Lagrue Custom Calls : Lagrue Custom Calls

I consider myself very lucky. My callmaking story goes back many years, even before my birth.

My grandfather was an avid duckhunter. Due to a number of changes in his life, he moved himself and his family (my dad) to Stuttgart Arkansas, Duck and Rice Capital of the world. That was about 1960 or so.

The house that my grandfather moved everyone into was next door to Chick and Sophie Major. Dad played catch in the yard with Chick, talked with his daughters, and most importantly to this story, he learned from Chick how to blow a duck call. Dad eventually became a champion caller in his own right.

A few years after moving to Stuttgart, Chick and Sophie set my father up on a date with their niece, and a short time later, my parents had become a couple.

Dad also spent countless hours in Chick's shop watching him work his magic coaxing duck calls out of blocks of wood. Many years later, Sophie granted him access to his toneboard jig and allowed him to have a copy made at a machine shop. She did this to ensure that the family would continue to make calls in the future.

Fast forward many years later - I was 12 years old and messing around in Dad's garage workshop. I found the old jig and the mandrel that went with it. Very quickly I figured out how it all worked. Dad had a Shopsmith that he bought just for making calls, and I used it to teach myself how to turn wood and built my first call.

That first call is below. Number 1. Made from Bois D'arc cut from a fencepost pulled outside of Stuttgart. Still sounds good. That was 1987..... Time flies.

At that time in my life, I was regularly hunting Lagrue and Little Lagrue Bayou in the Ulm area. I hunted that Bayou for about 20 years of my life and that is where I learned to call ducks. It was only appropriate that I name my calls after that bayou.

My call barrel shape was designed to be comfortable in the hand and in use. The endpiece was designed to house an overbored or step-drilled end, which flared out. This gave them volume. I believe I was the first call-maker to use step drilling in the endpiece.

My calls were made with that jig for the first years. They sounded good. Used a taper fit insert and were loud! I was not really satisfied however. I wanted to build a call that was my own design.

During college, I took some time off from callmaking, but kept close to calling by working as a tuner for RNT Products. I probably tuned something around 30k calls during my time there and it definitely honed my tuning ear. I spent a fair amount of time with Buck Gardner learning contest calling from him. He is a great teacher and I did fairly well in the contests at the time.

I started back at the lathe in 1997. I designed a new toneboard and insert. Smaller bore, O-ring construction, completely different toneboard. Barrels again flowed into the endpiece and they featured a rounded band. I won a Mainstreet competition with this design and the calls made in this jig have hunted everywhere from Stuttgart to Canada. I believe I was one of the first builders to use an O-ring end-piece.

A 2nd generation call with a cocobolo endpiece and claro walnut barrel.

2nd generation call with acrylic contest endpiece and claro walnut barrel.

Now its 2016, I'm back at making calls again. This time around, I'm trying to make the finest calls I can from the finest materials. A new lathe in the shop, improved tooling for better accuracy and always improving my processes to make a better call. My goal is to make heirloom quality calls that put ducks on the water, look good and will last long enough to be passed down through generations.

Some of my current generation of calls.