Derby City Game Calls

Jim and Tina's Merriams Turkeys

Derby City would like to welcome Jim and Tina Tucker to our Pro Staff.  We are excited to have Jim and Tina on staff to help promote Derby City Calls.  These two are going to be great ambassadors for Derby City.  We are looking forward to many good years together.

Derby City Calls just signed on as the title sponsor for the first season of Poor Boys Outdoors.  Derby City is excited to form this partnership with Poor Boys.  Having two new Kentucky based companies come together will help bring awareness to the great hunting opportunities that the bluegrass state has to offer.  Be sure to tune in when the show starts this fall.  The show will air on Sunday afternoons at 3:30 pm beginning on October 3rd.  The show will be aired on WBNA, Channel 21.  You can visit Poor Boys Outdoors online at: www.poorboysoutdoors.com

Several Derby City Pro Staffers are in the process of booking a 2011 spring turkey hunt.  We are looking at a number of possibilities for either Merriams, Goulds, or Rios.  We have been thinking about hunting in one of these states, South Dakota, Montana, Nebraska, or Texas.  We are looking for leads to several well established, good outfitters in these states.  We have even discussed hunting on Rosebud Indian Reservation.  If anyone has hunted there and has any insight on the Pros and Cons of hunting the Indian Reservation, please give us some feedback.

Derby City Calls recently participated in the North American Hunting Club’s product test program.  We submitted Aluminum Magnum calls to over 80 members of the club for their review.  Derby City is proud to say that we overwhelmingly earned the NAHC Seal of Approval.  We honestly believe that we produce the finest quality (sound and appearance) turkey calls on the market.  This seal of approval backs up what we already believed.  To have your call reviewed and approved by hunters means everything to an emerging call company.  We would like to thank all the NAHC members who received one of our calls for all the positive comments.  We hope you enjoy your Derby City Call for many years.  Derby City, It’s your call!

For all those ladies out there that want a taste of marksmanship, June 19th at the Fern Creek Sprotsman’s Club will be a day you don’t want to miss.

Annie Oakley Day Invite 2010

A good friend of mine, Scott Cronin, invited me to go on a hunting trip to Nebraska with him this past weekend.  Scott’s friends, Nick Brown and Steve “Fish” Callison were on the trip as well.  We went to Ponca Creek Outdoors in North Central Nebraska.  The country is beautiful and the turkey hunting was phenomenal.  

Each one of us killed two birds.  Scott and I hunted together on day one and tagged out.  After hunting a cut cornfield on the first morning,  we did some run and gun hunting early in the afternoon.  We struck a bird, put a short stalk on him, called to him a little, and Scott put him down at 60 yards.  This bird completed Scott’s 2nd grand slam.

That evening, Scott and I hunted the same cornfield we hunted in the morning.  We had an eventful morning at that location and wanted to get a shot at those birds again.  In the morning, we had three longbeards chasing and breeding hens all around us.  We knew they would be back later that evening.  I ended up shooting a true Merriams at about 4:30.  About 2 hours later, Scott and I pulled a double on two beautiful Hybrids.  My Magnum Aluminum call helped bag three of these day one birds.  It was the best day of turkey hunting I have ever had.

Nick and Fish hunted together and killed 2 longbeards on the first morning.  On day two, both of them killed their 2nd birds.  Nick and Fish hunted a cornfield that was loaded with turkey.  It was common for them to have 5-8 gobblers strutting in the field throughout the day.

It was a great trip.  We had a lot of fun and did some serious turkey hunting.  I came away from this trip with two nice gobblers, two new friends, and one truly good friend.  What a great way to end the 2010 spring turkey season. 

Derby City would like to welcome Scott Cronin, as our newest Pro Staffer.  Scott is a an Agriculture teacher at Muhlenberg County High School.  He loves to hunt and fish and does so as much as possible.  Scott recently completed his second Grand Slam on May 14, 2010.  Scott will be a great ambassador for Derby City.  We look forward to many great years of hunting with Scott.  Check out his profile in our Pro Staff section.

I headed to Mt. Washington as soon as I could get off of work today.  I wanted to take advantage of the great weather and try to kill my second longbeard of Kentucky’s spring season.  Driving back to the field, I ran a hen off of her nest.  I was hoping that would be a good sign.  As I was about to go through the gate to a pasture field, I saw a nice gobbler down by the wood line.  I snuck through a winter wheat field to get out in front of him.  I stayed there for about an hour, calling off and on every 20 minutes.  I never heard or saw that bird after the initial sighting.

I decided to pack up and head out to the spot I originally planned to hunt.  I was on a tree line that divided two freshly planted corn fields.  I placed my Peep-n-Tom and Pretty Penney decoys out and sat about 30 yards inside the tree line.  I called sparingly every 20-30 minutes.  Around 5:10, I did some cutting on my Aluminum Magnum.  I put the call down, glanced up, and there he was about 120 yards out.  He was looking around, but started to feed in the opposite direction.  I picked up the Magnum again and did 3 clucks.  That got his attention.  He put that head up and started looking my way.  I started to do a little purring and he started walking my way. 

He finally spotted the decoys and came in on a dead run.  He stopped about 15 yards to the right of the decoys.  I did not give him a chance to fight or spook.  He was 22 pounds, with a 9 3/4 inch beard and 1 inch spurs.

Derby City would love to showcase your successful hunts this year.  Please send us a picture and the specifics of your hunt.  We have been uploading pictures and have many new additions to our kill zone.  Just go to the Photo Gallery link and click on Kill Zone.  Thanks for sharing your successful hunts with us.

In the music industry there are some musical instruments known as “Relics” . At Derby City we are using the same process to give our calls that aged and used look. We have started with a Derby  City Magnum in our flamed maple, slate over slate call . This call was used to bag this bird during the 2010 spring season. All “Relics” have our signature sound that is in our line up. We also have our Derby City Tracker in a “relic” look. These are calls you should not be afraid  to hunt with.