|
During the week, Spartanburg County Sheriff's Deputy Shift Supervisor Lt. Russell Lynch fights crimes on the second shift.
But throughout the day and on the weekends, he's trying to get the attention of turkeys.
The National Wild Turkey Federation awarded Lynch with a National Championship for his aluminum call device used to communicate with turkeys at a Columbus, Ohio, competition last weekend.
Lynch also won a third-place Best in Show Award for making and demonstrating the same aluminum call device.
"I just have a big time with this because it's the neatest thing to communicate with a wild animal in a language they sort of understand," Lynch said.
A turkey call is a device hunters use to mimic the sound of a wild turkey in order to entice the game bird closer. Judges give awards based on the maker's ability to reproduce realistic sounds of the turkey.
Lynch began building calls as a teen in Arkansas as his interest in turkey hunting grew. Dissatisfaction with turkey calls on the market encouraged him to focus energy on creating his own.
He tinkered with sizes and distances between the metallic-looking soundboard on the outside of the call to create different sounds. He uses walnut and oak in construction. He constructs different kinds of strikers, which are what he scratches the turkey call with to create the fowl sound.
"I don't make just one (turkey call) to be used in competition," Lynch said. "They are all the same."
He and his wife, Kathy, have their own full-time business and Web site called Bud & Betty Custom Calls. He named the business after his two oldest children. They sell more than 1,000 types of calls annually.
"It's flattery to have people to pay for a piece of art that you make," he said.
He and his family have traveled to shows around the country to display the calls and meet other folks in the business.
The 8-year-old company also makes devices that imitate owl calls. Turkeys may gobble back at an owl, he said.
Now that Lynch has earned a national championship in the aluminum call category, the only category left that he hasn't achieved a first-place award is in the slate category. He has already won championships in the Scratch Box and glass call categories.
Benny Lee Smith can be reached at (864)562-7214, or benny.smith@shj.com.
Source: Smith, Benny Lee. "Officer calls them (turkeys) his way." Spartanburg Herald-Journal 28 Feb. 2004: http://www.goupstate.com.
|
