Day 1: Quaker Boy Calls’ Chris Kirby: What Makes Deer Thugs Calls Special
Editor’s Note: Chris Kirby, the president of Quaker Boy Calls in Orchard Park, New York, is a World Champion turkey caller and has been hunting deer and turkeys all his life. His father, Dick Kirby, founded Quaker Boy Calls, and he and Chris have hunted all over the nation with bows, rifles, pistols and muzzleloaders. Quaker Boy and Mossy Oak have partnered to create the Deer Thugs and Turkey Thugs brands of calls, and a portion of the sales from each one of these calls goes to help wounded warriors through the Hope For The Warriors Outdoor Adventures Program. According to Kirby, “Stalking deer is as much about what to say and when to say it as it is blowing the correct and an accurate call.”
Deer Thugs Calls are special for a number of reasons. These calls have been engineered to be authentic to the sounds the deer make. One of the simplest yet most effective calls is the Thug Jug. All you have to do is turn this small can upside down, and it makes the sound of a doe bleat. There’s nothing new about the can call. Quaker Boy invented the can call more than 20-years ago, and it’s always proven to be effective. Our thoughts were, “Why change it?” I have called deer to within bow range all during deer seasons with the Thug Jug. I even use it pre- and post-season when I’m checking stands or moving stands, and I’ve had deer come right up to me. One of the things we’ve noticed is that deer are more vocal than most people believe they are. The bleat call is a common call that deer use all year long. The call is most effective when bucks are searching for estrous does.
Another call in the Deer Thugs line is the Brawler, an adjustable call that allows the deer hunter to sound like several different deer. By collapsing or expanding the tube, you can change the sound of this grunt tube to make several different grunt sounds that deer make and to sound like more than one deer in an area. You can give old buck grunt calls, young doe calls and buck grunts and even can growl with it.
What makes these calls even better, besides the technology and the research we’ve put in to design and build the Deer Thugs Calls is with this line of calls, Mossy Oak and Quaker Boy have developed a vehicle to aid America’s wounded warriors. The Hope For The Warriors Outdoor Adventures Program is for those wounded warriors who have put their lives and bodies in harm’s way to protect and defend us freedom-loving people around the world. What Mossy Oak and Quaker Boy give back to our returning wounded warriors is what makes the Deer Thugs line of calls so special.
Tomorrow: Let’s Talk Grunt Calls
