Featured Callmaker: Michael Lapp
Handcrafted calls, rich tradition, and a deep passion for wild turkeys—this month we highlight one of the artisans behind the Legacy Callmaker Collection.
Background & Craft
When you mention the name Mike Lapp in the turkey hunting fraternity, or look up his name on several of the turkey hunting internet forums, you’ll quickly discover he is one of the many talented call makers the state of Pennsylvania has produced in the art of turkey call making.
Lapp was born and raised in southeastern Pennsylvania, started hunting as a young boy in 1972. Lapp began building calls in 1996 to add an extra challenge to his turkey hunting experience by using a call that he built himself. A carpenter by trade, he wasn’t happy with the sound of the standard box calls on the market and believed he could make one that would sound better. He met a prestigious call maker from Mississippi, Albert Paul, at the Eastern Sport Show in Harrisburg and a friendship developed. Paul had a big influence on Lapp’s callmaking career, and he encouraged Lapp to pursue crafting box calls in the style of the late Neil Cost.
His first calls where sawn and glued short box calls. After taking a fall gobbler with this style call, he still was not satisfied with it and began crafting the hewn-style call that many of today’s box call makers produce. Each call he builds is individually hand crafted, tuned to the sound of a hen that is etched in his mind, and he consistently can reproduce that sound, or the call does not leave his shop. Over time, he included long box or paddle calls and one-sided box calls. Later, he added trough calls, scratch boxes, tongue calls and push-pin calls. Recently, he started building hen box and Turpin-style box calls, Jordan-style cane yelpers and turned Jordan yelpers, as well as trumpets.
Lapp began entering the NWTF Grand National Callmaking Competition in 2003, encouraged to do so by the late Dick Kirby of Quaker Boy Game Calls, who bought one of Lapp’s calls on eBay and thought that call had the right sound. Kirby used one of Lapp’s calls and placed in the NWTF Grand National Calling Championships, then convinced Lapp to make several more for him to use in competitions. Since then, Lapp has entered the NWTF Grand National Callmaking Competition and has been successful in various categories through the years in the Turkey Hunting Division. He has received over 150 ribbons for his work as one of the country’s most talented call makers.
Lapp is a three-time NWTF Gibson Award winner, which recognizes the best-sounding box turkey call and callmaker and is named in honor of the late Henry C. Gibson, who patented the first box call in 1897. He has won the NWTF Call Maker of Year Award twice and is the only individual to date to place first in all three categories (short box, long box and onesider) at the NWTF Nationals in the Hunting Call Division in 2006 and again in 2008. He has also won the Jeremiah Stevens Award for push-pin calls and trough calls. The Jeremiah Stevens Award is named in honor of an African American and former slave who was known for his turkey hunting skills and the making of “gun stock” or scratch box callers in Virginia. The award recognizes the best-sounding scratch box call and call maker. In 2014, Lapp took a first place for his tongue call, a recent addition to the NWTF’s Hunting Turkey Calls Division.
Other top awards he has won are the Don Chancey Award for box call sets, which include a short and long box. The Don Chancey Award recognizes call makers who have mastered the craft of making and fine-tuning box calls. Lapp has captured the Champion of Champions Neil Cost Award five times; to enter this category one must first win a Gibson Award. The Neil Cost Award usually goes to outstanding long boxes, but in 2022, Lapp was the first call maker to win this award with a short box.
He won the Charles L. Jordan Award in 2023 for his turned Jordan-style yelper and is no stranger to awards in the Decorative Category: he has taken first place awards for decorative push pins and decorative box calls in collaboration with call maker Eric Rice.
The late Earl Mickel, in his third book on call makers, “Longbeards, Callmakers and Memories,” gave Lapp recognition on his craftsmanship and quality of his calls. In 2012, Lapp was inducted into the Pennsylvania State Chapter of the NWTF Turkey Hunter Hall of Fame. Lapp became an NWTF Vanguard Life Sponsor in 2021 in recognition for his donation of turkey calls to various chapters. The award recognizes that his call donations have exceeded $75,000 to support the mission and vision of the NWTF.
“When I began call making, honestly it was all about building a call to summon up a turkey,” Lapp said. “After joining the NWTF back in the 1990s I began to invest myself in learning about the restoration of the wild turkey and conservation in general. As turkey hunters, we take from the land, but it’s about giving back so that future generations can enjoy our sport. I must admit it is fulfilling, and I’m proud that in a small way, I have contributed to the greater good of our mission.”
At the 2023 NWTF Convention, he was included in the first class of call makers to be inducted into the newly created NWTF Grand National Custom Callmaking Hall of Fame. Over the years, he has mentored several individuals, and some have gone on to be award-winning call makers.
Lapp has an extensive waiting list, but if you attend either the Northeast Callmaker’s Summit at Turkey Trot Acres in Candor, New York in August or the Unicoi Callmakers Show in Helen, Georgia, in January, you have a chance to obtain a great call. His calls sell out quickly at both shows. Find more information on Lapp through his website, www.mikelappturkeycalls.com.
