Longhunter89
Senior Member
Recently my 7 year old decided he wanted a push pin turkey call. I have never had much cared for them, I've only ever run across one that sounded good, it was a very old call with no name. After much pressing from my son I decided to order him one.
The first call I ordered was a very popular brand name-it was absolutely horrible. Im not by any means a turkey call snob but the thing sounded horrible. I ordered two more from other popular companies. Both of those didn't sound good either. I'm also pretty sure all 3 calls was made in the same facility. They looked way to similar.
After those attempts I started wondering how hard it would be to make my own. So I scoured the internet looking for information or videos and come up pretty empty handed.
However I did run across some videos of a guy that makes some hum-dinger of push pin calls out of Florida. some of the push pin call he makes rivals any turkey call currently on the market. Although he didn't give any detail on how he made them it kinda gave me a starting point to come up with my own.
After 6 attempts I believe I have a push pin turkey call that is better than 90% of the mass produced calls. A few of the things I've learned is one of the reasons the mass produced calls suck is they typically use a very thin plywood on the bottom of their calls. This essentially deadens the call. You are much better off and will get a lot better sound if you use a solid piece of wood plained down to 1/16 of a inch give or take. Make sure the bottom can move a little side to side in your box frame. Also cut the slot that it fits in a little wider so they bottom has plenty of room to flex when the friction is applied.
Also most of the calls that I bought used a wood surface against poplar wood striker. I tried this combo on multiple different boxes and i could not get a good sound. I then rembered the the old push pin call I mentioned earlier had a slate surface. So I took some left over slate from making pot calls so I took a small piece and attached it with some 3000e glue. This by far produced the best sound.
When making the striker got the call I found the best sound by running the grain straight up the length of the striker. When I tried to run the grain parallel with the box I didn't get good results.
Now where you place your striker in the call also has a big impact on the sound. That's just something you'll have to play around with. Once you figgure out a sweet spot make you a template.
To attach the striker, I use a very small wood screw with a washer under the head and also two washers in-between the striker and the bottom of the box. The type of washers you use also plays a big part in the sound. It's just something you'll have to play around with untill you find something you like. I tried copper, aluminium and steel washers.
Well I know this was a long winded post but I hope it helps some folks out if they are ever interested in making a push-pun call fo themselves. My end result is a call that makes a mighty mean fighting purr and Is better than 90% of the mass produced calls on the market. It probably won't replace a good pot call but I could definitely see instances where I will be using it in the future!
The first call I ordered was a very popular brand name-it was absolutely horrible. Im not by any means a turkey call snob but the thing sounded horrible. I ordered two more from other popular companies. Both of those didn't sound good either. I'm also pretty sure all 3 calls was made in the same facility. They looked way to similar.
After those attempts I started wondering how hard it would be to make my own. So I scoured the internet looking for information or videos and come up pretty empty handed.
However I did run across some videos of a guy that makes some hum-dinger of push pin calls out of Florida. some of the push pin call he makes rivals any turkey call currently on the market. Although he didn't give any detail on how he made them it kinda gave me a starting point to come up with my own.
After 6 attempts I believe I have a push pin turkey call that is better than 90% of the mass produced calls. A few of the things I've learned is one of the reasons the mass produced calls suck is they typically use a very thin plywood on the bottom of their calls. This essentially deadens the call. You are much better off and will get a lot better sound if you use a solid piece of wood plained down to 1/16 of a inch give or take. Make sure the bottom can move a little side to side in your box frame. Also cut the slot that it fits in a little wider so they bottom has plenty of room to flex when the friction is applied.
Also most of the calls that I bought used a wood surface against poplar wood striker. I tried this combo on multiple different boxes and i could not get a good sound. I then rembered the the old push pin call I mentioned earlier had a slate surface. So I took some left over slate from making pot calls so I took a small piece and attached it with some 3000e glue. This by far produced the best sound.
When making the striker got the call I found the best sound by running the grain straight up the length of the striker. When I tried to run the grain parallel with the box I didn't get good results.
Now where you place your striker in the call also has a big impact on the sound. That's just something you'll have to play around with. Once you figgure out a sweet spot make you a template.
To attach the striker, I use a very small wood screw with a washer under the head and also two washers in-between the striker and the bottom of the box. The type of washers you use also plays a big part in the sound. It's just something you'll have to play around with untill you find something you like. I tried copper, aluminium and steel washers.
Well I know this was a long winded post but I hope it helps some folks out if they are ever interested in making a push-pun call fo themselves. My end result is a call that makes a mighty mean fighting purr and Is better than 90% of the mass produced calls on the market. It probably won't replace a good pot call but I could definitely see instances where I will be using it in the future!
