Sherman Gray worked for the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad for a large part of his life.  After this railroad merged with the B & O Railroad, he finished his career as a section foreman in the B & O stores department. He and his wife, Florence, had 2 daughters and 3 grandchildren.

Sherman Gray was not a hunter so when he embarked on his turkey call making journey after his retirement in 1955, he relied on a sketch of a turkey call his nephew drew. After he had a call that he was happy with, he went and tried it out on some pen-raised turkeys and got a resounding response. He knew then he had something worth selling and began distributing the call locally.

His first call was the Gray's Turkey Caller; a very nice double-sided box call made from 5 different woods to get the tone just right. These boxes had the Dubois, PA address stamped on them and they came in a cardboard box  that was also stamped. There were thousands of these calls made and they are fairly easy to obtain.

Sometime later, he began producing the Gray's Hen Turkey Call which was a washboard slate that was 2 7/8" by 1 7/8" by 7/8"tall on the high end and 5/8" on the low end. These calls are much more scarce than the wooden Gray's Turkey Caller.

After Sherman's death in 1970, his business was sold to his distributor, William Sheffler, who continued selling his calls. It was eventually sold to Babcock Lumber in Big Run, PA and they sold many calls that were stamped with Gray's Turkey Caller - Distributor - Big Run, PA. I've seen them with both black and red ink stamps. Some also had custom wooden cases that were made to hold the turkey caller with the Big Run, PA address.

 

---