If one was to drive down Hwy 73 in Groves and spot the water tower on Cleveland Avenue, he or she might see the Sure-Shot Game Calls logo featured prominently on one of its sides.

“Sure-Shot has been a significant business partner in our community for the past 60 years,” Brad Bailey, mayor of Groves, said in a press release. “Their products are second to none and we are proud that they are manufactured right here… in our own county.”

The current president of Sure-Shot Game Calls, Charlie Holder, has been running the company since September 1, 2011. However, his experience within the industry and with its notable figures extends further back than that.

“I was on radio with Billy [Halfin] from ’97 to ’08 and Billy was friends with Cowboy,” Holder said. “Each week we would have different interviews and Cowboy would come on the show once a year to do them.”

That was when Holder first met James “Cowboy” Fernandez, the co-founder of Sure-Shot Game Calls.

“I had grown up with Billy and Cowboy as my heroes. It was an honor first meeting them. Cowboy and I started a relationship back then.”

It was a relationship that spanned many years and bore unexpected fruit for Holder.

The future Sure-Shots president had already run other businesses before and had sold them in 2011 when he called one day to check in on Fernandez.

“I had no intention to come to Sure-Shot, but I called to check in on his health,” Holder said. “I asked him how he was doing and how’s Sure-Shot; and he told me, ‘It’s not. It’s not good at all.’”

Holder recalled Fernandez telling him, “‘You need to come here and make something of it.’

“When I came over, you could tell that it was closing down. I knew it wasn’t the Sure-Shot I knew. Cowboy said, ‘I’m going to close it down. None of the people interested can do anything with it, but I think you can.’”

Holder considered the offer.

“I thought about it, slept over it and then decided to take a shot at it.

“I grew up with Sure-Shot in the hunting catalogues. I knew Sure-Shot had a lot of brand equity. I knew the name itself could come back.”

Although Holder was quick to add, “But I didn’t know that it would be an uphill battle.”

According to Holder, the duck call industry is very competitive and the market is oversaturated with companies that are trying to distinguish their wares from each other.

“If I knew then what I know now five years later, I wouldn’t have done it,” Holder said.

But through aggressive marketing and a growing presence on social media, Sure-Shot has steadily gained traction in the duck call market once again.

“Our calls are flying off the shelves,” Holder said, pointing to one of their calls pictured in a hunting catalogue. “They’ve had to call us three times in three weeks to resupply them.”

In addition, Holder credits their success to the quality of their duck call products and how other duck call companies in the U.S. use the same mass-produced reeds for their calls — “it’s only the outer shell that’s different,” he said of competitors’ calls.

“We’re the only company in the country who makes our own reeds who does that,” Holder said.

The legacy of Sure-Shot was not lost on Groves City Manager, D.E. Sosa, who felt the local company could benefit from city recognition.

“We were trying to decide on what we should do to promote the City of Groves and City of Groves businesses that have been here forever or that are unique in some fashion or that sets itself apart from others in some way.”

Sosa believed that “Sure-Shot makes a better product than Duck Commander. It would spur a lot of interest if we threw [their logo] up there [on the water tower].”

“Two years ago, the [Groves] City Manager Sosa came in and was asking questions about the business and I was showing him our national press,” Holder said.

“We have tons of national articles about us.”

Holder referred to their coverage in magazines like “Wildfowl,” where teams of 20 writers would come out and join Holder and other hunters for media hunts.

“I showed our press to Sosa and how we’re working… He walks out the door and then walks right back in, asking how I’d like the Sure-Shot logo to be on the [Groves] water tower.

“I asked him what it would take and I was expecting this big quote, this huge cost to do it — then he said, ‘Just your signature.’”

Holder recalled Sosa saying that Sure-Shot was an “iconic brand” and that they brought in more business than several other companies did.

For Holder, it was a done deal — their logo would remain on the tower for 25 years — and it was also a very meaningful gesture.

“It’s humbling. It’s humbling to be honored this way,” Holder said.

“You look at big companies like Duck Commander and they don’t have their name on a water tower.”

It also held extra importance for Holder — a sort of town pride.

“All the guys in this area use our calls, from the Beach to the Winnie area.

“And it’s not just my company — it’s everyone who wears a Yentzen around their neck. Our calls are people’s heritage.

“Some still have [our] calls from the ‘50s and ‘60s; some don’t even use them anymore because they’re too valuable to lose in the field.”

For Holder, those people could wear their heritage around their necks with pride.