Legacy Call Maker Collection – James Harrison

The spark was lit when Harrison’s uncle invited him to attend a turkey calling contest as a teenager in southern Missouri. What stood out was not just the calling, but the competition itself and the idea that people were being rewarded for something he did daily on the farm.

“I’m like, okay, so I’ll go check it out,” Harrison said. “I was just amazed because guys were winning shotguns, and they were getting camouflage and big trophies at the time. And I told myself, they’re getting all that stuff for just making animal noises.”

The following year he entered the contest himself and placed third. From that point forward, turkey hunting and calling became something he pursued seriously.

“And at that point, I was hooked,” he said. “Hook, line and sinker.”

As he grew older, his interest shifted from owl and turkey calling to understanding how calls were made. He started experimenting with mouth calls and eventually began building his own. While working in a machine shop, he modified materials he had on hand. That included shaping early owl hooters from broom handles because they were already round and easy to work with. Those first calls were rough and often rebuilt, but each one helped him learn sound, tuning and design.

Over time, those experiments turned into competition-level calls.

Much of his growth came through the turkey calling community. Other call makers and competitors helped him learn, shared knowledge and pushed him to improve. That same support system is something he now tries to pass on to others entering the craft.

As his skills developed, Harrison moved into elite competition calling and eventually became an NWTF Grand National Owling Champion. Competing at that level meant stepping on stage with some of the most respected callers in the country.

Standing there, he described the experience as surreal, competing against people he had looked up to for years and realizing he had reached that same level.

Even with that success, Harrison is clear that competition is not what drives him today. What matters most are the hunters using his calls in the woods. Stories from youth hunters, first-time turkey hunters and families are what mean the most.

For Harrison, some of his favorite memories are not from contests at all, but from time in the woods with his sons. As they have grown and started hunting on their own, those shared mornings have become even more valuable. It is no longer about harvests or outcomes. It is about time together.

That perspective also carries into how he views conservation and tradition. Harrison said he believes teaching respect for the land and time outdoors is what ensures hunting continues for the next generation. It is about more than wildlife management. It is about passing down responsibility and appreciation for the outdoors, like he learned on the farm growing up.

Harrison has been part of the NWTF community since his early years in hunting, first attending local chapter meetings in Missouri. Over time, that involvement grew into a deeper appreciation for the organization’s mission and the reach it has across the country.

To him, being a part of the NWTF represents something simple but powerful.

“It’s a network, it’s a family,” he said.

At the center of everything he does is a simple approach: build every call one at a time and do not let it leave the shop unless it is right. Every piece carries years of trial, error and refinement within it.

But for Harrison, the real measure of a call is not what happens in the shop or on a stage. It is what happens in the woods when someone hits the first note and hears it echo through the canopy.

A young hunter going on their first solo hunt. A father sharing a morning with their kid. A gobbler answering back on a spring morning.

Those are the moments that stay with him.

For James Harrison, call making is not something he built a career around. It is something he shares with everyone who matters most.