I am going to share this story to you in the form of an email exchange between myself and the man who made the box call that would be the demise of my third turkey of the 2017 season. The emails do a pretty good job of telling the story, and I think they are a neat way to archive this memory.
I was fortunate enough to tag out for the first time in my turkey hunting career this season. To boot, I did so in three consecutive hunts. It wouldn't have been possible without the folks who accompanied me in the woods and those who help feed this passion. A big thanks to your very own Freddy for putting me on this bird.
This has all been surreal and I still feel as if I am floating through this post season. There is one more story to be told, however, that accounts a hunt that might just take the cake as the most rewarding I have ever been on in my life. It won't be told by me, but I have heard that it will pop up on this forum.
Its been a heck of a season, ladies and gents. Turkey depression has set in and I'm now trying to figure out what to do with myself. Maybe I will finally clean the house and mow the lawn...
Congrats to everyone on another great Spring Turkey season. I hope it treated you all with your own forms of success.
Best,
Royce
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Hi Eric,
It has been many years since I met you, but I have kept up with you through my cousin, Andy Steiner. He showed up at my house two weeks ago for our annual Virginia Turkey Camp with a long box you built and told me it was mine. I was, and still am, ecstatic to have such a beautiful piece of craftsmanship, and cannot thank you enough!
At first, I said it was too beautiful to carry into the woods, but I know you want it to hunt so I obliged. Today was the first day I have been able to really use it in a situation where I knew a bird could hear it with possible interest. Set up on a field edge with high winds at first light, the bird gobbled on the roost around 100 times. In the middle of his performance I threw a four yelp series his way with the long box and he gobbled in the middle of it. Ten minutes later I repeated my plea and he gobbled right back. He finally went silent and, within five minutes, I could hear him walking through the woods just prior to slipping through the fence and into the field thirty yards away. After a half interested look at the decoys, I sent a swarm of bees his way with my 20 guage and dropped the curtain on his charade at 6:30 AM.
This was the cap to my season, as it was my third bird in three consecutive hunts, which had me tagged out for the first time in my hunting career. It is also the first bird I have called in with a box call of any kind, let alone a long box.
So the sweet sounds of your handywork allowed me to take a beautiful Virginia gobbler. The fellow I was hunting with might just be the best turkey hunter I know, and is the only person I might regard as a better caller than my cousin. He picked up your box call after the hunt and played both sides a few times. His comment was, "I don't think I'd ever leave that in the truck".
I'd like to thank you again for the gift. You do some incredible work with these calls. Sooner than later I hope to ask you to build me a regular box call, too, if you are willing and able.
I hope all is well and you are able to spend some time enjoying the beauty of the spring woods, too!
All the best,
Royce Steiner
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Royce
Congrats on the fine gobbler! you did that call proud. I have heard a lot of great stories from Andy about you and him chasing those elusive long beards up and down the blue ridge mountains. You should be very proud to have filled all your tags this year it is a great accomplishment.
I spend countless hours on each call I build but always keep in mind, making them look good is the last thing I do. From the first time I pick the piece of wood out of the pile I'm looking at the grain structure and weight of each piece of wood and selecting it with only the sound that it may produce in mind. Each and every call is built to hunt and hunt hard, if I wouldn't personally hunt with that call and only that call, it never leaves my shop. I've got 40-50 calls in my shop that are all better than you can buy in the store, but they just ain't good enough...
Keep up the great work and keep in touch. Any time your ready for a short box just let me know, And if you run into anyone interested send them my way.
Shoot straight
Eric Pettit
716-353-2268