Ryan Van Leuven

About Ryan Van Leuven

Posts by Ryan Van Leuven:

March 23 2020

COVID-19 & SHIPPING INFO

We are based in Michigan, and the Governor has shut down all non essential business. Being that we are home based, we will continue to make blanks and ship orders for as long as we are able to get supplies. Our blanks are produced in a different place than the one we ship from, so we will be only getting deliveries of new and custom blanks once per week. Please bare with us. If you order an item and we can’t get it, we will let you know. We will be updating the website as best we can to keep inventory current. Shipping is taking a ridiculously long time. This is due to USPS, not us. We are still shipping orders in our normal time frame. All orders are shipped priority, with tracking and insurance, so rest assured it is covered, but they are just running quite a ways behind. I apologize for that.

August 1 2019

2019 Masters Call Making Contest

Ryan Van Leuven Uncategorized

New for 2019, we will be having a Masters call making contest. In order to enter this contest, you must have won or placed, in any category of our prior year call making contests. Congratulations, Ryan Roosa, Robert Mattila, Chase Silman, Channing Correa, Jesse traver, Eric Hignight, Charlie Webster, Corey Sorensen, Jason Smith, Adam Barnett, Waylon Thomson, Kyle Peterson, Brett Skelton, Jamie Hurlburt, Brandon Brown, Daniel Merritt, Tyler Gero, Scott Campbell, and Kiefer Burks for being selected!

The rules are simple. There will be one winner. You may enter any type of call (duck, goose, grunt, turkey, etc.) but it MUST be made during the allotted time period. It must be made with at least 50% Pintail Waterfowl’s material. This can be any available color or we can custom make a color for you. You may enter only one call. You may also enter our general call making contest this year with a different call.

To enter, you will submit a picture of your call. You are allowed to send 1 or 2 pics of your call. We are not judging on sound, but calls should be a working call. You must email all submissions to Ryan@pintailwaterfowl.com

Dates:
August 1st-September 30th will be the call making and submission period.
September 3oth is the deadline for call picture submissions!
October 1st judging starts.
October 7th winners announced.

Judging will be done by Ryan, the owner of Pintail Waterfowl, based on material usage, creativity, and craftsmanship. Cheating in any way will be disqualified.

Prizes will be announced shortly.

August 1 2019

2019 Pintail Waterfowl Callmaking Contest

Ryan Van Leuven Uncategorized

This year we will be having TWO separate contests. For more info on the Masters contest, click here. The main contest, will be similar to years past, except we will offer a discounted blank to all entrants. We will be choosing the color, but the blank can be purchased as a barrel, set, goose, grunt, solid rod, or turkey. At least 50% of your call, MUST be made from this color.

We will also be running a separate Masters contest which will be open to all past winners of Pintail’s contest. This includes all places and categories. Masters entrants are welcome to enter BOTH contests but must have different calls for each.

Dates:

August 1st-September 30th will be the call making and submission period.
September 3oth is the deadline for call picture submissions!
October 1st judging starts.
October 7th winners announced.

How to Enter:

Call makers may enter one (1) Photo of the call of they are entering. One call per person. You may submit pictures of calls by emailing them to us at ryan@pintailwaterfowl.com. Please do NOT send them on Facebook as they reduce the quality too much. Please put “Call Contest” in the header and make sure to include your full name (real name, not company name), city and state. You may also tell us anything you want about the call you are submitting.

You may purchase the contest call blank here at a discounted rate!

Pictures posted to Pintail Waterfowl’s FB page are not allowed as entries.

Criteria:

Calls entered in the contest will be judged on use of color, material, and craftsmanship of the call. You are encouraged (not required) to use a mix of different materials (resin/acrylic, bone, antler, wood, metals, etc) BUT 50% or more of the call must be from our material. We want to see how far you can push your limits with our materials! While we are not judging on the quality of the photo, nicer photos represent the calls better and may play a role in your call getting noticed more by our judges. This contest is based solely on the picture of the call entrants submit and is not a chance based contest.

Calls can be duck, goose, grunt calls, turkey pot, or any style of “tube” style calls.
Calls should be newly made during the call making period. This is based on the honor system.
Must use a Pintail blank in the chosen color, for at least half (50%) of the call. Premade style inserts are allowed.
Calls can be sleeved, laminated (with wood or other), etc as long as at least 1/2 (roughly) of the material is Pintail’s.
Calls can be plain, engraved, color filled, hand carved, banded etc.
We will not be judging on sound quality but calls should be a working call.
Submit 1 (one) picture of your best call
Pintail Waterfowl’s featured call makers are allowed to enter and have no say in the voting process.
By submitting a picture, you are agreeing to these rules and allow the picture submitted to be used in future marketing and advertising by Pintail Waterfowl, LLC.

Voting:

Calls will be judged by our independant panal of 5 to 7 judges. I don’t believe in “FB voting” as a fair way to judge. How many likes or shares do not play any role in voting.
In the event of a tie between judges, ties will be broken by being chosen by the business owner.

We will award places 1-3 for this contest.

Disqualifications:

If you are caught cheating in any way you will be disqualified.
Calls that use less that 50% of Pintail’s material will be disqualified.
Whining, complaining, bashing others will get you disqualified

Prizes

Prizes to be announced shortly.

November 22 2018

Cyber Monday Sale Promo Codes

Ryan Van Leuven Black Friday Sale, Pintail Waterfowl News

All promotions are now expired

November 10 2018

8th Annual Custom Appreciation Black Friday Sale!

Ryan Van Leuven Black Friday Sale

Don’t miss Pintail Waterfowl’s 8th Annual Black Friday Sale. Starting 9pm on Thanksgiving night and all day Friday. We will also have some discounts on Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday for those who miss out over the Holiday.

This is a tradition and our biggest sale of the year for us! You can get some great deals on blanks (duck barrels, inserts, matched sets, even customs), all in stock public jigs and custom jigs, mandrels, and more!!

Watch our Facebook page, during the month of November to win a chance to get in the door, “get the codes”, before every one else. Starting around 9pm on Thanksgiving, Thursday November 22nd we will post a few early bird promo codes. Then Friday morning around 9am we will posting promo codes randomly. Some codes will run for a certain amount of time, while others will run the entirety of the event or until a certain amount are sold.

This Years Giveaways!

We will be giving away a free gift to all orders over $100. The first 50 will get the better gift! While Supplies last. Free shipping on orders over $200.

A special free gift to the largest order (based on dollar amount and product count).

Trivia Questions posted on Facebook with prizes, all day Friday! (Watch for special trivia questions all through November to get early access to promo codes for first choice of stock!)
Mystery Blank – We pick one in stock blank and if you order it, you not only get the blank for free, you will get a prize as well!
Random order refunds – We will randomly pick an order to receive their entire order for free as well as refund money on a bunch of other orders.
Free shipping on random orders – We will randomly pick orders and refund your shipping

Mystery Blank

Mystery blank has been set! We pick one random blank and if someone purchases the mystery blank during the sale, we will refund them the price of the blank and give them another free blank too! It could be a barrel, insert, matched set, goose…anything.

Combined Shipping !

Order as many times as you want! We will combine orders placed between 9PM Thursday and 5pm Sunday and refund shipping on all additional orders so you can catch all the deals without getting nailed on shipping! Spend over $200 (on one or all combined orders) and all shipping is free!

Other info

Custom jigs can be ordered, but you can send your insert whenever. You don’t need to send it right away.

July 26 2018

2018 Annual Pintail Waterfowl Call Making Contest

Ryan Van Leuven Call Making, Contests, Pintail Waterfowl News

Brought to you by Pintail Waterfowl & Deadshot Custom Call Company

Additional sponsors, Full Tilt, Ron Gould Bands, and Bond Point will be doing our awesome awards again.

Dates:

August 1st-September 30th will be the call making and submission period.
September 3oth is the deadline for call picture submissions!
October 1st judging starts.
October 7th winners announced.

How to Enter:

Pictures posted to Pintail Waterfowl’s FB page are not allowed as entries.

Criteria:

Categories are:

Best Newbie – A new category this year. You must have started making calls AFTER AUGUST 1ST 2017!!!

Most Creative – The calls that don’t fit the normal mold. Looking for outside the box!

Best use of materials – We want to see what you can do with our materials or even blending ours with other materials!

Best Craftsmanship – This is for only the cleanest of calls. The one where there is no doubt the amount of time that went into it.

Pintail’s Call Maker of the Year – That one call that just stands out above the rest.

You CAN win one category AND Callmaker of the year, but not two categories. All calls will be entered into all categories, EXCEPT Best Newbie can ONLY BE WON by someone who has been making calls for less than 12 months (honor system people!!!!)

Winners of the best newbie category will receive:

Custom call from Deadshot Custom Call Company

A $20 Pintail store credit

Winners in the most creative & best use of materials categories will receive:

A smooth, fine, or rough mandrel from Pintail Waterfowl

$20 Pintail store credit

A Pintail Waterfowl Hoody

A custom made award from Bond Point

Winner in the best craftsmanship category will receive:

Choice of a P1, P2, or P3 jigs.

A carbide turning tool from Deadshot Custom Call Company

A custom made award from Bond Point

$30 Pintail store credit

Call maker of the year will receive:

A custom jig from Pintail Waterfowl

A carbide turning tool from Deadshot Custom Call Company

A custom made award from Bond Point

A Pintail Waterfowl Hoody

2 Special Blanks from Pintail Waterfowl

$50 Pintail store credit donated by Full Tilt Fowlers

Stay Tuned for more to be added!

Rules:

Calls can be duck, goose, grunt calls, turkey pot, or any style of “tube” style calls.
Calls should be newly made during the call making period. This is based on the honor system.
Calls will be for all categories. Only one winner per category but a winner may win 1 category and COTY.
Must use a Pintail blank for at least half (50%) of the call. Premade style inserts are allowed.
Calls can be sleeved, laminated (with wood or other), etc as long as at least 1/2 (roughly) of the material is Pintail’s.
Calls can be plain, engraved, color filled, hand carved, banded etc.
We will not be judging on sound quality but calls should be a working call.
Submit 1 (one) picture of your best call
Pintail Waterfowl’s featured call makers are allowed to enter and have no say in the voting process.
By submitting a picture, you are agreeing to these rules and allow the picture submitted to be used in future marketing and advertising by Pintail Waterfowl, LLC.

Voting:

Calls will be judged by our independant panal of 5 to 7 judges. I don’t believe in “FB voting” as a fair way to judge. How many likes or shares do not play any role in voting.
Callmaker of the year call will be chosen solely by Pintail Ryan.
In the event of a tie between judges, ties will be broken by being chosen by the business owner.

Disqualifications:

June 15 2018

So you are thinking of casting your own blanks – Read this first.

Ryan Van Leuven Acrylic Turning Blanks, Call Making

We have been casting blanks for nearly 8 years now. We have been the innovators of and brains behind, many ideas and colors out there today. We made call making easier and have helped many people get started in it. A lot of people think that we are against people casting their own blanks. This is false. We are against people copying our colors and ideas, then trying to compete against us by selling those blanks.

We see a lot of customers stop ordering and try to cast their own blanks. More often than not, then return to order blanks again after realizing that casting isn’t what they thought it would be. I decided to write this article, not to discourage people from casting, but to educate would-be casters on what to expect before they waste a lot of money and potentially hurt themselves in the process.

First off, casting is expensive. There are a LOT of hidden costs that most don’t realize before getting into it. Between the supplies, safety equipment, degassing, etc, it all adds up. You really need to do the math first. We sell a barrel for $10. To cast one you may be able to cast it for half as much. That is $5 saved! Except now you need to subtract your materials, equipment, and most importantly, time. In the hour it takes you to cast a blank and clean up, how many barrels could you have turned? More on this later.

Now this list isn’t all inclusive, and to just cast a couple blanks, it may not all be necessary, but if you are serious about casting, these is actually a very basic list.

Safety – Insulated, temp controlled room. NIOSH respirator. Chemical proof rubber gloves. Clean air ventilation system. Fire extinguisher. Proper clothing or coveralls. See…resin casting is dangerous. The fumes are harzardous and VERY explosive. People have burnt their house down while casting. It can hurt your skin if it gets on it. It will also make your entire house smell if not isolated.

Materials – Resin, hardener, pigments, molds, mold release, thermometer, psychrometer, degass chamber (vacuum or pressure), work bench. Resin has a VERY short shelf life. If not used quick enough, it goes bad. It also needs to have correct temperature and humidity to set right. While vacuum chambers are fairly safe, pressure pots that can reach the required pressure for degassing, are expensive and dangerous. Molds can be cheap or very expensive. Cheap molds will get you a handful of casts before they need to be replaced. Our insert and goose molds were over $900 ea. Pigments aren’t real expensive until you want to do lots of colors. Then they add up quick. You could have $4 in pigments into JUST ONE BARREL.

Disposables – Cups, mixing sticks, paper towels, etc. Pretty self explanatory but again, they add up quick.

Again, this is just a basic list.

You will lose anywhere from 10 – 20% of material from spills, mold leaks, stuff left in the cup and container.

You will lose approx 1% of your blanks to breakage when remolding, air pockets, not getting hard in the mold, getting stuck in the mold, colors that aren’t right, etc.

You will spend nearly twice as much time cleaning your molds as you will casting.

I have done the math, numerous times. Casting vs buying blanks. How many calls could you make, in the time you spend casting? How much do you actually save? If you are going to cast 10,000 blanks and make 10,000 calls from them, the investment may be worth it. If you are making and selling a couple hundred calls a year, it probably isn’t. You will double your time investment, or half the amount of calls out the door. All to only make a couple dollars more per call.

Casting sucks. Seriously. It is fun the first few times. The final results are cool. The rest sucks. Ask my mom, who casts all our blanks. It is boring, time consuming, and very frustrating. She has gotten phenomenal at it, but up until then, we had a LOT of fails. Even to this day, we still have blanks that don’t turn out, almost daily.

If you want to buy a couple pigments, make a mold, and try and cast a few blanks…it is fun. I highly recommend trying it. Just keep in mind, from someone who has 8 years experience, and tens of thousands of dollars invested, unless you are casting and turning well into the 1000s a year, it isn’t a good business decision.

February 9 2018

Office will be closed

Ryan Van Leuven Pintail Waterfowl News

After a VERY busy season, we wanted to take Easter weekend and the week following it, off for some family time.

Pintail’s office & shipping will be closed March 29th through April 8th. You can still place orders during this time and we will ship orders in the order they are received as well as begin casting custom orders, as soon as we reopen on April 9th.

Email: We will do our best to respond to emails and Facebook messages during this time, but it may be slower than normal.

All orders placed before 10:30AM EST on March 29th have been shipped!

Thank you for understanding, Happy Easter to everyone, and as always, we appreciate your continued business & support!

October 24 2017

7th Annual Black Friday Sale

Ryan Van Leuven Black Friday Sale, Pintail Waterfowl News

Don’t miss Pintail Waterfowl’s 7th Annual Black Friday Sale. Starting 9pm on Thanksgiving night and all day Friday. We also have a small sale on Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday for those who miss out over the Holiday.

This is by far the biggest sale of the year for us! Great deals on blanks (duck barrels, inserts, matched sets, even customs, all in stock jigs (P1, P3, Blank) and custom jigs, mandrels, and more!!

Watch our Facebook page, during the month of November to win a chance to get in the door, “get the codes”, before every one else. Starting around 9pm on Thanksgiving, Thursday November 23rd we will begin posting promo codes, until about 11pm, then again all day friday from 9am to 5pm we will post codes randomly. Some codes will run for a certain amount of time, while others will run the entriety of the event or until a certain amount are sold.

This Years Giveaways!

We will be giving away a free gift to the first 75 orders over $100 and free shipping to orders over $200.

A special free gift to the largest order (based on dollar amount and product count).

Trivia Questions posted on Facebook with prizes, all day Friday! (Watch for special trivia questions all through November to get early access to promo codes for first choice of stock!)
Mystery Blank – We pick one blank and if you order it, you not only get the blank for free, you will get a prize as well!
Random giveaways – We will randomly pick orders for free products and free surprizes!
Random order refunds – We will randomly pick an order to receive their entire order for free as well as refund money on a bunch of other orders.
Free shipping on random orders – We will randomly pick orders and refund your shipping

Combined Shipping !

Order as many times as you want! We will combine orders placed between 9PM Thursday and Midnight Monday and refund shipping on all additional orders so you can catch all the deals without getting nailed on shipping! Spend over $200 (on one or all combined orders) and all shipping is free!

Other info

Custom jigs can be ordered, but you can send your insert whenever. You don’t need to send it right away.

July 27 2017

2017 Pintail Waterfowl Call Making Contest

Ryan Van Leuven Call Making, Contests, Pintail Waterfowl News

2017 Pintail Waterfowl Call Making Contest

Sponsored by: Pintail Waterfowl , Bond Point

SPONSORS WANTED! CONTACT US IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO DONATE!

Dates:

August 1st-September 30th will be the call making and submission period.
September 3oth is the deadline for call picture submissions!
October 1st judging starts.
October 7th winners announced.

How to Enter:

Call makers may enter one (1) Photo of the call of they are entering. One call per person. You may submit pictures of calls by emailing them to us at ryan@pintailwaterfowl.com or messaging them to us on Pintail’s Facebook page. Please put “Call Contest” in the header and make sure to include your full name (real name, not company name), city and state. You may also tell us anything you want about the call you are submitting.

You may also enter by sending your picture via message on Facebook to Pintail Waterfowl’s FB page.

Pictures posted to Pintail Waterfowl’s FB page are not allowed as entries.

Criteria:

Calls entered in the contest will be judged on use of color, material, and craftsmanship of the call. You are encouraged (not required) to use a mix of different materials (resin/acrylic, bone, antler, wood, metals, etc) BUT 50% or more of the call must be from our material. We want to see how far you can push your limits! While we are not judging on the quality of the photo, nicer photos represent the calls better and may play a role in your call getting noticed more by our judges. This contest is based solely on the picture of the call entrants submit and is not a chance based contest.

Categories are:

Best use of materials – We want to see what you can do with our materials or even blending ours with other materials!
Best laminated/sleeved call – We want to see those flawlessly laminated or sleeved calls.
Best non laminated call – Calls made with a one piece barrel and one piece insert.
Call Maker of the Year – That one call that just stands out above the rest

Prizes:

Winners in each category will receive:

A custom plaque made by Bond Point
A $50 Pintail Waterfowl store credit
A special barrel blank from Pintail Waterfowl
Pintail Waterfowl Hoodie

Pintail Waterfowl Call Maker Of The Year will receive an additional $50 Pintail Waterfowl store credit.

Additional prizes from our sponsors:

1080p Waterproof Action Camera from Work To Woods

A lanyard from Mavericks Custom Calls

$50 Pintail store credit donated by Full Tilt Fowlers

Anodized bands from Ron Gould’s Bands

Rules:

Calls can be duck, goose, grunt calls, turkey pot, or any style of “tube” style calls.
Calls should be newly made during the call making period. This is based on the honor system.
Calls will be placed into the appropriate category as we see fit. Only one winner per category.
Must use a Pintail blank for at least half (50%) of the call. Premade style inserts are allowed.
Calls can be sleeved, laminated (with wood or other), etc as long as at least 1/2 (roughly) of the material is Pintail’s.
Calls can be plain, engraved, color filled, hand carved, banded etc.
We will not be judging on sound quality but calls should be a working call.
Submit 1 (one) picture of your best call
Pintail Waterfowls featured call makers are allowed to enter but are not allowed to vote.
By submitting a picture, you are agreeing to these rules and allow the picture submitted to be used in future marketing and advertising by Pintail Waterfowl, LLC.

Voting:

Calls will be judged by our independant panal of 5 judges. I don’t believe in “FB voting” as a fair way to judge. How many likes or shares do not play any role in voting.
Callmaker of the year call will be chosen solely by Pintail Ryan.
In the event of a tie between judges, ties will be broken by being chosen by the business owner.

Disqualifications:

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