My name is Jerry Latta, but I go by Hawk’s Feather (or Hawks Feather when the ’ isn’t allowed). The name came from my black powder days when I was making smoking tomahawks for the trade. I retired after 35 years of working in the “school” business with 32 of those years being in elementary administration. While I still miss being around the kids, it sure is nice to be able to go sit in a field and enjoy being there.

I took the “path less traveled” when it came to hunting. My father was a school superintendent and even though he had a couple of .22 rifles that he brought back from the war with Germany, I can only remember him shooting once – and that was my uncle’s new 30-06 rifle. I did get to go along and play dog on a couple of the pheasant hunts during family Thanksgivings while I was in elementary school, but never shot. My grandfather (on my mother’s side of the family) was a bit of a “Jack of all Trades” and I enjoyed having him tell stories about trapping (which was done to supplement his maintenance job at Kellogg’s in Battle Creek, MI). He loved telling me about catching skunks and how they couldn’t spray once you got their back feet off the ground. The problem was that you had to get them off the ground before they sprayed you, which didn’t always happen. Grandpa also had a single shot White Powder Wonder 12 gauge shotgun. Whenever I would go there I would want to see the gun and have him tell me trapping stories. When I was in seventh grade he gave me the shotgun and I was a hunter – or so I told myself. I still have the White Powder Wonder but have picked up a few other guns to go along with it. Throughout high school and college I enjoyed hunting pheasants and rabbits in northwest Ohio. This was back in the days prior to DDT being used, fence rows still existed, and fall plowing was not even thought about. I can remember seeing open fields with over a hundred pheasants feeding. While that sounds like easy hunting, it wasn’t. I didn’t have a dog and the pheasants were not pen birds and didn’t just stand there in the field waiting for someone to come and pick them up. While there were not hundreds of rabbits, they were much easier to find and my Savage 410 double “bunny gun” worked wonders on them. Predator hunting was done in the winter to control the fox that would eat the pheasants. On weekends, especially with new snow, there would be a group of 20 to 40 fox hunters that would go out to clear out the predators. Again, I got to play dog and along with 15 or so others would drive the woods for the “older shooters” at the other end of the woods. (I think I need to do this again since I would now get to be a shooter.) I also did a little trapping while in high school, starting with trapping groundhogs, which I sold for 50 cents to a coon hunter that used them to train his dogs. I would ride my bicycle out to the farm where I was allowed to trap with a five gallon metal bucket and a hatchet. If I caught a groundhog I would use the hatchet to pull the chained hog out of the hole and then try to get him into the bucket. That led me to fall trapping for muskrats and coon. Fur prices weren’t as good as the groundhog prices, but the bike ride was shorter and there was a better chance of trapping something.

Being in school administration really took a toll on my hunting. Even though I had personal leave days, I grew up knowing that they were for “business” that could not be taken care of in the evening or weekend. As much as I would have loved to, I couldn’t think of using a personal leave day for hunting. Hunting had become pleasure, not a business. I did continue to shoot and would hunt groundhogs during the evenings and some in July when I was not working. Since I have retired I have been able to get back to the fields.

I also participated in some local benchrest shoots, but never had the time to devote to it to become very competitive. Being around benchrest shooters helped me learn more about reloading and what can be done to improve groups – not that a groundhog can tell the difference between an inch group and a quarter inch group, but I can.

While I have collected and used calls for many years, I didn’t start making them until I retired, but call building was not the start of my woodworking. As I mentioned earlier, my grandfather was a “Jack of all Trades” and he had a wood shop in the top of the “garage” which was originally a small barn. I spent many hours there learning how to “finish the proper way” as I helped him repair and restore furniture. I even tried grandpa’s lathe ONCE, which after the tool went flying, my grandpa suggested I stick to sanding.

While there are many great call builders out there, I have been most influenced by Al Woodard and Joe Bradshaw. Both of these builders have offered me very good advice whenever I have needed help – which has been often. With the exception of the burls, my recent woods have also come from Al. While I am not nearly as qualified as they, I have tried to follow their example and share what little knowledge I have with others who are just getting started.

I am the first to admit that I am not a production turner. It takes me far more time than it should to make a call, but I don’t really care. I love working on the lathe and just relaxing while I turn, sand, and finish. It is also enjoyable being able to make calls as “unexpected” gifts – especially for kids and friends.

Jerry Latta