Josh Parton has found his calling.
The Hawke’s Bay 17-year-old makes hand-crafted wooden duck callers that are, well, flying out the door.
He sold 150 of the $229 callers in his first year, 2024, another 200 last year and has sold 500 already this year as he eyes the US, where the lucrative duck-hunting market dwarfs New Zealand’s.
“There’s a potential market in the USA in the millions compared to about 10,000 duck hunters each season in New Zealand,” Parton says.
Each caller is made from two types of wood – African black wood and New Zealand Marie hard wood, with the black wood used to make the all important tone board.
“Each one is hand-sanded and the tone board is hand-filed and tuned till I get a sound I’m happy with,” Parton says. [...]
“I wondered how they worked, so one day I opened mine up and wrecked it, figured out it looked quite simple, so I thought I’d make one.”
Not long after that Cyclone Gabrielle tore through Hawke’s Bay and flooded the Parton family home in Waiohiki, wrecking Josh’s woodwork equipment and forcing him to start again.
He used his insurance money to invest about $5k in new equipment and got to work.
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The long-term goal is to crack the US and make enough money to buy his own farm, where he can run cattle and sheep and host hunting tours.
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