Trumpet Calls and Georgia Turkey Hunting with Clay Townsend

A turkey call can be a tool, a craft, and a time capsule all at once. From a back room at NWTF, we sit down with Clay Townsend and his son Dawson of Clay Townsend Calls to dig into what it really takes to build handmade turkey calls that hunters trust and judges reward. Clay lays out the unglamorous part most people skip: building daily, scrapping what doesn’t work, leaning on honest critique, and slowly finding a process that produces consistent sound and clean finish.

We also talk about the pull of the Grand National Callmaking Competition. Clay tells the story of sending in his first trumpet and finishing dead last, then coming back year after year until the work finally broke through, including a huge run on the amateur friction side and later wins on the air-call stage. A highlight is the “champion of champions” class and the meaning behind earning the Billy Bice Award, named for a legend Clay knew personally. Dawson shares his own competition path, what he’s learned building pot calls, and why trumpets feel like the next precision challenge.

Then we bring it back to the woods: a hard-earned Osceola hunt in South Florida, a first-turkey double that lit a fire under Clay’s wife, and why scouting without a gun can make you a better turkey hunter and a better caller. We wrap with what’s new at the bench, including Clay’s durable plastic injection molded design and where you can find their work online. If you enjoy turkey hunting, turkey calling, and the culture of custom callmaking, subscribe, share this with a buddy, and leave us a review.

LINK: Save 10% on your next North Mountain Gear Leafy Jacket with code LEGION26 at northmountaingear.com

LINK: SAVE 10% on the new 2026 Line of Turkey Hunting Gear at springlegion.com with code POD10

Follow us on Instagram:
@springlegion
@hunter.farrior
@chasefarrior

We'd like to thank the following sponsors for making this podcast possible:

• North Mountain Gear
• Mossy Oak
• Apex Ammunition
• Vortex Optics

Transcript

Welcome From NWTF

SPEAKER_02 0:18

All right, welcome back to another episode of the Spring Legion Podcast. This is Chase Ferrier here. I am um sitting up here at NWTF. We've snuck off to the back room once again. And I've I'm being joined today with Mr. Clay Townsend and Dawson Townsend, his son, with uh Clay Townsend Calls. Um from what I can tell, um Mr. Clay builds trumpets and pot calls, and I I picked up one of his trumpets last year personally and ran it all spring, and he does some fine work and um might might dive into some of his craftsmanship and all that kind of stuff here in just a moment, but first I want to let y'all introduce yourself, kind of um where y'all are from, how um the kind of the line how the business goes and what that how that works out for y'all day to day.

SPEAKER_01 1:00

All right, well it's just uh it's just a hobby. Right. Um started building calls in 2018 just as a hobby, uh just for something that we could take to the woods and hunt with and harvest turkeys and then it just led one thing led to another. Your buddy wants one, then his buddy wants one, and then we figured out that we could send something to the competitions and we got lucky and done done pretty good with that. So it's just uh I don't know, it's just a passion. It's just something I I really enjoy doing. It's uh I don't know, it's just a big part of my life. Right. It's something every day that would we involve turkeys and turkey calls every day. My wife understands it, my kid, my dad, so they just kind of let me do my thing and it's just uh it's a big part.

SPEAKER_02 1:49

Keeps turkeys on the brain year round.

SPEAKER_01 1:51

Yeah, that's a good way to look at it. You can just uh work on calls to to turkeys 365. So that's kind of the way the way it works.

SPEAKER_02 1:59

That's kind of the whole reason we started Spring Legion, was just because we wanted a reason to have conversation all year. That's right. Well, one way or another, we either we're either thinking of next spring building something, you know, or or designing something, however it may be. And then um, you know, then we start the podcast up in November, December again, and we're man, we're right back into things talking turkeys. And that's simply all we want to do is just just talk turkeys year round and enjoy it. Yep. Um as long as we can and as much as we can and all that stuff. So um where are y'all based out of?

SPEAKER_01 2:30

We live in a little small town in North Georgia, Fairmount.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

Fairmount, Georgia. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Yeah, the population is very small.

SPEAKER_02 2:36

Um which is kind of not far from where Peyton grew up, couldn't we?

SPEAKER_01 2:41

Peyton grew up. Yes, I knew Peyton's mother and father. Okay. Uh actually played a little softball with Monty yeah ago. Yeah. He was a he was a character, he was one of a kind. I've heard, I've heard.

SPEAKER_02 2:53

I wish I could have met him. He was awesome. Yeah, he seemed like a cool dude.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

So yeah, we're from kind of the same, same hometown, and her aunt and uncle are, I mean, they're basically neighbors. Yeah. Uh where we live, little town. But yeah, I've known that family in a long time.

SPEAKER_02 3:08

Right. Well, they've they've always spoken highly of y'all, that's for sure. And uh, as long as I'm on Payton now, what four or five years they've been been married and whatnot. Um, they've always she's always made sure I checked y'all

A Hobby Becomes A Call Brand

SPEAKER_02 3:20

out, and you know, I I've seen a good product and all that. And um, especially these shows, man, I'll get over there and run four or five of them every time, every year it seems. I I just like I like it, man. And I'm a trumpet guy, I'm a trumpet or wing bone or any kind of that style call kind of guy. That's just uh kind of what I like to do the most. Um so yeah, so basically, you know, can you walk me through some of the steps of getting started and when it you know when you realize you had it had the talent and all that stuff to make a a good sounding yet pretty call?

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Well, I don't know if I've got that figured out yet. It's still it's still a still a battle, but right you know, building turkey calls is like anything else. I think it's something that you gotta you gotta do, you gotta do religiously, you gotta do it. I do it daily if I can. I don't try to neglect nothing to do it, but I still try to do something. Right. Um it's just building turkey calls is a process. I think you gotta figure out what works, what don't work, eliminate that, and then move forward and try to just continue getting better. Right. Um and I'm you know, there's 200 guys in this building that's that builds turkey calls, and at the end of the day, we all end up at the same place. But to get to that, it's a different, it's a different route for everybody. Everybody's got their own route they take to get there, and that's the cool part.

SPEAKER_02 4:39

Right. Um that's what it seems, uh, you know, at least for sure, just talking to three or four of the guys that I do get to talk to every year up here, and it's it's always a different, a different road there, but it's the same outcome or you know, a little tweak different of the outcome, but a very similar outcome. Yeah, that's right. And that is that is a really cool thing about you know the guys that that are callmakers and and built calls, you know, religiously like y'all do, and put put out a good product, a handmade product. That's the cool thing about it. Um, so do you like start just in your in your shop, your garage, your back window?

SPEAKER_01 5:11

Well, actually, I started my uncle, Jeff Lacey, is a uh he's a perfectionist. He's always been a woodworker, he's made fiddles and guitars and and whatever. And and actually we were here with his dad's company selling camouflage floor mats, and one of the guys came back with a little small glue-together box call. And uh Jeff being a woodworker, he picked that box up and said, Hey, where'd you get this? And he's oh, so and so down the aisle there. He's like, How much do you give for that thing? He said, Oh, 40 bucks. So Jeff's like, I can do that. Right, all day. Yeah, I can do that. So that that stirred the interest in in Jeff, and and actually he went home and built a call from February till turkey season, and we took that thing to Nebraska and we killed a couple of turkeys with it. Yeah, I'll be dang, it worked, huh? And it worked. So that lit a fire under him, and uh of course he just uh started trying to build a better turkey, a better call. And then I got interested. Right. And uh me and Jeff were we're really close, one of my best friends, and we live close together. So he he got involved with trying to build a box call, and I would go up there and I was like, man, let me help. Right. He's like, no, just gotta get it, get your hands dirty somewhere. So he wouldn't let me help. So I ended up, we got a we got a joke, a running

Learning The Lathe And The Craft

SPEAKER_01 6:35

joke, that I was the floor sweeper, and actually I was that was the truth. And uh he um he just wouldn't let me help. Right. I thought too much of a perfectionist, yeah. Yeah, he wouldn't. So I said, I'm gonna get a lathe. I'm gonna get me a lathe. I got that was back when Craig's list was pretty big, and I found a guy in Chattanooga that had a little small mini jet, and me and my dad went and got it. I brought that thing home and I'd never touch one. Right. Not one time. And I took it to Jeff's shop and started playing with stuff and just trying to figure out how to chuck stuff up and turn stuff around. And we had some guys in the call making community that we had met by then um that we knew. I think Jeff was on like a uh a forum years ago called the uh Old Cabin, maybe.

SPEAKER_02 7:22

Okay, yeah. It was like I remember some of them old forums, so that was a little before my time.

SPEAKER_01 7:26

And he he knew some guys on there that that made calls, so he actually reached out to uh one of those guys and he he helped us kind of get started there to what kind of chuck we needed and all this, and and I just started. Actually, it was a good way for him to get me out of his way. Right, right. So I get in the corner on the lathe and he can work on his boss calls. So you know I just started and had some help. There's been a lot of good friends and callmakers over the years that's critiqued me, give me some pointers about what makes things better and makes things easier, and that's really helped. But at the end of the day, you just gotta figure out your process, what works for you, what don't work, and just keep building off of that. And and once I start competing in in the callmaking competition, it's like a drug. Oh yeah. I don't know what it feels like to take drugs, but right I I can assume that that's what that is. It's something similar, right? So once you get the taste of the Grand National Callmaking Competition, man, it's just something about it. Yeah. And the first call I entered was 20 2018. I built a trumpet. I sent it up here and it got last place. Yeah. Okay. There was 12 calls and I got 12th. And I was pretty pretty stoked. I almost finished top 10. Yeah, yeah, you almost made it.

SPEAKER_02 8:54

That's kind of like I was I was just joking with y'all about my my turkey calling competition experience of out of eight guys that came in eighth and ninth because I got to call twice. So I get that.

SPEAKER_01 9:04

Yeah, so the next year I didn't want to finish last. Right. And that was 2019 the following year, and I sent a couple of trumpets and a couple of pots, and they wasn't very good. I don't, I don't think I ribbon, I don't think I placed, but it was just something about that year in 2019. I got to go to the call room. All the calls are in a room, and you can just walk through and you can play those those calls at one.

SPEAKER_02 9:27

Right.

SPEAKER_01 9:28

And uh I don't know, it just it just kind of stirred something up in me, and I'm like, I can do this. You know, it I I can do it. So I went home and I worked. Uh I neglected a lot of things at home with you know, with the wife and the kids, and I'd lay out of work to work in the shop to try to figure out a turkey call. But in in 2020, I sent I sent some calls back up here. Uh funny story is we always leave on Tuesday to bring the calls. And Monday, Jeff, my uncle came in my shop and I had all those 12 pot calls laid on my table, had them numbered, they were registered.

The Competition Bug Hits Hard

SPEAKER_01 10:05

He's like, hey man, what's going on? I'm like, I'm just gonna take these hunting calls out, I'm just gonna enter amateur. Right. He's like, why would you do that? I mean, I said, Well, they're like 50 bucks a piece, and that'll probably pay for our room. Absolutely. All day. He said, No. He said, You don't need to do that. You'll regret, you'll regret that.

SPEAKER_00 10:23

Right.

SPEAKER_01 10:23

So in 2020, I came up here, I won the amateur side of the friction. I finished first and second in glass, I won D D Adams, and I won Callmaker of the Year. Man. And those calls cleaned house. Those calls almost ended up on the table for sale. Right. And uh I think he saved me that night. I'd say so at that point. And then uh that really fire.

SPEAKER_02 10:46

Yeah, um, that fire was burning by that point.

SPEAKER_01 10:49

And I got I got really focused on trumpets and uh worked on those for a few years, and I was getting to where I was placing the finishing top five, and and in 2023 I won the turpin really with a trumpet. Really? Um and then And that's the big dog, right? That's that's the big dog, yeah. And then um 24, which was last year, I didn't I didn't do no good much. I finished second in both the trumpet and the the Jordan class. And uh and you know that stuff just lights a fire. Oh yeah. You know, if you're gonna go. If you're competitive, it kind of lights lights a fire. So I had to go back and do some work. But uh this this this year, this past summer, um one of our one of our legends in the in the callmaking community, uh, Mr. Billy Bias, he he actually passed away. Most everybody knows Mr. Billy. Right, right. Uh Mr. Billy was a was a really, really big uh influential person in this. And uh I grew close to him. Um he never gave me no pointers about you need to make this this long and this this long and drill. Um we just had a cool relationship. Yeah. I would go visit with him, me and dad, and and uh he was kind of like a grand grandpa. Right. Just had that mentality too. So this year at the NWTF they came up with a new class, champion of champions, air, which means if you have won the Turpin or the Jordan, you can enter that class against all those champions. Okay. Well, Mr. Billy passed. Um I was honored to be a Paul Barr at his funeral. So about a month ago, they they named this new award the Billy Bice Award. Okay, yeah. So that kind of lit another fire.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Right. Now we gotta get that one.

SPEAKER_01 12:50

Now we gotta get now we gotta get that one. So the good Lord blessed me. Um I actually won that class this year. I won that award, and it was probably the special this this the most special.

SPEAKER_02 13:02

That that is truly special, especially knowing him for all the years and all that. Yeah, he was a great guy. And being that close to him, that I mean, I think it was meant for you to take that home and make one for Mr. Billy. I think so. And all that. Um that is a big honor there.

SPEAKER_01 13:16

Yeah, it was good. And you know, you get to the point where you you feel like you've done enough, and uh there's not I don't think there's anything other class or award that I can win in Grand National that's gonna be that special. Right. Maybe seeing my son, Dawson, he gets in the shop when he can. He's busy. Oh yeah. He's a young man, he's busy with he's big in church and he's got a fiance, and we're trying to build a house and get me some grandbabies, you know. I understand, I understand.

SPEAKER_02 13:48

Mine's been pressing on me pretty hard too to get some more. So I get that a hundred percent. Um so yeah, so you so you do play around in the shop also, huh? Yeah, I do. As as he'd probably say.

SPEAKER_03 13:59

Yeah. I entered my first competition in what 2020. Yeah, the year I won, I think you entered a few entered a few trumpets, like how he got started. I think they placed pretty good, maybe got a ribbon. Right. But then I didn't enter for a year, probably. Then I started making pot calls. He started teaching me how to make pot calls. And started working on them. And last year I won the amateur friction class and I won Youth Call Maker of the Year. Really? Yep. So this year I entered a few more. I've I got a couple ribbons this year, did okay.

SPEAKER_01 14:39

But he moved up a c he moved up to the the regular class, too.

SPEAKER_03 14:42

Yeah, with the with the heavy hitters.

SPEAKER_02 14:44

Right. Yeah. Right. Well, you still got some ribbons and stuff in that.

SPEAKER_03 14:47

Yeah, but I think my my next goal is to work on some trumpets.

SPEAKER_02 14:50

Right.

SPEAKER_03 14:51

You know.

SPEAKER_02 14:52

Which I I I feel like, I mean, I I'm no wood worker, but I like to work with wood. You know what I'm saying? Yeah. I feel like the trumpets just gotta be a a fine, fine, a lot of um, what's that, what's the word I'm looking for? Just precision. A lot of precision and detail. I mean, it's gotta be just millimeters and and to the to the grain of sandpaper you're putting on it. I mean, it's gotta be incredibly which I mean you can get that, I'm sure, also with pots

Billy Bice Award And Big Goals

SPEAKER_02 15:20

and anything, box call, duck calls, whatever you're building, you can you can step it up to that notch any which way you look at it, I think.

SPEAKER_01 15:27

And uh Well the well the deal my thinking with the pot call is there's only so much you can do with a pot call.

SPEAKER_02 15:35

Right.

SPEAKER_01 15:35

You you drill holes in the back of it and you turn it around and you get a piece of glass in it or slate. Mm-hmm. You got a pot. But you know, with a trumpet or a Jordan, you can you can start gluing stuff together, you can start making it look funny, you can make it look good, you can make it look you can kind of create your own look with with that. And right it's hard to recreate the wheel on any of this stuff. I know even I've tried to do it, it's just hard. You just you've got a basic blueprint you go by and then you just kind of try to make that your own.

SPEAKER_02 16:06

Right. Finick it a little, I mean tweak it and tweak it and make it a little bit here and there. And make it look like you. Right. Make it build, you know, make it say your name somehow, you know, and and get your own style kind of pushed together and all that. So so winning that award, you know, are you are you gonna keep competing? I I mean a lot of people wonder that one of that. Whenever they win a big award like that, I mean you I don't think you can get out of it at that point. But um where do you see it going for you?

SPEAKER_01 16:31

Well, I I think I wanna I think I want to help him get going, but he's gonna be at a busy time in his life with with getting married, right? And settling in with the new wife and trying to get life going on his side, but it's really gonna be hard for me to top that. Oh, yeah, 100%. I think my next goal is to see I want my dad to see me walk across that stage and get that Hall of Fame trophy. Yeah. Hey, that's a that's a good good goal to have. And you know, you gotta be retired for three years, and then you have to be accepted. Right. The three-year waiting period is is is mandatory to be approved. And then, you know, I don't know, it might take me ten years after I get approved to get in, but I just feel like the quicker I can start the process, the sh the shorter a time maybe it'll take. And that that's kind of my goal. Um I want, you know, yesterday I got I got to walk across the stage and get that award. I had my dad, my my two, my two children, had had Peyton and Dawson there, my wife, um, my aunt, my uncle. It was just cool. And I thought, you know, I want I want to do this in front of them for that Hall of Fame.

SPEAKER_02 17:47

Right.

SPEAKER_01 17:48

I think that's my next goal is just try to try to stir him in the right direction. And there's a lot of young callmakers that's coming up that's gonna need a little help. Um, I would I would like to do that, but I'll always make turkey calls.

SPEAKER_02 18:02

Right. You can't get away from it once you start making it.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

No, it's it's again, it's it's a drug. It's it's my drug. Right. And I have to I have to feed that habit. But probably gonna slow down.

SPEAKER_02 18:13

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:13

Right.

SPEAKER_02 18:15

Relax a little more.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Relax a little bit, and I can I can slow down and and maybe maybe do some cooler stuff. I've got some ideas I'd like to try to do um once I get home and get kind of settled in and get through turkey season. That's turkey season's the most important time.

SPEAKER_02 18:31

Right.

SPEAKER_01 18:31

That's that is. But I'll get home and get settled in and and this summer I may start trying to work on some some cool cooler stuff and and try to try to find me a way to stay busy in the shop without pumping out a lot. Right. I think I'm gonna cut back on on what I try to build and sell and maybe up my game a little bit and do something cool.

SPEAKER_02 18:53

Right. Something a little different. Something a little different, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

Something out of the normal for me. And um see what, Dawson, see if we can get him in the shop and get him working and and trying to get his craft better. But you know, it this is a this turkey call community and family is man, it's this special.

SPEAKER_02 19:14

It is, man. I mean, I I've I've there's several guys I I make sure to walk over there and shake the hand every year. Yeah, and I that's all I know, man, as a callmaker, you know. Well, I don't I mean I don't know much about them, but I know they're all genuine good guys. It it seems like there's a good crowd built around it. There ain't much drama, you know, like in some of these other sports, you know, competition competitions we have going up here. And um it's just it's just a bunch of turkey hunters in a room wanting wanting success for everybody kind of all at the same time.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

Everybody's on the same team.

SPEAKER_02 19:42

Yeah, everybody's on the same team and and there's a little com

Dawson’s Wins And Design Talk

SPEAKER_02 19:45

a little competition there. You know, the everything's gonna have a little competition in it, but it just seems like everybody's even happy for you know, if they lose, they're happy for somebody, you know, what whatever it may be, just from the outside looking in, you know, at least. Um so I mean you make all these turkey cars, you gotta hunt with them.

SPEAKER_01 20:02

Oh yeah, we we we hunt.

SPEAKER_02 20:03

So I want I always like to ask people, you know, what's a a memorable hunt that stands out, maybe whether it's it's recent, whether it's from 10 years ago, 20 years ago, however long it may be, you know, if there's one that you could tell a story of, what would it be? If if I don't want to put you on the spot like too hard. Just one you can talk about.

SPEAKER_03 20:23

I'll let you go first. Last year we went to Okeechobee down south, uh trying to kill my first osceola. Right. And man, we I've heard that's a bear.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

I I hadn't even gone that south.

SPEAKER_03 20:36

These guys had roosted the bird not before. We get in there real early, set up a decoy, and you know, he's gobbling. He's he's fired up. He he comes down, he's he's coming right toward us. Right, you know, working out perfect. And something just happened, he just went the other way.

SPEAKER_02 20:55

So he started acting like a turkey.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

Yeah, so we get up, you know, we keep calling to him, he's still gobbling, he's fired up, he's just he's not coming. Right. So we try and get around him, get in front of him. That don't work, he goes the other way. So we've been on this bird for about four or five hours. Right. And we end up getting them kind of cornered up, really. Yeah. And we were just in the perfect spot, and I'll I was able to get my first osceola. That caught them up for me. So that's cool. That was special.

SPEAKER_02 21:26

Share that together, that's a big thing.

SPEAKER_01 21:28

Yeah, it was a good one. It was uh had some nice birds. It was a nice bird.

SPEAKER_02 21:31

I've heard those South Florida birds will hurt you if you pick them up by the wrong end.

SPEAKER_01 21:35

Yeah, it's a different, different world down there. I love that place.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

It is, man. I've I've I've never gone that south, but uh I've kind of stayed in that south central area. Yeah. And man, it's even where I got, man, it's just beautiful territory and stuff. It's just really cool.

SPEAKER_01 21:49

I have I have lots of stories. I could talk about turkeys for two days, but you know, you the ones that stick in my head the the most is of course Dawson. Me and him shared some. Some really really cool hunts. Actually, um, I'm gonna say Jeff Lacey probably caught up your first turkey. I think you did, yeah. Yeah, we and Jeff's been with us a lot when I've killed turkeys. Really? Yeah, Jeff. Jeff's been with us a lot. And you know, my I took my wife, her first she didn't know anything about this. Right, right. In 2020, after I won, she didn't have a clue. Yeah. She was like, okay, cool. What's all this about? Right. I want to go turkey hunting.

SPEAKER_03 22:30

So And we were locked down and couldn't do nothing. Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Stuck at the house either way. Might as well. We done lots of turkey hunting in 2020. I think we all did. Yeah. And she's like, I want to go, I want to go try to kill one, you know. So we we get out there that morning and we had one, had one peg pretty good, and he got by us, and of course we chase around and around and around. And we get him, we get him called in about 40 yards, and she shoots and misses. Well, she throws her gun down and gets us coming. I'm like, just hold on. I mean, there's three more somewhere. So anyway, long story short, we we mess around there and

Memorable Hunts And Life Lessons

SPEAKER_01 23:05

we get we get two more fired up pretty good, and we sat down in the middle of a field, just me and her. Yeah. And we called these two gobblers up and I let her shoot first. She shot her and I shot mine. So y'all got a double on her. So her first turkey was a double. And uh that kind of lit a fire under her, and now she's got to tag out before Daddy or Dawson gets to carry a gun. She thinks she's we create a monster with her. But I I love those. I love those memories. And uh we have lots of stuff that we can talk about, but you know, it's just being there. It's just watching the woods wake up. And and you know, the older I get and the the more I hunt, the more I kill, the less I feel like I need to pull the trigger.

SPEAKER_02 23:50

I'm with you. Oh I'm with you on that.

SPEAKER_01 23:52

I can go in the mornings and I'm happy as long as I know I've got one to hunt.

SPEAKER_02 23:57

Right. That's that's kind of how I am. If I kill if I get me one, uh it's time to start hunting with somebody else or taking somebody else with me or whatnot, and or or carrying a camera, you know, for somebody else. And I I just I I don't care if I pull the trigger or not. You know, and I haven't I haven't ever cared that hard about it. But I mean I I like killing them just as much as the next guy, don't get me wrong. But it is fun watching somebody else shoot shoot a couple and a season and stuff. And man, it's just it's it's something about you know it's also really cool just you know spending time with somebody that's special to you and whatnot, friends, buddies, loved ones, whatever it may be. So that's a big thing that a lot of people and and I I've I've been guilty of it a couple of seasons, you know. I've uh I'm not necessarily put that first and and gotten my head, you know, a little too far down, you know, and barreled into it and hard had you know.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

In that moment, it changes things. It does.

SPEAKER_02 24:48

Um you got one whooping your tail consistently, it gets hard to go show that face in front of front of some of your buddies that you know you know you ain't winning very much, you know. And they normally can tell before I even tell them. They're like, oh, you're going through it. And I'm like, oh yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Yeah. Over the last four or five years, I've I can't tell you the times that I go turkey hunting without a gun.

SPEAKER_02 25:07

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:08

Yeah. I mean, I just want to go. I want to kind of figure them out. And then I want because, you know, but my wife, she's a nurse practitioner, and she has a she has a busy schedule. She don't get to go much. So I feel like if I can go and scout during the season without a gun, I can kind of get her a better chance of of killing one when we when we can get there. And I do that a lot. I'll go in the eatings a lot and just just listen. Just right. I just love to to be around turkeys, yeah. Hear turkeys and watch them and see how they act.

SPEAKER_02 25:38

And yeah, it's even cooler when you just fly on the wall. Yeah. And yeah, I mean if you don't have a gun, you ain't got a reason to mess it up. You don't get nervous and you're not calling, you're just kind of just enjoying it and watch sitting back and enjoying them, man.

SPEAKER_01 25:49

And I really enjoy that, I do, and and and I like to do that. And and you're by yourself when you do that, and and that's cool. I like it. Right. It is, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 25:58

That's like last year, me and my buddy, and I've always gone with dad, but last year my buddy asked me to go. Right. I was like, yeah. I mean, he had some land, so we went and we went and hunted a couple times. We heard some. We got close a couple of times, but could never get the trigger pulled. And I actually called him up his first turkey. Really? Yeah. So that was pretty special. That was a good hunt.

SPEAKER_01 26:23

Yeah, man, it's it's fun. Dawson would text me, he'd take his take his buttons. He's like, Dad, man, we had one 30 yards. He's like, I was just my gun, I could have killed him, but my buddy couldn't see me. I'm like, I'm like, you're learning the turkey hunt. It is, man.

SPEAKER_02 26:36

That's the best teacher there is. So man, I I I may have told this story before, but I had a buddy that that I hunted with a lot in high school, and and we were out set out to get his first turkey. He had some good, good turkey woods, and um man, we hunted and we'd we'd get them close. Just the way his topography laid out on his property, those birds just never did what you thought they were gonna do. They were gonna pop up behind you sideways one way or the other and just you know give you a head over a ridge or something. And you know, I'm seeing them and I'm like, man, you know, how can I get his attention to, you know, spin and shoes or whatnot? Or after about the third or fourth one of those, he was like, Man, why ain't you shot one of them turkeys yet? You know, you say you they popped up and you saw them. I'm like, I was trying to be nice. He was like, No, like we're here to hunt turkeys. Like you carry a gun, you know, shoot a turkey if he comes in around the beh behind me. Like, that's fine. It's just my property, like it's cool. I was about the third or fourth one. I started feeling real bad. I'm like, okay, dude, like we're gonna have to we're gonna have to really just switch spots or something. Yeah, you're gonna have to sit real a little closer to me now, you know. I feel like I'm taking advantage of you. And it was just because the turkeys kept skirting us, you know, on that property. It was just they were smart, you know. And um, you know, after yeah, after the third or fourth one, I was like, okay, man, like I I don't really I think I'm gonna start carrying the camera full time, let's just do this. And and we finally got him one or two, and like I was like, okay, we can breathe.

SPEAKER_01 27:57

Well, I think it helps you as a hunter at a caller when you take somebody that don't that don't know. Right, right. Um you kind of gotta watch what you do a little more too. I mean, if you take a new hunter, he thinks he needs to see from his feet to his head for a shot. But you know, if if you've done it long enough, you know you don't need much. You don't need to see much. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 28:16

If I can get a little bit of where those waddles meet the feathers, that's all I need. That's about all I need to see. As long as I know he's long beard, we're good. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, well, um, that's actually gonna probably wrap us up pretty close. I actually see my SIM card's getting in starting to blink. It's getting full on this thing. Um we may do another one later with y'all and maybe dive into the equipment side of things. And um, you know, maybe, you know, if you want to hone in on that, we may can do that. We may not catch it catch you again. So we'll see what happens with it. But um I I like where that was going, and um I know you've built some really pretty calls and some really good calls in the woods. I mean, I've I've ran one, you know, I guess a full spring now. This will be my second spring with it, and um, it stays in my vest majority of the time, unless it's just a rough day that I don't want to necessarily mess it up.

SPEAKER_01 29:07

Well, I I can I've got a solution to that. I've got some plastic injection molded ones now that we're produced that we can so that's fairly new, huh? It's fairly new. Yeah, I've I had that a couple months and uh uh it's my design. I designed it, yeah. Had had the mold made and took about two years to get that going, but they're really nice, durable, waterproof type calling. Heck yeah. I'm excited to see where that goes.

SPEAKER_02 29:31

That'd be cool. That'd be nice to have something like that too for sure. Um that'd be sweet in the in the rainy days and all that stuff. You ain't gotta worry about messing them up too much or none of that. So um, well, Mr. Clay, is there anywhere they can find the stuff online or is it all just at shows?

SPEAKER_01 29:45

I have a website. It's uh Claytowns and Turkeycalls.com. Okay. That's one word. Um occasionally I'll put some Dawson have some stuff on there, and and and Jeff will have some boxes and you know, we just kind of keep some stuff on there. I don't keep it loaded up because I don't have it. Right. Occasionally I'll keep some stuff on there for people.

SPEAKER_02 30:04

Heck yeah. Yeah. Well, if y'all need a good trumpet or probably a box call and a and a pot call, I think these three guys can can take care of you in a form if they got if they got the time to make them. So um I I thank y'all for coming on, taking a little time out of y'all's booth and out of y'all's day and stuff. I know that's valuable right now. Yep. And everybody's kind of getting tired. It's it's late Saturday afternoon. Wind it up. We're about to wrap it up, start packing trailers, man, getting in lines and all that stuff. The the chaos is about to to unfold. So, but I do want to say thank y'all for coming on and then speaking with me about the you know, something I I really do find enjoyment

New Waterproof Calls And Where To Buy

SPEAKER_02 30:40

in and all that. So thank you. Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 30:43

Thank you for the opportunity.

SPEAKER_02 30:45

Absolutely, 100%. All right, guys, that'll wrap us up on this week's episode of the Spring Legend Podcast. We'll see you next week.