Ken Martin graduated pharmacy school at Ole Miss in May of 1982, moved back to McComb and started getting ready for deer season on his grandfather’s farm. A chance encounter with turkeys got him to thinking about hunting them when the season opened.

Now, if you’ve never been turkey hunting then you might not realize just how difficult it is to call up and kill some turkeys.

“My grandparent’s farms were about five miles apart so I got to do a lot of hunting when I moved back,” Martin said. “My dad was a preacher so we moved around a lot and that was about the only place I could call home and it worked out well with the turkeys.”

“I was putting up a deer stand when I saw some turkeys and they’d never been hunted much and they were dumb and I went out and was lucky enough to bring one in and it got me hooked on turkey hunting,” Martin said. “The turkey I worked that morning must have gobbled at me 300 times but he never came so I tried something else, a purr and on the second one I was covered up with hens. I looked up and there he was.”

Martin has a passion for working with wood and seeing the different grains so he decided to start building calls.

“I really like the Albert Paul box call but I really couldn’t afford to buy an Albert Paul when I had a young family,” Martin said. So he figured to make his own.

“My first call sounded like geese so I just kept working at it and eventually made more than I could use and some people said ‘Let me buy one from you’, so that’s how it started,” said Martin. “And I own some of Albert Paul’s calls now,” he said. “They’re almost perfect. He’s the one I try to emulate.

“I don’t make the same type calls that he does but I’m trying to reach that level of perfection.”

Martin started making calls a year or so before Hurricane Katrina hit and so when he found some wood from the storm he started building calls out of it.

His calls are single-sided box calls made from many different wood combinations and each one is unique and beautiful. “I like to work with wood and bring out the wood grain in it and see what it looks like,” Martin said. “My personal favorite is a padauk and walnut combination that is red on top with beautiful wood grains on the lid and man can it talk!”

In addition to his beautiful sweet sounding box calls Martin is turning out some beautiful wooden bowls. The grain on the wood is just spectacular and would be a welcome addition to any home showcase.

In order to work with wood, and especially to make turkey calls that look good, sound good and are unique, a craftsman must have a passion for what he does and Ken Martin has that passion.

If you’re looking for something unique to hunt with or add to your collection then you need to check out Martin’s calls for yourself. I’ve got a couple in my collection now and can’t wait to try them out on an old gobbler this spring.

For more information on his calls, contact Ken Martin at 601-540-2121, or check him out on Facebook.

Contact Mike Giles at 601-917-3898 or email mikegiles18@comcast.net.