king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Hunting Illustrated Magazine Dec/Jan 2008 - Coyote Crazy! - Index

www.minaskaoutdoors.com
Can you give us a little history of
how you and your brother Todd got
things started with the company?
In October of 2003, Todd and
I decided that we wanted to
manufacture hunting products. We
had been using a Dennis Kirk call that
we put in a dry box. Todd actually
mounted everything together. We
had been using that call for about
fi ve or six years when I thought,
“Well, let’s take a stab at making our
own version.” So, we started making
non-remote calls and selling some
of our competition stuff at the same
time. It soon became apparent that
there was a lack of user friendliness
with changing sounds, sound quality
and remote operation. We felt that
the calls on the market left a lot to be
desired. That’s what led us to hiring
an engineer. We did the design work
and let him know what we wanted
it to do and our electrical engineer
took it from there as far as the circuit
board goes.
Take us back to the early
beginnings of how you became
interested in predator calling.
Minaska Outdoors
Steve Borland: President
I remember the fi rst thing I called in
was a red fox, I was using a Burnham
Brothers mouth call when I was eight
years old and that is when my love of
predator hunting began. Todd, Gary
(our brother) and I all began hunting
and trapping with our father at around
eight years old. We started calling coons
a lot when I was around twelve years
old. We started calling with a boom
box. Todd actually started doing that a
couple of years before he let me borrow
his setup. We were not making our own
sounds at that point; we were just using
the commercial cassette tape we had.
We didn’t start making our own sounds
until 2004. It was then that we really
started getting to the point where we
had the electrical design fi nished and
the enclosures and speakers selected.
We began working on our own sound
recordings as well as working with some
Animal Control guys in. We started
out with the non-remote electronic call
which you would hook up your own
audio source (cassette, mp3 player) to
the unit. It was basically an amplifi er
with a built-in speaker. Then we began
working on an electronic call that you
could control with a remote so that it
would be more user friendly and give
the hunter an advantage with the wind.
You weren’t limited to just a few sounds;
you could actually add 100 sounds to
the call.
What are some of the events that have
transpired that have brought you to
where you are at today?
We literally walked into Radio Shack
and bought a few things, went online
and bought a few things, and started in
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CORP. INTERVIEW
the basement. We just progressed
from that point until 2006 when we
moved out of the basement into an
actual building. We outgrew that
building within the fi rst three months
and moved to a facility twice its
size. That’s where we are currently
and we are up to the ceiling at that
building already.
What can we look forward to as
far as new products coming out?
It looks like you are going to target
younger hunters with The Little
Bandito.
The Little Bandito is actually our
fi rst attempt at a mouth call. We
have another mouth call that is
in the works right now as well. I
can’t really give you a lot on that
other than we are coming out with
another mouth call. We have a lot of
different products coming out within
the next eight months in various
areas of hunting. Electronics, mouth
calls and decoys. We also have some
exciting things coming out for deer.
If you were to breakdown predator
hunting from ten years ago to the
present-day boom, what do you
foresee as the future of predator
hunting?
I don’t see a plateau anytime soon.
When you walk around any kind of
trade show, whether it be the SHOT
Show or anything like that, just
the exposure that varmint predator
calling is getting right now is
incredible. Every year it’s growing
and growing. I don’t see it coming