A batch of Speckle Belly Goose calls nears completion.
Wild Fowl Customs offers craftsmanship with a personal touch BY
Steven and Marlana Huffstatler stand outside the Wild Fowl Customs shop on their property.
72 | Welcome Home to Pontotoc
JONATHAN WISE
A
passion for the outdoors morphed into a hobby and then a hunting call-making business for Steven Huffstatler of Pontotoc, owner and operator of Wild Fowl Customs. “I’ve been duck hunting since I was in high school, so that got me interested in game calls; I started learning how to blow duck calls,” Huffstatler said. However, the journey into producing the hunting instruments was unexpected. “I worked in pool table store that had a lathe,” Huffstatler said. “I was just playing around one night after hours. There was a scrap pool cue, and I just turned a duck call out of that. It sounded kind of like a duck. I was like, ‘Hey, this is pretty cool; I can probably do that.’ That got him started. He purchased a lathe and started practicing and experimenting with the craft. Huffstatler originally started Hardwoods Waterfowl Calls with a friend. After a while the partner stopped building calls due to a career change, and Huffstatler got out of it for a while as well, other than as a hobby. Eventually, however, the urge returned and he began Wild Fowl Customs. “I’ve progressed with equipment over the years,” Huffstatler said. “I bought a metal lathe and was learning it, but I really wanted to learn CNC. So I got a degree from ICC in the tool and die department, learning how to program machines and all that.”
