Just a Little Bit about Me

       Hi, my name is Mike Longnecker, and I am addicted to turkey calling.  Okay, so what if there really was a TCA (Turkey Callers Anonymous)? None of us would go to it, we all love it too much to be ashamed of it! I'm a seventeen year old Christian man who happens to love to replicate the call of the wild turkey. Well, calls, because everyone knows that their is more than just one call that a turkey makes, or do they?  I am afraid not. Most of the human population that has ever seen a turkey just thinks that they gobble.  This is not true! There are at least 26 different sounds in a turkeys vocabulary! Sorry, I do randomly rant. Anyway, I am a pro-staffer for Hook's Custom Calls, just got signed on a month ago. Scott Hook is one of the finest gentlemen I have ever talked to and I am extremely proud to represent him and his company, as well as my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. At the age of 12 I heard my first wild turkey gobble. I am sure that y'all do too, if you have been blessed to hear that magical sound.  Of course, as any cliche turkey hunting story, I became addicted. I bought calls; I practiced; I drove my parents absolutely crazy. Then, I bought my first diaphragm call, A Primos 2 reed.  That was a disaster, but a practiced one. It became a novelty to be able to make turkey *like* sounds come out of my mouth. It took me forever to figure out just how to blow it. I guess that is pretty cliche too, as almost every one has difficulty at first. Well after 2 years and 20 mouth calls, I thought that I was pretty hot stuff on a mouth call! I thought that I would enter my first turkey calling contest. I wore my turkey vest, but it didn't have any calls in it. Also, I used just one call for all three calls. The cluck, the plain yelp, and caller's best call. Which I decided was the cutting of an excited hen. That did not go over well. I did all three calls on a FOUR reed CUTTER call, what a disaster! I ended up in last place...one of the most humiliating points in my life, losing to a five year old with a box call that his dad just bought for him. I called 11/20 on average, which as any contest caller knows, is absolutely horrendous! To say that I was motivated to become a better caller would be a monstrous understatement. The next year I came back with an aluminum pot call that I made and took first place, winning a 20 gauge shotgun. Since then I have greatly improved in my friction and diaphragm calling, and have won a few contests and placed no lower than fourth in every contest. I love to call, hunt, and compete, all for the love of the wild turkey. I will be posting random videos/sound files of my calling, tips, and also just the happenings in the life of a turkey caller.