Located in Waseca,
Minnesota, Herter's was a mail-order company
that offered a complete line of adjustable
chokes, ventilated ribs, finished and unfinished
stocks, cleaning supplies, boots, clothing,
and other shotgunning, shooting, and hunting-related
paraphernalia. Initially noted for their low
prices and high quality, they went out of
business in the early 1970s, a demise that
was largely the result of mismanagement.
George Leonard
Herter, who successfully managed Herter's,
Inc., through about 1970, was one of the all-time
great catalog writers. His descriptions of
merchandise made Herter's seem the only supplier
of quality products. A balding man of slight
build who wore rather thick glasses, Herter
never wanted to appear in photographs, lest
his customers see him as something other than
a second Paul Bunyan. In addition to making
somewhat exaggerated claims, Herter also invented
the "North Star Guide Association," a fictitious
organization of equally fictitious Alaskan
and Canadian guides who endorsed Herter's
products.
Herter's began
producing turkey calls in 1950 when they came
out with their Plantation Turkey Call which
was a simple 1" x 1" x 6" cedar
scratch box. There are thousands of these
calls out there and it is by far the most
common Herter's turkey call you will find.
It wasn't until 23 years later in 1973 that
they came out with the 107 Hen-Tom Box call
and the C102 Slate Call. These calls are much
harder to locate and are very collectable.
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Turkey
Calls Produced
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(Click
on Images to Enlarge)
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Years
Produced
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Description
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1973 - ?
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The
Model 107 Box call came out in the
1973 catalogs. It had one side for
Hens and one for Toms.
I'm not sure how
long they were produced.
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1973 - ?
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The
Model C102 Slate call came out at
the same time as the 107 Box Call.
They used the same cardboard box to
ship this call as the Plantation Model
with just a rubber stamping of the
"C102" where "Plantation"
was printed on the other boxes. This
call was just a solid block of walnut
with a 1" hole drilled into the
end for the peg to fit into.
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1950 - ??
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The calls in the
brown boxes seem to be the most
most common Herter's turkey call,
the Plantation Model. They also
came with the turkey calling manual
by George Herter "Hunting and
Calling the Wild Turkey".
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1970's - ??
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Herter's eventually
switched boxes to a larger white
box with the model C77 stamped on
it. I haven't been able to confirm
when this occurred but the white
box has a zip code which means it
was after 1963. My guess it was
probably in the 1970's when they
switched but I don't know what year.
The Herter's calls in the white
boxes are much more scarce than
the one's in the old brown boxes,
so they must not have made them
this way for long. They still came
with the turkey calling manual by
George Herter "Hunting and
Calling the Wild Turkey".
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