Walker Davidson for SPLIT REED
Linn Points, owner of S2 Calls, has been hunting for as long as he can remember. Killing his first duck at 7 years old, he has been a lifelong waterfowler. At the age of 15, his dad was getting out of waterfowl hunting, but in those magical years where you and your buddies start getting drivers licenses, Linn starting duck hunting on his own. Three years later he was in electrician school and working towards a career in that when he met the then owners of S2 calls. From there the relationship flourished and Linn started spending any extra time in the shop, tuning calls, putting guts in goose calls, anything he could do to spend more time there. When the owners decided to get out of the call making game, the sold the company to Point Blank Calls who really specialized in big game calls. Linn stayed on and helped them with the S2 side of things The one day Point Blank Calls came to Linn: “They asked if I was interested in buying the company but I didn’t think it was possible, but after negotiating with them we made the deal happen. I had a bunch of ideas in my head and things I wanted to do but I wasn’t the one making the decisions, however now that I’ve taken over it’s been a dream come true. The biggest thing for us is our customer service, you can call and talk to someone on the phone that works here. We put handwritten notes with all the calls. Sales are up 590% for this year because of our hard work.”
Linn got to work right away working on the ideas in his head. He knew he wanted to design new calls with a goal of creating a middle of the road style call for beginners and experienced hunters alike.
Linn told me, “When I purchased the company they already had a line of calls and we wanted to expand on that. There are two calls I actually designed myself. The first one is the GOAT, which is a mixture between a honker and a lesser call. I used my own guts and hunted with it for almost two full seasons before putting into production.
Then I designed the Game Changer, which is a single reed duck call. duck A a lot of true duck callers blow a single reed and we went to the drawing board and designed the Game Changer. This is an all-around duck call, not a timber or an open water call, which is exactly what we wanted.”
Naturally, after getting the rundown on S2, Linn and I started talking about hunting, and his style of hunting. Linn has 30,000 acres spread out through Willamette Valley here in Oregon and we hunt that from October to March. He and his crew, who have been together for a while, hunt every weekend pretty much and days of the week when they can get off work. Linn explained that they put in the time in the field to make sure that every product they deliver is proven.
I asked Linn what made S2 so successful since his take over, he spoke to customer service and user-friendly duck calls:
“What has made us so successful is that we don’t make specific calls for one purpose, we just try to make something everyone can use. I’ve been using these calls for 8 years now, even before I purchased the company, a testament that they kill geese! I truly believe we are making the most user friendly and well-rounded calls out there, that’s our focus, and were doing so at a lower price point than most other call makers.”
When speaking on the future of S2, Linn is very excited about what is to come. He also made a promise to the customers.
“There’s been a lot of call companies that blow up and get big and then sell out to a corporation and go downhill. That isn’t us, we aren’t in to get rich, we’re in it to provide calls for the everyday hunter and build relationships with our customers for the long term. Some exciting news is that we have two new calls coming out next year. We are designing a new single reed duck call and a true cackler call for all the little geese guys. So be on the lookout for those next summer!”
Make sure to check out S2 Calls and grab one of their Goose or Duck calls for this season, you will be amazed at how they will help you in the blind!
