The Ashby Turkey Call returns

By Shari Harris, Publisher

Collectors and hunters alike will be excited to learn that Doug Ashby will be producing 1,000 limited edition Ashby turkey calls this season. From Vienna to Houston, and now in Licking, the Ashby box turkey call is back. With 200 already produced and another 200 expected to be ready by the end of next week, those interested can pick theirs up at Fly Creek on Cedar Street, Licking, now.

Ike Ashby passed away in 2021, but his son, Doug Ashby, has committed to creating the limited edition calls, with serial numbers 1 through 1,000, for this season. At his workshop, he has the latest technology, and can make what his father first created, only better. Better tools make the calls more precise, and reduce the labor required to reproduce the calls. The first call was the hardest, however, with countless hours of labor going into creating the system to produce it to the precise measurements required. The artwork, drawn by Ike’s wife, Frances, was burned onto the original calls with a hot iron brand. Doug Ashby will use lasers to create the designs, including his B Jovial logo, a tribute to the humor his father always found in life.

Ashby has a full-time and a part-time employee working with him to create the calls, and of the 200 already created, all but about five are sold or spoken for. More are anticipated to be ready by the end of next week, so anyone desiring one of the limited edition Ashby turkey calls can get them now. Fly Creek Digital is at the old Rawlings factory on Cedar Street, and their hours are 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Friday.

Stop by and see Doug Ashby. Ask him about “The Lucky Weasel,” a system he sells to major ammunition manufacturers to objectively test the performance of their shotgun shells. Ashby describes himself as a creator; if you spend a short time in his presence you’ll see why. Check out his video about the limited edition turkey call on his Fly Creek Facebook page.

The Ashby turkey call traces it roots back to the late 1960s, when the MIssouri Department of Conservation brought the wild turkey back to Missouri, and Doug Ashby remembers seeing them released in Maries County. His father, who was a conservation agent, saw the return of turkeys as an opportunity. Turkeys meant turkey hunters, and Ike Ashby realized those hunters would be wanting turkey calls.

Ike Ashby had worked as a machinist prior to working for Missouri Department of Conservation. He used those skills to create the Ashby Turkey Call. Three of his children, David, Doug and Lisa, helped make calls. Doug Ashby recalls getting the wood for free, cleaning up treetops left behind by loggers. He and David used a cross cut saw to cut branches into sections, then did the harder work of cutting the larger branches lengthwise into more manageable pieces, again using the crosscut saw.

The Ashbys made thousands of turkey calls in Vienna, first selling them in the local grocery store, then filling the back of an orange VW station wagon and going on a road trip. Ike took his 16-year-old son, Doug, with him on a selling trip throughout Missouri and the south. They returned with the back of their car empty and with the beginning of their mailing list.

Ike Ashby continued to increase his sales, taking his precisely made friction turkey calls to boat shows and other events.

Around 1982, the Ashbys moved to Houston, and Ike Ashby opened his turkey call factory. He employed 30 people and made box friction calls, mouth calls and soft touch calls. Doug Ashby, who returned to help out in the early ‘90s, counts in the millions the number of turkey calls they made.

YouTube videos show how to create your own mouth call, with the latex diaphragm of the call made by latex gloves. Ashby found another source of latex for his call diaphragms, and three employees operated the machine where contraceptives were removed from their packages and rolled onto pegs to be washed, then inverted and washed again. Many humorous comments at the factory could be traced directly to this part of the process.

You could find Ashby turkey calls at Bass Pro Shops, Cabela, Gander Mountain, and other popular retailers. They didn’t just burn their own logos onto the calls; they also made calls for other companies. The Ashbys produced calls of higher quality at a lower price. They were the largest maker of turkey calls in the nation prior to 1994.

An extremely large order from Walmart resulted in a rapid growth of the company, with 100 employees required to complete the work. It was too rapid of growth, however, and when Walmart was unable to sell their stock as quickly as they had anticipated, they did not repeat the order the second year, and the call makers were unable to recover. In 1994, the final Ashby turkey call was made in Houston.