Big Sean Hammock and Big Sean’s Championship Calls

We were able to catch up with Sean Hammock and learn about some of the ins-and-outs of the Big Sean brand. The keyword that kept coming up in the conversation was quality. He day-in and day-out puts the time in the field to know what works and what doesn’t.

It’s interesting when listening to someone that guides hunting or fishing. They don’t have time for subpar performance. Rather than going with what is popular, Sean isn’t afraid to take the path less traveled and concentrate on what leads to quality and success. The biggest factor that he thinks that leads to that, is to truly focus on being involved in every step of the process whether that’s making a call or taking a group hunting. Again, this goes back to making sure the quality is the best.

WHO IS BIG SEAN HAMMOCK

Sean Hammock was born and raised in Southwest Michigan and goes by ‘Big’ Sean for a reason. Currently at 6’ 5” and 310 pounds, he’s always been a bigger guy than most. He grew up on a small farm in Michigan where his Grandfather and Uncle raised soybeans, field corn, and seed corn. His formative years between 12 and 18 saw him working on that farm; baling hay and staying busy all the ways a young man on a working farm can.

You might have guessed that the farm was Sean’s first foray into hunting, and you’d be right. Having access to the land and the duck ponds that held water year-round in the back of the farm made it easy to get into waterfowling- but it wasn’t until his then brother-in-law took him to those sloughs with the intent of bringing a couple of wild ducks back to the farmhouse, that he experienced his first duck hunt at the young age of 10.

He couldn’t shoot at the time but would tag along for the hunt to watch and learn. At the age of 12, when the state of Michigan allows youth to take part in the hunt for waterfowl, Sean shot his first duck and goose back in the ponds behind the farm. No one in his direct family hunted waterfowl, but having experienced the hunt with his sisters then-husband, and eventually shooting his first birds- Hammock was hooked. The action of decoying birds and the back and forth chatter of calling them had him set on becoming a waterfowler. Sean was a duck and goose hunting addict from the get-go.

Think for a second about how you were introduced to duck or goose hunting. Who is responsible? Who helped to enable you to hunt? For Sean, his then brother-in-law was responsible for giving him his first taste, but someone else was responsible for cultivating that passion. It was Sean’s mother. Before Sean was old enough to hunt on his own and before he met other hunters (neighbors, locals, friends..) that were willing to look after him on a hunt, Sean’s mom would wake up before dawn and drive him out to the ponds and sit in her vehicle while sean hunted ducks. Without her, Sean wouldn’t have been legally permitted to spend the time afield on the duck sloughs that he so vehemently wanted to be in.

As time moved forward he would meet new people around town with the same interests, all the while building up his permissions. By the time he was a teenager, Sean had access to thousands of acres of cropland and wetlands to hunt in his home territory just North of the Indiana border. By the age of 16, Sean was guiding hunts, known around town as the ‘young kid that could blow a call’. Between his calling skills and the good family reputation, Seans access to land in SW Michigan (just a few miles north of Indiana) was far and wide.

Graduating high school and turning 18 brought with it Seans introduction to contest calling. Boredom during the summer ‘offseason’ of 2000 led to him his first competition, which he found information about online and thought to himself,’ “what the hell is that?”. Not long after that in 2001, he won his first contest- the Indiana State Novice Division. That’s also right around when he started guiding in Ontario, Canada. Traveling became much more of a part of his life, and he worked for a big outfitter up there for a few years.

He would later meet Fred Zink and become friends with that group, traveling to Saskatchewan to be a part of the first Fred Zink hunting DVD. Zink taught Sean a lot- including how to blow a contest routine. He continued to guide during the season and work part-time in the offseason, but duck and goose hunting had taken control of Sean’s life and that’s exactly the position he wanted to be in. When Fall would come around, Sean went off to do his thing. At one point he guided 72 days straight in Ontario- with some two hunt days. As a 21-year-old kid with no expenses, he got to be a part of a lot of great hunts and make a lot of money with St. Lawrence Outfitters. Sean was living his dream.

During all the guiding and traveling for industry events, Sean was still contest-calling. Guiding, contest calling, and working part-time made up his years.

Because of the contest circuit, Sean would get to meet and know many big names in the game, and those big names were paying attention to him, too. When Sean was 22 years old, Jeff Foiles offered him a full-time job in Illinois. Hammock packed up and moved out there. He spent his time tuning calls, running the pro-staff forum, sweeping floors, and helping around the duck club; basically, whatever needed doing, Sean would handle. He was no longer guiding in Canada but would guide some in South Dakota. However, most of his time was spent around the D&J Duck Club.

Sean worked for Jeff for three years, mostly working around the duck club, but Sean would also attend contests and shows. Using Jeff’s calls in the contests, he was winning many of them- including two world open titles. Today, Sean has 50-60 first-place finishes and 120-ish top 5 finishes; he admits he doesn’t know exactly how many as he’s amassed too many to keep track of. Many of these wins are with Foiles calls and some with Zink calls (earlier in his career) and more recently with his own BSCC brand calls.

As Foiles legal situation came to a head, Sean knew he needed to move forward on his own and figure out what was next for himself. He left Illinois for Minnesota to work for an online retailer, which lasted about 4 months before that business tanked. With the failure of his employers online hunting/fishing retail store, Sean started BSCC and ran Big Sean Hunts.

BIG SEANS CHAMPIONSHIP CALLS

2010 Was the first year of production for Big Seans Championship Calls, and in 2011 he started selling them- getting them into the hands of staffers and customers. Because of ths, his relationship with Foiles had fallen apart as Jeff thought it was foul-play by Sean to start his own call company. Regardless, Big Sean’s Championship Calls were being made and sold because Sean was interested in trying new and innovative things- stuff he still does today nearly a decade after the inception of his business. Today the company is doing well, operating as its own entity and strives to push the limits in trying new things to improve and innovate the duck and goose call industry.

Sean still also guides hunts around Minnesota and South Dakota, as well as does some real-estate work with Whitetail Properties as their Waterfowl Specialist. You can experience Big Sean’s high-quality October/November South Dakota hunts getting into Ducks and Pheasants for three days, or part of his Late Season Minnesota hunts by visiting here.

As the years go by Sean’s reputation as a killer hasn’t dwindled. The man still consistently puts a hurting on ducks and geese and enjoys what he does. He’s taken to the shop trying new and unique ways of manufacturing goose calls, using a softer/rubbery material to form calls and he goes on to say that after all of his own internal R&D that, “I have the toughest, most durable realistic sounding goose call in the industry”. “Nobody has anything like I have”.

However, not enough people know about that- “for the last 25 years its been Acrylic, Acrylic, Wood, Acrylic.. When something new comes out it leaves people wondering.” Working on and creating new products, and testing new ideas is something that Hammock is passionate about. His calls are high quality and extremely realistic in sound.

Take, for instance, his new goose flute. It’s adjustable. Ever heard of something like that? No, I didn’t think so. The flute adjusts out longer to blow it like a flute, or shorten it and blow it like a short reed. “Is it a flute? Yes. Is it a short reed? Yes. No one else makes anything like it.”

If you ask Sean about his calls, he will tell you two things make his products great- he rides on quality and originality.

I personally have one of his Big Kahuna Delrin calls. When I first held it I admit I was shocked by the feel of the product. The feel is unlike any call I own, but any worries were put to bed when I started blowing it and could hear the distinctly guttural tones of a large mature Canada goose resonating from the barrel.

Big Sean is first and foremost a hunter, but also much more than just a hunter. He is a call maker, an outfitter and also a teacher in the waterfowl industry. He takes a great deal of pride in everything he makes and how he delivers in his business. He wants the very best out of each product he commits to customers because at the end of the day, “it pays the bills.”

It seems in today’s world of waterfowling the focus is more so on who you know rather than what you know. While networking is an important factor in any facet of life, it always come back to the basics. I know its cliché but I think it’s important. Sean is not interested in all the flash that we sometimes all get caught up in. When asked if he ever idolized anyone in the industry he replied, “I never did. I had good mentors and I don’t want to be known as any kind of celebrity. I just want to have a good business.”

The basics of any good business is a quality product, and great customer service. Sean does both whether it is making calls or guiding hunters. When asked if he could hunt with anyone in the world his answer was simple, “My old dog Sage. Best dog I ever had”. I thought that was a really good answer just because these days it seems to be more important about advertising who we are hunting with rather than just focusing on enjoying the hunt.

It was humbling talking to Sean. He never once painted a picture of being anything that he wasn’t. I thought it was interesting to hear from a guy who is well known for everything waterfowl to say that turkey hunting is his favorite kind of hunting. He said it’s all about the calling for him. That and it’s more of a chess match between the hunter and a specific bird. I think the real inspiration I got from talking with Sean is that he had some really great mentors growing up. I think his main goal is to be one himself when it comes to any aspect of life. It can be seen in any of his content online; the main focus is instruction. Whether it is calling or hunting, he always brings it back to how he does it and includes tips to help the next person. There is no flash or highlight reels. Just nuts and bolts waterfowling.

Sean’s business is Big Sean’s Championship Calls. If you are looking for your next call, hunting trip or even how to blow a duck or goose call, give Big Sean a look.

By Corey Mulhair for SPLIT REED