Joey Blackburn

Joey Blackburn grew up on a cattle farm in central Missouri where he quickly developed a passion for the outdoors. If his parents were looking for him, there was a good chance he was at one of the farm ponds with a fishing pole or in the woods looking for squirrels. The growing turkey population in his part of Missouri got him intrigued as a teenager and after teaching himself to call by watching countless hours of turkey hunting VHS tapes he harvested his first longbeard when he was 14. The addiction has never faded away. Joey’s education and career journey have taken him from the Pacific Northwest to the Gulf Coast and he as turkey hunted the whole way, almost exclusively on public land. Joey tried his hand a competitive turkey calling winning or placing in numerous local contests and in 2012 he won the Oklahoma state contest.

He has since returned to Missouri and the family farm with his wife and three children. He still makes out of state turkey trips but has also found a new passion in managing the family farm for wildlife, especially turkeys, as well as his small herd of commercial beef cattle.

Joey’s go-to mouth call is the JB’s Bat diaphragm, a sweet sounding batwing cut call that does it all. The JB’s Bat can produce soft tree yelps a clucks when blown softly or can be hit hard for sharp cuts to locate that gobbler. On the friction side, Joey carries the High Standard Crystal paired with the Dymondwood striker or Gooserbat’s Thunder Wonder All Weather Striker, this friction call can reach out and get that gobbler’s attention no matter the weather.