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New on DVDBill Zearing
Founder of Cody Turkey Calls
Ask around, and it won't take long to compile a long list of positive comments about Bill Zearing.
Ask members of the outdoor industry and hunting community, outdoor writers, sporting goods retailers, members of NWTF's board of directors and even his competitors, and you'll hear things like:
"… a call maker who completely revolutionized how modern laminated pot calls are built,"
"… an expert hunter with amazing woodsmanship,"
"… one of the best turkey hunters with a bow that ever stepped into the woods," and
"Many of today's turkey call makers have taken apart a Cody call and used it as the starting point to build their own calls."
Zearing just shakes his head, huffs and smiles.
About Bill
Zearing is an expert engineer and talented craftsman. After 30 years of meticulously designing and building turkey calls, he has learned many ways to control variables and deal with manufacturing issues. For example, he mastered how to craft the best sound possible while working with different types and thicknesses of wood, slate, glass and other materials.
Over the past three decades, Zearing has dreamed up and created all his own building methods. He designed and assembled several specialized machines used on a daily basis to manufacture his products. Zearing takes his time to ensure every call is done right. For some of his high-end calls, it takes two months and 25 steps before they are complete.
Zearing feels strength is the most important factor in building a turkey call. Through precise manufacturing processes, scientific testing and advanced engineering, he strives to build strength into every turkey call he designs, which he does by modifying materials and building each call as solid as it can be. A call's strength is what ultimately controls its sound quality, tones and ease of use.
The Cody story
You could write a book on Zearing's life, knowledge of turkey hunting, call-making skills, and his deep involvement with the NWTF. The full story is well detailed on his company's website. Read it and you will learn that Cody Turkey Calls is a family-run business, nestled in the rolling foothills of central Pennsylvania's Appalachian Mountains.
In 1981, Zearing began making and selling wooden pot turkey calls from the tailgate of a pickup truck. His goal was simple — build and market long-lasting, high-quality hunting calls that sound like real turkeys.
He doesn't have a huge advertising budget backed by piles of corporate dollars. He doesn't have his own TV show starring big-time outdoor celebrities. His premium turkey calls speak for themselves.
Although his workshop has grown and his methods have become more sophisticated, he modestly spends his time cutting, constructing, inventing and perfecting the best turkey calls he can — a no-frills approach that has brought him success.
A dedicated donor
Since the beginning, the Zearing family has helped the NWTF at national and local levels. In 2010 alone, Cody Turkey Calls contributed sponsorship calls for all Pennsylvania and West Virginia chapters. They also donated 120 cherry box calls for live auction, estimated to have raised more than $20,000. Sum up all the contributions Zearing has made since 1981, and the grand total is thousands of calls generating fund-raising dollars that total more than six figures.
Beyond generous financial support of the NWTF, Cody's greatest contribution to our turkey hunting heritage is his master call making skills. Zearing has won several top awards at the NWTF's Grand National level, including winning the first ever D.D. Adams Award for the friction call maker of the year in 1998.
There is nothing he enjoys more than supplying a first-rate turkey call to a young hunter. Zearing knows that his turkey call will last that young person's entire life — supplying a lifetime of invaluable memories of time spent in the woods, hopefully with many gobblers on the ground, and a lot of photos of successful hunts. — J.J. Reich