Callmaking Hall-of-Famer: D.D. Adams

Denton Diller Adams Jr. — nicknamed “D.D.” — was prominent in the turkey callmaking community in the 1970s and 1980s. He was particularly known for his expertise in building pot-and-peg calls. He hailed from Thompsontown, Pennsylvania. Adams was born in 1907 and died at age 81.

Adams’ good friend George Fleischer actually invented the pot call. However, Adams, a career tradesman, knew how to build things and was able to enhance and produce calls in greater volume, making them more accessible to hunters. 

Adams was an experimenter who consistently developed innovative call materials and designs. For example, he is credited for crafting longer, more streamlined wooden strikers and a double-slate call, the likes of which had never been seen before. In 1981, he entered into an agreement with Dick Kirby, of Quaker Boy Game Calls, for the company to use the name D.D. Adams Double Slate. That helped promote and grow the use of pot-and-peg calls in general.

Adams didn’t start making calls until later in life, when he retired from working full-time in 1965. He was described as self-taught and confident, and as an introvert who enjoyed spending time alone. However, he also appreciated visiting and sharing his call-making knowledge with people he liked and respected.

His calls were popular with hunters and competition callers. They were used extensively in the early and mid-1980s — especially in his home state of Pennsylvania — and many championships were won with them.

The innovation and distribution of his calls introduced and inspired other call makers to build them, which ultimately helped raise the overall level of quality, design and awareness for friction calls across the hunting industry. 

Beyond call making, Adams was also a skilled turkey caller and hunter, often demonstrating his expertise in the field. He killed his first turkey in 1921 and continued to hunt them successfully until he died in 1988.

Adams was recently back in the public spotlight when he was one of three historically significant call makers inducted into the NWTF’s Turkey Callmaking Hall of Fame, class of 2025. This division of the overall NWTF Callmaker Hall of Fame recognizes individuals for their overall contributions to the art of turkey call making, regardless of their competition success. The other 2025 inductees were Neil Cost and M.L. Lynch.

Adam’s long-standing contributions to the turkey call industry are significant, with his name and work still recognized and respected. In fact, the NWTF named a high honor after him decades ago at its Grand National Turkey Callmaking Contest: the D.D. Adams Award. This award recognizes champion call makers who submit the best friction calls entered into the annual competition. That means all the first-place calls in categories 7 through 11 (Class II) — which are mainly pot-and-peg calls — compete against each other to determine the overall D.D. Adams Award winner, or Best of Class II.

The D.D. Adams Award is one of the most sought-after awards friction-call makers seek year after year, and rightfully so, as pot-and-peg calls are extremely popular. Because of the high number of entries, competition is crowded and intense. And for that, we have Adams to thank.