A Sycamore resident recently proved that his woodworking skills are definitely all what they are quacked up to be.

Jim Dester received several awards for his duck hunting callers during the National Wild Turkey Federation's (NWTF) 31st Annual Convention and Sport Show, which was held from Feb. 22-25 in Nashville, Tenn. One of Dester's duck callers received a first-place award in the decorative carved caller division, which also received second-place honors in the best of show category. Another caller received a first-place award in Category A of the Duck and Goose Call competition, and a third caller received a fourth-place finish in the Duck and Goose Call competition. Dester said he is pleased to have received the honors.

“As far as I know, it's the major competition in the United States,” Dester said. “Usually, the best of the best callmakers are there.”

Dester has participated in the NWTF callmaker competition since 2002. He received a best of show award in 2004 and in 2002.

“The first time was the most exciting, but to know that you're up against the best, and you come in losing to the best of show by one point, you did pretty good,” Dester said.

Hundreds of callmakers participate in the NWTF competition each year.

“Callmakers enter our contest, because it's the premier callmaking contest, and if they win the contest, they know they're the best there is,” Rob Keck, CEO of the National Wild Turkey Federation, said in a press release.

Dester also has participated in the Callmakers and Collectors Association of America (CCAA) competition, which is held every year in St. Charles. Dester received a best of show award in the CCAA competition in 2006 and in 2004 and a second-place finish in 2005.

The next CCAA competition is set to be held April 27 and 28 at the Pheasant Run Resort. Dester said he is currently designing three duck callers for that competition. He said about a hundred callmakers are scheduled to participate in the event.

“There's just fantastic calls there, and if anybody is at all interested, they need to stop by,” Dester said. “A lot of the top callmakers in the country will have something there.”

Dester began designing duck callers in 2000 before his retirement.

“I was getting about retirement age, and I wanted something to do primarily with my hands, and I wanted to carve it,” Dester said. “I had taken a carving class with a master gun stock carver a few years before, and I had never done anything with it, so I decided I wanted to carve. So I looked around for something to make, and finally discovered duck callers. I thought I would try it,and the rest is history. It's been quite a ride.”

Dester said he learned how to design duck callers while visiting a Web site entitled www.customcalls.com.

“It has a discussion board where people share knowledge about making callers, and that's where I picked up the technical stuff,” Dester said. “I did have woodworking experience, so I knew how to do woodworking. The carving was a matter of doing it, and I kept practicing until I got what I wanted.”

Dester usually designs about 15 duck callers a year. Several of his duck callers are available for sell on his Web site www.quackcalls.com. Dester said it usually takes him about 60 hours to complete a duck caller. He said he rarely designs a caller for his own personal use.

“I haven't hunted since I was growing up as a kid, and I would rather make them and let somebody else do the hunting,” Dester said. “I do make a few hunting calls just to make them and just to see how good I can get at making a hunting call.”

Most of Dester's callers feature a fish scale or basket weaving pattern with various designs.

“I incorporate a lot of my designs around those patterns,” Dester said. “In addition to that, I carve ducks in flight, ducks around a barrel, ducks flying over some cattails, duck heads, goose heads or something related to water fowls.”

Dester said more people have become interested in designing hunting callers during the past few years.

“Up until a few years ago, how to make a duck caller, goose caller or water fowl caller was tightly guarded by the callmaker. They wouldn't tell you anything, and it was really hard for a callmaker to get into the business even just for a hobby, unless he became good friends with a callmaker and the guy decided to teach him,” Dester said. “The last few years, that has changed a lot, especially with the Internet. You get all the information you would ever need on the Internet, and there's lots of young callmakers now who are getting involved, mostly just because they want to make a duck call.”

Besides duck callers, Dester also has designed wooden cabinets for his home. He said he now mostly focuses on designing the duck callers.

“I really don't have time (to work on other projects) if I want to do justice to this,” Dester said. “It's basically what I work on.”

Dester has been interested in woodworking since he was a child.

“I grew up on a farm, and when you grow up on a farm, you get interested in a lot of things,” Dester said. “If you have something go wrong on a farm, you usually have to repair it. It's part of what I grew up with.”

Copyright © 2007, The MidWeek. All rights reserved. (Reprinted here with permission from The MidWeek)