Story and photography by Bill L. Olson

Inventor, hunter, conservationist, mentor, entertainer, friend.

“A Trojan condom, duck tape and a lead top cut out of a Johnson & Johnson toothpaste tube fashioned with a file in hand into a queer sort of horse shoe shaped sandwich.  Destoned to become the modern-day mouth reed.  A pivotal hunting accessory that most turkey and elk hunters would never leave how without.  This is one of my father’s, Wayne Carlton’s favorite recollections as a school-aged redneck kid from Florida in the 1950s,” his son Marc Carlton began the tale of this legendary game calling father’s beginnings that influenced countless number of elk, turkey and game calling  hunters.

“He first became mesmerized by wildlife language while listening to a turkey connoisseur, an uncle found sitting in a corner formulating bird sounds that no normal human being should be able top replicate while running his Frankenstein looking turkey call.  The audacity of putting the unsafe lead, hardware store duct tape and a rubber prophylactic in one’s mouth was missing.  Being a descendant of this family tree I’m unsure if I feel proud or terrified.  I imagine like all first ideas it was a think done, an idea, passed through word of mouth from hunter to hunter and adapted and modified as mankind does with all things useful.”  This was the beginning of the reed that forever changed turkey, elk and game calling.

The beginning of the man is provided by his daughter, Rachel Carlton Cooper who wrote, “Wayne was born on January 27, 1944, in Washington, D.C. He grew up in central Florida where his lifelong passion for hunting and fishing began while under the guidance and enthusiasm of his beloved Uncle Harvey Beckham.  His love for game calling was unmatched.  He was known for his ability to mimic countless animal sounds—a skill that earned him the nickname “the kid with 1,000 noises” in his youth.

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