way back.

SPEAKER_02 5:44

But what not way before Mississippi, though. Way before Clay County, sure. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:49

So I'm thinking that's about the year you were born, Pat.

SPEAKER_04 5:53

Yeah, that's that's about that. I did not go that first year.

SPEAKER_07 5:56

No. You know. But you've been every year since.

SPEAKER_04 6:02

No, I didn't I didn't get going until a little bit later than that. But yeah, it's there's a lot of history in the uh in the turkey world in Pennsylvania. A lot of the old timers and a lot of the really a lot of the NWTF main men came out of Central PA here in Perry County and uh Juniata County. And it was a hotbed for all the if you wanted to be involved in Turkey or learn about turkey hunting in the in the eight, especially in the eighties and nineties when I was doing it, it was it was a good place to be. I was sort of a victim of circumstance and uh a good victim. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 6:38

Yeah, a lot of the more well-known uh caller brands came out of Pennsylvania.

SPEAKER_02 6:44

Callers. Yeah, callers.

SPEAKER_06 6:46

So what about that part of the world, that central PA? What about what about the the habitat that stands out to you that made it so Turkey-centric?

SPEAKER_04 6:56

I don't know. I mean, we're we have a lot of you know, big hardwoods, obviously. Uh great habitat, I think, for turkeys. And I don't know what really made it stand out other than the fact that the at that time, you know, the Turkey Federation was being formed. The first convention was actually here in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Uh it wasn't near like it was two weeks ago, but it it uh so started here, and I think that brought a lot of attention to the area, and maybe the uh you know the conservation end of it and the habitat end of it started a little bit sooner here because of that, the attention that was brought to it. And uh it's it's just been a great place to to live and grow up and hunt wild turkeys.

SPEAKER_07 7:49

So was the were the were the restoration efforts in Pennsylvania like they were in the rest of the country? I mean, did y'all did y'all did they disappear and come back or then cannonate them, bring them in from different places?

SPEAKER_04 8:00

Uh they did a lot of trap and transfer. I'm not aware of you know what what all went on at that time, but uh I know Pennsylvania was heavily involved. We were one of the largest chapters the Turkey Federation had to work with. And uh there was a lot of trap and transfer. I don't know the details of you know where they came from and all that, but it was a very active place, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:21

If 68 was their first season, then they definitely got them by trapping in the cannonet, tip your hat to the cannonet one more time. No doubt. For sure, because they started that trapping in the 50s, I'm pretty sure.

SPEAKER_05 8:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_02 8:34

So there were probably some other areas in PA that had turkeys, kind of like how we started that they maybe so, but uh, you know, in the day of the map that they produce, it's like a little thin strip in Mississippi, and then the southwest Alabama and a little bit of southeast Mississippi down in that, like north of Mobile up that way, and then that was it, you know. So I don't know.

SPEAKER_05 8:56

There were probably some remnant flock bits and pieces, but they definitely a stronghold early on in our times.

SPEAKER_02 9:04

Well, where they what it ended up being is where with the advent of the cannonet, they would blossom wherever the best habitat where people took care of them the most, obviously where they had the most nest success. So evidently that's where you were is probably I I don't know the story. I I imagine that they dropped them all around the state, and y'all just had the best, you know, epicenter in your part of the state. Who knows?

SPEAKER_04 9:26

Yeah, we're we're right at sort of uh farm ground and then where the big mountain starts. We have a little bit of both there, and it that uh it's I think the perfect setup for turkeys to really thrive in in both those locations.

SPEAKER_06 9:41

So, Pat, it's it appears to me that uh just an outsider looking in, that for a long time Pennsylvania has had a history of having a Pennsylvania Game Commission that has been funded by with a lot of hunting license dollars through through the years, but it seems like they've done a better than average job in managing their state. From an outside looking in. What would you say to that?

SPEAKER_04 10:02

Yeah. Yeah, I think they're they you know they they don't just manage deer or manage turkeys, they have to manage wildlife, everything. And and I think, you know, from the from what we have, the blessings we have with all our critters, they've they've done a good job over the years. I don't think the uh you know the struggle we were having with the turkeys, the population going up and down. You know, I don't think you can blame that on any one agency or any person. It was just something that happened, and then we all have to sort of figure it out together, you know, what happened. And but yeah, they do a great job with with everything. And uh right now the hot topic is you know, changing dates for our deer season, but uh they they they they have to put up with a lot. And I have some friends that work there and I know they have to put up with a lot, but I think they've done a great job. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 10:53

Yeah. Yeah, that's one of the things is you know, biologists and such aren't aren't trained as much to manage people. Um yeah, they're they're more trained to to, you know, they're more introverted types. And uh, you know, for a state to have a a really good team, it it takes a little bit of both. Um, and and you guys have done that very well. What you got, Lynn?

SPEAKER_07 11:15

Uh just looking at turkey restoration efforts, uh 1948, um, Allegheny National Forest. Uh it looks like they were trapping and and um and and putting them out from there. Interesting. Very Allegheny State Park. Anyway.

SPEAKER_06 11:33

Well, look, why don't we do this? Let's let Dudley ask Mr. Pat some uh some some of his rapid fire questions, and then we we want to talk to you about custom call making and and hear you hear your story. So Dudley, why don't you uh well let's our rapid fires are brought to us by our friends at Nutrient Ag Solution. Did you have a good time?

SPEAKER_07 11:53

We had a great time at the Commodity Classic with Brian and all the guys uh at uh at Nutrient last week. So I'm gonna tell you, man. Y'all should have been there. Y'all should have seen the size of these tractors, man. It was great. Well, so you you saw some fancy tractors. I saw the fanciest tractors I've ever seen in my life.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Lady promised to get us donated uh uh one of those ag drones to play around with, right? I've got videos of them.

SPEAKER_05 12:16

I thought we were gonna get a combine for native uh wildflowers and grasses.

SPEAKER_07 12:20

I thought you were gonna get me a little tractor that I could give my grandchildren. I did sign up for one if I win it. Yeah. What did you do while you were out there, Landon? You need to worked a little bit. Okay. All right, go ahead. Actually, looked at tractors more, DBT.

SPEAKER_05 12:32

All right, Pat, I'm gonna ask you about a dozen uh questions really quickly. I'd love to get a quick answer, and we just want to get to know you better. So are you ready?

SPEAKER_04 12:42

Okay, I'm ready.

SPEAKER_05 12:43

All right, name a person who has greatly influenced you in the ways of turkeys, woodsmanship, or both. My father. Love it. There you go. What shotgun did you kill your first turkey with? Model 12 16 gauge. Whoa.

SPEAKER_07 13:00

Oh, 16.

SPEAKER_05 13:02

What would you say is your most successful hour of pulling the trigger on a long beard?

SPEAKER_04 13:10

Wow. Uh I'm not sure how to answer that. Uh my most successful hunts a lot of times didn't involve pulling the trigger, but uh well, yeah, yeah, we get that. I guess exactly.

SPEAKER_05 13:25

So like seven to eight, eight to nine, nine to ten.

SPEAKER_04 13:29

I'm gonna say ten to twelve. Ten to eleven. Yeah. Oh, a lot of people, a lot of people answered that one.

SPEAKER_05 13:35

Uh what style of call would you say you have used the most to seal the deal on a turkey?

SPEAKER_04 13:43

Slate call.

SPEAKER_05 13:45

What is a style of call you currently enjoy using the most in the turkey woods? Foxcall. A man of my heart. Early mid or late spring is your favorite time to be in the woods.

SPEAKER_04 14:03

Early.

SPEAKER_05 14:04

Okay. Name your favorite native wood based on looks alone. Black woman. Love it. Uh do you carry something that is sentimental or for good luck in your vest?

SPEAKER_04 14:22

Yes, I do.

SPEAKER_05 14:23

Uh, can you divulge that if you don't mind?

SPEAKER_04 14:26

Yeah, it might take a while.

SPEAKER_05 14:28

Uh we got time.

SPEAKER_04 14:32

It's not only in my vest, it's in my calling case that I've won every contest with. And I can't believe that I kept it long enough. Uh from 1983. Wow. And I can't even I can't keep my glasses or anything for a day. I can't believe I could keep something that long. Uh but in 1983 at Harrisburg uh sports show, the show Bobby's just talking about, used to be a huge contest, huge calling contest. And it would, you know, upwards of 60, 70 guys, whatever. And the show would be closing and we'd still be calling. Ben Lee was our MC. Uh it was the days of Paul Butzky and you know, Dick Kirby and all those guys. And I was just starting, would it be 1983, I think. I don't know if it was at my very first contest, but I was sitting in the sitting in the stands there waiting to go. And I was a nervous wreck, and I just had a little slate call and a couple other little things. And you know, I'm just sitting there in all, and there's Kelly Cooper and Paul Butsky and all these guys walking around calling. And Dick Kirby was sitting right beside me, and I said to Dick, I said, Do you have something I can clean my slate with? And he gave me a piece of Scotch Bright, and I cleaned my slate with it, and I went to give it back, and he said, No, you keep that, you're gonna need that. And so somehow I kept that in my case.

SPEAKER_07 15:57

No way. You still had I have that with me everywhere I go.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

Dick Kirby gave me that piece of Scotch Bright in 1983. Yeah, how bad?

SPEAKER_07 16:05

43 years ago.

SPEAKER_04 16:07

I can't believe that I still have it, but I do. And uh it was with me in Nashville this year, went up on stage, and now we get back here, I'm gonna put it in my vest for the spring. There you go. That is a good story. Great question. Great story.

SPEAKER_05 16:21

Wow, great answer. Um, so that I I kind of want to stop there, but are you still a lead guy or have you made the swap to the the denser alloys and metals in your shot shells?

SPEAKER_04 16:33

Oh well, I have to admit I I shoot the TSS.

SPEAKER_05 16:39

Nothing wrong with that. It's okay. Just need to know. And uh, do you consider yourself a more laid-back hunter or a more aggressive hunter?

SPEAKER_04 16:50

Now laid back for sure.

SPEAKER_05 16:52

Okay. Um, and last but not least, do you believe your main area has more or fewer turkeys than you witnessed in the 80s and 90s?

SPEAKER_07 17:05

Fewer.

SPEAKER_05 17:06

Okay. Good ones.

SPEAKER_07 17:08

Yeah, good stuff. Those are good. Great questions.

SPEAKER_05 17:11

That may be one of my favorite answers I've ever got.

SPEAKER_07 17:13

Yeah. I'm glad you asked him.

SPEAKER_05 17:15

That it was just a piece of Scotch Bright, you know.

SPEAKER_06 17:18

So I love how things can mean so much to people. Oh, yeah. And it's different. Especially your hunting stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 17:24

Yeah. Do any of y'all, well, Bobby, I know you said you carry some stuff. I've got a couple things in mind. Yeah. I used to carry a shoestring that uh I I think my dad got maybe from his dad, but you would tie it around the turkey's legs and then set it on your uh put it on the barrel of your shotgun and carry your turkey out of the woods with it. I finally lost it about 10 years ago. You know, again, it's just the little things. Yeah. Wow.

SPEAKER_06 17:52

Pat, I I want to learn more about you. How did you what was what got you into turkey hunting back in the day? Did you come from a hunting family?

SPEAKER_04 18:00

Oh yeah. Yeah, we were we and are big hunters, uh, deer hunters, small game hunters, everything. And uh, like I said, a kind of victim of circumstance. I was good friends with uh in town in in our little town of Thompson Town there. Good friends with a uh guy by the name of R. E. Fleischer. He was good friends with his son, and he was, of course, uh his dad, Bud. And he made turkey calls, and Bud was good friends with Dee Dee Adams, and Dee Dee was our neighbor right across the river. And I don't know if you're all familiar with Dee Dee Adams as far as the slate calls go, but Dee Dee was kind of the godfather of the slate call, and and later uh him and Kirby got involved there with Quaker Boy, and that's where the Quaker Boy line of slate calls came from. But Dee Dee was well known, and Bud was well known, and they went to the contest, and Bud's son Eddie won the very first, my friend Eddie won the very first uh Grand National Junior calling contest in 79, I think it was. Terry won the adults and Eddie won the juniors. And since I hung around with them and I went to the contest with them, and it just I got very interested in it, and we loved hunting, and it was sort of the best of both worlds. While you couldn't be hunting, you could be doing this, and it blended everything together, and uh that's kind of what got us started in it.

SPEAKER_06 19:33

Do you remember your first turkey?

SPEAKER_05 19:35

Oh yeah, yeah, I can just we gotta hear that.

SPEAKER_04 19:39

Yeah, I got that with uh with Eddie, and that would have been in probably around eighty shouldn't even two or three, and uh we shot that over in the Jack's Mountain, called it right in, and I I used uh Bud used to make these old patty press calls, and I still I I still make a lot of them today. And I called it in with that old patty press call, and just it was one of those textbooks that you it didn't really matter what you did, it he was coming. And probably a you know, a real cooperative two-year-old. And it just it was a textbook hunt, we had a great time, and and I can remember, you know, running around showing people that. Of course, there was no phones, you know, cameras or pictures back then, but uh yeah, I remember that very well, and I remember that call that that Bud made for me. And I still have that call and I still carry that call on my vest also. Now what kind of call was that?

SPEAKER_05 20:44

Yeah, what is a patty press call?

SPEAKER_04 20:46

Yeah, I don't know what that is either. I feel like an idiot. Patty press is a uh I brought back in the in the 80s, late late 70s, I would say around there, late 70s, they everything was made pretty much in wooden pots, uh won't it sort of like the octagon stop sign slates that Didi used to make and others, then they went to the plastic molds, and then uh right around eight, early eight, well, Mr. Bill's airing, you know, he's got the wooden pot famous here in Pennsylvania. And uh but the first call I had would have been they they used to make them from these old hamburg patty presses. It's an aluminum hamburg patty press, and they would cut them, cut them off, and then take them, and they'd have a the baker boy on the back, or some of them had a bull, and the glass got glued right to the top of it, and just ran it with a striker and it ran really easy. They they sounded great, and they uh if you didn't have one of those in Thompsontown back in the 80s, you Were you lagging behind? They were the hot ticket. And that's a hamburger press. That's what it looks like. Never heard of such. Patty press. And I'd I'd still make them uh I still make them quite a bit. I buy the patty presses where I can find them. A certain kind you got to get. Find them online and buy them and rebuild these type of calls, and they're really popular. I'm gonna say I bet you those that is cool. Those would be very popular as a custom made. Yeah, yeah. And then I uh whenever I'd make the patty press, and then I tell the you know, that paper comes with it and it tells the story of the patty press and all that. Very good was the first call.

SPEAKER_07 22:39

Learn something new, I gotta get I gotta get one of those things.

SPEAKER_05 22:44

Thanks, Pat. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 22:45

So I'll get you, I'll get you some built and uh get them down to you.

SPEAKER_06 22:49

So, Pat, how did you get interested in making how did you make the leap from loving to call turkeys, loving to hunt, uh turning into a custom call manufacturer?

SPEAKER_04 22:58

Well, well, uh my father was uh built houses and uh so he was a great carpenter, great woodworker. And I'm sure you know, indirectly that rubbed off on me somehow. He was always making furniture and you know, putting putting deer horns on plaques and you know, all that kind of woodworking stuff. And uh I think just being around that, and then also like these patty presses was the you know, that really intrigued me uh to get that they could build their own calls, you know. We didn't have to go to the store and uh buy them or go over to D D D's calls now are very valuable, and I can remember I've left many of those sit in the woods, and then you know, I would just go get another one. But I wish I would have known then what I know now as far as his calls, but well you kept up with that piece of Scotch Bright, so that's good. Yeah, yeah, and uh just kept you know from being around the calling contest. Uh there for a while, it was just pretty much everyone accepted what we had and used what you had, and that was it. And then guys started saying, Well, I think I can build something a little better than that. And and on the pot call end of it, and Mr. Bill was Zaring, he was at the forefront of that. He he came out with something that was so good and so advanced and so much better. And everybody started, oh, we gotta, you know, we gotta catch up to that somehow. And they started building your own stuff, not only mouth calls, but box calls and pot calls. And so I I guess the the building end of it sort of came from the desire to make something better so you could do better in the competitions. That's sort of where that came from. And having, like I said, having the carpentry background in my family and and the hunting background, and uh just sort of came came natural.

SPEAKER_06 28:01

You know, when you think about a that we we he's talking about pot calls a lot, but in this patty press, but when you well, a good slate call, there's not I it it is they sound so sexy. Yeah. I mean, somebody that can really run a good slate can he can just do it all. And uh Pat, I'm betting you're one of those guys. Could you give us a could you run us through some scenarios and do some clucking and yelping and purring for us? I guess I could, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 28:31

I I I agree with that a hundred percent. I I sell a lot of calls and glass calls and slate calls, both. And I I don't want to talk anybody out of one, you know, but I I think a lot of the glass calls that are sold and I sell, you know, because we can put a fancy sticker inside or we could put a feather inside, you know, a lot of that is cosmetic and helps to sell. But I've always said for years, I steer them towards a slate. If they really, you know, just the true tone of it, they're easier to take care of, not as much maintenance. They're uh they're much less than the middle.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

Yeah. I don't know how this would sound in the phone, but this is just a black slate. A little bit of rasp. Oh wow. So you can go up and down on them and you only wish, Bobby. Yeah, Bobby. Beautiful. That's a call that I showed you, Bobby. It is. If you wanted, you know what that that's your deal there.

SPEAKER_06 29:50

Well, so so what he's referring to, we're gonna give away a call at the end of this show. I think we can win that call rather than who just bring it up. Wait a minute, I mean, I listen to that until he just called you out. Whoever mails in the highest check, Bobby. We're gonna do something that'll be fair for everybody to have a chance to win it. Okay. What are we gonna say, though?

SPEAKER_04 30:16

Well, we'll I'll this is a uh this is Hackberry. Ah Hackberry won it, and it has some uh Pernambuca strips in the middle of it. It's a really nice looking call. This is the same Hackberry that was used for uh Mr. Fox's vest. Wow. Oh wow. I thought that would be kind of cool to give that one away.

SPEAKER_05 30:35

We can't win. Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 30:38

So what we're gonna do is in fact, it's the exact same board. Wow.

SPEAKER_06 30:44

How about that? So what we'll do pays to listen. Anyone that that listens to this episode, leave a review and mention this episode or send us an email, mention this episode, or somehow get in touch with us if you can't leave a review. And then we'll put all those in a pot, stir them up. Richie will pull one name out, and that person will win. We'll put them in a patty pot. Is it is this official and all that? Yeah, well, it will be. I want to get back to asking them questions about these coffee. So you mentioned that all you mentioned the black slate. And so I also know that there's a red slate that you sell and people love. And a green slate. Can you talk to us about the different slates?

SPEAKER_05 31:24

I want to hear some about the history of it too. Yeah, I mean Pennsylvania slate.

SPEAKER_04 31:29

Yep. Yeah, the colored uh the colored slate sort of came, I would say, in the last five to ten years. They've started using more colored slate, uh, or the what they call the green slate. Yeah. Uh kind of a lime green slate. And that's that's a really good slate. It's a little bit denser, a little higher pitch, a little raspier, maybe. The red, the red is, I think, the densest slate. And then there's a purple, and then there's a green, and then there's the old Pennsylvania mine black slate that we call it. And then there's actually a new, newer type black slate that they've mined now that uh is a really good slate. It's it doesn't sound quite like this, it has more of a almost an aluminum type sound when you listen to it. Wow. But the slates, this the density of the slate is the main thing. Not so much, you know, the color doesn't really matter, but the color does dictate the density. So you're going from red very hard all the way down to black, which is a little softer. And uh the red and the the color slate is a little bit harder to work with if you if you're you know really picky and have the OCD as far as the edges, it likes to chip more as it's denser. Uh so it's hard to build a pretty call, but it's uh it's uh it's good stuff. And and red is uh red is uh pretty popular, I think. Just again, we get back to the cosmetics, but but if you go for a red slate, uh you're probably gonna end up with a higher pitch type call.

SPEAKER_06 34:56

So are your slates coming from uh that slate valley uh of the of the northeast up in that part of the world?

SPEAKER_04 35:04

Yep, yep. Slatington PA. That's a that's the actual name of it. Slatington PA has a couple mines, uh, 10 big beds, one of them. Capazola Brothers is another one uh that provides just about the whole, you know, just about the whole industry. And people don't realize how how uh fragile that line of slate is to the industry because there's only a few people that are cutting it, and they they don't want to cut it to begin with, it's a dirty job, but they do they do and they do a nice job with it. And then the minimum orders have increased uh substantially because of just what it takes to cut it. So the the slate is a uh a fragile lifeline to that slate that people don't realize.

SPEAKER_02 35:51

Interesting. I never heard about that. I've got a question. What do you have a particular striker material like wood or anything else that you think is best on, say the red one?

SPEAKER_05 36:02

Is that a personal question?

SPEAKER_02 36:03

Yeah, because I've thought somebody, one of his friends, I won't call his name, gave me a red one. I've never had, and I was just curious what he would recommend.

SPEAKER_04 36:12

Yeah, the the harder the surface, the harder the peg is what I always thought, you know, to get the life out of it. Uh so you know, probably like I I I run a lot of the IPE, the EPI, which is decking. Yes, it is, yep. Uh makes a really good striker. The the laminate stuff now, the diamond wood, uh they call it diamond wood, which is laminate process, is really good. Uh, and then if you get the right piece, an old hickory striker is the best. So that that but that kind of varies in the board, you know, where where you get it at. But I have a a hickory striker that runs as good as some of my diamond wood strikers, and then I have a lot that aren't that way.

SPEAKER_05 36:59

So uh there's a bunch of different hickories too.

SPEAKER_04 37:03

Yeah, yeah, there is. But I I the diamond wood that everyone's selling now, and and you hear us, you know, I do it too for all the different commercials for calls, is very dense, and that's probably the most forgiving of all materials, and it'll run on just about everything.

SPEAKER_07 37:20

Did do you when you're talking about getting the slate, does it already come cut in the circles? Or are y'all have okay, y'all don't have to treat them that because I was wondering what you cut it with.

SPEAKER_04 37:28

Now, for the patty presses, uh the the standard of on the industry is 3.47. Everybody has 3.47 glass, 3.47 glass, or slate, I'm sorry. And these these darn patty presses, when I started making them, they're like 3.59. So I got a cut just for them, you know, and it's a dirty mess with a whole saw and water and and uh then sanding it down to get a nice edge. I don't make a lot of slates in those. I usually use glass, but pretty much all your suppliers will uh you can get from oh, from inch and five-eighths slate all the way up to uh you know three and a half inch slate. And it's already cut in a circle. All you do is put it together.

SPEAKER_05 38:12

Huh. Some of those slates are uh, you know, these newer colors, uh, they're just so homogeneous, I guess. It almost looks like it's not a mined material, almost like it's uh made. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 38:25

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_05 38:26

Uh but it's beautiful.

SPEAKER_04 38:28

It really is. And I I'm I'm not sure on the whole history of the colors there. I don't know. I I need to dig on that more, but I just understand the density of them. It's quite different.

SPEAKER_05 38:39

And the slate of today, just your standard slate, it seems more refined than you know, some of these older calls that that you see.

SPEAKER_04 38:49

Uh maybe it's the process of how they cut it or yeah, and a lot of the older calls, a lot of the older calls they used to use uh roof slate. They'd split it. And you know, so it was I I don't know how the quality control was on back then on those, but slate slate is funny. Uh it's not like glass where glass is pretty much all the same. Slate, you know, it's a it's mine, so there's veins of it, and the density changes in those veins. If you I I have the the I have a piece of slate that I cluck and purr on or tree call in the competitions, and I'll go through well, well, I I keep that one now that I found it, but I'll go through hundreds of pieces of slate, and you'll find one that's all of a sudden just real soft and dead. And the next one will be real alive, you know. And when you find those soft pieces, always set those to the side. And that's sort of my for soft talking or clucking and purring that kind of stuff. But a slate will vary just simply because it's a it's a rock, you know, there's different veins in the rock and different places where it's a little bit denser than than others. And so yeah, it's it's uh and and a lot of the slate also is the way that it is uh cut with the diamond core bit as it's being cut. So you'll have depending on the sharpness of your of the tooling at the time, it may cut softly and they'll pull that out and slice their pieces down. And there was wasn't much heat involved, so your slate's nice and straight and all the pieces. When you get towards the end of that that uh tooling, it gets hotter. So then when they cut them, then your slate starts to warp a little bit because of the heat of the tool. So if you get you'll you can go through and you can see some slate that has a little bit of a warp and some of it's perfectly flat. So you want to, you know, you got to be cautious of that when you're putting it into your pot, how it's sitting, or if like I sand all mine so they're flat, and that's a dusty mess, but it's makes a better call. If you would put a piece of warped slate in your pot and it's you know it's warped up a little bit, or if you put it upside down and it's cupped a little bit, the the adhesion's gonna be different, and you're gonna have a just it's gonna be a dud, you know, if you have too much of a gap in there.

SPEAKER_06 41:16

I resemble that a dud. I know all about duds. Yeah. So slate is so interesting. Is it primarily used for roofing material? What's my opinion? Yeah, I guess less slate.

SPEAKER_04 41:29

There's a lot of I mean, countertops, probably, chalkboard. Well, they don't use chalkboards anymore, but probably the big slate mines are are uh I I guess a lot of it would be like decorative, you know, flooring, maybe stuff like that.

SPEAKER_06 41:42

We had a slate for you in an old house a little bit. I never realized chalkboards were made out of slate. That's right. And then they would put slate underneath billiard tables, wouldn't they? They do.

SPEAKER_04 41:51

Yeah, yeah. That used to be a good place to get them. Old old cool cables. We always we always used the the little chalkboards that we would get from uh our local craft stores in a little wooden frames, and we'd take the frames off and cut the slate out of it. Ha.

SPEAKER_02 42:05

I'll be I I personally even have kind of tried them all. I still like the old he calls it black, it's gray, the original slate. To me, that softness just grabs things for nasally, you know, close stuff. I mean, you know, when you're hammering one from way out there, there's a multitude of things that sound great.

SPEAKER_05 42:28

But uh I can't get out of calling them a slate call, regardless of what the parents are. What kind of slate call are you running? You know, one of those glasses.

SPEAKER_02 42:36

One of those glass slate calls. Aluminum slate because it's like it's like blowing your nose with Kleenex, no matter what it is. It's just the name, you know. Right, right.

SPEAKER_04 42:45

I get that all the time. If someone will order a call and they'll be talking slate the whole conversation, and then I'll say, okay, well, that's you know, this, this, and this. And they say, Well, make sure you put a feather inside. It's like I want to see the feather. So, well, I think we're talking about two different things here. No, a slate call, you know, with glass on the top. But that's just the that's just what they call it, you know, just slate call.

SPEAKER_06 43:08

So, Pat, have you got a tip to give people the when they pick up a new call to find the sweet spot, the the fastest way to find the sweet spot on that call?

SPEAKER_04 43:18

Oh, boy, I mean, most most all calls will be probably three-quarters of an inch in from the edge. Uh they won't all be dead in the middle, but a large percentage of them will be pretty dead in the middle. So I would you know stick with three-quarters of an inch in from the edge, and then just you know, work your way around. There will be a sweet spot. There always is. I don't know why, but you just work your way around the around the pot three-quarters of an inch in and always run from the outside in.

unknown 43:48

Right.

SPEAKER_04 43:48

So you'll that'll give you your you know, your tone, your break, your rollover. And uh usually if you're three-quarters of an inch in and just work your way around and call, you'll find the sweet spot.

unknown 44:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 44:01

And just like if you go in too far, you know, it'll sort of you can hear the difference. You know, as you work out to the edge. But I always work, you know, from the outside in, and then you'll that'll give you a nice rollover. Usually about three-quarters of an inch in, something like that.

SPEAKER_02 44:27

So you didn't show us there, and of course we're doing a podcast, but are you are you are you like 90 degrees coming straight in, or are you at maybe a 45 degree angle? Yeah, show us another color.

SPEAKER_04 44:37

I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 44:38

It's kind of a is it kind of a uh U shape a little bit?

SPEAKER_04 44:41

Um Yeah, I'm coming I'd probably draw more of a fish hook.

SPEAKER_02 44:47

Right, I gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 44:48

Right. Uh I always and then you always want to end where you start. Right. Right? So I'm gonna I'm just I'm gonna like a C hook, and I'm gonna I'm gonna always end right where I start. Oh wow, like a circle almost. Yeah, probably more like a football. Right, like an electrical, right, right, right.

SPEAKER_07 45:09

Is that like a sheath you got on your striker there?

SPEAKER_02 45:13

That caught you. That's tape. Ah, all right, okay.

SPEAKER_04 45:19

He run he runs it so much he gets blisters on his hand. Well, that that's I do. Uh this this is the one, this is the one I ran in Nashville. This is one that I run on the glass call. Yeah, but I don't, I don't the the more you can let this thing float in the air and hardly hold it at all, the more the more rasp you're gonna get.

SPEAKER_02 45:44

Right.

SPEAKER_04 45:44

And so I'll take this now, I'll peel off a layer like right before we go up, or I'll put a new one on. So it just sticks to my finger. Right. Just that sticky tape sticks to my finger. So I'm not touching the wood hardly at all with that tape. And uh we used to put a bunch like a oh, like on a pen, you know, that foam thing that was on a pen. Yeah, I used to put that on there, but I didn't have enough control. So I just I just tape all mine up right before I before I go out there.

SPEAKER_02 46:14

Is that athletic tape or medical tape?

SPEAKER_04 46:17

Well, that's just that's just electrical tape, and I I put the first layer on and then I switch it the other way so the sticky side's out. Oh wow, break it off. Oh my gosh. It really helps you in uh not grabbing the striker so hard. Right. And and then it sort of brings more life to the call.

SPEAKER_02 46:34

So uh is there different pressure on different parts of the stroke from listening to you? Maybe you're holding it a little tighter to begin and l relax a little bit at the end of the stroke, or is it all the same?

SPEAKER_04 46:46

Yeah, yeah. And uh definitely like if you're kikiing, if you're trying to kiki on a slate, you're you know, you're really pinched off to get the whistle and then you're sort of relaxed to get the elp. Right. Uh but yeah, you definitely change change pressure on your striker. Uh makes a huge difference in your call, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 47:06

I think we have uh uncovered something. If you're listening to this, you can go to YouTube and watch and and you can see how he's got this thing taped up. It looks like he's a mad scientist. It looks like he's but I'm sure there's some method to what he's doing.

SPEAKER_04 47:21

Yes. And some guys don't do that. It's just, you know, friction calls are are a lot more personable than people think.

SPEAKER_03 47:32

Yes.

SPEAKER_04 47:32

You know, they're they're not quite as bad as a mouth call. You know, a diaphragm is very, you know, you sound you run one way and this way and that, you know, everybody else runs different ways. And friction calls, especially even box calls. You know, everybody thinks, oh, I have a box call and you pass it around, everybody sounds the same, but but you don't. You know, they don't you run it differently, and and slate calls are are very uh how you hold them, how much uh pressure you hold on them. Like when I'm calling, mine's just mine's just sitting in my hand. You know, it's just it's just sitting there. Right. I'm not squeezing it. No. And then uh so in in order to get more rasp, I want to hold everything looser, right?

SPEAKER_03 48:15

Right.

SPEAKER_04 48:16

And and you can some guys will pick, especially at the shows. I've I see it all the time at the shows. One guy will pick it up and run it, and he sounds real tight and clear, and he'll say, Oh, I just don't, I want something with more rasp in it. And the next, the very next guy will come up and pick up that same call, and he's raw rasp, you know, just the way he runs it. So there's there's a wide range of running hot calls and uh making, you know, making little tricks like that and whatever. But I always found the less you can hold the call, the less the less grip you put on it, and the less you touch that striker, you get more rasp. You know, you versus if I pinch everything down, I get You know, which really squeaky, but you can find the middle of that. But I I think everyone calls better if they hold everything looser.

SPEAKER_02 49:13

Yep.

SPEAKER_05 49:15

Like you're holding a tube of toothpaste.

SPEAKER_02 49:17

Some good advice. Yeah. Holding that edge. You know, a lot of sports, golf, especially, you know, they teach said you don't grip it, put a death grip on it, you know.

SPEAKER_06 49:26

So I'm I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think when we interviewed Davis Love the third the other day, he mentioned Mr. Pat.

SPEAKER_04 49:32

Mm-hmm. No, I I sent some calls to David. Yeah. Yes. I think, in fact, I think I I may be wrong, but I think they burned up, didn't they? He did have a fire.

SPEAKER_06 49:41

He also told us about that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He mentioned uh mentioned a few people's calls he enjoys collecting, and yours was one of them.

SPEAKER_02 49:48

We try to, we have this, it it'll be over before we air this, but we have a turkey tailgate, and it's um another prodigy event of our younger generation. It's funny how I was just talking to Bill, who helped me start the company, who's 75 now, and um it's amazing how um the the younger ones are the ones that are just so obsessed with what went on when we first started and what the origins of calling and the custom callmakers, and actually breathe, they've helped breathe life into that for all of y'all, uh, the way we throw it here too. But it occurred to me as they weren't around. So it's like, remember, Daniel talked about uh maintaining your um sense of wonderment. Sense of wonderment that you have as a child, maintain it in life later on for hunting, but you know, business, you know, relationships and all that. But it just occurred to me, it's it is a greater sense of wonderment for all of them. I'll bet you a ton of the call collectors now are younger people because they're just obsessed with the origins of the sport in the early days because they weren't around, you know.

SPEAKER_07 50:53

I I didn't even know such a world existed until they started talking about it.

SPEAKER_04 50:58

My my my most popular calls now by far are the well for years it was the laminates and the different, but now uh the model my model 12 box call and these old patty presses are are the most popular that that people want. Yeah, and you can see that big time. It was they like I the first instead of doing all the different fancy uh laminates and right, you know, the exotic woods and checkering and all that, like Neil Cost did, which I still do a lot of it. I started building these these old uh the model 12, which has a model.

SPEAKER_05 51:37

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_04 51:39

Model 12 base to it. Yeah, and it's just a very simple call, very clean and uh classic looking hunting call. Yeah, it's it's they're they're good sounding calls too. I mean, they they really run good. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 51:54

Don't you wish Bobby?

SPEAKER_04 51:55

Sort of the nostalgia part of that has a lot more interest. And if I build one with 25 different exotic woods and all kinds of stuff, and they they want these old model twelves, and then uh now this one doesn't get it, but then I put a uh I have a 1912 penny after they're tuned up and ready to go, then uh the lid will get a 1912 penny in it.

SPEAKER_02 52:17

Wow, wow.

SPEAKER_04 52:17

And then uh that's the model twelve. But that wow, that's the it seems to be going more that way than it does, you know, fancy, colorful, exotic woods. Yeah, it's a good direction. Which is fine by me because that's kind of that's that's what I am more of uh that means more to me doing stuff like that.

SPEAKER_05 54:34

It's fateful that you say that because I was just telling Bobby, I was like, I'm I need I need some two and three quarter inch shells so I can pull out my old model 12 that I haven't killed a turkey with in forever.

SPEAKER_04 54:45

Yep. I sell so many of them to, and that's just the the the uh it always comes up in the conversation. I go, well, my dad had a model 12, and I'd like to get him one of those box calls to go with that model 12, you know. And it's just I really enjoy building them. They take a long time to build, but and then I do a single cider also, uh uh that's called the Model 12 single shot, and that's just a single-sided call, but it's built the same way. Wow.

SPEAKER_06 55:13

So uh Mr. Pat, uh I'm just fascinated with the friction calls and and the way you sound on these uh the slate is amazing. So would will you go hunting somewhere and just the slate be the only thing you pull out of your out of your vest and use start to finish?

SPEAKER_04 55:31

Uh no, I mean I run a mouth call a little bit, you know, just for just for the smallest soft stuff and clucking and or maybe even a fly-down cackle or something like that. But uh I have to fess up. I mean, other than my patty press and all these fancy, all these fancy calls that I have laying around, my my go-to and my best right here is I have just a piece of slate, just a square piece of slate, yeah, and a corn cob striker. And I can do I I mean I can't get the volume and I can't get the rasp, but you can but I can do just about all you need to do to kill a turkey. And I think I think they sound very real, but uh again, it's a slate call. And I always go back to the slate call. And I I think if you if I just had to use one call, they say you know you can use one call and that's it, it would be a potted slate call, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_07 56:29

But the the piece of slate you're talking about is not even in a pot.

SPEAKER_04 56:32

It's just uh no, it's not even a pot. Nope. I just keep it in my vest, and that's all I use, and it sounds they sound so good. And uh get the right strike, and it's all you know, you're cupping it against your leg. Yeah, that's right. Or form in a chamber somehow. So bringing in your own pot. Man, you can cluck and purr just so realistic with a piece of slate. Uh kind of a lot of our our Florida customers, they they used to always they'd sit down beside you and they think, Oh boy, now here comes one of these fancy orange wood, you know, banana wood calls, and blah blah blah. And I always pull out this little piece of slate in a corn cob, and they're like, That's what you're gonna use? Yeah, what you know, that's that's what I kind of stuff I like to use.

SPEAKER_02 57:16

I kind of got the same old stuff too. I definitely got the same old stuff. I got so much stuff, and I love having stuff, yeah, running stuff and collecting stuff somewhat and all.

SPEAKER_04 57:25

But I'm bad about uh sitting there and and listening to turkeys, especially if you're lucky enough to hear a bunch of hens and start thinking, now what's that sound like? Well, that's boy, that sounds just like a wing bone. That sounds like a trumpet. That one sounds you know trying to see what kind of instrument they sound like. And uh boy, you'll hear a lot of turkeys, and I know I do you'll hear a lot of turkeys that sound like those little old lynch jet slates. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. And they're those little things are deadly, also.

SPEAKER_05 57:54

Remember when they were just all over eBay, and now they practically don't exist anymore.

SPEAKER_06 58:01

So when you're when you're competition calling, you're you're probably not using that single piece of slate in the coin cob.

SPEAKER_04 58:09

You're using some kind of potted call that you have got I no, I cluck and purr just on a piece of slate, just no pot, just a piece of slate. But for the yelping and everything, you know, you gotta you gotta create some pretty good volume and some rasp and that kind of, you know, if you want to your your presentation is just about as important as anything in those contests. So you there's you'd be you're very limited if you just use a piece of slate, you know.

SPEAKER_06 58:35

Yeah. So when they use the word friction, does that mean you can use a box call or you could use a slate or glass? Yes.

SPEAKER_04 58:42

Any any you can use box, slate, glass, aluminum, push, any potted call, any pool push, any friction type surface, just couldn't use a diaphragm or a trumpet or something like that.

SPEAKER_05 58:54

Uh does anybody in that category use those friction calls where it, you know, it's more like a pot style, but but they're they're playing the wood. You know the one I'm talking about where it has the notch cut out of it and the striker is striking another piece of wood?

SPEAKER_04 59:10

Hmm. Uh uh I'm I I think I know what you mean. You mean like a trough call?

SPEAKER_05 59:17

Yeah. Well, it's similar to a trough, but the the friction surface is actually a thin piece of wood.

SPEAKER_04 59:23

Yeah, well, there was a lot of guys. Uh, in fact, I think maybe the guy that wanted this here, Dylan, I know Zach does, but there's several guys that call now their pot instead of a slate surface, has a wooden surface.

SPEAKER_03 59:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 59:36

And that that's for their clucking and purring and there's their soft yelping and tree calls, stuff like that. And if you get the if you get a right piece of wood, usually it's a softer, you know, a thinner piece of wood. You can you can build a really good call just out of all wood. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 59:51

Well, I mean, think about the box call is wood on wood. Right.

SPEAKER_04 59:55

Sound like a turkey. Exactly. Yep.

SPEAKER_02 59:57

Have you experimented with any other surface with the box calls like a piece of slate or aluminum or any of that?

SPEAKER_04 1:00:04

Uh no, but I mean they they do that. I've seen guys that have inlaid uh and and the aluminum lids are big too now. The long boxes. Oh yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05 1:00:12

I got one and I absolutely love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:15

Yeah, they they run real easy, they create you know a lot of rasp and and high pitch. Uh but I haven't. I I uh pretty much just stick with the wood. Me too. But there there is uh there is several guys that I can think of now that do uh slate into their into their lids and for sure aluminum.

unknown 1:00:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:39

I haven't seen that. I've never been to a seen slate in a lid. I mean, I haven't seen one recently. You know, and I've looked. You've been looking.

SPEAKER_02 1:00:46

You know, this it's a and credit to him and the whole generation of them, but the the contests are there's like a musical competition. They're so good and so precise. I mean, you know, we slip up every other note, we're out there hunting and stuff, we do. But then, I mean, if one of these guys has a slip, he's out, no matter how good he sounds. It's amazing, they're so good. And you'll get people that have been at the top with like in the mouth call open for you know, whatever, eight years straight, they've been in the top, and they probably never even made one little slip in all of that calling. It's crazy. The music, it's like a musical talent now.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:24

Yeah, you know, yeah, yeah, it is. And and you're I I've been blessed enough to be up on the stage there. Uh Van Sice was my partner the first year, and and now Josh is my partner, and to stand there and listen to those guys, what they can do is is just incredible. I mean, all the ranges from the soft talk to the raspbeat to the fly down to the whistles to all that stuff. And it there's no there's no human man sound in it at all. When Josh is calling, it you close your eyes and there's a turkey standing there. I mean, they are so good now. Yeah, they no air, no nothing. It's perfect, just yeah, it's oh yeah. He just and you watch Josh when he especially in the finals, if you go back uh and watch the finals this year, and he didn't win it, but man, we all had him pick to win it. We thought for sure he won it. But he is just so you can see it in his face how into it it is. Oh my god. And uh he just they're they're so good. They're just so good. I mean, you can't even begin to come that close to them with a friction call. But hunting-wise, we can both get the same results, you know what I mean? But but to sound as authentic as they do is just incredible.

SPEAKER_05 1:02:39

And you know, back to Toxie talking about music, uh, I'm a big music person too. And it it really is interesting how when you listen to somebody on a turkey call that is really good at what they do, how soothing it is to hear it. Like you're hearing your favorite song, you know, and you can get chill bumps from listening to a turkey call.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:59

Yeah, one of my my main suppliers for my wood comes out of New Jersey, and he supplies he his main business is musical instruments. And so he understands what type of woods it takes. And it and the wood, just like a musical instrument is very, especially a box calls, very important. You know, how the how the grain matches up when you're calling and how the how it resonates, just like a guitar made out of one type of wood wouldn't sound like if it was made out of another type of wood. And the the musical instrument wood that guys use really uh it really overlays into turkey calls. You know, the guys that are that are supplying wood suppliers that supply musical instruments, they're very familiar with guys, and duck calls are the same way. And they'll say, you know, this this one this one sounds good, this one resonates good, this one. So we use a lot of our our wood, you know, based off of musical instruments.

SPEAKER_05 1:03:57

Yeah, a lot of those tone woods or you know, like guitar woods, they uh nowadays they actually put them in a machine that ages the wood.

SPEAKER_07 1:04:06

Hmm.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:07

A Wayback Machine? Maybe that's that's a good word for it.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:12

You gotta get it up to 60 65 miles an hour or whatever. There you go.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:16

Pat, have you got a favorite turkey hunting story you can tell us?

SPEAKER_04 1:04:22

Uh I don't know if it's the uh a favorite, but it's definitely an important one. Uh these old patty press calls were uh Bud Fleischer, R. E. R. E. Ross E. Fleischer from Thompson Town, him and Dee Dee, they were the old timers that made these calls. And that was a hot thing to have back in the day. And I was lucky enough to grow up beside them. And like I said, Ross's boy Eddie was the first junior champion. Well, we went on a in 1989, uh, and Bud, Ross, they call him Bud, Bud had just retired from the railroad. So in the spring, he had some heart problems. So I always went with them in the spring. They they just like somebody going with them, and uh he always had his nitroglycerin patches or pills, whatever he had, you know, with him in case something bad happened. And in the fall of '89, Eddie, me, Ross, and his wife were fall turkey hunting up the upper part of Perry County, Junietta County, and uh we separated. And Eddie and I went up on this ridge, and Ross and Dolly went up on this ridge, and they broke some turkeys up, and we heard three shots boom, boom, boom, and all these turkeys come flying off of Bud's Ridge over onto us. And back then, fall turkey hunting was a big thing. You went you, you know, everybody scouted the day before, and fall turkey hunting was a was a big thing. So we heard these three shots. Uh, we worked some birds that flew over from them, came back down, and when we got there, the car was gone. And we thought, hmm, well, that's strange that they would leave their kids up in the mountains like this. And so we started walking down the road. Well, pretty soon here here we see the car coming back up the holla, and someone else is driving it. And Dolly was hanging out the passenger side screaming and crying. And she told us, she said, Boys, daddy's dead, daddy's dead. And here, Bud had always told us if anything happened, that you'd uh fire three shots, and that's what you know would sort of be like a warning. Well, looking back on it now, those three shots were probably his uh help me shots uh when he broke these turkeys up. Of course, she was right there with him, so she came down, got took the car and went to get help and came back, and then uh Bud passed away up on the ridge, the guy that that makes these calls. So that was a bad day. And uh, of course, I think you know, had to uh get him out and all that, and uh that really impacted my whole turkey call making, hunting, old timer respect. I mean, everything sort of all happened that day, you know, and uh that was not a not a happy hunt, but it was my most memorable hunt for sure.

SPEAKER_05 1:07:20

Very impactful for sure.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:21

Wow, yeah, that's a great story.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:23

Yeah, I as a young person, I can't imagine what I'll be going through your mind at that at that time.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:30

Yeah, that was that was a big one. And he and uh his his whole family was uh the Flasher family was well known. We had the Roms, Terry, Robbie Rom, Dale Rom. Oh yeah, you know, there and uh Terry Flashers.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:43

Terry Rom had the prettiest hen yup I ever heard in my life, still. Yeah, yeah. He couldn't do some of the other stuff, but as far as a pure beautiful hen yup on that one little half-reed tiny call.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:55

Yeah. Yep, he's old half-reed. But yeah, that was uh that was a a bad day, but uh an impactful day, and and every time I make these patty presses, I'd you know, I'd do it with respect to Bud and and uh you know I don't that that's kind of what drew me like with with Bud and uh and D D. Of course, and D D passed away in 86, but uh and just a couple other old timers that no one would know, but I could name passing away. That's what really drew me, or I wouldn't say drew me, but with Mr. Fox here of the the respect that that you all show to him and the boys showed to him and and the impact that he had. And you know, he I look at him as kind of the uh you know an original old timer, and like like Bud was an original old timer. And and that's whenever uh you know, when Neil asked me to do that call, I mean it just it was so overwhelming. I thought, man, I'd love to do that for him, you know. And I I really hope that and and I try to do that when I sell guys calls, especially these patty presses, I send that letter. I said, no, you know, please read that letter because that's it's not just a call. There's you know, there's a story in every call. No matter what call you buy, there's a story in every call, like just like this would, you know, it's there's a there's a story there, and and uh I like to try and get that through in my calls.

SPEAKER_05 1:09:32

Kind of reminds me of the Giving Tree book story. That's true.

SPEAKER_02 1:09:36

So yeah, let me point out too that there is just a growing um phase, or it's actually becoming almost the most popular thing. And the kind of the energy and the emotion of turkey hunting in general has shifted and grown, and that's a symbolic of that is these custom callmakers are crazy popular. But he just voiced part of what makes it so special is like this growing respect for the the sport, but and the calls and the craft of that and all these special things, and on top of all of that, probably primary is the more respect for the bird. I think it's come along at a good time too when we all learned the hard way. We better respect the bird better or else. And so I don't know, there's just such a big positive energy as witnessed. Have you ever seen anything like the attendance this year at the convention? Oh, no, it was crazy.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:35

I I tried to get I tried to get through one time I was gonna come see Bobby and I started to the other end and I couldn't move. I couldn't, I went out the door, I had to go around back.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:45

I never left our booth. I never I mean I I escaped to the bathroom a couple times, and that was easy. That was crazy. Yeah, they said the interstate was blocked up for like two miles at one time.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:55

Well, when I came out the the time that I got blocked off, I came back out and the line to get in was still a hundred yards long. You know, I don't I don't know where they're gonna put them all.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:04

Wow, yeah, it was so much fun. That's such a great and the you know, of course, celebrating daddy's life was so bittersweet, but so I mean, really emphasis on the sweet part.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:14

So you can be be really proud of proud of the uh impact that that he's had, you know. And I I just I think it's awesome that little kids running around with fox shirts on, you know, and and they don't understand it now, but they will.

SPEAKER_02 1:11:28

Yeah. I mean, the thing about he didn't understand it. It was just honestly born by I mean, I've always I mean, I've you learn when you lose them, there's just a part of it, you just vaporizes instantly. I mean, it's just the craziest sensation I've ever had that we were so, so close. But um, my whole life I just I so adored sharing him with people. But the honestly, the thing that helped him share him with the world really was me and my my my two sons were just so proud of their papa all they wanted to show him off. And he never, I mean, he was never just it's amazing. He never tried, he never wanted to be like that. He was just kind of quietly being himself, and it just resonated beyond anything I ever dreamed it would. But I promise you, I'll tell everybody out there, I if it's everybody actually deserved that, had the humility and the genuineness, and y'all all know that it would be him. So, I mean, I wish he'd have understood it more, but he felt the love.

SPEAKER_05 1:12:29

Oh, he feels it now.

SPEAKER_02 1:12:30

And I'm gonna say this to everybody out there, I hadn't said this yet. One of the last two things he could say when he could talk to me. I won't one of them was so personal, I'd probably never be able to talk about anybody but maybe my wife and kids. But the other one was like he was just shaking, his hands were shaking. I don't know what to do, son. I was like, what, daddy? You okay? No, I just don't know what to do. I mean, all this love from all these people, I just I don't know what I ever did to deserve any of that. And I just I don't know what to say. I just I I appreciate it. So much, but I just I met he was just at a loss because he could feel all that love. But it was the coolest thing ever to see. He was so feeble and his hands were shaking, but he was overcome with the emotion. And that's the second or the last thing he ever spoke to me about.

unknown 1:13:14

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 1:13:14

Very cool. I had from going to all the different callmaking shows, and I'd always try to come up with something fancy or some the latest wood or the latest, you know, whatever. Just I was worried more about cosmetics and selling calls and making dollars and all that. And I sort of got caught up in that. And I'll never forget. I had a an old timer come up and he was looking at my calls and and he he ended up buying one. And then he he told me, he said, So you're or I forget how he started, so you're a custom callmaker or something like that. And I said, Yep. And he looked at all of them. He said, just remember that being a custom callmaker is more about the maker and less about the call. And I thought, well, he's right, you know. So I try to I try to put that, think about that when I'm building calls for somebody.

SPEAKER_02 1:14:04

Because it is. They become you become the brand when you're the call. When you think about all the ones, what do you call them by? You call them by the maker. And they all have their, as you know, you're in the middle of a bunch of them there, but y'all are a family of guys, even when you compete and all with each other. Um, but everybody has his own distinct personality that's very different. Yep.

SPEAKER_06 1:14:25

Yep. Wow. Pat, we've really enjoyed getting to meet you. And everything everybody said about you is true. You're a he I can just tell you're a heck of a nice guy. Thank you. And I I really admire the respect that you've got for where you've been and the people that helped you get started, and just the that the way we were talking about it earlier. Just the respect for the people that have come before us. And you you've you've got that in spades.

SPEAKER_04 1:14:51

Yeah, I think we all call makers call makers especially, but everybody has to remember that you know we're we're here because of, you know, we didn't invent these glass calls or these box calls, and we're here because whatever happened 40, 50, 60, 100 years ago, you know, that's why we're able to do what we do. And I'll I'll uh you know, do my best to always tell people that, you know, to make sure you thank the generation before you. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:23

Hey, uh, Richie, why don't we ask him a trivia question? All right. Yeah, Pat, we've got a trivia that we designed just for you. That's what Bobby does every week.

SPEAKER_02 1:15:31

He's kind of like a heavyweight boxer. He builds you up, tells you what a great guy you are, and then he tries to hit you with a punch and knock you down.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:38

All right. So we have a listener. That's how we roll. A listener who left a review, uh Brian Cheatham, 6384. 25-hour drive across the country and listen to the game, the Gamekeepers podcast the whole way. Oh, wow. It doesn't get old. Thanks, guys. 25 hours.

SPEAKER_07 1:15:58

I couldn't listen to you for 25 hours. No, I didn't.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:01

Nor could I you for that hour. So uh what's uh Mr. Cheatham win here?

SPEAKER_05 1:16:06

Uh a new gun. That's right. Well, these are really nice blunt. Just leave it in your truck. They're good for all seasons.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:15

Yep. Mm-hmm. Um, so now on the trivia, and the trivia is brought to us by our buddies at the peanut patch. We like those boiled peanuts. You know, I bet Pat may not even know what boiled peanuts are.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:26

All I know is I walked in the kitchen yesterday and you and Dudley were just feverishly eating peanut.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:32

We had a regular anaspera.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:34

Y'all were just eating it up right there, hiding in the kitchen.

SPEAKER_05 1:16:37

Well, you know, Mac's allergic to peanuts, so we we put the peanut can in the sink and then we put the the peanut hull bowl in the sink.

SPEAKER_07 1:16:46

That's y'all are being very considerate of you.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:49

That's not what Bobby did the other day when he came to my office eating bowl peanuts just on the on the in the trash can there. He's just throwing the hull in the world.

SPEAKER_02 1:16:55

Well, he usually throws them on people's desks.

SPEAKER_04 1:16:59

Pat, this is a rough crew around here. Why would you ruin a perfectly good can of salted peanuts? Oh, Pat, you didn't. Whoa!

SPEAKER_06 1:17:07

We're gonna we're gonna UPS you some boiled peanuts. Some what? Boiled peanuts. Boiled. Boiled. All right, Richie, come on.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:18

So, what in when is considered to be the first slate call manufactured?

SPEAKER_06 1:17:25

Ooh.

SPEAKER_02 1:17:27

Wow.

SPEAKER_06 1:17:29

Manufactured. Manufactured or made. Why don't we say even say patented?

SPEAKER_01 1:17:35

Oh, yeah. When and the name.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:41

Wow. Wow, really. Uh big chief, maybe? I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:50

No, not exactly. Um, it says the first patented slate turkey call was known as the Simplex Turkey Call.

SPEAKER_04 1:17:58

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:17:58

Yeah, yeah. And created in 1912 by Dr. Wade H. Sanders. You're kidding me. Sanders.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:05

I've never heard of it. 1912?

SPEAKER_01 1:18:07

Or except the Hall or Hall Suplicity Call. That's a long time.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:12

Have you got one, Toxie? I've never heard of it. I hadn't either. I couldn't find a picture of it.

SPEAKER_05 1:18:18

But the so the Model 12 and the slate call. Who's the guy?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:22

I did get my grandfather, who I was named for, Daddy's Daddy, Toxie Hayes Sr. Um, he, you know, I was named for him, and I've heard me tell the story. I never got to know him. He died the day after I was born. But um he had a box call someone had made for him, and it's from the and uh maybe the historian, uh, book historian, Brent Rogers. Yeah, I don't know him. I think he's the one that made them known. Daniel took a picture. He said that's such and such, I forgot the name, and those were built in the 1920s.

SPEAKER_03 1:18:53

Hmm.

SPEAKER_02 1:18:54

And so I put it in a gun safe.

SPEAKER_07 1:18:56

So is Mr. Fox's dad a turkey hunter, too?

SPEAKER_02 1:18:58

Oh, yeah. Isn't he? So um it's like I I just got through memory lane since I lost daddy just thinking about my grandfather that never knew all the time, and never, you know, of course it felt like I got cheated out of. We all have that with somebody. But I've got the picture my grandmother gave me. All my cousins covet it, but it's not going anywhere. It's he is the 1907, and they were um he lettered in two sports at Alabama, track and basketball. And in the day, that shows you how different it is now. The YMCA was more competitive than NCAA. They weren't in NCAA than college. So he was on the the YMCA champions of the South basketball team. And so they're all standing there, it's like a yellowed picture, and on the back they wrote all their names. I'll go back and show you to y'all. I've seen this. And yeah, and so it's it's the parchment's yellow and kind of flaking a little bit. I need it preserved, but it says Toxic, and they would say their name like, you know, whatever, uh Lanny Goofy Wallets or something like that. That's it. That's what I tell them. But they had their nickname in quotes, and it says Toxie quote turkey haze. Oh, that's 1907. There you go. Wow. Yep. That's cool. I wish I had to go. I'm glad I brought it up because it reminded me to get off my duster and get it like preserved, seriously preserved because it is kind of flaking off in the back. But it's really cool. It's probably one of my favorites. Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:23

Big negatives, a lot of detail.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:25

Yep. So, Pat, in closing, is there anything about you that we don't know that is interesting that you need to point out or any any loved one you want to say hello to or anything?

SPEAKER_04 1:20:35

Well, I wouldn't be able to do anything that I'd have done or did without my wife Beth.

SPEAKER_07 1:20:41

All right. Hit the horns.

SPEAKER_04 1:20:43

Hit the horns, the CEO. We have two, uh I have two great great daughters that are uh just getting done with college and and uh you know gonna start their own lives here pretty soon, Bailey and Mallory. And very lucky to have a great family and uh a good job, and we live in a great area and uh get to get to enjoy wild turkey hunting.

unknown 1:21:08

Yep.

SPEAKER_04 1:21:08

Guess what?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:09

He has had his dose of vitamin G. That's right. Yeah, yeah. Gratitude. Yep, yep.

SPEAKER_06 1:21:16

Well, Pat Strasser, how can a guy, there's gonna be people listening to this that want to buy a call. How do they do that?

SPEAKER_02 1:21:26

Is he on the line? Can you order him on the line?

SPEAKER_04 1:21:28

Well, most of the most of the ones look at uh look at our Facebook page and then they'll contact me there through just Pat Strasser custom calls. And there's a lot of the girls the girls put a lot of pictures on there for me and and uh and that's how usually I check messages there. And uh I'd love to build build calls for them. I do uh another thing I really like to do is a lot of guys will send me sentimental wood. You know, maybe maybe from an old uh you know, from an old barn that was on their house or on their homestead or you know, something like that. And uh if it's if it's usable, I've gotten some already that they said it and it's not quite usable, but uh stuff like that. I I enjoy doing stuff like that also. That's neat.

SPEAKER_06 1:22:18

Yeah, that is. Wow. So it's uh and guys, we'll we'll put the links in the show notes, but Strausser is spelled S-T-R-A-W-S-E-R. So it can be a little confusing. So Pat Strauser custom calls on Facebook.

SPEAKER_04 1:22:33

And and what's even more confusing is we have uh an uncle on the one side that spells it with a U, and we have one that spells it with a W. Oh wow, they were brothers and they spelled it two different ways. Spell yours for everybody because so they be sure. T-R-A-W-S-E-R. Straw, sir. Straw you drink through S-E-R. All right. Straw it's just uh yeah, I'm pretty sure yeah, it's fat Pat Strawser custom calls.

SPEAKER_03 1:23:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:02

I think on Facebook's everywhere. Yeah, they are everywhere. Just like YouTube.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:05

They are just like YouTube.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:06

One of the things that's we've enjoyed talking to yeah, that was that was a good stuff.

SPEAKER_06 1:23:10

So good. Yeah, well, I love slate, love frictions.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:13

Yeah, but just your whole your whole outtake on what you do and what we do and all, so refreshing.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:20

So that'd be I've been very like I said, I've been very blessed, and I'd like to do you know, to how do you say pay it pay it back, pay it forward or have however they do it?

SPEAKER_07 1:23:32

Pass them blessings on. That's right. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 1:23:35

Well, I always said just go home and be the example. That's the best thing you do.

SPEAKER_07 1:23:38

Well, don't change a thing.

SPEAKER_05 1:23:39

No, do a thing differently. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 1:23:42

And I'm I I hold uh way back, like with the the Mossy Oak family and brand and all that, really is uh, you know, when when you guys say that it's more than you know, it's not just a camo, and it really I I really take that to heart. I mean, it's there's a lot more there than just a camo. And it is, you know, I I miss old Tim Anderson talking to Tim.

SPEAKER_05 1:24:06

Yeah and I miss those white socks he used to wear. He I love those. I love it.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:13

Tim's kind of the yeah, Tim Tim was kind of the guy that sort of brought me into uh to the mess there, him and Bob Walker.

SPEAKER_03 1:24:19

And yeah, oh yeah, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:24:21

So we had Bob Bob hunted with us before in Florida and uh oh, we had the whole crew down there, like John Tatum and Joe White. No, mighty Joe White.

SPEAKER_07 1:24:32

Oh man, I can't believe that Tatum goes somewhere. That's a shame.

SPEAKER_02 1:24:35

He's probably filming. That's awesome. I thought about that. They had that uh the video that they showed at the Mossel properties annual conference, and Daddy was talking, they interviewed him, and he said, uh, I think they were just interviewing about, you know, we're we're doing more than just you know the camo and the clothes now, you know. And he, you know, and he was they were talking about, you know, now we started this real estate business and it's you know busting at the seams all over the country. What do you think about it? He said, Well, I've always thought that Mossy Oak was a lot more than just the cloth. And I never heard it put that way, but it was so classic to hear him say that's like his uh like you know, whatever his Harvard NBA uh equivalency of like diversifying your business. It was like it's so much more than just the cloth. And I think that was one of his classic comments for us. It definitely was.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:23

I have one sitting here yet. It's uh I don't know if you can read this or not. It's it's a black slate Jason Hart.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:30

Of course. Hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, he doesn't need any more help. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:25:34

This this one's I just finished that one up for Hart.

SPEAKER_07 1:25:37

So I want to Well, I uh from the videos he sent me today, he's got a good place to use it. Don't even talk about that.

SPEAKER_02 1:25:44

You're getting trouble talking about that one.

unknown 1:25:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:25:47

All right, Mr. Pat, we have enjoyed this. And guys, remember, somebody's gonna win the call he held up earlier. Yeah, so what are they gonna do to win that? Leave a review or email. I mean, I think you can anywhere you listen, you can leave a review. Just mention this episode. Mention this episode, and then we'll aggregate. We know what number this is. We'll aggregate all those. We don't know yet. Not yet. We'll aggregate all those and uh just mention that mention the Pat episode. The Pat episode. I want the Pat call. All right, Mr. Pat, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_05 1:26:16

We we really enjoyed it. Yeah. I'm glad you brought up Tim. Yeah, thank you for that.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:20

Yeah, no doubt.

SPEAKER_02 1:26:21

Good stuff. Our boy. Good guy. Yeah, he was good guy. And and honestly, in the same vein, it's amazing. They're different personalities, but the good guy, first team All-American, you would add Jason Hart to that too. Oh, absolutely. Big time, big time. Yeah. He's just got he's gold, and he loves Turkish so much.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:41

He loves Turkey, and you sound just like he does. We love him.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:46

That's my good buddy.

SPEAKER_07 1:26:47

All right, all right. Why don't you say goodbye, Dudley? Goodbye, Dudley. Get us out of here, Richie.

SPEAKER_00 1:26:51

Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the Game Keeper Podcast. And be sure to tune in again. Subscribe to Game Keeper Farming for Wildlife magazine, and don't miss the Monteo Properties Fistful of Dirt podcast with my good buddy, Ronnie Cutter.