The craftsmen featured here are divided into two groups: Fancy Grade and Hunting Grade. These bios are partial samples taken from the book and are displayed here with the full contact information as it appears in "Custom Calls Volume 2: Duck and Goose Calls From Today's Craftsmen."
Fancy Grade: Beryl Driskill | Douglas A. Rice | Ray Robertson
BERYL DRISKILL is co-owner of a trucking company and has been making duck calls a little over a year. Driskill also makes custom knives and collects guns. Married with a son and daughter, Driskill was born in Flint, Michigan and raised in Southeast Missouri. General George Patton is the man he admires most. Driskill hunts ducks at Hornersville Bottoms, and coyotes near his home.
Driskill makes hunting and decorative calls and his prices range from $100 to $500. Contact him by phone, mail, or email.
P.O. Box 187, Braggadocio, MO 63826
Phone: 573-757-6262
Email:
bldriskill@earthlink.net
DOUGLAS A. RICE is a carpenter and millwright who fishes, hunts and collects related items as shown in the pictures of his shop. Rice also builds wood layout boats for duck hunting. Married, Rice has three children and eight grandchildren. Born and raised in Jefferson City, Missouri, Rice splits his time between his home in Missouri and during the winter months, he can be found in Yuma, Arizona.
Rice only makes wood calls choosing walnut, rosewood, ebony and ironwood, along with teak and osage orange. The majority of Rice's calls have both a band and checking and he has carved a few. Not only will Rice use exotic woods at a customer's request, he has even been sent a fireplace log to make a call. Rice likes the raspy, hollow sounds in his calls. Rice can make virtually any call, however, most of his calls are thin. They are great for hunting, but need to be handled with care.
Rice makes calls ranging in price from $40 to $200 and he may be contacted by phone, mail or email.
Summer Address: 1212 C. E. King, Excelsior Springs, Missouri 64024
Winter address: Lariat R.V. Park, 27639 Mile 3 Road, LaFeria, TX 78559
Phone: 816-560-6705
Email: dojarice@aol.com
RAY ROBERTSON started working as a carpenter when he got out of the service after spending two and a half years in Asia. He started a framing business and later built large homes. Ten years ago he went back to his tools and worked on designing and making architectural pieces, because he likes to design and make things out of wood.
Married with one son, Robertson moved to Nixa, MO from Independence, MO about 30 years ago. He is a member of Callmakers & Collectors Association of America, Midwest Decoy Collectors Association, and Ducks Unlimited. He has donated calls to Ducks Unlimited auctions, with the proceeds going to the preservation of habitats. He is also a member of the American Association of Woodturners, Society of Ornamental Turners, in England, and Midwest Tool Collectors Association.
His calls have a raspy, high-pitched sound. Prices on Robertson's hunting calls are $65 to $125. His exotic wood calls go for $125 to $150 and his decorative calls are $175 to $600.
525 W. Deer Valley Dr., Nixa, MO 65714
Phone: 417-725-3613
Email: ray@ozarkwoodworker.com
Website: www.ozarkwoodworker.com
Hunting Grade: Billy Hays | Joseph A. Kolter | Brian D. Phillips
BILLY HAYS and his father, J.W. Hays are partners in the callmaking enterprise they named "Duck Whisperers." Billy and his wife live in Milan, Tennessee. They have two sons and five grandchildren.
To Hays, his greatest satisfaction comes when a customer calls with a successful hunting story about how well the call worked. Since 1975, Hays estimates he has made between 800 and 1,000 calls. As he approaches retirement he expects to continue producing 200 to 500 calls each year. His favorite woods are pink ivory, walnut stumps, walnut knots and orange (not black) cocobolo.
All calls are made in the Arkansas-style with burning and banding. Inserts are often of a different wood to obtain color variations for collector editions. Hays likes calls with raspy sound and a low level grunt. Hays has completed work on a jig that enables him to make stable metal reed calls. He makes reeds of brass or silver. The sound is not as raspy as mylar but takes very little effort to use. Hay is also in the process of making an entry in the Guiness Book of World Records for a particular style of duck call.
His calls can be ordered by visiting the website of Billy Hays and J.W. Hays, by phone, mail or email and range in price from $25 for walnut hunting calls to $200 for a pink ivory decorative call with orange cocobolo five-beaded inserts.
12 Burrow Lane Milan, TN 38358
Phone: 731-686-1692
Email: haysb38358@yahoo.com
Website: www.duckwhisperers.com
JOSEPH A. KOLTER has been an architectural draftsman, logger, bartender and self-employed finish contractor. Born in Winona, Minnesota Kolter was raised in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, La Cross as well as Milwaukee and East Lake in the upper peninsula of Michigan.
Making custom game calls is Kolter's main hobby and takes a lot of his time. Kolter uses domestic and foreign hardwoods, Corion, acrylic, and polycast material which simulates ivory and horn to make his calls. His favorite material to use is the dense closed grained oily exotic hardwoods.
Kolter bands all of his calls with seamless brass tube, and occasionally with copper or aluminum. Most of Kolter's duck calls are Arkansas single reed style. He makes a few double reed calls and some pintail/drake mallard calls. His goose calls are Canadian honker conventional, flute, and short reed. Kolter's main objective in making calls is to provide a reasonably priced, good quality custom call for hunters.
He makes five basic duck call models -- Marsh, Custom, Limited, Special Series and Competition calls made from Corion and Acrylic. These calls are priced at $60, $75, $85, $95 and $120. His five basic Canadian goose call models -- Conventional Field or Classic, Short-Reed, Big Water and Working Flutes range from $70, $85, $90, $100 and $120. Each call sold is sent first-class mail and comes with a double camo lanyard and double drawstring camo bag. Kolter may be contacted by phone, mail or email.
3003 Huxley Lane SW Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
Phone: 319-396-7528
Email: jakoltercalls@peoplepc.com
BRIAN D. PHILLIPS is married with two children and his family makes their home in the scenic town of Guntersville, Alabama, nestled along the banks of the Tennessee River. Just downstream sits Guntersville Dam, and the reservoir behind the dam makes for great bass fishing and waterfowl hunting.
He makes Arkansas-style duck calls and short reed goose calls. Phillips has made about 50 calls. He especially likes working with Central American cocobolo. He also makes calls using hedge, bocote, African blackwood, ebony and some spalted stabilized woods. He will make acrylic calls as well. Phillips checkerse barrels with a 4-panel V-design adding bands of brass or stainless steel. His calls have a raspy sound in a mid-range pitch. He makes his calls versatile enough to work in the open water and small sloughs of Lake Guntersville.
Phillips gets $25 for a hand turned barrel with poly insert; $40 for standard woods; $55 for blackwood/ ebony; $50 for short reed goose standard woods; $60 for acrylic duck; $70 for acrylic SR goose; and $125 for four paneled checkered duck. He can be contacted by phone, mail or email.
114 Stoney Mountain Drive, Guntersville, AL 35976
Phone: 256-505-3984
Email: bdphillips03@netzero.net -or- brian@dixielandcalls.com
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