Lee County duck hunters came up with new line of calls

Carolina Swamp Calls were born out of a handful of duck hunters’ desire for calls better than those commercially available.

Calling is a major part of duck hunting to Chuck Amerson. After years of unhappiness with the inconsistencies of commercially-available duck calls, Amerson, his brother Ethan, his father Mike, and friend Scott Rollins, all of Lee County, partnered to make their own calls.

Before long, they were making and selling calls they had crafted from a variety of materials, and Carolina Swamp Calls was born.

“This call,” Amerson said, holding up a call, “came from this,” pointing to a big chunk of a sweetgum tree. “We make a lot of calls from materials local to the area we hunt.”

They also make calls from store-bought wood, marble and carbon fiber, which is crush-proof. They build their calls from scratch, and then test each one extensively.

“We test our calls on a large retention pond to fine-tune them. When the ducks respond well, we do further testing in the swamp,” he said. “When you buy a call that is packaged, you can’t blow it in the store. And you don’t know if it’s been tested. We test each of ours individually, and our buyers can test them all they want,” said Rollins.

“Calling is a big part of our hunting, so it was only natural for us to make our own calls, to ensure we would get the exact sound we wanted while calling,” Amerson said.

About Brian Cope 2746 Articles
Brian Cope is the editor of Carolina Sportsman. He has won numerous awards for his writing, photography, and videography. He is a retired Air Force combat communications technician, and has a B.A. in English Literature from the University of South Carolina. You can reach him at brianc@sportsmannetwork.com.

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