Will Primos started the company—originally known as Primos yelpers—as sort of a hobby in the workshop of his garage back in 1976. At the time, turkey hunting was just starting to explode as populations grew and started to spread nationwide. “Will did pretty good with it in the beginning, selling turkey calls to friends and a few local stores. There weren’t many companies making calls back then. In fact, that was about the time the NWTF was just getting started,” Jimmy Primos, chief operating officer, said.

Will had a dream of putting a hunt on video to really show off the products and help the company grow. However, his first foray into recording a hunt was actually an audiocassette recording of a turkey hunt. “By that time, we had our products in a few more sporting goods stores—some outside of Mississippi—and one sporting goods distributor. We had a little nicer packing, too. It was pretty primitive compared with what we have today, but we were pretty proud of it,” Jimmy admitted.

About the same time, deer calls started making it big, so Primos launched a line of those as well. Its first deer call, the Model 701 Hardwood Grunter, is still in the line today with sales that continue to grow. “At the time, call companies were known for focusing on a particular species—turkey, deer, etc. We wanted to be known as a game call company that crossed all of the lines of animals you hunted,” Jimmy chuckled. Today Primos offers a full line of turkey, deer, elk, waterfowl and predator calls and employees more than 150 people.

Red Spot, which is offered in both a liquid and solid, leads the Primos minerals and supplements division. “One of the messages we want to get out to our dealers is the use of our minerals and supplements. Of course, they will sell fine in the fall, but the deer need them now. March trough June is when the deer will really hit these the most,” said Will Lawrence, director of sales.

Primos has a new scent control bag for 2011, the Silver XP Scent Control Storage Bag. “The bag is actually lined with silver fabric, which we all know controls bacterial and nonbacterial odors,” said TJ Williams, product manager. He continued, “Of course, you can’t throw sweaty, stinky clothes in there and have them come out fresh. Instead, the bag will kill odors that may creep in when opening and closing the bag and keep clothes fresh and ready to hunt in.”

“We build our calls to give value. When something does go wrong, as things occasionally do, we don’t focus on the cost; we make it right for the dealer or customer,” said Jimmy Primos. “That has always been our policy through the years and has been a big cause for our success.”

(800) 523-2395; www.primos.com