Name/Title
Jesse Freeman, New Moon OutdoorsEntry/Object ID
CTC001B00031Description
Jesse Freeman of Ankeny, Iowa, is the primary callmaker behind New Moon Outdoors. This small operation began with an old Craigslist lathe, a cold Iowa garage, and a simple thought: rather than spend the money on an expensive custom pot call, maybe he could make one himself.
Freeman, 49, has spent more than 20 years working in telecommunications design and has also worked part-time in real estate since 2005. Outside of work, he has always been drawn to the outdoors. Hunting, fishing, motorcycles, and golf have all competed for his free time over the years, but turkey hunting eventually led him to an entirely different hobby: building turkey calls.
Freeman killed his first turkey in 2011. What happened when he harvested his second turkey helped turn a successful hunt into a lasting obsession. Within minutes of entering the woods, he called in a turkey that came running toward him on a string. The experience hooked him on turkey hunting and, particularly, on the challenge of calling birds.
By the winter of 2015, that interest had made its way into his garage.
Freeman had been looking at custom pot calls but couldn’t quite bring himself to spend the money on one. He figured he would try making his own instead. If he could build a call good enough to kill a turkey with, that was really all he needed.
He found an old Delta lathe on Craigslist and began experimenting in his Ankeny garage. There was no elaborate shop or formal callmaking background behind New Moon Outdoors. Freeman learned by doing — turning wood, trying different combinations, and figuring out what worked.
Even some of his earliest tools reflected that approach. At one point, he picked up an old hand-crank sharpening stone at a sale for $1. He adapted it to sharpen his lathe tools, and the bargain-bin find became part of the process of producing his calls.
From the beginning, Freeman was interested in making calls that looked as distinctive as they sounded.
One early source of inspiration was the 2015 Kisatchie National Forest quarter, which depicts a wild turkey in flight. Freeman began incorporating coins into his calls and eventually experimented with colorized quarters, Indian Head pennies, and other unexpected materials. Whiskey bottle caps and even Harley-Davidson parts have found their way into New Moon Outdoors calls.
That experimentation extends beyond decoration. Freeman has worked with different hardwoods, sound-board materials, and playing surfaces to find combinations he likes. His pot calls have included both 2.5-inch and 3.5-inch designs, and much of the appeal of callmaking for him has been trying different materials and discovering how each combination changes the finished call.
Over the years, some of those unusual details have taken on meaning for the hunters who own his calls.
One customer from Oklahoma became convinced that the flying turkey depicted on a quarter Freeman had incorporated into a call would bring him bad luck and wanted something else. The hunter also wanted seven lines on his striker for good luck. Freeman obliged. It’s the kind of request — part function, part craftsmanship and part turkey-hunting superstition — that fits naturally with the character of New Moon Outdoors.
Freeman has also collaborated with Larson Wildlife Art to create calls featuring hand-painted turkey artwork on the soundboards. Some of those calls have been used to support National Wild Turkey Federation fundraising efforts.
Giving back to turkey conservation has remained an important part of Freeman’s callmaking. New Moon Outdoors has donated calls to NWTF events and other efforts supporting wildlife habitat and conservation.
Freeman does not have a list of formal callmaking awards or competition titles, and New Moon Outdoors was never built around collecting them. What began as a hunter trying to save a little money and make a call capable of fooling a turkey became a creative outlet in its own right.
A decade after buying that old Delta lathe, Freeman continues to experiment with woods, surfaces, soundboards, coins, and whatever other unusual material might make an interesting call. The same curiosity that started New Moon Outdoors in his garage remains at its center: make something different, make something that works, and, ideally, use it to call in another turkey.Create Date
September 7, 2026Update Date
September 7, 2026
