Spencer's Bird

Derby City Pro Staffer, Rick Denkhoff, gave a slate Spur to one of my students at school.  The student, Spencer Delepierre, used the call during Kentucky’s youth hunt to bag a nice longbeard.  Spencer stopped by my office the other morning to show me pictures and gave me a letter that he wrote.  This is what Spencer had to say-

 

 

 

Dear Derby City Game Calls,

Your product works great.  I got my tom this year on the first day of my hunt by using the slate spur and 500 year old maple striker.  Every time I yelped, cut, or purred, the tom gobbled and worked closer with each call I made.  Your product is easy to use and sounds like a real turkey.  I will recommend this call to all my friends without hesitation.  Thank you for your super product.

Sincerely,

Spencer Delepierre

Congrats again to Spencer on a nice longbeard.  I would also like to give a shout out to Rick for being gracious to give a young hunter a call.

Derby City will debut its limited run of American Chestnut calls at the NWTF Convention in Nashville, February 18-20.  We have 15 calls in all three of our designs (Turkey Track, Magnum, and Spur).  Each call is numbered.  The calls were made from an American Chestnut that was planted by Derby City Pro Staffer, Dave Berry’s, father in the 1950’s.  This tree survived the Chestnut blight, but was damaged from an ice storm and then killed by a lightning strike.

We will have pictures of the tree being processed, along with other information about how rare this tree really was.  There are some very cool wormy pots in this run.  They will go for $100, except for all the numbers 1 and 15.  These will be even more special.  Stop by the booth quick, we have already had several people inquire about these calls.  These calls must be purchased in Nashville.

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.

Good friend and Customer Lanny Crawley of Greenwood, IN sent us this note along with some pictures of some Turkey’s he called using his Derby City Game Call.  This is in Lanny’s words.

” Jeff,

   I was working in an area that I knew held turkeys, so one morning I parked off the road, opened my window and started calling turkeys using your slate turkey call that I bought when I ordered my guitar.  As you can see the call works!  I called three Hens & two Jakes.  It took some time but eventually the three hens jumped on the back of my truck and one hen jumped up on the roof.  Dumb Indiana Turkeys!  I’ll see you when my guitar come in.

Thanks, Lanny.”

Lanny,  thanks for sharing this with us and good luck in Turkey Season!    Derby City

All the guys here at Derby City Game Calls have been working overtime to get ready for this years NWTF Convention.  We have a lot of exciting products for sell and to display.  From our Magnum and Spur designed Turkey calls, to our new Tracker Trough call. Along with these we are also bringing unbelievable sounding and gorgeous Old Growth Strikers, we even have our very first Special run “250 year old California Old Growth Redwood”. For those attending the show come by and say hello, we are located at Booth 1061.  Brent, Jimmy, Bob, Eric, Jeff and Dave are all coming down this year and we look forward to meeting a lot of new friends and having a good time.

See you there!

 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.

Here’s a sneak peek at our first Custom run for 2010.  We are making these calls out of 250 year old California “Old Growth” Redwood.  We estimate to have about 30 pieces each of the Magnum and Spur designs. Both designs will be numbered and feature a striker with matching handle and our signature 500 year Old Growth dowell.   Once they are available we will post ordering information here on derbycitycalls.com

Check out some early photos of our custom build.

Derby City Game Calls wants to thank Mike Bevan of Los Angeles California for his purchase of the Derby City Spur design Slate over Glass Turkey Call, upgraded with Old Growth Striker.  Upon follow up by phone from Brent Stoner of Derby City, Mike stated how impressed he was with the call and the striker and the sound it produced.  Mike told Brent that he was so impressed with his new call and striker that he threw his other friction call away.   Mike was in our neck of the woods here in Kentucky on Holiday and got in a little hunting of his own.  While he was here he ordered another DCC call, ( Magnum Slate over Glass ) and two more Old Growth Strikers.  Below you will find Mike’s comments in his own words on how the calls worked.  Thanks again Mike for the purchase of the calls, proud to add this one to the Kill Zone. 

Brent Stoner,  Derby City Calls

” Dear Brent,

Ment to call and thank you for sending me the call when I was in Clarkson but was hunting deer/turkey day and night. The call is fantastic. Got this bird using the call. Birds came in from all directions. Back in Los Angeles now and can’t wait to go back. I will be showing these calls to all my hunting buddy’s. Wishing you guys a wonderful holiday season.

Best Regards,   Mike Bevan”

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.