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Kelly's
Kall's
 Aspirations
of becoming a call maker started with Kelly Beltz at the age of
10. This interest in game calls was fueled by several key factors.
First, his early introduction to duck and goose hunting by his father.
Kelly’s father was from Glenco Minnesota, and there is one
thing for certain, “Being from Minnesota you were required
to hunt ducks and geese almost from birth”. Second, Kelly simply
enjoyed game calls of all types whether it was crow, duck or goose.
As time progressed his childhood interest in call making would somewhat
fade, not to mention his career would almost come to an abrupt stop
when his mother discovered those first prototype calls had been
made from her broom handle.
 Now,
forty-one years later, Kelly has made his way back into the shop
and not a moment to soon. In 2002 he lost his job in the Aircraft
Industry and was faced with a lot of free time on his hands. To
occupy part of that time, Kelly became successful at making rare
fishing lure replicas and selling them on eBay. One day while cleaning
out his desk, he was astounded at how many different game calls
he had collected over the years. His immediate thought was how nice
it would be to make some calls as special gifts for his children.
He had recently inherited several power tools from his late father
and among those was an old lathe that must have come from the Mosaic
Period. Despite its age Kelly became quite proficient with it and
in a short amount of time his first calls would find their way to
the market via eBay. As you can guess the response was phenomenal
and Kelly now spends countless hours standing in front of that lathe.
 Today
Kelly makes three styles of duck calls, single/double reed Arkansas
style, Reel-foot metal reed calls and his personal favorite, Louisiana
style insert calls in either single or double reed. His goose calls
are long reed insert in traditional or flute style bodies. Kelly
also makes a line of miniature calls as well as pintail whistles,
which are rather unique. Currently his DU Banded calls are some
of his best selling calls on the market. However, Kelly has recently
introduced his soon to be famous “GRIPIT-N-LIPIT” style,
which is gaining popularity among collectors and hunters alike.
 Kelly’s
calls are made from domestic hard woods like Walnut, Maple, Oak,
Cherry and Hedge. His secret finishing process produces sound chambers
that rival acrylic calls with the beauty of wood. Kelly also makes
calls out of exotic hardwoods upon request. Each call is made one
at a time and there is never any duplication in any of his calls.
Kelly has sold over 300 calls and most of those customers heard
of Kelly from existing customers or from seeing his calls on eBay.
He has sold calls all over the United States, Canada, South American
and even as far away as Australia. Starting in year 2006 Kelly will
be limiting his production of calls to around 250 per year. He also
routinely donates calls to Ducks Unlimited events or other similar
organizations that have a worth while cause.
 Although
Kelly is new to the call-making scene he is gaining some notable
traction with his 5th place win in the matched pairs division at
the 2005 NWTF National Convention. He looks forward to competing
in future contests and also expanding his line of calls and waterfowl
related items on his new website. Be sure to stop by and pay Kelly
a visit.
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