Some of my stuff...and Hello !

[Curmudgeon]

http://thogamecalls.com/forums/index.php?topic=226.0

[Al_at_THO Game Calls]

Man I love the shape of your calls, and the wood is outstanding!  Really nice stuff!

AL @ THO

[Braz]

Yea, great looking calls. Looking forward to see more of your work. Are you turning your own inserts or buying them? No judgement on the question, just wondering. ;D

[Curmudgeon]

Yea, great looking calls. Looking forward to see more of your work. Are you turning your own inserts or buying them? No judgement on the question, just wondering. ;D

Both. It’s just a hobby to me but I will confess to being a bit consumed with it right now !  I've been struggling with tone boards for a while and just figured out the problem, (thanks Shawn/GN-1!).  I hope to build most of  my sound boards from here on out, but I also like the inserts for getting a good sounding call out quick and sure don't have a problem with using them.  I think inserts are great and allow a person to move forward while they put in the time and effort to master the tone board, or not, don’t matter to me. I also think its perfectly fine to sell a call with an insert as long as you tell the customer whose insert it is and don’t represent the call as something it’s not. I think some inserts have such a good reputation, that a buyer might be looking for just that sound, or be comforted by knowing what’s in the call, and just wants a custom barrel, no problem to me.  Now, using an insert right out of the box to make a call cause you don’t even know what a call is supposed to sound like and you just want to build a duck call for cheap and sell it as a custom call is , well,  that’s a business / character issue to me, but that’s just how I see it.  I also think the whole issue of insert or not is a self inflicted rule put on call makers by other call makers and the customers could give a hoot (quack?) how you got it to sound like that. They are going to try to fool more ducks with it, not win a ribbon.  So, there is my statement on inserts. I respect all the opinions and especially respect the skills and expertise some have tried to share with others. As my handle sort of implies, I’m not much for going along just to get along. I’m new to this whole thing so maybe I’m just naïve, (maybe I’m just an old Curmudgeon ?).  Having said all that, I promise not to stir the pot, well ,not on purpose anyway. I’m having a blast making calls and the semantics of the hobby are irrelevant to me. 

[Braz]

I think I have to agree with everything you said. I have only made a few duck calls, but I do get requests. I am very careful to let the folks that buy them that I do not consider myself a duck call maker. They say that is OK, just make the call for them. I have used Al's inserts in the past and the customers are very happy. But I would like to use the Echo, as it just looks nicer. But, again, I will let the customer know what I am doing and that I am not a "Custom Duck Call Maker" in any way, shape or form. But if they can take the call out, and call in and shoot ducks, then what the hell difference does it make. I cater to the hunters in my area, and the collectors only if they want to buy something I made for the hunters.  ;D

[Creekside Custom Calls]

AWESOME CALLS. ;D  Like the pen too ;)