Custom Calls vs. Production Calls

[shootumindaface]

I prefer to use a call before I buy it, no matter who makes it. My Dale Rohm box, that has called in a lot of Turkeys, I bought after I used it, and technically wasn't for sale. $ latter it was mine. It's all about the sound, not the bells and whistles. My Rohm is a plain Jane,that probably sold for $5 originally.

Them Rohm boxes sound good

[savduck]

I think there is a time when every gobbler can meet his maker, but I also think that  good custom calls sound better and are more user friendly. Not every custom call sounds good. The beauty with most custom callers is they let you run the calls and mix and match strikers until you get what you want. With the mass produced stuff, A machine spits it out to specs,  and it gets packaged, and sold. With a custom call, the owners of the company take pride in their work. If it doesnt cut the mustard it goes in the fire barrell. I hunt a lot of public land and there are a lot of guys that sound like crap and over call birds. I think a ton of them use the mass produced stuff, and they sound very similar. Sometimes the customs just have that little extra something that the birds like. I dont think calling is everything with turkey hunting, but I do believe good calling can give you an edge at times. I run customs.


Ask the green timber hunters in Arkansas about being in a good hole, but having someone blowing a custom modified D2 OLT in a good  hole next to them.

[drum817]

In my personal opinion the BIG difference is this.....

1.  The experience/ability of the caller to use the call properly

2.  Who made the "Custom" call (all so called custom calls are NOT created equal)

[Skeeterbait]

There are certainly production calls out there that will kill turkey.  However I would give the edge of realism to good custom made and hand tuned calls.  You also get calls with finer quality woods that you will be more proud to own.  There is nothing wrong with pride of ownership enhancing your hunting enjoyment.

[redleg06]

Until a couple years ago, every turkey I killed over the last 20 years died at the hands of production call. 

I dont think turkey care NEAR as much as the hunters do.  I buy production calls now because I enjoy having the ability to pick out the material's and work with call makers who are passionate about what they do and put pride in their work. 

I dont kill anymore turkey with one call vs. the other honestly but I really enjoy working with custom call makers to select calls that fit my liking.

[neal]

Don't matter custom or otherwise

[sugarray]

I didn't vote, b/c it is about consistency for me.  I truly believe it is the consistency from call to call that really makes the custom call maker shine.  I like being confident that I can open my new diaphragm and it will sound just like my old one.  That is where it's at for me.

[mmusso]

I've spent a ton of money on both, and either one will do, but I'm a custom fan for a couple of reasons:
1. I like the smaller business idea and helping the "little guy" out
2. From what I have experienced, said "little guy" takes more pride in his work and is quicker to answer questions, address any problems quickly, and cares about what they are selling, as well as who they are selling it to
3. For pots, I feel like I can get what I want out of a custom pot better than a production pot because I can have a call built to my liking (wood options, various strikers, surface/soundboard options, etc...)
4. Most custom calls (definitely not all) are more visually appealing to me than mass produced calls
Just my personal preference...

[StruttinGobbler3]

Lots of valid points and opinions here guys..keep em coming. 

[willy8457]

  I'T's all in the eyes of the beholder  And in this case that means the turkeys

[maustypsu]

I only carry custom calls other than a waterproof box that I carry on rainy days (but haven't used it for several seasons).  My opinion is that they are more consistent and do sound better to me and the birds.  However, I think most (maybe all) birds can be killed with a production call.

To me the biggest difference is the strikers.  I like the HS Cross Cut, the Mystic Wet Stick and the stiker that comes with the Primos Freak.  So yeah, there are some production strikers that can sound very good.  However, I really find that custom strikers work best on the majority of the surfaces I play.  I own or have given away a gallon bag full of strikers and always run any that my friends pick up just to see if I'm $5 from improving my turkey sound.  At the end of the day, I find much more consistency in the custom strikers.

[hobbes]

Custom calls look great, have an incredible amount of art in them (at least some of them), a lot of them sound great (I have picked up custom calls at the NWTF convention that sounded awful), I like to look at them, I just like that there is so much pride put into them.  I've picked up a few of them, but mostly as gifts.  I like my Hooks mouth calls.

However, I could kill turkeys from here to eternity using nothing more than calls straight off the shelf at walmart..........period.

[mnturkey]

I use both, but I relly enjoy the custom calls, you know who made the call, you know they were/are a Turkey Hunter.
The mass produced call sounds the same so the guy 300 yards from you is using the same call and it sounds the same.
The custom call will sound a little different and for hard hunted Public Land Turkeys that could be the difference that day.

[Woodsman4God]

AS some have said above either will kill but from my limited experience what I see is this

1st and foremost the person running the call probably has alot more to do with it than the call itself production or Custom

2nd noting the the above all things beign equal I think a good custom gives you an edge this being inn my minimal experience, a person far better at calling than me running a call for me while I was hunting couldn't get a squawk out of any birds running his favorite production call which I believe has led to the demise of several birds, switched to his Call made by Lights out and immediately got a gobble.

Either this was a fluke or at least in this instance custom was better. BUt again I have much less experience than other here and maybe next time the reverse will happen.

[lightsoutcalls]

I've never hunted with a production call, but I know there are some that sound great, and others that just make sounds.  The same holds true with custom calls.  I ran a custom call that a guy brought by my shop that I would have used for a coaster if I had made it.  This call wouldn't even purr.  Sad!  Given the choice of that call or the little 3" plastic pot slate call from HS Strut that Alex Rutledge gave me, I would go with the HS Strut call.  Fortunately I have other options and the little plastic pot is just a keepsake from meeting a new friend years ago. 
Many folks will tell you that the birds on public land in their area won't respond to the mass produced calls that everybody and their brother plays in the woods.  This is one of the places a good custom call comes in handy.  Sometimes it just takes a different sound to get a response.  The best call you can carry is the one the birds respond to by coming in.