CONVERSATION WITH A CHAMPION

from 2020 Christian Waterfowler Magazine - Fall Issue

TEAL HUNTING TIPS

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

good duck call tone board. The Justifier was a good all-around call and I was cutting all my duck calls off that new jig for about 4 years. I also started building goose calls in 2006 and had my original Prophet out then. It was a long goose call, short reed design, but it did a good job and was easy for people to use. Fast forward 15 years, and I have several models of calls each built for different scenarios or callers. Mostly the models came from trying to improve the previous model or tweak something to have a different use; open water, timber, etc. I have always tried to build calls that were different from everything on the market. Full custom calls are always unique and were my mainstay for many years. As demand grew, I started to supplement the line with CNC parts or partially prepped parts that I would finish in house. This gave me the ability to speed up the process and still maintain high quality. Today we continue to do this with most of our line. Everything in our production line is mapped off originals and replicated exactly to the standards of each call. The repeatability of the CNC, especially in a duck call tone board, is amazing as far as consistency and sound quality. My CNC line is just rough cut for us and we hand polish, laser, and tune each call in the shop here, as well as apply any banding or extra adornments a customer wants. We sell a lot of stock options but also do a lot of custom art and options on each call. Over the years I have poured money back into the business to make sure I have the tools to do everything right that a customer might want. Instead of sending a call out for laser work or special art, we can do that right here! It is a very nice way to do business.

CWA

Talk about your faith and how that carries over into your call making, as well as some of the names of your calls and how you came up with them.

MIKE STELZNER

I was raised in an extremely loving, Christian home and those values were instilled in me at an early age and I have stuck to them all my life. Faith and Christ have always been first and foremost in my life. Certainly there are days I could do a better job, but I’m not far from His hand on those days. I have a degree in Youth and Family Ministry and Pastoral Ministries, so carrying that faith into calls was automatic. The easiest way for me to do that was with call names and logos and such. The customer can find names like, The Preacher, Prophet, Disciple, and more in our lineup. Most of our logos have a cross or some other Biblical connection on them, and most of the calls have a crown of thorns around the insert representing the great sacrifice Christ made for our salvation. My goals with C&S differentiate from a lot of other companies. At times I am drawn into the industries ideology of success being based off of income and followers, but I really try and focus our call company upward. My main focus is to minister to Gods’ people, but some great

quality calls can be a guide to others navigating their way through life. It has become extremely busy, but I always try and remind myself why I have been given the gifts I have and what God wants me to do with them. We donate a lot of calls each year to special groups and I like to focus those donations toward Christ centered organizations dedicated to the morals and ideals Christ represents. Faith is integrated into every aspect of my business in some shape or form and it is my goal to continue to represent Him with our company until He sees fit to take it from me.

CWA

Talk about getting into call making competitions, especially the NWTF, and some of the awards, etc.

MIKE STELZNER

Call contests have been so much fun for me over the years. I started in 2008 at the National Call Making Competition held at the NWTF National Convention every year. They have Turkey, Duck, Goose, and more represented in the contests. I started entering because I wanted to see where my calls stacked

up against the best makers in the country. The best callers in the nation gather as judges for the hunting divisions and avid collectors judge the decorative divisions. It’s really an excellent contest. The CCAA (Call Makers Collectors Association of America) also puts on a contest every year in the spring for makers wanting to enter calls in a decorative division. These contests continue to spring up all over every year. From 2008 until the present, I have been blessed to be a National champion 10 times, as well as a 4 time National Grand Champion of Champions. It’s been a huge blessing to have my calls do so well when being judged by the nations’ best callers. I retired in 2019, and my son, Bryan, now enters and is carrying on the tradition of doing well, as he has won a few Youth call maker awards as well as a few best of shows! We are very proud to see all of the hard work pay off and all the blessings come from that hard work. God has had His hand in C&S since the beginning!

CWA

Talk about your family; Sarah, the boys, and how you guys are working through Sarah going home to heaven.

MIKE STELZNER

Oh yes the Sarah question.... My wife of 20 years passed away in March of 2019 of Ovarian Cancer at the age of 40. To say it was devastating for us all is a huge understatement. After almost a yearlong battle, she went to heaven. Not a day goes by that I don’t really miss her and who she was to my sons. She always drove me to be a better person and to work hard. C&S would not exist without her. It was hard to maintain composure here and keep up with the day-to-day stuff to keep a call company relevant. Luckily, I have an incredible full-time employee who kept things afloat while I suffered through my grief. Christ never left my side and my faith was refined once again as I worked through the battle. I have no doubt that Sarah is enjoying her time in heaven. The boys and I have changed a lot around here. Bows and game calls are on the tables and we spend a lot of time doing bachelor things! Sarah took good care of us and I never once have doubted my faith or the God I serve. I have no doubt that Sarah’s life and her death have a massive testimony and will continue to influence people toward Christ and His kingdom. It has given me a story of great loss and great triumph as He continues to support me as a Dad with my boys... God is good all the time and I am reassured by His love and blessings daily in the smiles of my boys, and the words of encouragement and love from my friends and customers. Both of my sons love to chase waterfowl, turkeys, and more, and we spend a lot of time in the woods making new memories together. I’m assured Sarah is enjoying each and every memory we make!

CWA

Any future call designs that you are working on now?

MIKE STELZNER

We are working on a deer grunt for fall of 2020 and I also have a new goose call coming out here in mid to late August that I feel is a great culmination of the years of my goose call building! New duck call will be released in 2021! Always building and innovating here at C&S.

CWA

Anything else that I didn’t cover that you would like to add?

MIKE STELZNER

C&S is a family run and operated business, we are focused on quality, innovation, faith, and family. We do our best to take care of every customer like they are family. From our calls to our faith, we are happy to share anything we can to bless the people we come into contact with!