Larry and His Trumpets

The first time I went spring gobbler hunting with Larry Proffitt of Elizabethton, Tennessee, was on an East Tennessee mountain. Proffitt, whose family operates the renowned Ridgewood Barbecue in Bluff City, positioned us against a hardwood and pulled out a call I had never seen used before…a trumpet, which looks sort of like a small, straight flute.

Larry played a few notes on the sound-making device—several soft, sweet clucks, followed by some yearning yelps and then put the call aside.

“They’ll [meaning turkey gobblers] be here directly, probably in an hour or so, after they get finished making their rounds,” whispered Larry. “They know where these sounds came from. You stay ready, now.”

I was not happy with the performance or our position or the instructions to sit motionless for an hour or more. The imitation hen sounds had been melodious enough but too subtle and not nearly loud enough for my taste, so I saw no reason to stay ready as the Volunteer State sportsmen had requested.

Consequently, when three gobblers did metamorphose before us almost exactly an hour later, I was not ready—worse, I was startled and blew an easy shot. I have never doubted Larry and his trumpets since, as we have hunted in the East Tennessee mountains for close to 15 springs now, and the dulcet sounds coming from his calls have resulted in my killing numerous gobblers.

The history of the turkey call

Matt Lindler is the editor of the National Wild Turkey Federation’s Turkey Country magazine and as close to an expert about the history of calls as there is. Today’s trumpet has its origin in the turkey wingbone calls that Native Americans crafted, he says.

“For thousands of years, Native Americans used wingbones to call in wild turkeys, and they are the forerunners of today’s trumpet call,” he says. “In fact, in the NWTF’s Winchester Museum, we have a wingbone call that has been carbon-dated as being 4,000 years old. The sinew used to hold the bones together has rotted, but it’s obvious that the Indians created this call to bring in wild turkeys.”

After killing a turkey and removing and cleaning the bones from the wings, the Native Americans would insert the smaller radius bone into the medium-size ulna for a double wingbone call. To make a triple wingbone, they would add the humerous, which is the biggest of the three. Appropriately enough, the Native Americans used gobbler wingbones to make calls that were deeper and reverberated more and so sounded more like mature toms. And they used hen wingbones to create calls that made high-pitched sounds like those of a hen or jenny.

Lindler says that a gobbler wingbone will create yelps that have more of a deep “yawp, yawp, yawp” sound that “rolls over” in its reverberations while hen/jenny yelps played on a hen wingbone feature a clearer sound that ends abruptly with no roll over.

If it works, use it

Like many sportsmen, Proffitt is fascinated by the history of the wingbone, but that’s not why he employs their modern-day versions.

“Any turkey call that really seems to have an inordinate effect on turkeys quickly gets my attention,” he says. “Years ago, I found a fourth edition of McIlhenny’s book The Wild Turkey and Its Hunting in an antique shop. Author Charles Jordan wrote about how trumpets can make sounds that sound realistic as far as three-quarters of a mile away, much farther than box and pot and peg calls can, for example.

“So I bought a Tom Turpin yelper by Penns Woods at Mahoney’s Outfitters in Johnson City and took it hunting. I climbed almost to the top of a mountain, sat down to rest, and thought I would just call a time or two on my new trumpet. I sucked or smacked about four yelps and here came a hen turkey yelping every breath and about ran over me.

“The next morning I went back and made turkey sounds with my box and diaphragm calls—nothing responded. I figured what have I got to lose, so I tried the trumpet again. Way down the mountain, I heard some ‘bonnks’ then three or four gobbler yelps. Soon four longbeards came running up the mountain, and I shot the first one to arrive. I was hooked after that.”

But it’s not just the killing of mature gobblers that causes him to revere trumpets as his favorite sound-making device. It’s because they have “pure turkey” in them. In numerous states across the country, the Tennessean pursues turkeys for three months every autumn and for three more every spring. In the summer and winter periods, he often goes afield to call to turkeys and record his sounds and those of the birds themselves on a digital recorder.

“Once I tested—with the recorder 65 yards from my position—three paddle box callers, an aluminum and crystal pot and peg, and trumpets by Zach Farmer, Billy Buice, and Ralph Permar. The results were that the boxes were little more than very weak sounds. Same with the pot callers, including the loud aluminum caller. But the trumpet sounds were all very strong and sounded like turkeys that were up-close. I was amazed.

“Wild turkeys have hearing far superior to humans and most other animals. I, like many turkey hunters, have killed turkeys with boxes, pot calls, mouth calls, scratch boxes, and on and on. We know they all work part of the time, but nothing works all of the time or we would quit turkey hunting and take up another sport. I sincerely believe the distinct ‘break’ in the roll over in the sounds emanating from a trumpet-style caller contribute to its effectiveness in the field.

Perhaps one day a young Ph.D. candidate’s dissertation will be the utilization of trumpets in calling wild turkeys.”

How to Play a Trumpet

Proffitt says one way to play a trumpet is based on the mailed instructions that his friend and trumpet maker Dwain Bland sent many years ago.

“The wingbone is mastered by pulling or sucking, air thru (sic) the small narrow chamber, with about the same effort it takes to eat a thick choclate (sic) malt with a soda straw,” Bland wrote. “The cork stopper should press against the lips with the long edge of the bevel on the mouthpiece next to the upper lip. The beginner often tries too hard.”

In essence, very small amounts of air come through the small orifice of the mouthpiece. Sound is generated by the lips squeezing together.

Where to Find Trumpet Calls

Larry says that learning how to use a trumpet caller can be difficult enough without buying a poor instrument.

“There are many, many good trumpet call makers in today’s market,” he says. “There are two men that I can recommend without reservation. One is Billy Buice of Canton, Georgia. The other is Ralph Permar of Old Zionsville, Pennsylvania. If I were buying trumpets for my three grandsons today, I would order from them.”

Billy Buice (770.735.2654) is known for his 6-inch interchangeable mouthpiece caller of black wood with a 4-ring mouthpiece. This 4-ring refers to the internal diameter of the mouthpiece. Buice also sells a 3-ring mouthpiece.

Ralph Permar (610.965.6640, www.permarturkeycalls.com) sells a Delrin New Model 45 trumpet with an acrylic mouthpiece. Another great trumpet, says Larry, is the Model 1930. “Both of these callers have great roll over in the yelp which yields a very realistic call at a distance,” he says.

This past spring, Proffitt took me afield on a cattle farm in Johnson County. He told me, as he retrieved a trumpet from his daypack, that he would play on his instrument about every 20 minutes and a certain gobbler, one that he had been watching, should appear around 9 a.m. Stay ready, he told me. This time I did as instructed, and I killed the longbeard at a distance of 10 yards at 8:50.

It’s that type of woodsmanship that has made Proffitt a legend in the East Tennessee mountains, says Larry Shanks, who works at Mahoney’s Outfitters.

“Larry has hunted longer and harder, been more places, and experienced more things than anyone I know of,” says Shanks. “He’s a local legend, but he doesn’t tout himself as an expert. He just loves the sport of turkey hunting.”

Turkey Terminology

• Box Calls: A hollow box with a lid that is slid across the surface. One of the easiest calls to learn how to use.
• Pot and Pegs: A hollow circular pot with a surface of slate, aluminum, or glass. Pegs are usually made of some sort of wood. The peg making contact with a pot’s surface is how sounds are created.
• Diaphragms: Also known as mouth calls, they consist of latex stretched across a horseshoe-shaped frame small enough to fit inside one’s mouth.
• Bonnks: The deep, base sounds that a mature gobbler utters.
• Longbeards: Another name for a mature gobbler, which is any tom two years of age or older and which typically boasts a beard seven or more inches long.
• Jake: A young gobbler, usually with a beard of just three inches or so.
• Jenny: A young hen.
• Roll over: The way the call “rolls over” before the next note is made—just like the sounds coming from a real turkey do.

More trumpet tips:

Matt Lindler adds to what Larry Proffitt says regarding how to play a trumpet:

• If someone plays a brass instrument, he or she can learn how to use a trumpet call more quickly.
• For higher pitches, tighten your lips around the call; for lower pitch sounds, loosen them.
• Just” kiss” the edge of the trumpet’s mouthpiece; don’t put too much of it into your mouth.