Name: Mark McLaughlin
Address: 8257 Route 28 N; Reynoldsville, PA 15851
Phone: 814-328-2475 Fax:
E-mail: mark@mclaughlingamecalls.com
Personal Website: www.mclaughlingamecalls.com

Return to Turkey Call List

 McLaughlin Game Calls

Mark Mclaughlin was born and raised in Hazen Pennsylvania. An avid hunter since age 12 he has brought home his fair share of wild game to include wild turkey, deer and an occasional goose. He has been a member of the National Wildlife Turkey Federation (NWTF) for almost 10 years. Working with the NWTF he donates turkey calls to the superfund banquets each year and during the past summer taught turkey-hunting classes for the NWTF women in outdoors.

Mark’s quest of making turkey calls began after he realized he was wasted a lot of money on numerous production calls off the shelf and from the outdoor shows. It seem that every call he purchased and took home sounded completely different than what he originally tested. With prices varying from bottom of the barrel to extremely high end, he decided it was time he made a call of his own that would give him the confidence he was looking for when he walked into the woods. He goal was to build a call that was fair in price and something the average guy with a family could easily afford and appreciate.

To build a call one must first have the patience and understanding that call making can be a long drawn out process. Mark realized this early on as he began. He spent countless hours studying and spent much of his time learning by trial and error. Once you have started many of the steps begin to fall into place. Mark states, “You develop a feel for a block of wood and know what to expect when the call is complete.” Throughout the call making process he learned a lot about woods and how each species has it own unique characteristics, especially when it comes to reading wood grains. This lead Mark to become heavily involved with the band saw operations. By participating in this process he was able to watch and determine the way he wanted each log cut. He has devoted much of his time in this area and even shares his thoughts and ideas with pictures of this process on his website.

Marks calls are built under the name McLaughlin Game Calls. He considers it a family business as both his brother Mike and his Uncle bud help him on a regular basis. His father who was a huge influence in his early call making years has since passed away, but Mark knows he is with him every day and would be proud of his success. Although call making is currently a hobby for Mark, he finds himself spending more and more time in the shop and believes that it will soon develop into a full time occupation.

Mark makes several different styles of calls. He prefers to use walnut and red oak for his pot calls. Through experience he has found he can obtain a very consistent sound quality. Box calls are made from two of his favorite woods, which include sassafras and butternut. Mark has several calls that he is very fond of, specifically two of his glass calls, which are called “Raspy Red and The Deceptor”. Both calls are very similar with only slight differences in tone qualities because of the different woods used. But his overall favorite call to build is his Pennsylvania Long Boxes, which he only makes 25 of each year. Each piece of wood used has its own heart and soul. He considers these calls a labor of love and he often can loose countless hours in the shop when he is working on one of these.

If you have never heard of McLaughlin Game Calls you can get a first hand look at them soon. Mark is planning to enter his signature long box call and his glass calls in their respective classes at the NWTF convention in 2005. Make sure you stop by and meet Mark and tell him you read about him at Custom Calls Online.