The No-Longer-Neglected Duck Call

In January 1928 Field & Stream published the late Nash Buckingham’s “The Neglected Duck Call,” a story that pretty much covered duck calls and calling in that era. Today it’s hard to know where to start, because in the ensuing 80 years the making of duck calls has exploded and the art of calling, once the privy of those living within 100 miles of Memphis, finds virtuosos in every corner of North America.
I believe I’m on firm ground stating that the duck call is an exclusive American folk-art form. Nowhere in the world were calls used except here until American duck hunters, like missionaries, spread the word. The earliest pictorial evidence of a call that I’ve found is in an 1854 Currier print titled “Wild Duck Shoot,” which shows a hunter with a tongue-pincher-style call hanging from his lapel as he recharges his muzzleloading shotgun.
Most duck calls are made to reproduce the sounds of hen mallards, because mallards respond better to calling than probably any other wild ducks. Drakes make weak whining quacks that are barely audible, but hens have an entire repertoire of sounds, from the subtle chatter heard as a flock circles to chesty early morning four- to six-note full-bodied calls. Although contest callers need many nuances to woo judges, hunters need but a few sounds to attract ducks to their decoys. The four- to six-note lonesome hen, a little da-doot, da-doot, da-doot feeding call and an occasional good quack will call ducks day in and day out.
It would be unfair to leave out the whistle calls that are so effective on teal, wigeon and pintails, and the neophyte caller can do worse than blow a whistle at passing mallard flocks rather than scare them off with an unpracticed mallard call. However, the real historic calls are those for mallards, and they are my focus here.
Early calls, as mentioned, were known as tongue pinchers, because when blown, they set up a sympathetic vibration that felt like an electric shock against the tip of the user’s tongue. Tongue pinchers consisted of two halves that curved away from each other that held the reed and were, in turn, set into a round bell-shaped end. Sounds made were weak quacks, but in those days ducks probably didn’t need much persuading. The earliest commercially made tongue pinchers were patented by Elam Fisher in 1870 and Charles Schoenheider in 1880. Curiously, although tongue pinchers long had been abandoned by this time, Olt made a tongue-pincher-style call as late as the 1950s called the Perfect Mallard.
Although tongue pinchers are considered the first duck calls, the style of call we recognize today was being made as early as 1863 by F.A. Allen in Monmouth, Illinois, and in 1868 by C.W. Grubbs in Chicago. This call consisted of a large barrel into which an insert containing a reed was placed. The caller blew into the barrel, with the air being directed to the reed and then out through the insert. Allen’s calls used either metal or wooden barrels and wooden parts for the inserts; calls made by a contemporary of Allen’s, Charles Ditto, used metal-reinforced barrels and wooden inserts. It is little coincidence that these calls were made in Illinois. One of the great duck hunting regions of the US, the Illinois River, which courses southwest near Chicago through the midsection of the state and empties into the Mississippi north of St. Louis, has for generations been considered duck hunting nirvana. It was said that when there are no more ducks in the world, there still will be ducks on the Illinois. Puddle ducks were predominant along the Illinois, Ohio and Mississippi rivers and, because they responded well to calling, these “Illinois-style” calls became one of our two major styles of duck calls.
Allen, Grubbs and other callmakers lived in northwestern Illinois on the shores of the Mississippi River, but in southern Illinois, near Grand Tower, lived another pivotal callmaker: Victor Glodo. Glodo’s father had emigrated from France and settled along the banks of the Mississippi. When the vast marsh the Glodos hunted was drained for agriculture, Victor and his wife, Vada, moved south to the banks of Reelfoot Lake, in northwestern Tennessee. Glodo worked as a blacksmith and at other trades around Reelfoot, but he forever will be enshrined in duck-call lore for developing the Reelfoot-style metal-reed call.
Early Reelfoot calls often were crudely formed, some with barrels consisting of tree branches with holes bored through them, but Glodo’s calls had grace and finish. Like his contemporaries, Glodo used walnut for the barrels and inserts, although later makers often used cedar for inserts because of the wood’s resistance to water. Glodo began making calls in about 1880 and, although he may not have been the originator of the style, his calls were works of art in appearance and tone and were perhaps the first to have their barrels checkered like high-quality gunstocks. Other Reelfoot callmakers who followed Glodo were Sharpie Shaw and Sundown Cochran.
Nash Buckingham’s good friend Perry Hooker made a metal-reed call similar to Glodo’s in form and sound and whose virtues the late author praised in “The Neglected Duck Call.” As a result, Hooker received so many requests for calls that he had to create a form letter stating that he made only a few calls for friends and referring would-be buyers to Memphis native Tom Turpin, who made metal-reed calls in several styles. Another Tennessee metal-reed callmaker of note was Earl “The Duck Call Man” Dennison. Dennison was an early entrepreneur who knew how to sell things. Each fall he would load his car with calls, calling-instruction records and his two pet English calling ducks and head to major cities’ sporting-goods stores. There he would put on well-advertised calling demonstrations and sell his calls to eager nimrods. All of these calls hued closely to the metal-reed tradition, with their curved metal reeds and flat tone channels, or tone boards.
The two styles of calls–Illinois and Reel-foot—are the genesis of all of today’s duck calls. The Illinois-style call uses a flat reed, originally of hard rubber or gutta percha, that vibrates against a curved surface. The Reelfoot call is the reverse, using a curved metal reed that vibrates against a flat surface. The sounds of the different styles of calls are unique unto themselves, and a skilled caller can pick them out immediately. The Reelfoot call has a more nasal, thinner sound and is frequently higher pitched—its sound often carrying farther across open water. The Illinois-style call has a lower-pitched sound that is frequently more pleasing to the human ear.
The Illinois-style call was intended more for hunting in flooded timber, hence its more mellow sound is better tailored to these conditions where a louder call will echo more. A skilled caller can blow the full repertoire of calls on either a Reelfoot- or Illinois-style call and can adapt either to differing circumstances.
The Reelfoot call has remained primarily in Tennessee—although many metal-reed calls are made today in areas as far away as California—and it was the Illinois-style call that became the missionary.
Perhaps the most important Illinois-style call was made by the late Philip S. Olt. Olt was an ardent duck hunter who lived in Pekin, Illinois, on the banks of the Illinois River. Because their pitch changed as calls became water soaked during heavy use, Olt became disenchanted with wooden calls, began experimenting with materials and settled on hard rubber. Hard rubber resisted moisture and could be cast into call parts, and calls made of it did not change pitch when wet. In 1904 Olt advertised his first hard-rubber call: the D-4. The D-4 was adjustable for pitch by means of a slider that pressed onto the top of the reed. The D-4 soon was followed by the D-2 Regular Duck Call. Until the Olt company closed its doors in 2000 due to a family squabble (since Olt’s closing, chief callmaker David Jackson has reestablished the company as Illinois River Valley Calls [309-348-2112]) probably more D-2 calls were sold than any other single duck call, and it was this design that formed the basis for both the Arkansas- and Louisiana-style call. (There is no real difference between the Illinois- and Arkansas-style calls, with the Arkansas simply being a further refinement of the former. The Louisiana-style call is somewhat different, with its slightly twisted tone channel, but clearly drew its design from early calls brought to the state by visiting hunters.)
The Olt D-2 did not take long to migrate down the Mississippi River to Arkansas, where rice fast was becoming the major crop. When ducks discovered this succulent feeding ground, they made it their winter home. Photographs from the 1940s and ’50s show thousands of mallards concentrated on one or more of the reservoirs on the Grand Prairie. Stuttgart, a farming community founded by German immigrants, soon became the heart and soul of Grand Prairie duck hunting, and it was there in 1936 that the first National Duck Calling Contest was held. Sponsored by the Stuttgart American Legion, the first prize was a $6 hunting coat. Since then the contest has grown to host callers from every state and Canadian province, with thousands of dollars in prizes now being awarded. The 2008 World Championship Duck Calling Contest will be held on the Main Street stage in downtown Stuttgart on November 29.
Stuttgart’s current top call luminary is the town’s mayor, Butch Richenback, whose calls have won more world championships than any other. Although many make or have made calls in the Grand Prairie/Memphis area, the Arkansas-style has become the call most associated with calling ducks. The Arkansas-style call is the only choice for competition callers and, because of its mellow sound, is the one most popular with hunters.
Southwest Louisiana is one of the great duck hunting areas in the nation. When hunters began showing up there in the early 1900s, they had Olt calls tied to their hunting coats and the Cajun guides took notice. The guides took the Olt form and modified it using native materials and to suit their style of calling. Both the barrel and insert were made of native cane reinforced with a wrapping of string or the brass from a spent shotshell. Unlike the Illinois- and Arkansas-style calls, whose tone channels were integral with the inserts, the Cajuns made their calls using a Reelfoot-style wedged block holding the reed to the separate tone channel, with the whole assembly pushed into the cylindrical cane insert. A unique Louisiana sound is the seductive squeak Cajun callers often use. It is the pinching off of the last bit of air that results in a saucy little squeal at the end of each quack.

Call collecting became popular in the 1970s. Previously, the only real collection had been that of callmaker and champion caller Chick Major, whose widow, Sophie, donated it to the Stuttgart Chamber of Commerce when he died. It is now housed in the Museum of the Grand Prairie. Since the 1970s numerous individuals have amassed magnificent collections of calls. In a 2000 auction Glodo calls went in the mid five figures and a leather-covered Kinney & Harlow call carved in the shape of a duck’s head sold for $63,000.
Although a writer once said that the duck call in the hands of a novice was the best conservation tool known to man, the blame certainly cannot be placed on today’s calls. Currently duck calls are made in every state and Canadian province and, for the most part, they are of good quality. Most are of the flat-reed Arkansas style and use Mylar reeds, which don’t change through a wide range of temperatures and are impervious to moisture. Some metal-reed calls still are made as tributes to the rich heritage of Reelfoot Lake and the artistry of Victor Glodo. One thing is sure, however: Regardless of style, shape or reed material, each time a call is put to a hunter’s lips it honors our own all-American folk-art form.

Author’s Note: For more information on duck calls, consult the book Duck Calls—An Enduring American Folk Art, by Howard L. Harlan & W. Crew Anderson. Those interested in callmaking and collecting should contact The National Callmakers & Collectors Assoc. of America, www.ccaacalls.org.

Today's Calls

The traditional duck call material is wood; however, through the years tastes and ideas have changed. Wood can be beautiful, but it also absorbs moisture. When a call is being used, saliva and condensation often run out the end of the insert, causing wood calls to swell. The reason for the brass bands so prevalent on calls initially was not for decoration but to prevent the barrels from splitting. At one time a banded call cost almost 50 percent more than a plain call.
Nothing has driven calling more than competition. What contest callers began seeking was something that would separate them from the pack. Hence the search for the perfect call material.
In the late 1970s Harry “Butch” Richenback, now the mayor of Stuttgart, began working with acrylic. In rod form the material was difficult to work, because the friction from the cutting and boring tools melted the acrylic, resulting in bubbles and imperfections. Callmakers next turned to Mycarta—linen soaked with resin and then molded under heat and pressure into a hard, machinable material—and finally they decided that the answer lay in molded acrylic.
Molded acrylic still can be hand-shaped, but the bulk of the work is done in the molding process. Other plastics such as polycarbonate are used for callmaking, but acrylic is tops for now. As for wood, walnut is the most traditional, but exotic woods are also popular. Bois d’arc (osage orange) is often used, as are harder woods like those from the rosewood family—although as the wood becomes denser, the sound changes.
No two calls are exactly alike, and it is up to the caller to select the one that he is comfortable with and best fits his style. Calls made of wood have a more mellow sound compared to those of acrylic, which have a brighter and more compact sound. By the same token wood offers more subtlety, whereas nothing beats acrylic for sheer volume. The bore of the insert has a great deal to do with volume, as a larger bore will produce more sound. In addition calls made of acrylic and other plastics do not swell and change tone, whereas wood warms faster in cold weather. (Native cane is very much like wood, and the sound from those calls is light and thin.)
Selecting a call is very personal. To have the edge in a contest, an acrylic call that produces lots of sound is mandatory, but for working ducks, it’s often hard to beat a wooden call. If you find a call you really like that fits you, hock the house, sell the farm and buy it.
There is now an industry of selling calls on the Internet. If you are a collector, it’s a good market in which to trade and barter. However, if you’re looking for a hunting or contest call, it’s best to shop in person. Generally the name of the maker or the description will tip you off as to the call’s pedigree, but it is not always a given that all calls are Arkansas-style. A reputable seller generally will discuss a call with you online, and some allow for returns should the call not be what was expected. Still, it is impossible to judge sound and feel from a computer monitor, so do your homework. —J.T.