While planning a trip to NC to visit friends, we decided to break up our drive with a round of sporting clays at Cleghorn Gun Club. https://m.facebook.com/cleghorngunclub/
Mapping out the route, it suddenly struck me that the gun club is located in Rutherfordton, NC which is the home of Darrell Gibson, world renowned crow call maker and all around great guy.
A quick call to Darrell confirmed that he would be home that day and might even be able to spend a little time with a crow hunterlooking for the magic formula for those legendary calls!! Woo Hoo, I would finally be able to meet the guy who has indirectly helped me make much crow snow over my blinds! This might also be a fix for my bout of out-of-season blues.
Traveling with Woody, my neighbor and occasional crow hunting partner, we arrived to find Darrell working with his understudy and “other brother, Daryal.“ The two of them were creating a varied collection of treasures in Darrell’s “Dust Bin” shop, just beyond his home. Darrell’s wife Susie most likely coined that name because it looked just fine to us.
Most of you know about Darrell... former famous farrier who migrated to expert blacksmithing and call making after a nagging elbow injury. Darrell also creates various other crafts, including flutes. Daryal Gosey is a friend of Darrell who has a background in custom bow making, wood stabilizing and other fine skills. Both of them are people who are easy to get to know and quick to earn your respect.
We spent a good deal of time observing, swapping stories and inspecting many treasures that both have created. It was a rich and revealing time for us that will be remembered for many, many years to come.
Along with the great memories, Woody and I left with a few mementos of our trip, including new calls, knives and small forged items such as a gingko leaf and an “angel wing” for my wife. In addition, we were let in on the location of the best Mexican restaurant between Asheville and Charlotte!
We could have easily spent the entire weekend there...learning and loving the ways of some true Craftsmen.
Demi
Here are a few pictures of the visit:
Photo 1 - Darrell finishing an exotic wood “Stubby” on his high-speed lathe. It looks easy...It Ain’t!!
Photo 2 - Daryal fine-tuning a reed on one of his crow calls. He is also a dealer for fine mouthpieces, reeds & call parts.
Photo 3, 4 & 5 - One of Daryal’s sleeved calls. Note the details and contrasting woods. As a novice caller, Woody had several crows circling him at the first use of this call.
Photo 6 - Some of Darrell’s re-purposed farm machinery parts.
Photo 7 & 8 - Another marriage of wood (Basswood & Oak [?]) and craftsmanship by Daryal. While being very easy to blow, this call has a rich and robust sound.
Demi, it was great to meet you and Woody at Gibson’s . Glad the both of you liked the Mexican. That one of our best kept secrets . The call you have is Ash with Red heart sleeves, Woody’s call is Boxwood with Cocobol. How did you and Woody shoot at Cleghorn. Hope you made a bunch of clay dust.
You described your call as having a "rich and robust sound." By that do you mean a bigger sound or maybe a deeper sound? If you are familiar with the Gibson Short Magnum, how does the sound compare? Always looking for a different tone to add to the arsenal.
Looks like you had an interesting and enjoyable time. Hope you shot well.
You described your call as having a "rich and robust sound." By that do you mean a bigger sound or maybe a deeper sound? If you are familiar with the Gibson Short Magnum, how does the sound compare? Always looking for a different tone to add to the arsenal.
Looks like you had an interesting and enjoyable time. Hope you shot well.
Randy
I will never forget the day I pulled out a Faulks' crow call after using a PS OLt plastic call all those years ago and the different tones worked as I set up a crow conversation with myself..man oh man how that worked!! Initially they'd heard the PS OLt way too much and would no longer respond except at a safe distance seemingly mocking me! Well here again I used a different toned call to talk to myself in addition to the PS OLt but any crow call would have worked in conjunction. Any two calls that is....
-- Edited by killer Crowalski on Monday 21st of May 2018 06:53:49 AM
The short magnum is truly a fine call with a great reputation. This call has a sound that is perhaps is a little louder and should pull them in from way out. Haven’t done a side-by-side comparison, but I think the new call will be a deeper sound.
Hope this helps.
Demi
__________________
The man who thinks he can, and the man who thinks he can’t are both right.
I'll confess that I mostly let the Fox Pro take care of getting their attention from distance and when things work well, need nothing else. Still, it can't hurt to have several different sounds available if needed. There's also that measure of satisfaction when coaxing them those last few yards with hand or voice calling.
On second thought, maybe the satisfaction is in getting the shot, no matter the method.