Weather Reports from Shine Box Pro Staff around the U.S.A

South Eastern Region.
Poor ole turkeys. The weather down here is changing so fast they don't know whether they are coming or going. For that matter, neither do I.
One morning I go to the woods to listen, the next morning I go back and I couldn't hear one gobble if he did, for the sound of the frost crunching underfoot. Then the next day its nice and warm again.
Oh well. The tracks are where they're supposed to be, the guns are patterned and the calls are chalked, and opening day is only a month away.
Let the games begin!
Wayne Allen Pro Staff Georgia.

North Midwest Region
Best winter ever! Temperatures have been in the 40's for months unheard of!! we are used to -20 & -30's through January and February old man winter must be in Florida!. Very Little to no snow. Just got a dusting but I saw the southern part of our state got several inches the other day, but the 35-40 degree weather will melt it fast. We should have a great survival rate this year and more hens means more broods!
Joe Hanson Pro Staff Norther Minnesota

Midwest Region Door County WI
Weather has been abnormal here. Temps in the 30's-40's have had some snow but melting as fast as it comes. Been seeing a good amount of turkeys in the Cherry Orchards more than normal, maybe due to the lack of snow letting birds search for food. Been seeing Gobblers strutting their stuff already to.
Donald Munch Pro Staff Sister Bay Wisconsin.

Western Region Wyoming
Temps have been right around 30 -40 degrees in the western black hills area. Raining today? have had dusting's of snow but definitely not a normal winter. Been seeing good amounts of birds they're not snowed in and are mobile for this time of year. A good thing we need a good survival rate this winter. last year was not good. Winter finally showed in the last 2 days with a good 11-13 inches on the ground.
Joel Eschedor Pro Staff Sundance Wyoming

Western Region Black Hills SD
Windy and Cold. Slight rain and snow. Weather has been up and down in the Black Hills area.
Jondean T. Rapid City South Dakota

2012 NWTF Custom Burned Core Package Art Easel

Here's the 2012 NWTF Core Package Art Easel that I customized for the North Metro Longbeards Chapter in Minnesota. It took 4 hours to burn this big old gobbler on the top face of the easel. What a sharp looking piece that should catch any ones eye who walks by it. thanks Larry for the sweet platform to burn an image. If you are interested in getting your chapters core package art easel customized just shoot me a call or email.

6th Wedding Anniversary Gift Custom Burned Stargazers

Just completed this 6th wedding anniversary gift for a northern Minnesota man. He contacted me and asked if I could burn his wife's favorite flower stargazer for a gift. Seeing wood is the 6th wedding anniversary gift to give what a better way than to commission a wood burning. William asked if I could add some color to the image and I said no problem. Wood burning takes on another dimension when color is added. Soft pink, white, and red were added to enhance the flowers. Looks very nice!

Thanks for the support William I hope she loves it.
Eric

2012 NWTF Grand Nationals Call making Competition Scratch Box Turkey Call Entry

Here's the picture of my 3rd Place call in the 2012 NWTF Grand Nationals. This call was entered into the decorative scratch box division. The call was made of Birds eye maple, ebony and buckeye burl from Wood Dynamics. The gobblers on the front are the size of a quarter. The back of the call has a gobblers head burned into it. This call had my signature magnetic striker system also. I entered this call in the Minnesota State competition before it was burned for the Grand National competition. Funny it didn't even place in Minnesota and takes a 3rd in Nashville? The sound was about a 7 out of 10 to my ears I felt the looks were good so I burned images close to the Midwest Open 2nd place call. It was sharp and brought in over $150. on the silent auction! pretty cool.

Grim Reaper Turkey Call Lid

Here are the photos of "The Reaper" Long Box Turkey Call Lid.
This custom lid is constructed of Poplar and features the Grim Reaper with a harvested Turkey over his shoulder. I burned a nice gobbler over the reapers robe and my signature gobblers head in the lids handle. I used barbed wire as a outer and inner boarder for this lid. Thanks Trey for the Idea!

How to use a Shine Box Turkey Call

If this is your first time using a scratch box style turkey call you're in for a new kind of turkey sound. Scratch boxes date back to the early American times and are considered the great granddaddy of the working box call.
Any quality friction call will operate with the slightest amount of pressure!! Shine Box Scratch Call should be played with the striker held in the palm of the hand and the call held like a car key just off a 90 degree angle tilted away from the caller. VERY little pressure is used to make the call skip along the chalked surface. any question please contact us. We will have some you tube links up soon to help out.

2012 Midwest Turkey Call Making Competition. 2nd place winner!

I was told I needed to compete in the 2012 Wisconsin Midwest Call Making Competition back in the late fall. I didn't plan on it because of the calls I was working on for the MN NWTF state competition and my first time entries for Nationals. I decided to go for it and spent hours looking over hundreds of color combos that I'd created and remembering the sounds produced by various exotic/domestic wood combos. I selected 5 pictures of calls I made in the past year and printed them on a sheet of paper. I asked 12 people to select the call that caught their eye the most. It was very clear one color scheme stood out over the rest. Construction began!
I went to my Sponsor (Rockler) first and selected a pen blank of Gold Dyed Big Leaf Maple Burl then I hit the scrap bin in hopes to find a piece of Yellow Heart with the grain going the right way. I found one scrap piece with the grain close enough that I would get nice sound. I was given a small scrap piece of Blood Wood from a friend at War Bird Custom Calls and began construction. When it was complete I had this beauty. I hand burned a tom gobbling on the back with 2 tiny full strutter's on the front.
The call was carefully escorted to the Wisconsin Competition by Chris from Walls Calls. I took a 2nd place in my division and scored a 2012 Outstanding Rookie call Maker of the Year award. Thanks Chris for purchasing my call and giving it back to me. I did find out how much you paid for it!! This call also has a doppelganger that will appear somewhere else this year??

2012 Minnesota NWTF Sanctioned Turkey Calling Contest

Congrats to My daughter Adriana (age 6)on her second place finish in the Poult division of the 2012 State NWTF turkey calling competition. Adriana had to produce the following sounds, plain yelp of the hen, the cluck, and the purr. She use a 5 piece black walnut call with a yellow heart lid made by me. After her 2nd place win she asked if I could burn an image on the lid for her. I said "sure honey what do you want". she said " I would like a dragon and a unicorn and a killer whale!!!". Well a 6 year old has quite an imagination. I have to say that this will be a first a Dragon, Unicorn, Killer Whale call LOL!!!! Stick around I'll have photos of this when it's done

2012 NWTF Minnesota State Convention 3rd place winner

This Call was a new design For Shine Box and done for the sole purpose of the state call making competition.. I went away form my traditional 2 piece design and constructed this 19 piece design all made of wood. The wood combo is as follows Macadamia wood from the Oahu Hawaii, Ebony, South American Box Wood (sound board), and American Holly.

This call was hands down the most difficult scratch box call I've ever constructed. With 19 pieces means lots of glue seams to make perfect!!! 3 weeks to slowly glue and sand each piece to fit perfectly to pass the judging eye. After tuning to a smooth medium tone and sanding down to 600 grit I burned a single full strut gobbler on the front wrapping the image up onto the top of the call. The striker was solid Macadamia Wood with my signature magnetic striker system.
I was very let down that it only took a 3rd place due to the amount of effort and time I had into the call, but the silent auction price did speak volumes bringing in more than the 1st & 2nd place winners combined. Some NWTF convention silent auction bidders couldn't believe how seamless the call was and loved the sound of the South American Box Wood. It was a 1st place winner in my mind. I did however wonder how my entry for nationals would've done at the state convention I'll never know.