Collections

[William Reinicke]

Anything any of you all really collect and keep collecting? Any of it worth tons of value? Watched that netflix show about golden collections and auctions. INSANE AMOUNTS OF MONEY GETS THROWN AROUND for collectibles. I am very guilty of this though when it comes to duck calls. So I cannot even judge some of these collectors.

I started collecting duck calls about 15 years ago. It really started with trading at a young age because it was an easier way to try different companies without spending cash I didnt have at the time. Then I would hang onto a few here and there that I really liked. When I started to come into money, I just kept most. I will still trade some here and there, never sell anymore because I just don't feel like I need to or want to. Unfortunately, my gene pool stops with me and I will never truly have anyone to pass it down to. Kind of just hit ,me a year or two ago that I don't have any kind of plan of what to do with these things. As long as life doesn't throw me a major curve ball, I will probably never truly sell a majority of the collection. I have a room in my home that is dedicated to all hobbies, and as you can imagine there is a major display of duck calls.

When it comes time to have to do something with them, I will likely find a younger lad who shares the same passion and offload them. Maybe I will offload to many. I truly have no idea, but what has shocked me is the older they get, the higher the offers just keep coming in. I don't want to go down this path with decoys, but I am sure it could happen very easily for me, especially if I start to gain some knowledge of decoy makers.

I know a guy who collects old skateboards, and it blew me away what some of those things were worth. Post up collections you are proud of, I always love looking at collections that people are passionate about. Here are some of my collections. I need to get some new pics as these are about 2 year old pics. I might go home and take some new pics, as I’ve added a lot more RNT and a few more original bgb's, samples, easons and Turds.

 

[William Reinicke]

Some updated pics of the shelved. A picture of the lanyard and a spare I’ll rotate in.

Lanyard:
-C&S - whistle
-Shannon Kelly pintail whistle (BAD TO THE BONE WHISTLE)
-Eason Lagniappe (have a custom purple coming from him that will replace this one). Might still hunt the black insert tho, it’s got a little special reed in it and it runs so so good!
- Brad Samples custom. Easy running and effective. One of the most enjoyable calls I’ve ever run on the lanyard
-Trevor Shannahan Live wire
-Frankenstein goose call. DRC life sentence barrel, Saunders Red zone insert with original clucker guts. Been a 5 year project of breaking in an original set. Want to see how deep of a groove I can make in these guts before I retire from the game. It’s an insert that will never leave the lanyard.

Biggest regrets…
1) selling off or trading off the osdc’s I once had.
2) never collecting Alvin Taylor calls.
3) never getting my hands on weedy calls.

 

[Don Mintz]

My brother and I both missed the collector gene. Both of my parents however were loaded with it. My mom collected anything native american, her side of the family was Cherokee. She had a room dedicated in their house to native american art. Somehow most of it disappeared shortly after her death, the only thing I got out of the whole collection was a turtle's foot rattle and that was because I made it. My dad was a borderline hoarder. I told my brother before the estate sale that we should sell everything for a penny a piece and live off the interest the rest of our lives. This is about the extent of my artwork collection. When you are a full time professional artist you don't get to keep much of what you make. Whenever I start an unsold project my wife asks "where are you going to put that", my answer is always "apparently in someone else's house.

I've instructed my wife and son where some of my tools and equipment should be sent. I have an extensive 'collection' of molds for duck bills, maybe that counts.

This is most of my collection and the turtle's foot rattle. About the only way to increase my collection is make stuff no one wants.

 

[William Reinicke]

This is most of my collection and the turtle's foot rattle. About the only way to increase my collection is make stuff no one wants.

View attachment 57761View attachment 57762

And lets be real.... how often is most art around here not wanted???

 

[Eric Patterson]

William

If I could go back in time I would have collected calls. I never thought commercial calls like RNTs and Olts would go up in value like they have. I expected custom calls from well-known makers to go up, like CH Amaden and Alvin Taylor, but the collectability of non-wood calls surprises me. You've got a great collection. If you ever want to part with the cocobolo RNTs that Butch turned I'm game.

 

[William Reinicke]

William

If I could go back in time I would have collected calls. I never thought commercial calls like RNTs and Olts would go up in value like they have. I expected custom calls from well-known makers to go up, like CH Amaden and Alvin Taylor, but the collectability of non-wood calls surprises me. You've got a great collection. If you ever want to part with the cocobolo RNTs that Butch turned I'm game.

The coco calls are annoying. That wood original came from a guy out of Arkansas who supposedly bought it from Butch. Sad part, he removed the sticker, huge indicator on how to tell age. If truly that old, should have a jig mark, and thats questionable but not overly pronounced. So its a real stumper because I have had guys tell me its 100% a late 80's early 90's call, but then I have had guys tell me its an early 2000's call and not a turn from Butch. I picked it up for a very very good deal, so it was worthwhile either way, but I don't think its a true Butch turn.

I do know my coco short barrel is a very early model. Again though, John stephens created the short barrel. So technically not a butch turn either. I had some really really good stuff in the early 2000's that I let go. Should of never ever, but the Daisy cutter coming on the scene made all the others not so worthwhile. Now I look back and think of the small fortune I once had.

Got stupid lucky on the original Alpha with Butch's signature. I was snooping around craigslist one day (BORED out of my mind at work) and found that one for sale for $40. Been offered well above that for it.

So truly sir, not a lot there in coco that butch turned unfortunately. I have 2 original cocobola Tim grounds early calls coming in the mail this week. Excited about those ones. One of them look to have original cluckers before he went to his own version of the clucker gut. One day I hope to complete the cocobola 40th anniversary calls. The Mondos will be the toughest to secure. I have a lead on a couple others that arent so collector, but have the daisy cutter, short barrel and original. So decent little start to those.

 

[Eric Patterson]

I'll have to look at the calls at my shop the next time I'm over there. I think I might have one or two Butch calls. I've got others that are going up in value, like a mint Thurman McCann "Delta Mallard" that was given to me in the early 90s by a friend of Thurman.

 

[Eric Patterson]

Almost forgot. I saw one the best call collections anywhere a number of years ago when I met Barry McFarland in Hornersville, MO. He was a call maker that learned the trade from Joe Stone who was son of the famous maker Claude Stone. Claude was the student of James Beckhart that carried on the Big Lake call style and became just about as famous as Beckhart. Barry had bags and boxes full of Beckhart and Stone calls. He had Beckhart's tools and makers stamp that had been passed down through Stone. I'm sure in today's market there was over 100k of calls in his office. I will never forget that meeting. Since Barry's death I've wondered what happened to his collection and tools.

 

[William Reinicke]

Almost forgot. I saw one the best call collections anywhere a number of years ago when I met Barry McFarland in Hornersville, MO. He was a call maker that learned the trade from Joe Stone who was son of the famous maker Claude Stone. Claude was the student of James Beckhart that carried on the Big Lake call style and became just about as famous as Beckhart. Barry had bags and boxes full of Beckhart and Stone calls. He had Beckhart's tools and makers stamp that had been passed down through Stone. I'm sure in today's market there was over 100k of calls in his office. I will never forget that meeting. Since Barry's death I've wondered what happened to his collection and tools.

my collection is very very minimal compared to some out there. I have seen and been around some very impressive collections over the years.

 

[Rick Pierce]

I have a "baby" call from Butch that was made in 1976. My parents bought one for me and one for my sister when they visited Stuttgart the first time. Still has the original reed and all - I was already blowing a full size call at age 6/7, so it sat in a drawer. Also have a 50th Anniversary green Bois d'arc with the stand...limited to 50 calls. I think my dad has an original turned Rich-n-Tone from 76-78 still in his "call drawer".

Have a couple of Hambones, I have a Delta Mallard that Mr. McCann turned for me one morning. It is stamped, but oil finished. Also have Zirkle, Taylor, Bowles, and a couple of others.

The one call I wish I still had was a Rich-n-Tone that Butch turned from the laminated wood they used to make bows from back in the late 80's. Can't remember what they called it, but the layers were red, blue, green, and blonde? maybe?. I left it at a friend's house, and his house burnt to the ground. Took the call and a pintail mount I had with it.

I never could afford it, but Butch did some of his calls in "faux ivory" (the original paper micarta I think) that were amazing and sounded incredible. I want to say they were $100 or more back in the mid-80's when I saw my first one. A club caretaker was showing us around (invited as guests) and had a pair of the micarta calls, one in ivory and one in a brown/red color I think...he let me blow them while we were standing and watching ducks at their rest area. Heard later on that someone stole those calls, and if they ever turn up, there will be no mistake as to whose they were.

The "wish list" of "shoulda bought" calls includes every Weedy's Pin Oak "candy stick" call I saw at the original Mack's in the 70's and 80's, a bunch more of Taylor's calls, and the one style of McCann call I finally got the money for shortly before he died...he made a shotshell call, with bois d'arc as the "brass" and cocobola as the hull.

I grew up in the Quad Cities area of Illinois, and my dad was friends with Lenus O'Dean, who was one of the first duck call collectors as well as a call maker. Dad and I used to go over to Mr. O'Dean's house and go down into the basement to talk decoys and calls and listen to stories. He had an ebony carved Bowles (oh was it beautiful) among a shelf full of other calls. He had regular correspondence with Turpin and Dennison, and I think it was Turpin? that recorded duck calling records on 78 rpm discs and sent them to Lenus. I loved to sit and listen to the stories, or watch him pull a call off the shelf, and start the lesson...."now when the ducks are working in you need to just do it like this..." It was always amazing to me because I realized later on that he saw the ducks when he was doing that. The look in his eyes told you he wasn't in a basement, but out on the Mississippi in a pothole or a river blind.

Have a few antique duck decoys and a few modern, too. Two that would be sentimental favorites for some of the "old crowd" here are a pair of Ward-style canvasbacks that were carved by Lee Harker. The drake is wood and the hen is cork bodied. I've thought about seeing if anyone here would want to take on the job as caretaker, or if any of his family might.

 

[Lawrence Kotchek]

I really collect double guns & old hunting and fishing books but duck calls do end up on the shelf, no idea if any of them are valuable....

 

[William Reinicke]

I have a "baby" call from Butch that was made in 1976. My parents bought one for me and one for my sister when they visited Stuttgart the first time. Still has the original reed and all - I was already blowing a full size call at age 6/7, so it sat in a drawer. Also have a 50th Anniversary green Bois d'arc with the stand...limited to 50 calls. I think my dad has an original turned Rich-n-Tone from 76-78 still in his "call drawer".

Those baby calls were the start of the Micro/macro hen calls. Amazing you have an original.

Have a couple of Hambones, I have a Delta Mallard that Mr. McCann turned for me one morning. It is stamped, but oil finished. Also have Zirkle, Taylor, Bowles, and a couple of others.

The one call I wish I still had was a Rich-n-Tone that Butch turned from the laminated wood they used to make bows from back in the late 80's. Can't remember what they called it, but the layers were red, blue, green, and blonde? maybe?. I left it at a friend's house, and his house burnt to the ground. Took the call and a pintail mount I had with it.

I never could afford it, but Butch did some of his calls in "faux ivory" (the original paper micarta I think) that were amazing and sounded incredible. I want to say they were $100 or more back in the mid-80's when I saw my first one. A club caretaker was showing us around (invited as guests) and had a pair of the micarta calls, one in ivory and one in a brown/red color I think...he let me blow them while we were standing and watching ducks at their rest area. Heard later on that someone stole those calls, and if they ever turn up, there will be no mistake as to whose they were.

The "wish list" of "shoulda bought" calls includes every Weedy's Pin Oak "candy stick" call I saw at the original Mack's in the 70's and 80's, a bunch more of Taylor's calls, and the one style of McCann call I finally got the money for shortly before he died...he made a shotshell call, with bois d'arc as the "brass" and cocobola as the hull.

Weedys, and alvin taylors are my two major regrets. Got to thinking, wish I could get my hand on an original timbre and an RNT timbre. I have one of the remake timbre limited runs from 2014. Its the white call with the uhlenhopp and trout duckstein call.

I grew up in the Quad Cities area of Illinois, and my dad was friends with Lenus O'Dean, who was one of the first duck call collectors as well as a call maker. Dad and I used to go over to Mr. O'Dean's house and go down into the basement to talk decoys and calls and listen to stories. He had an ebony carved Bowles (oh was it beautiful) among a shelf full of other calls. He had regular correspondence with Turpin and Dennison, and I think it was Turpin? that recorded duck calling records on 78 rpm discs and sent them to Lenus. I loved to sit and listen to the stories, or watch him pull a call off the shelf, and start the lesson...."now when the ducks are working in you need to just do it like this..." It was always amazing to me because I realized later on that he saw the ducks when he was doing that. The look in his eyes told you he wasn't in a basement, but out on the Mississippi in a pothole or a river blind.

Have a few antique duck decoys and a few modern, too. Two that would be sentimental favorites for some of the "old crowd" here are a pair of Ward-style canvasbacks that were carved by Lee Harker. The drake is wood and the hen is cork bodied. I've thought about seeing if anyone here would want to take on the job as caretaker, or if any of his family might.

Sir you sound like you have quite the background. it is fun to hear from people like you that remember calls before I was even born. LOVE LOVE LOVE that, but you only know what you grew up with. I need to study up and learn my older wood calls, but that means I would likely spend even more money, so I purposely don't send myself down that rabbit hole.

 

[Rick Pierce]

Those baby calls were the start of the Micro/macro hen calls. Amazing you have an original.

Weedys, and alvin taylors are my two major regrets. Got to thinking, wish I could get my hand on an original timbre and an RNT timbre. I have one of the remake timbre limited runs from 2014. Its the white call with the uhlenhopp and trout duckstein call.

Sir you sound like you have quite the background. it is fun to hear from people like you that remember calls before I was even born. LOVE LOVE LOVE that, but you only know what you grew up with. I need to study up and learn my older wood calls, but that means I would likely spend even more money, so I purposely don't send myself down that rabbit hole.

I was very lucky.

You aren’t wrong, but it’s ironic to me in a way. I remember buying calls from Alvin Taylor, Thurman McCann, Butch, Blount Hohn, Zirkle, and others for $40-50. I don’t even remember what the Weedy’s used to sell for, but it wasn’t much. And you could buy good calls - when I went to Mr. McCann’s house, he turned the call for me, fit the reed and had me blow it…then he tuned it specifically for me.

Now, I don’t have any of the really high end older calls - Beckhart, Jolly, Pickle, the carved Bowles calls, Slinn brothers, etc. I wish I could afford them, just like I would love to have a Charles Walker pintail, but I really do like the calls I do have, and most of them I have actually hunted with.

 

[greg setter]

I don't collect, but I do have two duck calls that I bought for the history and they were made by Chick Majors. They are pretty cool, unique, and I like them.

 

[William Reinicke]

I was very lucky.

You aren’t wrong, but it’s ironic to me in a way. I remember buying calls from Alvin Taylor, Thurman McCann, Butch, Blount Hohn, Zirkle, and others for $40-50. I don’t even remember what the Weedy’s used to sell for, but it wasn’t much. And you could buy good calls - when I went to Mr. McCann’s house, he turned the call for me, fit the reed and had me blow it…then he tuned it specifically for me.

lol I found old pics from my original iphone (shocked it even turned on) and at one point I took a pic of 7 pre-scroll daisy cutters that I had up for trade. Pretty sure I took 80-100 for some. Now guys are getting 700-1000 for that call. Blows my mind. I was offered to buy 1 of 10 JJ lares comp calls he made for very specific people. I turned it down as JJ lares was not even a conversation in the comp world at the time. I think about that one a lot. Wish I would of pulled every penny in every corner of my disaster of a life at the time to acquire that call.

Now, I don’t have any of the really high end older calls - Beckhart, Jolly, Pickle, the carved Bowles calls, Slinn brothers, etc. I wish I could afford them, just like I would love to have a Charles Walker pintail, but I really do like the calls I do have, and most of them I have actually hunted with.

Thats where I look at my collection sometimes and just think to myself.... why??? I have SO MANY and I have hunted a decent share of them, but a TON have never even seen a lanyard. Ive pretty much landed on exactly what I like. I do have some very small hard case boxes with foam that I carry 3-4 spare calls in the blind bag. But they are a snow call, lower volume duck call, speck call, and maybe a cutdown. The Eason Lagniappe will never leave my lanyard, especially if I can get my hands on the material of reed I have in it now. I was sent some sample stuff (wasn't allowed to know what it was) and it is the best reeds I have ever played with. Brad samples is like running a ferrari, just smooth and easy but has tons of power punched in it and it is the only call I have not had to change the reed or tune in. Just change cork every so often. Then of course the original cluckers will never leave the lanyard. I like them in that red zone insert. I may put a different barrel to that setup every so often, but otherwise that combo is staying with me forever.

So why have any more??? This is where I struggle sometimes.

 

[William Reinicke]

I don't collect, but I do have two duck calls that I bought for the history and they were made by Chick Majors. They are pretty cool, unique, and I like them.

Yes... That one slipped my mind, but I too would add that to the list of "wish I had" in my collection. Good ones to have sir.

 

[Eric Patterson]

Rick

I really wish I had gone by Thurman's house when I was hunting near Truman. The fellas I hunted with were close friends of his so I know they could have put me in touch with him. There is a video on YouTube that shows his process for call making. There is so much info in it I have watched it many times studying the jigs and fixtures he uses. He was a one-man factory and the processes he developed are impressive.

Lawrence

Your collection is outstanding, especially the books. I have some of the same, but you are making me want to up my game, especially in presentation. My plans are to have a dedicated area in the living space above my shop for such items. Again, very nice collection.

William

Keep going! You've got some super nice items and like Rick said, the high-end items would be nice, but they are very difficult and expensive to acquire. The trick is to find the ones now that will be valuable tomorrow, and I think you have an eye for that.

 

[Eric Patterson]

@Rick Pierce I meant to add the video. Doh!

 

[Rick Pierce]

Rick

I really wish I had gone by Thurman's house when I was hunting near Truman. The fellas I hunted with were close friends of his so I know they could have put me in touch with him. There is a video on YouTube that shows his process for call making. There is so much info in it I have watched it many times studying the jigs and fixtures he uses. He was a one-man factory and the processes he developed are impressive.

Lawrence

Your collection is outstanding, especially the books. I have some of the same, but you are making me want to up my game, especially in presentation. My plans are to have a dedicated area in the living space above my shop for such items. Again, very nice collection.

William

Keep going! You've got some super nice items and like Rick said, the high-end items would be nice, but they are very difficult and expensive to acquire. The trick is to find the ones now that will be valuable tomorrow, and I think you have an eye for that.

I think you would've liked him. He was just a guy... The morning I showed up, his wife let me in the house, and he came in, still in a bathrobe. We sat at the kitchen table, and I said, "good morning...thank you for doing this. How are you?"

"Oh, well...I'm not really up yet 'cause my hemorrhoids have really been bugging me...let me have some coffee and we'll go take care of you..."

Alvin Taylor was a character and a salesman. I went to pick up a call for a friend of mine who had ordered it, and Alvin didn't want anyone to see him make calls. He might let you watch him turn the barrel, but not the inserts - he was old school about his call making.

Never did get to meet Mr. Amaden, but I love the Hambone calls. Mitch Rogers who lives in Oklahoma was a friend/student of his, and he makes a nice call that is about as close as you can get. I know at one time you were working on making a Hambone style call...did you ever go forward with those?

 

[Eric Patterson]

Rick

I came close to getting back on that project this summer but then came the blind build. That took every spare minute for a month and still has me backed up. As soon as I get the shop upstairs completed I should be back to all duck projects. I have two woodworking machines to restore in support of the upstairs and then I think I'm done with those types of projects. I have most of the machinery I'll ever need and if not I won't buy "projects". So long range plans are all duck hunting related items including calls, gunning boxes, call and taxidermy displays, marsh walking sticks, boats, etc. I just spelled out my retirement!