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Camp
Callers
Most
folks have never heard of Eastaboga Alabama. Eastaboga is located
a few miles North of Talladega Alabama and the Talladega National
Forest. But for Doug Camp, Eastaboga was the place to live with
its abundance of wildlife and more countryside than a person could
walk in a hunting season. The Camps family farm was located
in this part of the country and as a youngster Doug could always
be found bird hunting with his father and his bird-dogs. By the
age of 11, Dougs reputation for hunting was well known and
older gentlemen frequently accompanied him for his guiding ability.
Bird hunting seemed to be the way of life for Doug. However, all
that changed when Doug first encounter wild turkeys on a cold winter
day in 1955. The event not only changed his hunting preference but
his life as well. From that day forward Doug has devoted his time
to studying and hunting wild turkeys.
Doug
spent the next several years hunting turkeys alone and quickly learned
what worked in the field and what didnt. Eventually, Doug
began guiding friends for fun and clients for money in 1964. Taking
advantage of the 90-day fall and spring seasons, Doug successfully
guided turkey hunters from 1964 to 1999. Throughout his working
career Dougs flexible work schedule allowed him to hunt all
or part of every day of the season. To date, he estimates he has
hunted turkeys between 3500 and 4000 days.
Over the years Dougs passion for the
wild turkey could be read in the numerous articles he has written
for magazines like Field and Stream, Turkey Call, Turkey and Turkey
Hunting and the Georgia Sportsman and Alabama Game and Fish. He
is the author of the now out of print book Turkey Hunting
Spring and Fall and is currently working on a new book that
will cover his experiences of almost 50 years of turkey hunting.
Doug is also an active member of the NWTF and has been a supporting
member of its efforts since its inception in 1973.
Dougs
involvement with call making began in the early 1960s. While
still a boy he often built calls out of necessity but today call
making is how he makes his living. In 1983 he was a partner in the
Southland Calls Company, but in 1991 he branched out on his own
to start what is now known as Camp Callers. Camp Callers
offers a full line of calls from box callers to slate, glass and
even push-pin-box calls to name a few. All callers are made from
premium wood (cedar, popular, mahogany, black walnut, maple, etc.)
because it produces the truest and most realistic turkey sounds.
Camp callers are made ready to go to the woods when taken out of
the package. Each call has been properly adjusted, hand-sanded and
chalked before it is ever delivered. In fact part of Dougs
commitment is to test and fine tune each caller before it is shipped
assuring the customer complete satisfaction.
For
customers interested in callers to show casing in their collections,
Doug offers each year a Limited Edition Series. These callers are
custom built one-at-a-time from the very best wood that has been
set aside. Limited Edition Series callers are numbered, signed,
dated and include custom artwork from wildlife artist Dave Greer.
Recently, two of these boxes finished 1st and 2nd in the short box
competition at the 2002 National Wild Turkey Federation convention
in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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