Lagrue Calls

This is my Christmas Trade Group call for my buddy Josh Lynn of . Carved walnut barrel with an African Blackwood metal reed insert with a stainless reed and a Texas ebony wedge. All set off by a polished brass band.

It sounds ducky!

Opening weekend of Arkansas duck season is pretty slow, so here is a little project I worked on in the lead-up.
I picked up this bois d'arc Dixie Mallard Call from my friend Travis. Barrel was cracked and the band was long gone. I re-cut the barrel to fit a new band, back filled the crack with epoxy and the buffed the original finish to a fine glow.
After replacing the reed and cork, it has proven to be an awesome hunting call!

duckcalls

Finally time to post up my entries in the NWTF Callmakers Competition. Arkansas style calls for acrylic, wooden and open. Capped this off with a metal reed call in curly maple.

Best of luck to all the competitors.

Well, the sun has set on another duck season. I realized I basically didn't post any pics from the season this year either. Seemed I was always running- to camp or back home. I did not even take as many pics as I usually do.
Bird counts really were not great, but the fun was high. We introduced another of my nephews to hunting and my have a lifelong hunter there.
I've said it many times before, hunting is about much more than just shooting. Family time, teaching kids, and continuing to learn yourself are where it's really at.

I decided to run a different set on my lanyard this morning. A Dixie Mallard call made by my uncle in the late 60's to early 70's along with one of my Dixie tribute entries from the World Championship Callmakers Contest. Completing the set is one of my drake whistles in DIW.

Running that old call brought back many memories!

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https://www.instagram.com/p/Cmz2t-2JLWb/?igshid=YWJhMjlhZTc=

My father brought me a keyhole Olt to cut for him. We spent some time in the shop making it into a new call. We re-shaped the lip, installed a crack ring on the barrel, improved the fit of the insert and the barrel and finally cut the insert to get that sound. I added a small carved feather on the insert for good measure. #duckseason2022 #duckcalling #duckcalls #duckcall #cutdowncalls #psolt #cutdownduckcalls

I guess 'clean' is a relative term, but I've spent some of the holiday off cleaning up the accumulated mess that had built up from countless projects over the past 2 years. 3 large garbage bags of scrap, etc to the trash.
Now it's time for some new projects in 2023!

At the beginning of duck season, I had the idea to put a game camera on one of my blinds. For a few days I did not catch anything. Then the pics started rolling in. It has been fun seeing what is out there, what times they are there, etc. People have been using these for deer forever, this is the first I've seen of a cam used for waterfowl.

Good tools make a difference in the shop. I'm also a believer in the idea that they don't make them like they used to.
Case in point is this Craftsman 150 floor mount drill press that I bought today. All cast iron and steel. No plastic. Everything rebuildable. This one is from around 1958 or so and in great shape overall.
After bringing it home, I spent a couple hours de-rusting and generally cleaning it up.
A big plus is that this drillpress has will drill a 4" deep hole (great for many duck call operations). Seems all modern machines under $1k go to 3.25" max, and to go any deeper costs some serious money.

My 3 entries for the World Championship Callmakers Contest yesterday (and a few extra prototypes on the rack).
All calls for the contest were to made in tribute to my Great Uncle Chick Major- something I really enjoyed!