Today we’d like to introduce you to Channing Correa.
Hi Channing, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I left the corporate world in 2017 from a leadership role with one of the largest companies in the United States to chase a dream. I have always enjoyed doing woodwork and it was an outlet for me which I decided to turn into my full time job. When I first left corporate America I was making custom furniture for both commercial and residential customers. As I went on I found myself hating something that I once had such a passion for. I grew up waterfowl hunting as a kid and due to the schedule restraints of my former career I was unable to do so for years. I had the opportunity to go hunting again which led me to finding my old duck call which was handed down to me by my Grandfather. Picking it up was a rush for me of memories of being out in the field hunting as a 6-year-old boy again. I could remember the early morning stops for cinnamon rolls at a local small 24-hour restaurant as we were on our way to the blind. Sitting in the blind with gas-burning heaters burning straw and drawing on the inside of the plywood inside the blind waiting on the sun to rise and the chaos of the birds coming into the decoys. Those memories I still hold dear, setting out decoys and my BB gun in tote, coating my hunting boots for the 50th time with mink oil just waiting the night before with anticipation the same way most children did on Christmas Eve. Just picking up that old walnut duck call made me realize that it wasn’t just a tool in the field, at least not to me it wasn’t. It was a memento of cherished memories that I hadn’t thought about in many years. It also led me to realize that these days big box stores weren’t selling duck calls like this anymore it was rows full of acrylic mass produced calls, each looking the same as the one behind it on the shelf.
While there are certainly many many very nice duck calls that are mass produced, it just wasn’t the same for me. I couldn’t imagine one day handing down a mass produced plastic call to my child and it having the same memories and meaning attached to it. This is what led me to make my first duck call and at that point in time I had no intentions of ever selling even one. It was something I wanted to do for myself to one day pass on to my children and what I didn’t know at the time was it was going to take me down a path that combined two passions I have had since a child and bring them into what I am today able to call my brand and my career! I went and purchased a lathe and started ruining pieces of wood one after another over and over again in attempts to create my own call, something I could communicate to wildlife and speak their language with. This is when the pursuit really took off for me, I became obsessed with learning how to take a square piece of wood and turn it into an instrument.
Learning how to drill out the piece of the call which is equipped with a cork and reed to make this woodwind instrument make the sounds of a mallard hen duck. There was countless hours and even more pieces of failed attempts strewn about my shop floor, drawers, cabinets etc. After countless failed attempts I finally got one to make a quack! All be it a terrible sounding quack I was down the right path and the satisfaction was beginning to mount. I spent months upon months trialing different materials, wood species, corks, reeds and sloped on the toneboard until I finally got one to perform the way I wanted it to. I will never forget the first hunt I was able to grab that call that I had created from a square block of wood, put hot air into it while out on the river and watch a group of passing ducks turn around and come into our decoys. That was the moment I knew I had no desire to do anything else and I was hooked.
Since that time I have turned this into what I do for a living and through the trials and ups and downs of creating a brand and the obstacles of being self employed I have learned more about myself than I ever had before in a career field. I was finally doing something that felt fulfilling, not in a financial or stability way but emotionally. I was finally doing something that I truly love to do and I had never felt that form of passion in something that is by all rights work. I work ten times the amount of hours that I did in the corporate field but I no longer dread Mondays the way that I once did. I work every day to continue to improve my craft in a world that has been taken over by mass production. I still make custom calls by hand, I ventured into doing more decorative things with my calls in the form of hand checkering, carvings, scrimshaw, pyrography, inlays etc.
My goal is always to create that same meaningful call that an old walnut call was to me. But I wanted to do it with the most extensive craftsmanship I am capable of. From the fit of the insert into the barrel, the finish, the tiniest of details I strive to create a call that is more than just a duck call! An heirloom, something that you are proud to own, something that your children and their children after will hand down along with the memories and adventures it has seen. To this day I continue pushing myself in my own craft, learning everything I can to attempt to constantly improve sound, the way the call reacts, carvings etc. I am never satisfied with doing something that is basic, I want to push the envelope and continue to grow in my craft. I have been blessed to be able to make calls for professional athletes, several country music artists, CEO’s of large nationwide corporations, collegiate athletes and have been able to collaborate with others outside the duck hunting industry. It has been a very wild and unexpected ride but I wouldn’t have it any other way!
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It has certainly come with several obstacles which I had come to expect when starting a company from the ground up and being the only employee. Getting your name out there and trying to show the world your craft alone is very difficult to do. Being a one man operation makes every minute matter as well, from responding to messages, phone calls, emails. Creating calls, photographing them for social media, marketing, shipping, receiving, ordering materials etc it can really wear on you with time. Taking a step back and trying to create a work flow and a day in the life schedule can be very difficult and its something I still struggle with daily.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Essentially what I do is take raw materials in typically square form and I turn them into a tool that is used in the field. But much more than that I strive to create art and give my customers to help in the design stages of their call and see it come to life. Whether they are in the shop with me or it’s a customer across the globe they get to decide on the piece of wood I will use, what elements will be put into the call etc. I strive to set myself apart in my craftsmanship and the countless hours I put into my craft honing my skills. I also try and incorporate things typically only seen in larger decorative style calls into a hunting sized call. Carved ducks from moose antler inlaid into the barrel where the margin for error is all but non-existent. Checkering the wood with hand files, creating portraits of flying ducks or a client’s dog under a microscope for countless hours poking the antler with a scribe and filling it with ink until the image appears. I will not let a call leave my shop unless it’s something that I am proud to engrave my signature on. From the finish on the call, whether it’s a traditional oil finish or a high gloss mirror finish. I do not take any shortcuts, I won’t send an oil finished call out without filling the grain in the wood before the oil is applied, I won’t send a high gloss finish out with imperfections in it which look like waves or orange peel in the light. I take great pride in my work and when a client is paying me to create their call I feel like even my most basic of call builds deserve to be crafted to the highest standards without ever sacrificing quality!
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
It is hard to look that far ahead sometimes and this is something else that I am working on improving is having goals beyond the current year. Eventually, I would like to have a brick and mortar storefront locally where I can have my call shop and also sell a machine made line of my calls for those that just wish to have the call as solely a tool for a lanyard. I’ve got several ideas that I keep written down in a book that help my focus on my long-term shifts and where I see myself going in that time. I do not want to get away from the principles that led me into this industry in the first place but I also understand my two hands cannot work forever and I would like to build a brand that continues long after I am gone.
Pricing:
- Basic calls start at $300
- Can go as high as thousands of dollars depending on several factors from materials used and hours in the build
Contact Info:
- Email: Correacustomcalls@gmail.com
- Website: Www.correacustomcalls.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/correacustomcalls/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Correacustomcalls/
Image Credits
Channing Correa
