What’s in Ed’s Vest?

Ed Terefencko is a highly regarded custom turkey box-call maker from Pennsylvania.

His decades-long list of Grand National Callmaking Competition championship ribbons, medals and top honors testifies to his expert craftsmanship and the acoustic quality of his calls.

Although Terefencko carries two of his own calls on every hunt, he, like many custom call makers, also carries calls built by others.

“My absolute favorite call to hunt with is a snakewood and chestnut one-sided box call that I built about 10 years ago,” Terefencko said. “That call definitely shows signs of wear and tear, but there’s just something about that call that I deeply love. It’s super easy to run, has amazingly realistic sound and is a call I have a lot of confidence in. And confidence is key to any successful hunt.”

Terefencko also always carries one of his short boxes.

“The last few years, I’ve been carrying a purple heart and mahogany short box that can effortlessly do it all with super-realistic clucks, cutts, yelps and even gobbles,” he said. “The nice thing about a short box is that each side sounds a little different in terms of tone and pitch, mimicking a variety of hens.”

Terefencko’s vest also holds a scratch box. This type of call has a unique sound to which gobblers can be very receptive. He’s found that if birds aren’t responding to other calls, a scratch box can often pull a gobble out of them. But that’s not the main reason Terefenko loves that call.

“I always carry a scratch box that is very special to me because my son, Michael Terefencko, built it,” he said. “I got him into call making several years ago, and he began building scratch boxes and has done a tremendous job with them. The one that I hunt with is made from mineralstained poplar that he built for me several years ago, right after he won best of show in a Southeast callmaking competition.”

Terefencko’s vest also contains several potand- peg friction calls from two call makers he considers to be excellent in their craft: Bill Lyman from Rome, New York, and Mark Cornelius from Pennsylvania.

“I typically carry a Lyman slate call and several strikers, which he is well-known for,” Terefencko said. “His slate has an amazing nasally yelp that gobblers love. He also started building a soft talker several years ago, which I use frequently. Both calls are super realistic, and I’ve had a lot of success using them.

“Cornelius’ calls are some of the best-sounding friction calls I have had my hands on. I own slate, glass, aluminum and ceramic calls, and often carry more than one with me. His calls run very easily, the tone and pitch of their calls are always spot on, they have just the right amount of rasp and nasally back end, and I’ve done very well with them over the years.”

Each month, a featured call maker donates one or more custom calls to celebrate their craft and impact on wild turkey conservation. These one-of-a-kind, handmade calls are created exclusively for auction to raise funds for the wild turkey and our hunting heritage. Terefencko is the featured call maker for June. Check out his call.