Derby City recently sent some call building supplies to students at Muhlenberg County High School.  Under the guidance of teacher Scott Cronin, these students have been busy building turkey calls since the beginning of February.  Mr. Cronin, his fiancee Morgan, and all of his students came by and spent some time at our booth on Friday, Feb. 19th.  Scott teaches a wildlife management class and always covers a unit on wild turkeys.  He wanted to have his students build turkey calls, but needed some supplies to get started.  Derby City was fortunate enough to be able to donate the materials to build these calls.  We appreciated Scott, Morgan , and all of the students for coming by our booth.  They are a great group of kids.  We look forward to helping them again in the future.

 Our good friends at Poorboys Outdoors came by the shop the other day and helped us by putting together a YouTube video to showcase our calls and strikers. Poorboys specializes in video production of outdoor hunts. They have a great website www.poorboysoutdoors.com check them out.

The NWTF Southwest Spurs chapter located here in Louisville Kentucky held it 8th annual Hunting Heritage Banquet on February 6th.  This event was held to help raise the necessary funds needed for support of the many programs the NWTF is involved in. The banquet was a huge success with about 180 in attendance.  Derby City Game Calls was proud to help by purchasing a corporate sponsorship table for eight of our guys and donating some of our calls and strikers for raffels. The local Southwest Spurs Chapter is a great organization and is very active for the NWTF, we are very proud to be members of it.

Derby City will be introducing its new trough call at the NWTF Convention  in Nashville.  It is called the Tracker.  This is a very easy Turkey Call to use if you are a new turkey hunter.  It has great rasp and is a very good call when you need to call softly to bring that big gobbler into gun range.  This call can also be personalized and comes with a standard striker.  However, we highly recommend upgrading to our signature Old Growth Striker.

Derby City Game Calls will be displaying at this years N.W.T.F Convention Feb. 18th thru 21st in Nashville, TN. We will be located at booth 1061.   We will have a large selection of Pot Calls on display along with a bunch of our famous “Old Growth Strikers”.  We will also be showcasing our new trough call along with musical instrument grade wood and supplies for custom call builders.  Come by and say hello to the gang and test drive our very first limited run “250 year old” California Redwood pot call.

Rick's Bird - 22lbs, 9 1/2 beard, 3/4 inch spurs

Derby City Pro Staffer, Rick Denkhoff, ended a long year of chasing longbeards on a high note yesterday.  He closed the deal on the next to the last day of the fall season.  Here is an account of Rick’s hunt.

“December 10th, the next to the last day of Kentucky’s fall turkey season, was a great day.  The temperature was 28 degrees with a cold wind blowing.  I had been sitting for about two hours and was getting really cold.  If it wasn’t for my new hunting blind keeping that wind off of me, I would have been out of the woods way before I got a shot at this gobbler.  I was getting ready to pack up and head out when I finally heard some birds working their way towards me.  I was able to call in four longbeards using soft clucks and purrs with my Old Growth Magnum call and Old Growth Cherry striker. The birds came to within 25 yards and I harvested a 22 pound gobbler with a 9 1/2 inch beard and 3/4 inch spurs.  It has been a long season and I was glad to finally bag my first bird of the year.  I am looking forward to the 2010 spring season, using my Derby City Calls.”

Rick is a great guy.  He is a very humble person.  We are thrilled that he connected on a nice bird.  Congrats Rick.

Derby City Calls ended its first fall turkey season on a high note.  On Oct. 30th, 2009, the weatherman was calling for high wind and rain to move in with temperatures in the mid 70’s.  It is the last day of the season and I wasn’t going to let the weather stop me.  I hit the woods early and set up near a roosting site.  The wind was picking up, just as I heard a flock of birds moving through the woods.  I made some soft putts and few kee-kees, alternating between my Derby City Spur and Magnum calls.  I was also using one of our Old Growth strikers made from the old cabin wood we recently purchased.  Our calls worked great.

In a matter of minutes, I had 5 nice birds closing in.  The biggest gobbler passed to the right of me, a mere 5 yards from my blind.  Unfortunately, I was set up for a shot to my left and I could not pull off a shot without spooking all of them.  I had to let that big longbeard walk.  I was whispering to myself, “I know where you live and I will be back for you this spring, Tommy Bird!”  I sat still and waited for the others to move into position for me to get a shot.  I lowered the boom on a nice, big bodied, bird.  This bird, along with the hen from opening day, filled my fall turkey tags.  I have learned the hard way that the breast tastes better than an unfilled tag any day.

I love the fall turkey season.  Kentucky is blessed with 2 fall seasons.  I love to put fresh wild turkey on the table for Thanksgiving.  My family and friends enjoy it as much as I do.  I have a feeling that this year’s harvest will be the best ever.  Even though my fall tags have been filled, I can’t wait to meet up with “Ole” Tommy Bird this spring in his own backyard.

Derby City Calls- a great, proven turkey call.

Footnotes: for field staff and pro staff

8 birds taken this fall season with Derby City Calls

Best Bird – Dave Berry  

24 pounds 12 inch beard  1 1/2 inch spurs

Best shot- Scott Crume, nice bow kill

Best Review- Clark Bush (check it out on his site, All About Shooting)

Best Time hunting- Brent Stoner, and smallest Bird!

Best Bruise- Jim Dawson (nice one)

 Best Effort – Rick Denkhoff (better kill a bird in the spring or you go from Pro Staff to “No Staff”)!!

: No photo available…. check back in the spring!

Also, congrats to Jim on getting his first fall bird ever.  He was a trophy bird and a very close 2nd to Dave’s trophy.

The 2009 Fall Turkey season started with a bang and ended up with a bruise. First the bang, DCC Field Staffer Jimmy Dawson and myself Brent Stoner took to the field opening day of the fall season. We got to the blind well before day break and it wasn’t long before the action got started after first light. Twelve nice birds came across our opening, four were nice trophy birds but being fall season (the only time you can take a hen) I decided to save the big Toms and go for a nice Hen (to me they are better to eat anyway). So Bang, the combination of Remington shells and my favorite shotgun the bird was in the bag.  Of course the birds flew in different directions that’s when I broke out the “Old Growth Striker” and a prototype “Old Growth” Spur design pot and started calling the birds back together. The call worked wonders, in less than five minutes the birds began to assemble back to our opening. It’s Jimmy’s turn to shoot, he blast’s not one but two shots at a bird and Missed!   Jimmy turned 40 years old yesterday, he must have lost his youth and aim all in one day (sorry for the bad luck Jim) come to find out Jimmy wasn’t using my favorite shotgun brand or the Remington shells. (some time you have to learn the hard way)  so Jimmy takes home a trophy bruise instead of a trophy bird.  Needless to say we are going again tomorrow and I’m going to let Jimmy rent my gun and shells for the day. This is my first bird with DDC calls and I couldn’t be more proud of the way they preformed. DCC, a great Turkey Call.

I hope everyone enjoyed the KY Afield episode that aired on Sept. 19th and 20th.  I think Tim Farmer did a great job of tying in how music and hunting go together.  I want everyone to remember that we are a young company.  We have been working extremly hard since starting this company in early June.  We have several more designs we are working on.  One, as you might have seen on Ky Afield, is the Turkey Foot design.  It shows great promise.  We have had some good reviews so far, but we want to do a little more research and development on it before we put it into production.  Look for this Turkey Foot design in the very near future.  We hope you like what you have seen so far.  Give our calls a try this year.  We think you will be pleased with the quality and craftsmanship of Derby City Calls.

Tim Farmer takes a quick break from Talking Turkey to pick a little Bluegrass with the folks from First Quality Music.

Tim Farmer of Kentucky Afield with Jim Dawson of Derby City Game Calls filming for the Episode Turkey Calls with Strings attached.

Brent Stoner of Derby City Game Calls discussing wth Tim Farmer the “Old Growth Striker”.