MUSCLE SHOALS
Using saws, chisels, a lathe, drill and lots of elbow grease, Lane Rowland can make blocks of walnut or cedar wood talk turkey.
"That's turkey talk right there," Rowland said while testing a trumpet-style turkey call that he spent several hours creating with a lathe and drill press.
Rowland, an avid turkey hunter, began making turkey calls two years ago. His calls have already attracted a huge following of hunters who swear by their realistic sound.
"I bought a turkey call a couple of years back and when I tried it out, it didn't sound anything like a turkey," Rowland said as he explained how he became a call maker. "I thought I might try making a few calls myself to see if I could make one that sounded more like a turkey than the ones I had been using. I made a few and gave some to my friends for them to try out and lo and behold, more people wanted me to make them a call too. It started out as just a hobby, but now I'm having to work hard just to keep up with the demand."
He has sold calls to hunters in Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and North Carolina.
In addition to the trumpet calls, Rowland makes box and trough calls. He spends about four hours making and tuning each call. The trough calls are $40, while the box and trumpet models sell for $75.
"It takes a lot of time to make a call and get it right," he said. "Some of the big call makers that mass produce them can make one in 30 seconds. But some of their calls don't sound right and the turkeys know it's not another turkey making the sound. A custom-made call like mine that is properly tuned sounds just like a turkey. I'd rather use a custom-made call than a mass-produced one any day."
Much of the wood Rowland uses to make his calls comes from the Shoals. He is currently using wood from a cedar tree a storm blew down in
Leighton to create his box and trough calls. The walnut for the trumpet calls came from a tree a friend of his cut in rural
Colbert County.
The trumpet calls, which resemble a small wooden bugle, are especially useful in areas where wild turkey have experienced heavy hunting pressure, Rowland said. The ability of the calls to replicate the sounds of a female turkey can lure gobblers into shooting range. He said gobblers that have received hunting pressure tend to become extremely wary and will not respond to many conventional turkey calls.
Rowland said he made at least a dozen of the trumpet calls that he threw away before finally perfecting a design the replicated wild turkey sounds to his liking.
The trumpet calls use a plastic mouth piece that he also crafts in his workshop.
Norman Rogers, of Fairhope, likes using the turkey calls made by Rowland.
"They are absolutely the best calls I've ever used," Rogers said. "Lane has a great ear for capturing what a turkey in the woods sounds like, and he makes his calls to sound just like they do."
Dennis Sherer can be reached at 740-5746 or
dennis.sherer@timesdaily.com.
Lane Rowland calls
