Name: John Kaelin
Address: 8618 Marion Martin Road; Charlestown, IN 47111
Phone: 812-256-4552 Fax:
E-mail: jrk1970@juno.com
Personal Website:

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 Kaelin Calls

Kaelin Calls is a hobby gone wild. While hunting turkey in 1989 with an old friend they came across a lone Tom along the bluffs of the Ohio River in Indiana. Each hunter had a box call and each call was different. Kind of like Brand A and Brand B. John was amazement in that his call provoked the old Tom into sharp gobbles every time he called to the bird. His friends call, although well played did nothing to get the Tom to answer. As we all know, the situation may be different the next day but it still raised his curiosity as to why.

During the winter of 1990 John began to suffer from a bad case of cabin fever. It was now two hunting seasons since that memorable day and he found himself spending allot of time wondering about that call. John remembered seeing a recent video where the hunter discussed and used a silent dog whistle to help locate Toms. His ideas about the pitch of a call became more intense and very much confirmed. It isn't just noise in the woods but the pitch of the noise that effects the turkeys. It was off to the wood shop to make a better mousetrap or turkey call in this case.

With a background of playing an acoustic guitar John started by thinking of the instruments design. If the hole is covered the guitar still produces a tone but not to the extent that it does with the center hole open. Converting this to the box call he figures that the sound changes as the box closes. He cut the lid with a V shape so that as it was closed there could be a way for the tones to come out. The call went through a number of modifications and changes that resulted in a more compact design and a call that could produce a variety of sounds. While in school a teacher once said, “Perfection is a revision”. John came to believe the comment. After a while he settled in on his design. The call that he came up with will yelp softly or aggressively, it can cut and cackle and it will purr as good as any top of the line slate call. What makes it a real nice call is that all this is done with just one hand. So the Kaelin Calls “Squeeze Box” was born.

These calls are made from Cherry, Walnut and Mahogany or any combination of these woods as desired by the customer. John will also make calls out of special woods or supplied woods.

Be sure to check this one out. Contact John for more information. John Kaelin lives in Indiana and guides turkey hunts in Kentucky and Georgia. He does turkey-hunting seminars and is dedicated to his hunting. He also enjoys woodworking and playing Blue Grass music as a hobby.