CONVERSATION WITH A CHAMPION NATIONAL CHAMPION CALL MAKER MIKE STELZNER
CWA Let’s begin with a little history on Mike Stelzner. Give us a brief summary of your journey, and tell us how and when you discovered your love and passion for call making, as well as for waterfowl hunting.
MIKE STELZNER I was raised in the outdoors; I spent most of my childhood fishing and hunting big game. Even though I am the oldest of 7 and my father was busy working, he still found time to get us out for hunting whitetails with the gun and bow. We spent time at the range and had a backyard target for shooting. Those early years of shooting and enjoying the outdoor life were a crucial platform for my future in the outdoors. Waterfowl didn’t come until later on around my freshman year of college. I had a friend at Bible college who was a big waterfowler and we started chasing birds together. We were serious rookies; poor calling, and even worse decoy spreads, but we had a lot of fun shooting a single Shoveler and a random wood duck. Waterfowling had sunk its’ teeth in and I was done for! Over the next several years, I took a steep interest in waterfowling and everything that was involved with it. I made a lot of fishing rods and handcrafted arrows, so when I began getting into calling, it was just natural for me to want to pick up a tool and see if I could make one for myself to use. It
wasn’t because the market didn’t have what I needed, but rather a simple desire to make something I could use to call in a bird. In the early years of my marriage, my wife Sarah didn’t like calling in the house, but soon she realized it was a losing battle, and grew quite supportive of my newfound hobby. Call making became a hobby and a passion. My wife and I were new parents as we had just adopted our oldest son, Bryan, so being home more was easy. He would often help me in the shop from a baby chair I hung from the ceiling. He seemed almost content with the humming sound of the lathe and the sound of duck calls. Not something most kids would find soothing I’m sure, but at 13 he is passionate about waterfowl, so it’s no surprise. In about 2005 I started moving forward full steam and founded C&S, built a semi functional website, and started selling a few calls. From 2006 to about 2012 I was hand making around 2 to 400 calls a year and things continued to grow. We moved a few times and soon adopted our second son, Eli. As the family grew, so did the shop as well as my business. My wife was also very career driven and worked her way up through the ranks toward owning her own therapy business. This gave us both an opportunity to be home with our children the most we could when they were very young. It was a huge blessing. Long nights in the call shop and long days on my day job eventually drove me to go full time with calls in 2012. It was a large, scary step, but my wife was extremely supportive. The first few years I was really just a stay at home daddy-making duck calls for some extra income. In 2014, things really began to take off and it’s been history ever since as we continue to grow each year and sell more and more calls. The Lord has certainly blessed us and directed us down the path to serve Him!
CWA What was the first call that you made and how has the design of your calls changed from the original design? Also talk about some of the details about your calls that make them unique from other calls.
MIKE STELZNER The first call I was really proud of was made out of an old maple rod dowel. Around 2004 I finally had one that was truly decent sounding. Well, decent like a good bullfrog. From there I moved forward and upward, continuing to gain skill on the lathe and on the call. Most of my designs continued to get better and I just started playing around with shapes and lengths that worked really well. In 2007 I came up with my first really 7
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