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I have blown an old wooden Olt 800 for over 30 years. I keep threatening to get an acrylic call but I am still calling in geese with the Olt and killing them. When I got sick and couldn't breathe for 4 years I could still call some. I never would have been able to with acrylic. Try a wooden call and get used to being able to control the break from low sound to high so that it rolls out as one sound. Buy a calling tape and listen to it 25 times. Keep the call in your vehicle and call every day. When you have mastered that try one of the acrylics again. Not sure where you are located but I am available any time by phone if you aren't near New Hampshire. PM me a number and we can set up a time.

Bill

Throbbin Rods wrote: Keep the call in your vehicle and call every day.

And don't try to make just the specific sounds you are trying to make, but learn the feel and how to do things outside the range of what you will be doing in the field. You want control of the call. When it breaks, how it breaks, ... Fast, slow, ... High pitch, low pitch, ... You want to learn what the call does and why and be able to control that at your will. It's a fairly complex musical instrument that involves understanding how you hold it to your lips, how you put air into it, how you control the back pressure with your hands, ... There are a lot of variables you want under your control to get the sounds you want when you want them. All this needs to become muscle memory so when the geese are there you just think I want higher, deeper, shorter, faster, ... and you just do it without thinking about how you are doing it.

And once you get to be mediocre, reading the birds and knowing what to do in different situations will become more important than improved sound. Is the goose looking for friendly company or willing to fight for some food? Does he need coaxing and reassurance or just a little clucking to keep him on the line you want or do you need to scream at him because he is going to land short if you don't? And many other variations with most seemingly immune to whatever you do, but if you can pick up something from them and give them what they want to hear

trap333 wrote:Are shorter calls easier to blow than a flute type?

There are guys on here that really know how to call. From a meat hunter that has never blown a flute type. I believe the flute type are easier to start out with and get a goosey sound out of. However, my short call, while it takes more practice to even produce anything goosey from it, can produce a much broader range of sounds so I can mimic a lonely goose, pissed off geese, one single goose, a flock of excited geese, ... Maybe it's just the operators of the flute calls, but that is how it seems to me.

trap333 wrote:I'm in Pennsylvania

Where about in PA? I'm a central PA native. Grew up on the Susquehanna about an hour north of Harrisburg.

I blow an old BigRiver long honkers. Same call for almost 30 year. Still brings em in. Learn to listen to what the birds are doing and you do that back to them. You don't have to sound like you are at a competition to get birds into your spread. Just my 2 cents.......

Someone find a goose calling video that focuses on "how you hold the call".
I tried doing it on my own for years. You can't learn calling very efficiently without someone at least showing you a thing or two. I somehow managed to conquer duck calls on my own but the goose call...uh uh.
Once a guide named Malone literally held my hands on a call and made me learn how to do it right I got way way better.
Using your paw to control the back-pressure is key.

I'd have never ever in a million years figured it out on my own and I still kind of suck at a Canada goose call. However...if you could see all the geese I've killed in one big pile someone would say "he knows how to call".

Speck calling is even harder.

The old OLT goose calls I have are easy as heck but not very LOUD like the newer versions. OLT model 77. Try one.
Then try an Olt A50 and finally spend the cash and buy a committed custom call. Gary Perinar sent me a cutdown goose call then tuned it for me in Malone's garage. He shaved the reed.
There's a thread in here somewhere with pictures.

Here in east-central Illinois the geese are the big ones with deep voices. That A50 is the ticket as long as you're in Champaign County.

Given that they're of the same make, model and tuning, acrylic, poly carbonate (what you currently own) and wood will all run the same: none harder or easier than the others. (Each material will have such slightly different tone qualities that many won't notice, let alone care about them.)

Ease of operation depends on the call's design and individual tuning, which is to say that someone who knows his business can probably tune your call to be easier to run, though not necessarily better sounding to your ear.

In terms of design, the old Olts some spoke of are called "resonant" calls, have long reeds and, if properly designed and tuned, are relatively easy to get goosey sounds out of when compared to modern "short reed" calls, which are what you have. Flute type calls were the next to be developed and offer what are considered by most experts to offer the most accurate goose sounds, as well as apparently being easier for many to master than short reed calls, but the flutes are big and clunky and a pain to cart around. Short reeds are the most recent development in Canada calls, and while probably having a bit steeper learning curve than most, due to the importance of adding back-pressure (the hand positioning AB spoke of) are versatile in terms of range as can be, handy to carry and currently far and away the most popular. The short reeds you currently own are popular ones and should be fine to get you off and running - given proper tuning and operation.

There's a world of how-to tuning and operating stuff on Youtube, but were I you, I'd invest in Molt Gear's "Bad Grammar" DVD, which, if followed, will get your fundamentals in place and make the rest pretty easy.

Best of luck with it. Calling can be a frustration or a hoot - just up to you to get it right.

trap333 wrote:SpinnerMan, I'm in Wernersville, about 10 miles west of Reading on 422. Lived in Berks County my whole life.

Steve

Been through there, but don't know the area. I have relatives in Pottstown and Lancaster. Both I think about 20 miles or so from you.

Good luck with the goose calling.