My lucky day, the search is over

Mark Spolarich

Mark Spolarich

Well-known member
Back in the early 80's, before I really knew what duck hunting was about, I bought my first duck call while stationed in Colorado. It was a P.S. Olt D2 and I held on to it throughout the rest of my Army career. Fast forward to the year I retired, 2004, and a hunt down in a flooded NC swamp a friend of mine on his family property. He forgot his duck call at home so I let him use mine because even though I could make a duck sound at home I didn't have much confidence in my ability to sound like one while actually hunting. This day would teach me to also have the barrel AND insert attached to a lanyard! He attempted to jump across a section of creek and after we helped him out of the water it was discovered that my call was missing its insert. Gone forever! I held onto the barrel for a few years as a memory but eventually let it go. Since P.S Olt was out of business I couldn't just run out and buy me a new call so I have spent the years in between then and now trying to find one for a reasonable price to replace my old one.

This weekend I finally found a P.S. Olt that was reasonably priced sitting on a shelf in an antique mall. I couldn't believe it when I saw the $38 price tag and the seller had an additional 25% off. My lucky day! I soon found out after buying the call that my lucky day may have got much luckier. The call was hard rubber and had an original looking black reed sitting under the cork. I knew it was MUCH older than the one I used to own and when I got out to the truck I gave it a try and it still sounded good (well, as good as I could make it). My wife wasn't the happiest but she has gotten used to me...

Best I can find through some quick internet research last night on the call is it is pre-1938. 1939 is when Olt changed the abbreviation of Illinois from ILLS to ILL on the barrels and shortly after that added the patent number to the call.


 
Awesome Mark! If you ever need first hand information regarding Olt calls and get down our way, I highly suggest a visit to the shop of David Jackson in South Pekin. David spun calls for PS Olt for 28 years and bought all the Olt patents. He is still making Olt style calls and is an Olt historian. Tom Sonderman is also in the area. When we're out shooting sporting clays, we still occasionally see Jim Olt, son of PS Olt, out shooting. He is well into his 70's and still enjoys shooting a round of clays...
http://www.djcalls.com/index.htm
Congrats on your call. Pat
 
Thanks Pat. I emailed DJ today and he confirmed it was a pre-1940 call with original reed and possibly the cork also. He is even nice enough to send me some original Olt cork to replace mine. I want to keep the reed and cork it came with in a safe place and buy replacements for everyday field use...
 
Good morning, Mark~

Great story - and congratulations on a successful hunt!

My Olt story goes back a ways - but not to the 30s....

My Dad used Herters calls but had an Olt kicking around. He gave it to me to play with/learn from when I was about 4, I think. I carried it everywhere. I last saw it disappear into the ash tray in the family car, a 1951 midnight blue Oldsmobile sedan. In those days, anyone smoking in the back seat enjoyed the convenience of ash trays mounted on the back of the front seat. It had a spring-loaded chromed cover whose Art Deco details beckoned to my youthful curiosity. Somehow, I managed to get the Olt past the tray itself and the call dropped down inside the seatback.

I do not recall if any attempts were made to retrieve it from the dark and cavernous depths. As far as I know, that particular Olt cruises in the secure comfort of a Rocket 88 to this day.....

All the best,

SJS
 
Al, it has a very good ring to it and i am really liking how it sounds. It also has a rather unique aroma.

Steve, i bet there is somebody out there wondering how a duck call found its way into the seat of their Rocket 88!

I have learned that the price has been driven up on certain used D-2's in the past by callers wanting to make them into a 'cutdown' call.
 
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