Anyone out there blow a cut down olt keyhole style call? If so what kind and why?

Yes, the Kirk McCullough modified "Death From Below" from Black Ops Calls

"Even in the hands of a Topwater this call can cause seriuos injury to Mallards"


The KM DJ Grafton is another great cut down.

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Kirk's a good guy, cuts a good call. I've got an old olt but don't run it very often. When you learn how, you can make them sound good. There's just not a lot of variability.

Now, down in the Bayou when you gotta stand out and be louder than the other 5,000 yahoos blowin a call... the cut down is great tool.

.....Yep, the cut down keyholes are not for everyone. It takes a completely different air presentation, Fortunately, I have enough hot air to make it bark


I have an original bakelite keyhole Olt that Kirk is gonna cut down for me next spring....was made about '55 or so.
I was lucky to find one that hasn't been tampered with so he can start on a clean slate.

He modifies the DJ Grafton and it sounds as good or better than a Bakelite Olt to me.....I'll be sending him some dough for one of those pretty soon.

I looked at the km calls and i like them a lot. I spoke with the black ops guy on the phone and was very helpful. My biggest question was "how much air does it take"? And they all told me its not a matter of how much air you put in its how you put it in the call. Is that true??? I use rnt calls mostly and can run and tune them pretty good. I know that a keyhole style call is totally different from a daisy cutter. There are many different makers of keyhole style calls and i was curious as to what brand would be a good one to start with?

It really doesn't take that much more air than a RNT it just has to be pinched into the call differently to get that bark. No one could explain it to me really , I just kinda picked it up by listening to Kirk and Lester Capps on Kirks huntin videos.

The Black Ops guys are great and their calls are about $75. The Black Ops call was harder for me to get until I had Kirk work on it. But that's just me.

If I had to buy my first cut down call right now, it would be Kirks DJ Grafton......They claim its a little easier than the Black Ops at first and at $89 for a KM call you can't go wrong.

Not more air but just pinched into the call differently, thats a good way to explain it...I have a tough time explaining air presentation

That's hard to answer really, I've listened a zillion sound files on all of them and they are all good calls. Each one has their own little twist on how they feel the call should sound. They all seem to use a little different material so to me that's where the difference comes. I would like to get teh BSOD and the DJ just because they are cheaper than the Black Ops and RDOP calls just to see how I like that style. I just recently bought a custom call that was turned to get really loud and have that hard bark in it. I can make it bark and they are right, it's not just blowing a call, it's really putting a burst of air through it. I like the way it sounds and can't wait to run it in the real deal.