Take a look at this! It appeared in Sunday's paper and is on their website at www.commercialappeal.com in the sports/outdoor section. Worlwide recognition!

Information About Duck Calls Just A Button Push Away

On April 4, 2002, game call maker Buck Gardner underwent heart bypass surgery. That was, he remembers, "about as low as I could go."

It was during this "down time" that Gardner began to think about a project that he had been toying with for years. So, it's not surprising that less than a year after heart surgery, this fast-talking, people-person was back at work on a project that he believes will revolutionize the game call business. "This project is the most exciting thing I have ever done in my life," Gardner, 55, said. "I know that sounds far-fetched, but it's not. Because the biggest problem me or any other game-call manufacturer has is that they can't be there and talk to the consumer and tell them about their product and let them hear it. It's just physically impossible." In other words, Gardner, who lives in Germantown and whose business is based in Memphis, can't be everywhere. Because of his electronics background Gardner has developed a digital inner-active talking module, or display. The device is two inches tall and about 43/4 inches long and weighs about the same as three AA batteries and is equipped with a 2 1/4 inch speaker. "What happens is a customer will walk up to the display and it'll have a picture of the calls hanging there and a little bit of description about each call," he said. "But next to each call will be two red buttons." All a customer has to do is push one of the buttons and it will give either a 15-20 second voice message from Gardner about the call or have Gardner blowing the call to show how it sounds. In many cases, Gardner said, the message will be less than 15 seconds. "It's not wordy," he said. By pushing the other button the customer will get to hear the call blown "hunting style" by Gardner, who has been in the game call business since 1986. "When somebody hears that, hopefully they'll say, 'Yeah, I can do that,' " Gardner said. Gardner's device is going to be customer friendly. The display will feature all of the waterfowl calls made by Gardner's company, such as Double Nasty, Tall Timber, Foul Mouth, Mallard Magic and Canada Hammer, all of which are among his top selling calls annually. As far as he knows, no other call company has a device like the one Gardner has created. "We in effect have two partners in this (venture)," Gardner said. "I can't tell you who developed this product with me, but his background is digital technology. "That's his thing. He has done it for all the major music and toy companies. We think he's the best in the industry at compressing digital voice and sound and music and making it sound right on a digital chip." Gardner said the display, which will be offered at no cost to retailers, should be ready on or before June 1. He's set a May 15 target date for distribution. The display features a photo of Gardner blowing one of his calls. Graphic design artist Steve Williams of Memphis put all the details Gardner wanted on the display. The colors of the buttons match the colors of the calls. All the colors will coordinate with the packaging.

By Larry Rea, Special to The Commercial Appeal
April 10, 2005

For additional information, please contact Buck Gardner at 1-901-946-2996.