After 5: Calling All Duck Callers

In 21 years as a loss-prevention consultant for a commercial insurance company, Springfieldian Doug Dejmal spent plenty of time on the road.

But a particular stop around 2003 made a lasting impact.

Dejmal, who retired in November from Federated Insurance Co., had stopped in Hornersville, a small town in the Missouri Bootheel, to visit client Barry McFarland.

"This guy went into his office and he had all these ducks calls - of course, that's big duck country over there. I was just amazed," Dejmal says. "I'd never seen anything like that."

McFarland told him the ones in shadow boxes decorating his office were just the junk ones. "I'll show you my good ones," Dejmal recalls him saying.

"He opened a gun safe and pulled out a grapefruit bag full of calls," Dejmal says.

They were made by a man who lived in the Bootheel from the late-1800s until his death in 1921.

"He said, 'These calls are worth about anywhere from $1,000 to $2,500 each.' I said, 'You're kidding me,'" Dejmal says.

That was nothing.

McFarland pulled a second mesh grapefruit bag from the larger bag and said, "These are the good ones." The prices for the antiques ranged up to $15,000.

McFarland had Dejmal's attention.

McFarland, who was then making calls that sold for about $1,800, tutored Dejmal in the art of handmade duck calls. Working with wood wasn't foreign to Dejmal. "Even as a little boy, I used to carve things out of a block of wood," he says.

Since learning the craft four years ago, Dejmal estimates he's made about 50 calls, selling some, giving some to friends and donating others to Ducks Unlimited and other groups for fundraising auctions.

Dejmal says he's hopeful it's a hobby that might someday prove lucrative, but "it's really not about revenue," he says. "To me, it's about making something beautiful and having someone say, 'Man, I want to pass this down to my son.'"

Herb Ohley, of Alton, Ill., is vice president and membership chairman for the Callmakers and Collectors Association of America, of which Dejmal is a member.

Ohley says the appeal of making and collecting wild-game calls is a combination of art and sport, evidenced by pictures and contest results at www.ccaacalls.org.

"It's basically American folklore," Ohley says. "There's a tremendous rich history behind this ... these call makers, using what by today's standard are crude tools, were able to put together some wonderful calls, and some of them are quite ornate."

For modern-day call makers, the hobby keeps the hunting season running all year long.

"There's a real sense of accomplishment when you're able to hunt and use tools that you've made to call the birds," Ohley says.

Springfieldian Larry Randolph began making turkey calls after he became involved in the Woodturners of Southwest Missouri, of which he's vice president.

"The thing about making a turkey call (is) that you can have somebody else use your call and if they call in a turkey, you're part of their hunt," Randolph says. "It's the satisfaction of knowing that you've been a part of that hunt and helped them call it in."

There's also a satisfaction in the craftsmanship that each of the call makers cite.

They talk enthusiastically about the types of wood they choose, how wood colors change with time, or how a soft or hard wood can affect the finished call. They talk about the hours and days they spend getting the finish just so, and the time spent on ornamental details.

"I soak the calls in linseed oil for about a month so it penetrates as far in as possible so they don't swell," says Dejmal. "On a cold morning, the moisture has a tendency to condense in the call and if you didn't have it finished on all sides, that wood would swell."

And they talk about the characteristics of each call that make it unique. Randolph, for example, considered making a template for the sound holes in his turkey calls.

He decided against it.

"When I look at the back of one of my calls, I can look at that and see that it's handmade," Randolph says.

And ultimately, that's what making these handcrafted calls is all about.

"You can go to Bass Pro Shops and buy a plastic call for $9.95, but it's just a plastic call," Dejmal says.

"This thing's got a little character to it, and I think it's really neat."[[In-content Ad]]