Share

cover art for Why Turkey Trumpet Calls Work: Bill Lester on Sound, Craft & Calling

Mississippi Outdoors Podcast

Why Turkey Trumpet Calls Work: Bill Lester on Sound, Craft & Calling

Season 3, Ep. 29
•

What makes a turkey trumpet different from every other call?


2025 Mississippi Sportsman of the Year Bill Lester joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to demonstrate the calls he's spent decades developing and explain why he believes the ability to call softly can make such a difference on a gobbler.


Bill takes us from traditional wing-bone calls to acrylic trumpets, brass mouthpieces and some of his newest designs. He also shares stories from a lifetime outdoors — homemade bird decoys, his first dove hunt, calling turkeys from a quarter-mile away, teaching art at Delta State for 38 years and the artistic side of building every call by hand.

More episodes

View all episodes

  • 30. How Do Geckos Stick to Walls? What a Mississippi Professor Is Discovering

    29:54||Season 3, Ep. 30
    Did you know geckos live in Mississippi, and that you may have them around your house without ever noticing? Travis Hagey, a professor at Mississippi University for Women, joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain the reptiles living around us and the unusual science behind gecko feet.

  • 28. Post-Civil War Outdoor Magazines and Mississippi's Forgotten Writers with James T. McCafferty

    42:04||Season 3, Ep. 28
    Outdoor magazines go back further than most people realize. In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with returning guest James T. McCafferty, author and outdoor historian, to talk about the writers who documented hunting and fishing in Mississippi as far back as the 1830s.

  • 27. Growing Trees for Wildlife: Meet the Tree Guy at Mossy Oak, Dudley Phelps

    29:30||Season 3, Ep. 27
    You know Mossy Oak for deer and turkey hunting gear — but did you know they have a tree expert on staff? In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with Dudley Phelps, known around Mossy Oak as "the tree guy," to talk about growing trees for wildlife habitat.

  • 26. Light Pollution Is Confusing Migratory Birds: Ornithologist Murray Burgess Explains

    24:31||Season 3, Ep. 26
    Have you noticed it's a little harder to see the stars at night lately? That's light pollution, and it turns out it's doing a lot more than dimming the night sky. In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with Murray Burgess, ornithologist at Mississippi State University, to talk about how artificial light is affecting migratory birds.

  • 25. Mississippi's Hospitality Ambassador: Robert St. John on Food, Family & the Coast

    29:33||Season 3, Ep. 25
    Mississippi is the Hospitality State — and few people have done more to prove it than Robert St. John. In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with the Hattiesburg restaurateur, author, and travel host to talk about food, Mississippi, and a career that started because he flunked out of college.Mississippi Outdoors is produced by the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks.

  • 24. How to Stock a Pond: Species, Timing, and Common Mistakes with Larry Bull

    30:51||Season 3, Ep. 24
    If you've got a pond on your property — or you're about to dig one — this episode is for you. In this episode of the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast, Matt Wyatt sits down with Larry Bull, retired MDWFP fisheries biologist, to walk through exactly how to stock a pond and get it right the first time.

  • 23. The Man on the Natchez Trace at Midnight: Zoologist Tom Mann & the Webster's Salamander

    32:25||Season 3, Ep. 23
    If you've driven the Natchez Trace on a rainy night south of I-20 and seen someone out there with a safety vest and a flashlight, that's zoologist Tom Mann — and he's been out there for over a decade studying Webster's salamanders.Tom joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to explain what Webster salamanders are, why scientists thought they didn't migrate, and how he and his wife Deb proved them wrong by spending years watching what the animals actually did instead of what the textbooks said.

  • 22. Inside Mississippi's Marine Patrol: Law Enforcement on the Gulf Coast with Mike Strickland

    41:39||Season 3, Ep. 22
    Mike Strickland from the Mississippi Department of Marine Resources joins the Mississippi Outdoors Podcast to talk about what marine patrol actually does — and it's a lot more than checking fishing licenses.

Comments