Chip is from a family with a long history in callmaking. From his great great great great grandfather Jehu Brown who was a furniture maker in his native Scotland. To his father's generation which includes Mike "Mickey" Brown. Mike is one of the most respected of the older callmakers and is featured in the earl Mickel book Turkey Callmakers Past and Present.

When Jehu Brown came from Scotland in the 1700's he settled in what is now the Yadkin River area of North Carolina after receiving a land grant for his service in the Revolutionary War. There he again began furniture making and farming.

So Chip and his family can trace woodcrafting in their families across two continents and 300 years.

Chip has made calls for people from every walk of life. From the single hunter who just wants a call to use, others who wanted their image carved on the call and even former Presidents, Governors and even a Hollywood Comedian.

MAJOR INFLUENCES IN CHIP'S CALLMAKING

The most major influence on me was my cousin Mike "Mickey" Brown of Bean Station Tennessee. Mike is one of the oldest callmakers still producing calls. He's been featured in several books and magazine articles. He and my father began woodworking back in the 40's building cedar chests for Mike's father in Morristown Tennessee. I learned more just by watching this man than most people could learn in a two year class.

My other influence was a self described "obscure" callmaker named James Remington. It wasn't so much what James taught me, although that was plentiful, it was the work ethic he instilled upon me. Above my workbench in my shop is carved the quote by James..."It is better to build a few great calls than a lot of good calls."

HOW I GOT STARTED MAKING CALLS
I'm a native East Tennessee craftsman. My family have made furniture, longrifles, chests, cabinets, game calls etc for generations.

By education I'm a computer programmer. However, I didn't care for writing code very much or sitting in an office all day. I spent most of his time looking out the window. My wife encouraged me to look for work that I enjoyed.

I thought long and hard about what I was good at, and my ever helpful wife gave me a clue. She came into my office one day and said "Listen stupid, quit looking out that window and get to work!" It was like a dawning of a new day for me.

I thought to myself "Self, you're good at being stupid!" But how could I make that pay? Politician? Government worker? The guy that designs interstate off-ramps?

I settled on being a humor columnist. Incredibly folks are willing to pay me for stupid editorials! Ahhh America has been very good to me.

Now I work about an hour a day and rarely get out of my pajamas...My office is at home don't worry. But while this writing nonsense helps pay the bills it leaves me with a lot of free time.

FREE TIME + CHIP = TROUBLE

My wife encouraged me to take up a hobby. I tried sitting at the local doughnut shop and talking politics. The elderly retired gentlemen there asked me not to come back.

My wife decided the best hobby for me was one in which I was alone and couldn't bother anyone. She bought me a lot of tools and put me in the basement making turkey calls. I've been there ever since. From time to time I come up, type at my keyboard, send in an article and eat a Moon Pie and drink an RC. Then I go back to the basement to make more calls.

I'm happy, my wife is happy and the old men at the doughnut shop even dropped the restraining order. Life is good.

CALLMAKING TIPS

My biggest tip for any person making or wanting to make calls is to do it as a hobby. I would never start callmaking as a business, it adds too much pressure, and you want spend the time learning. If your hobby can one day turn into a business fine, but don't start out with that mind set.

And finally and most importantly, never throw a call away. No matter how bad it turned out, or how terrible it sounded, put it on a shelf. Then when you're feeling down and beginning to wonder if you are making progress in your callmaking skill, go back and look at these calls. See where you started and where you are today, it's the only way to judge your progress.

HUNTING TIPS

Go hunting! That's it! Never think you're too busy, after all hunting is also where you research the uses of the boxcall. If it's not hunting season just wander into the woods and call turkey. I do this quite often and in fact have more fun doing this than actually hunting. In my state they don't care for you doing this off season as long as you don't have a gun. The only shooting I do on these trips is with a camera. I also record these "hunts" on audio and later listen to it and compare my calls to what makes the gobbler answer me. This technique has honed my skills to the point I can sit on my back porch and usually get the turkeys to come to the edge of the woods. (My neighbors hate me.)