Carlson Championship Calls

 

"A Word with Jim James"

 

A frank and honest discussion about calls and instruction

 

Fellow Waterfowler:

            Thank you for your interest in Carlson Championship Calls. I'm pleased to have this opportunity to pass along some meaningful information that can help you become as expert at waterfowl calling as you can get.
             It takes three things to successfully call waterfowl. 1. A call that really works. 2. The ability to properly operate that call. 3. The ability to "Read" the waterfowl. Only "Field Experience" will make you an expert at "reading" the "body language" of flocks or individual birds...so you know what to say and when to say it. But this hard won ability is of little value if you don't first have a call that works!
It also goes without saying that you are little better off with a call that works if you do not have the ability to properly operate that call. It always has been and always will be the combination of a versatile call design and proper operational technique that is the key to success. The more "tricks in your bag", the better you can respond to any given situation.
As you probably know, there is an over abundance of calls, poor instruction, poor calling, and opinionated self-styled "experts" out there. Let's take a fresh look at how YOU can enjoy more of the satisfaction and respect that comes with the ability to call those ducks and geese down from the sky. A NEW look at how you can do what you do…only better!

            Let's face facts...we enjoy the advantages of technology in nearly all aspects of our lives. Certainly it has been a vital factor in the development of our hunting equipment. Think about it...as hunters, if we were to remove all the things that technology has contributed to us, we would be left stark naked, standing on the shoreline throwing rocks at the ducks! Yet, since the first feeble efforts at making waterfowl calls, right up until today, call making traditionally has been largely a matter of "cut and try" and attempts to copy another call that "seemed to work".

            Little, if any, previous serious technical research and development, has gone into an in-depth understanding of call design, quality control, and how to relate this to a meaningful operational instructional system. As a result of the traditional ‘"hit or miss" approach to call making, only a very small percentage of calls have actually worked properly. No matter how versatile and competent the operator, most calls have been incapable of doing one, or several, of the various things that MUST BE INCLUDED in a call design in order for it to comply with the many demands made on it by serious waterfowlers while aggressively calling waterfowl.

            Logic dictates that YOU WILL BE NO BETTER THAN YOUR  INSTRUMENT AND INSTRUCTION will allow you to be! This has been understood in music for centuries. The traditional instructional methods involved with call operation have been no better than the "hit or miss" design approach. One can not teach what he does not understand.

            Consequently, call operation has been largely a matter of "hearing and doing". If one was not born naturally talented enough to do this, lucky enough to get hold of a reasonably functional call, AND have good calling to be around to MIMIC, he has generally been doomed to a waterfowl calling life of frustration and aggravation.
After many years of formally teaching call operation it is my finding that there are VERY few waterfowlers lucky enough have stumbled into all three of these necessities of good calling This is why the copyrighted CARLSON SYSTEM OF CALL OPERATION © relies far more on an individual’s intelligence than his normally nonexistent talent.

     Like many of you, I have hunted my entire life. That alone provides little to meaningful call design. Neither did the world sanctioned championships, including the World Championship, that I have won. The success that Carlson Championship Calls have enjoyed, over the past nearly 35+ years, is the direct result of the 35 years which Wendell Carlson spent in the electronics field. His analysis of the waveforms resulting from the sounds required in successful calling has been the essential key. The interfacing of this information with a meaningful call design has allowed to bring to bear, on this subject, the same technology that we have come to expect to be applied to nearly every other product we buy. Without it, to improve products and provide quality control to what we purchase, we slip back over 60 years into the traditional mentality of calls and calling (which generally still persists today), where one barstool BS opinion is just as good as the next ... or just as worthless!

     The Carlson Championship Call resonate cavity call design is the result of this technological approach. It has been used internationally by serious waterfowlers, top pro guides, and World Class Competition Callers for over 35 years. As of the time of this writing, Carlson Championship Call duck calls have been used to win 4 World Championships, 3 Canadian National Championships, over 250 World Sanctioned State or Regional Championships, the U.S. Open Championship and the Winchester World Open Championship, all in MEN'S DIVISION. Most of the afore mentioned Champions have been serious students of the Carlson Championship Calls instructional system. Additionally, 2 other World Championships were won by a student of the Carlson Instructional System.  Lastly, World Class Goose Calling Championships have been won with all 3 of our goose call designs. Carlson Championship Calls and students of the Carlson Championship Calls Instructional System are the only ones ever to SIMULTANEOUSLY hold BOTH first and second place in BOTH the World Duck Calling and Canadian National Duck Calling Championship! No other call maker and/or instructional system has ever achieved such a track record!!!

            To anyone who would say, "To hell with competition calling! I call ducks, not judges!"...please let me point out that, for many years, I have know many serious world-class competition callers from all over the U.S. and Canada. I have yet to meet even one who isn't first and foremost a serious, successful, dedicated long-term waterfowler. They MUST be in order to put out the YEARS of study, practice, travel, expense, and frustration that world class competition calling entails. The typical world-class competition caller is a guy who happens to like the calling part of waterfowling so much, he's determined to do it year round. You simply do not have to be that good at call operation to call waterfowl. BUT, it sure doesn't hurt! They use our same basic call design whether competing in the field or on the stage, with, in either case, calling volume necessarily being matched to the calling environment. The point is, that these real world-class callers actually do recognized what characteristics constitute a functional call design. It is their demand for design excellence in functionalism and versatility that has fostered design improvements….Improvements that every duck hunter could be the beneficiary of if he would only choose to do so.

            To the "Sour Grapes" competition calling critic I pose the following questions. How many real world-class callers has he ever known? How many World Sanctioned Competitions has he even gone to? How many has he competed in? How many world-class calls has he made? How many world-class champions have been his students? The point is, TALK IS CHEAP!! Carlson Championship Calls has made and sold calls for well over a quarter century. Our products must work or they wouldn't continue to sell. I’m sure that you know more about your job than I do. Conversely, why shouldn't I know more about my job than you? Therefore, just maybe, I can help you do what you do better, in your chosen sport of waterfowling...just as I have helped thousands of other waterfowlers over the years.

             Knowledge is of little value if not passed along. As a result, over the past 35 years, Carlson Championship Calls has produced 7 copyrighted instructional audio tapes, a video tape, a DVD, a computer program, digitally downloadable sound files and a CD Set. The most recent Carlson Championship Call instructional media is a super informative 100 minute CD set which FEATURES myself, JIM JAMES, World Champion Duck Caller. I HAVE FORMALLY TAUGHT THE CARLSON SYSTEM OF CALL OPERATION © FOR OVER 20 YEARS. The VIDEO/DVD and/or CD Set offers meaningful, practical, information for all levels of duck hunting interest and experience.. Further, and very importantly, the VIDEO/DVD offers the caller the ability to SEE, as well as hear, the demonstrations and graphics.

            The various audio tapes and downloadable digital sound files are designed to fill various needs (based upon differences in the waterfowler’s aspirations and goals). Others come with different product packages. Also available is our instructional COMPUTER PROGRAM. It presents the CARLSON SYSTEM OF CALL OPERATION©, using pictures, sounds and graphics in a structured form so that each student can spend whatever time he chooses on each of 9 lessons. The instructional material I suggest, in recommended order, is as follows:

• PRO DUCK CALLING © 90 minute VIDEO or DVD
• DUCK CALLING A TO Z© 2 DISC CD SET...100 MINUTES. Includes THE CCC COMPUTER   PROGRAM "THE CARLSON SYSTEM OF CALL OPERATION©"
• THE ART/SCIENCE OF CALL OPERATION© 117minutes AUDIO TAPE or MP3 SOUNDFILE
• STRAIGHT TALK ABOUT DUCK CALLING© 117 minutes AUDIO TAPE or MP3 SOUNDFILE
• DIGITAL DOWNLOADS....MP3 files addressing specific caller instructional needs
        

            The speech mechanism has always been used to operate calls, but never  previously studied and put into a meaningful instructional system. The understanding of how to properly coordinate the speech mechanism is the only successful method of overcoming the old meaningless operational habits picked up while attempting to operate calls of very limited design. It also is the only practical route to understandable instruction, and the ability to learn how to PRACTICE WITH PURPOSE. This, rather than the traditional  "Maker ‘er sound like this!" approach which has basically relied upon the caller's nonexistent talent. The Carlson Championship Call Instructional System © has been built around teaching the proper coordination of the speech mechanism. This allows even one who has very limited talent to be able to apply his intelligence in order to get all the mileage possible out of whatever talent he way have. It, also, takes time and commitment ... just like anything else worth doing well.

If you have any questions, or would like to hear my call design demonstrated, please feel free to phone.

Yours for BETTER CALLING,

Jim James
Carlson Championship Calls, L.L.C.
3056 S. 43rd Street
Omaha, NE  68105
402-554-8411
Email: Carlson Championship Calls