Photo by Mike GilesNationally aclaimed Turkey call craftsman Albert Paul, of Collinsville, was inducted into the Mississippi Outdoors Hall of Fame at the Mississippi Wildlife Heritage Museum in Leland last Friday night. Inductees, from left: Bobby Woods, Billy Ellis, Rabbit Rogers, Mike Stewartand  Albert Paul. 

Few roads lead to induction into the Mississippi Outdoors Hall of Fame and Albert Paul surely traveled the road less taken as he became one of America’s premier turkey call craftsmen.

Albert Paul has been a woodsman all his life, getting his start at a young age while hunting with his grandfather. His turkey hunting career began in the Delta in a most unorthodox way.

“My grandfather took a leaf and put it between his hands and yelped like a turkey and called up a gobbler to shotgun range,” Paul said. “We were squirrel hunting that fall so the season wasn’t open, but I was hooked. The next year he called up my first gobbler with that green leaf and I harvested my first tom at 14 years of age.”

Paul’s hunting career was off and running but it was his proficiency for math that led to a career teaching math and coaching high school for many years. His mathematics proficiency put him a step ahead of most folks who made turkey calls, but he wasn’t satisfied with contemporary calls at the time.

“I loved turkey hunting, but I couldn’t find a call that sounded like a turkey,” said Paul. “I used a Lynch box and called turkeys up with it, but it didn’t produce the sound I wanted. I took the lids off and tweaked them some but just couldn’t get the sound I wanted.”

Paul kept hunting turkeys and one day a friend from Colorado had a suggestion that would ultimately change his destiny.

“My friend told me that he knew a fellow that I should talk to and that was Neil Cost,” Paul said. “Cost was the premier box call maker of our lifetime and we became lifelong friends and I spent some time with him hunting and learned the basics.”

Paul made his own box and sent it to Cost to critique and Cost did just that, sending it back with suggestions on how to make it better.

“I’d work on improving my boxes and send them to him and that went on back and forth for awhile as I got progressively better,” Paul said.

“Then one day I sent him three calls and never heard back from him,” Paul said. “Finally, I called him back and asked him what happened. He told me ‘you need to work on the finish now.’” That was the moment Paul had been working toward and it was a huge compliment that Neil Cost kept those three boxes and put them on display at his home.

Destiny was fulfilled as one legend passed on his expertise and wisdom to the next legendary call maker – though Paul didn’t realize it at the time.

After retiring from coaching, Paul and his wife, Faye, moved to Collinsville and he shifted into high gear to full time call making and the results have been astounding. Paul makes calls for people only by special order and he’s always got an order list.

“A lot of people don’t know it, but I do a number of limited edition calls each year,” Paul said. “I make them by special order for different groups and people who want to give the calls as a special gift to people who do business with them as a thank you.”

“When I started out making calls I never dreamed that it would come this far,” Paul said. “I’m just honored, and I never even thought about being inducted into a Hall of Fame.”

Albert Paul is one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, and no one could be more deserving of the honor recently bestowed him for his craftmanship, call making abilities and love of all things turkey with a strong desire to pass on his hunting knowledge to others.

Almost anybody can pick up an Albert Paul box call and play it with limited instructions. Each one is hand tuned by the legend himself and it’s the only call you’ll ever need. One call, that’s all, with Albert Paul!

Call Mike Giles at 601-917-3898 or email mikegiles18@comast.net.