Jim Moss, the man who developed the new Hunter's Specialties Ring Zone call, was recently interviewed about how the call was developed.

Q: "Jim, I understand there is some solid scientific research behind the development of the Ring Zone call. What gave you the idea to look into how a turkey hears?"

A: "I'm a surgeon by trade and a turkey hunter at heart", said Moss. "I guess it's natural for me to want to know how things work. I was hunting in south-central Missouri a few years ago, when I had to quickly set up to try and call in a bird that popped over a hill in front of me. The turkey got away, and afterwards I realized I had a real "death grip" on the slate call I was using because I was so excited. That got me started looking at how pressure on a call influences the sound, as well as how changes in the call itself could effect the quality of the sounds being produced."

Q: "How did you go about gathering your information?"

A: "I looked at the actual sound a hen makes in a couple of ways. The first is with oscilloscope and the other was using a technique called frequency spectrum analysis. Both methods produce a graph of the sound that you can see. The research shows that turkeys hear best in the 750-2100 Hz range. At the high frequencies produced by some calls in the 15,000 Hz range, turkeys are virtually deaf. Once I had this data, it was a matter of finding a way to make the call closely match the frequency produced by the real hen turkey."

Q: "What were some of the things you tried?"

A: "I experimented with different friction surfaces, the sounding board, wall thickness and the sound holes. It seemed thin walls produced a truer sound, but I was still not where I wanted to be. It was apparent that the pressure of holding the call in your hand was having a bad effect on the sound. When I came up with the idea of adding a ring around the call, the quality increased dramatically."

Q: "Once you had the call tuned to your satisfaction, what did you do?"

A: "I had several prototypes produced for my friends to try and the response was overwhelmingly positive. I decided to apply for a patent and look for someone to produce the call. After making several inquiries, the advice I heard the most was to take it to Hunter's Specialties. They were able to fine tune the design and produce the call in a slate, ceramic and Starfire Crystal version. The Hunter's Specialties Pro Staff used the calls all last year during the spring turkey season and the results proved we had a winner."

For more information, log onto the Hunter's Specialties website at www.hunterspec.com, write to 6000 Huntington Court NE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52402, or call a Consumer Service Specialist at 319-395-0321.