Philip Sanford Olt

Philip Sanford Olt

by Scott Whittington in News

1870-1950 | Pekin, Illinois

No manufacturer of their time produced more game calls than the historic P.S. Olt Company from South Pekin, Illinois.  The venerable “D-2 Duck Call” has probably accounted for more duck calls sales than any other call made and are still in high demand today.  Philip Olt was the first to produce a true “Arkansas Style” insert that had straight reed and a curved toneboard. 

Olt began making calls prior to 1900 but not until 1904 did Olt decide to start manufacturing calls. It’s believed that his calls made prior to 1904 were made of wood with a metal reed.  Only two of these calls have been discovered and are believed to be the first “Olt” calls made.  Olt’s first manufactured calls had a wooden barrel and a hard rubber stopper but soon after, all of his calls were made of hard rubber.  Olt’s first patent, filed on May 22nd, 1905 was for a one-piece, metal reed, flat toneboard, hard rubber call that included a mechanism for adjusting the length of the reed.  This early call carries the stamp perpendicular to the barrel that reads-  “The O.K. Duck Call PH Olt Pekin Ills”.  The D2 duck call had “Pat. Applied For” on the stopper until 1941, then they read “Reg. Trademark NO. 348205”.  Up until 1938, the tone channels in the D2 calls were round in shape before the popular “keyhole” shape was designed. 

Up until 1936, Olt designed all of the calls that his company had to offer such as the A5 goose call, B-4 adjustable call, he C3 duck call, and the Perfect Mallard Call.  After 1936, Al Sonderman, a local Pekin callmaker,  joined the company and started designing calls for them.  The company was in business until the early 1990’s. 

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