J. Stephens Improved Model Duck Call Birthday Edition 2026

J. Stephens Improved Model Duck Call Birthday Edition

AKA “The Weirdo” - Green Ribbon - Curly Maple /Rosewood - Green Waxed Cord. Signed, numbered, and dated. 

For the first call in the J. Stephens lineup, I wanted to build a pure and simple no-frills duck call. A call that had volume and possessed a raw, raspy, pure duck sound. A call with the ability to get soft on the bottom, and had no desire to produce top-end ringing hail calls. And most importantly, a call that was easy to use for all levels of callers. That's exactly what I got. Although this call was first nicknamed the "Weirdo", I couldn't think of a more fitting, official name for the first J. Stephens Call than the "Improved" Duck Call, after Charles Grubbs "Improved Illinois River Duck Call”. Since this was the call that started J.Stephens Call, I thought this would be the perfect model for the 10th Year as a Birthday call.

When I started making J. Stephens Calls in 2016, I wanted to add a painted line to my calls to signify different grades or series of calls. I did this as a design influence/tribute from the Trutone Duck Calls produced in Illinois during the early 1900s. I started using red for standard woods and blue for special woods and materials similar to the Trutone calls. Later, I used gold for my checkered calls. I sold my first J.Stephens Calls on March 10th, 2017. I thought that would be a fitting date since my actual Birthday is March 10th. On March 10th, 2018, I made 4 calls to celebrate this date. I chose to add green paint to these because of the month of March and my Irish heritage(my mother’s side of the family is Daugherty and Mcquire). I have since used green to designate either JS Birthday Calls or the calls sold to the ticket buyers of our annual J. Stephens Owners group event.