Mr. John Fleck, author, and an Nationally known authority on Duck Calls will be at the Missouri Waterfowl Festival on Saturday Oct. 24th and on Sunday Oct. 25th.
Mr. Fleck will be here to appraise your old duck calls!
Mr. Fleck has an impressive collection of his own, and has made a speciality of collecting duck calls from Missouri, and is in the process of writing a book on the history of Missouri's callmakers and their calls.
Bring your calls to the Festival and let Mr. Fleck tell you about 'em. He will help you determine who made the call, when and where it was made, and how much it is worth
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It has been brought to the attention of the board of director's of the Callmakers and Collectors Association of America, that there may be some very good forgeries of BECKHART duck calls entering the market. These copies are very good replicas of the original style BECKHART calls, both checkered and plain barreled versions. The forger has even gone to the extra effort of stamping the barrels with a makers stamp, to more replicate the originals. Again, these calls are being currently produced and are very, very realistic examples, even to the extent of being aged to look old. Fortunately there are telltale signs and subtle differences that can help collectors tell the originals from current forgeries. To date we have examined 10 calls that have been sold to unsuspecting buyers. All of these examples were double stamped with the makers mark. This is not to say that all double stamped BECKHART calls are not correct as rarely some originals were. This is just a good place to start becoming very suspicious of what you are buying. In a comparison of several well-known older original BECKHART calls the maker's stamp on those versus the newly stamped calls is slight but noticeable. On the forged calls the stamp will still read J.T. BECKHART, but the period after the initial J will be touching the J and not evenly spaced between the two initials. Other subtle differences to watch for are the overall condition of the call. Original BECKHART calls are nearly 100 years old and will look like they saw some use. Be cautious of calls that look brand new and smell of linseed oil. If in doubt, seek the advice of a more experienced collector to get his opinion.
As has always been the case, the CCAA and the board will not and does not condone nor tolerate the plagiarism of another makers work. For the benefit of our membership if and when we ever discover one of our members conducting such activities we shall do our best to remedy the situation. Remember that as the price of vintage calls continues to rise and they become worth tens of thousands of dollars, some folks will become dishonest. Please be careful and always keep in mind that if it seems to good to be true, it probably is.