Name/Title
Rick Powell, Blue Ridge CallsEntry/Object ID
CTC001B00015Description
Rick Powell is 64 years old as of March 2026. He is an Engineer and business owner, and his hobbies include hunting, fishing, and woodworking. His callmaking company name is Blue Ridge Calls, and he began making calls circa 1998. The first calls were addressed as Bath County, VA, which was the home of a family cabin in Williamsville, VA. He then moved to Waxhaw, NC, in about 2004 and started addressing the calls from the Waxhaw address. In 2009 he moved to his present address in Asheboro, NC.
Powell was taught how to make trumpet calls by Frank Hegler in 2006 and was also influenced by Herb Hornstra in focusing on the sound and tuning of trumpet calls. His very first calls were sawn-and-glued box calls, and he then transitioned to the Neil Cost-style 1-piece checkered box call in about 2004. He used the same turkey track inlay on the lid of the calls. In about 2006, he made a turned-handle short box and still used the turkey-track inlays. In about 2007, he started using a removable trumpet as the handle and called this call "Double Trouble". In 2023, he started hand-checkering the lids with gunstock checkering in lieu of the inlays.
Shortly after making the first box call, Powell started making pot calls using slate, crystal, and aluminum surfaces with an inlay band around them. The very first ones used washers glued into the bottom of the pot, and later a pedestal was turned into the pot. After using standard inlays for the early calls, he had a company design and manufacture an inlay band with a turkey track inlay in it. No other turkey track inlays were made or sold to any other call maker or customer. He won several NWTF Midwest Call Makers 1st, 2nd, and 3rd-place awards and National NWTF 3rd-place and honorable mention awards for these pot calls.
Around this time, Powell made laminated owl hooters. These calls won several first-place awards at the NWTF call-making competition in both the working class and decorative class.
Around 2005, Powell started making turned-barrel trumpet calls. Frank Hegler taught him and he began making them with delrin and ivory mouthpieces. Around 2006, he started using carved ivory cigarette holders for the mouthpiece and called them "Old Tobacco Road calls," tying the cigarette holders to his home in North Carolina, also known as Old Tobacco Road. Around the same time, he had access to an original Frank Harper Roanoke River style yelper from Danny Ellis, and started making Roanoke River replica calls. Around 2023, he started checkering these calls and developed a yelper that had a spiral twist routered into in along with a Damascus steel ferrule and these he named Damascus Twist yelpers. The latest yelpers he is making are the Roanoke style with raised paned checkering. These are called Sterlingworth after my grandfather's old double-barreled shotgun. The yelpers won several NWTF regional and national awards in both the working and decorative classes.Create Date
March 22, 2026Update Date
May 14, 2026
