Preserving the Past
Ryan Barnes for SPLIT REED
You don’t have to look very hard to find someone with some cool old piece of hunting history. Whether it be your grandpa’s old Marlin 10 gauge Super Goose, or a buddy with a hand-carved decoy from Havre De Grace. When you start paying attention to the, shall we say, “finer things”, you notice just how many collectible items are out there to try to hold on to.
If there’s something I personally have always been fond of collecting, it’s calls, hunting literature (being a writer I feel like that’s a must), and artwork. Sometimes those three things fall hand in hand. Other times, you shell out a lot of money for a collector’s edition goose call, duck call, a first edition book, and a painting that catches your eye all in a matter of 48 hours. I speak from experience.
I have a big passion for collecting these things. Not just for the sake of having neat old stuff to fill a man cave, but to have these things to preserve the history of waterfowl hunting. More and more as decoys, calls, firearms, and all the equipment we use are being mass-produced overseas, it would be a tragedy to lose touch of the craftsmanship that Bob McGaw, Jim Pierce, Joey Jobes, and countless others put into their Chesapeake Bay gunning decoys, or lose touch with the artwork and wisdom you can find in a 1932 edition of Outdoor Life. I say to any and all waterfowlers, find something you love about the sport, and collect it! Whether it be calls, or decoys, or books, or whatever. That’s the beauty of being a collector- it’s your collection and you can tell people who don’t like it to go to hell.
Bob Jobes, Decoy Carver
If you’re not sure where to begin, start with one basic question- “Is it something worth collecting?” If you answer “yes”, then there you go. The next question to ask yourself tests the outside historical value of what you plan to collect. “Does my collection hold significant historical value that can’t be achieved or learned anywhere else?”. For most people, the answer to that question is going to be “no”. Which is 100% ok. The bittersweet part of that second question is usually someone has to die, or a product fall by the wayside for an item to become ‘collectible’. However, just because it may not be a ‘collectible’ item to the outside world, doesn’t mean you shouldn’t collect it. Let me reiterate that. If you want to collect something, collect it, regardless of historical value, or what the general public says about its value. I know a gentleman who collects old mounts from taxidermists gone by. The appraised value of some of these mounts might not fetch $15, but for him, the history of these mounts is priceless, and if you were to ask him my second question, his answer would definitely be, “yes”.
I would suggest to anyone that wants to start a collection, to learn as much as you can about the items you collect. If you collect duck calls, try to become the next Ryan Graves. You might even reach out to Ryan who’s always willing to help new call collectors get into the game. If you want to collect decoys, become Jeff Pelayo, who knows just about every carver and every year and everything that you can think of in between. Try to learn all that there is to learn so that way, you know what it is you’re collecting. You know the historical significance of the items you’re purchasing instead of just going, “yeah I collect those so I’m going to buy it”. Ask any wine connoisseur (or as I like to call them- douchebags), what year, vineyard, color, age, and whatever else goes into being a snobby wine drinker and they’ll have it memorized. You should be the same way with the items you collect. If you want to collect the writings of Gene Hill, you should know which publications he wrote for, how many books he published, his typical writing style, etc, etc,. That way you’ll start to become more acquainted with the things that hold more historical value than others.
Bob Jobes, Decoy Carver
Being a collector adds so much to the life of a sportsman. It allows you to reminisce about the history of this sport we all love so much, all the while owning a piece of its history. If you aren’t a collector, start small, and grow. You’ll soon find yourself learning things about the world of waterfowl hunting that you never knew, and I promise, it will make you appreciate this whole game a lot more. If you’re already a collector, keep at it! Let’s not let history fall through our fingers.
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