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Seems every young gun I know has a Cutdown hanging on his lanyard. I gotta get in the game so I don't get left behind Which one should I try and why should I buy it?

They’ve served me well when it feels like I have to “tell” the ducks what to do instead of just asking nicely. I’ll usually start off the morning with a j frame and if they don’t respond to that move to a cut down. Used a regular rnt mondo for years but have recently become more fond of a singleton. Takes a lot less air to blow and I’m getting more out of shape as each year passes.

I had someone else tell me the Singleton was handy and growing in popularity.

Rolling thunder is the cutdown call I purchased. The only reason is because the guy was on the end of the line podcast so I figured I’d give it a shot. I don’t know anything about the guy or his calls. I like it but North Dakota ducks are not very picky. Since living here I have become very lazy with my duck calling. Maybe one day I will post a video so you guys can have a good laugh!

Ever in search of more down-range leverage, I got my first cutdowns (original RNT Mondo, original Rolling Thunder and Black Ops) shortly after hearing the sharp top end bark (eg: 35 second mark) on this video:


In my hands and with the help of some extra reeds Jim threw in for me to play with, the Mondo came closest to the sound I was after. But I could only keep it up as loud and long as I wanted by initially gating notes with the tip of my tongue to roof of my mouth ("duck" or "tuck," instead of my usual J-frame wide open "whack" air presentation) to get the cutdowns' heavier reeds moving.

I ran that call a lot in the off season and off and on throughout three seasons, and we killed some birds over it, but it was pretty much a one trick (tone) pony, and I didn't find "the juice worth the squeeze". (Also found Stanley Deceivers a more versatile and easily run alternative when my go-to MVP was falling short on volume.)

Read some good things about Singleton's LA cut last fall, and having not tried anything new for a few years, bought one on a whim - and found it just another cutdown, as tuned by its maker, Devin. Put it up until after the season, but bought some reeds to play with its tuning then. And, in the meantime, stumbled onto this video where the guy in the gray hat caught my ear with the tone of his Rolling Thunder Brute R:


So I bought a Brute R, too - and found it was just another cutdown in my hands. Ran its tuning up and down scale, from too heavy for me to get anything ducky out of to too light to run without air-locking when I really jumped on it and never did get the tone from it the fellow in the video, or last year's Cutdown World Champion, get out of their Brute Rs. Also found it really tight top to bottom and another pretty much a "one trick pony/duck" in that regard.

But when I ran the LA Cut Singleton through that same range of tunings (something I've down with every new J-frame through my hands for decades) I found what strikes me as something of a cutdown/J-frame hybrid just north (longer reed) of the point where it would air-lock when hit as hard as I can. Loose, like what I think good J-frames, with a bunch of "ducks" readily found, top to bottom. Can also run it loud and long with my normal J-frame air presentation, albeit with that thicker cutdown reed demanding more attention to air presentation, sort of like the difference when going from double to single reed J-frames. Which is something that most often shows up on light low end stuff, where it can act stick-or-air-locky much like my early Daisy Cutter was apt to.

That, and, even tuned as light as I have it, it will get appreciably louder than my loudest J-frame. So I'm anxious as can be to give it a go on birds.

Still, everyone's physiology, methodology and tone preferences vary, and so to may your mileage...

Will be fun to follow along here.

I'll just keep blowing my DR-85 as loud as I can in the fields, me. Run it good bit softer in the marsh with the mottleds and grays.

Don't care where you are, if they can't hear it, it ain't tolling them.

Rick didn't one of those guys have his gun break on one of those videos

OGblackcloud wrote:Rick didn't one of those guys have his gun break on one of those videos

Don't recall gun issues on the hunting video above, but recall a similar, I think 3K Productions, one where a fellow's gun with a big Retay decal on its stock gives him fits. Scratch that sponsorship...

Rick, we might’ve discussed this before, but if you haven’t traded that brute-R already, may try swapping it for a BruteXL. Think they opened up the exhaust quite a bit.

Duck Engr wrote:Rick, we might’ve discussed this before, but if you haven’t traded that brute-R already, may try swapping it for a BruteXL. Think they opened up the exhaust quite a bit.

Had looked over and listened to all of the XL stuff I could find online and don't doubt it could be a better fit, for me, than the R, what with the touted differences all being things the Singleton LA has. So I believe I'll just sell the R and give the Singleton LA at least a season's trial before even thinking more on something else. Really infatuated with its possibilities - so far... (Dang birds don't always share my best guesses.)

Appreciate all the comments.

Bottom line, of course, being that you're going to have to take some weight out of that fat wallet and experiment to see which, if any, might really suit you.

Rick wrote:Bottom line, of course, being that you're going to have to take some weight out of that fat wallet and experiment to see which, if any, might really suit you.

Very true! I have a couple grand of tried and true discarded calls on the mantle. There is always something better out there or so I think. Another 4-5 hundred won't sink my ship so we shall see

Both Rnt and rolling thunder have brick and mortar store fronts you can go to try calls if you have the time. Rnt is in Stuttgart obviously. Rolling thunder is near Memphis.

Duck Engr wrote:Both Rnt and rolling thunder have brick and mortar store fronts you can go to try calls if you have the time. Rnt is in Stuttgart obviously. Rolling thunder is near Memphis.

My plan is to get to Singleton, RNT, and Echo later this fall. I'm picking up a my dog in Joneboro, Ark. on or about October 1st. I could easily come back through Memphis if wanted to. Excited about the trip for multiple reasons

Sounds like a good plan! Have also heard echo will go above and beyond at their shop to get you fitted with the right call.

Duck Engr wrote:Sounds like a good plan! Have also heard echo will go above and beyond at their shop to get you fitted with the right call.

A couple of different Echo's is what hangs on my lanyard along with a Daisy Cutter

I've got an old duck commander that has Blake plugging his ears during the hunt. It's been with me from before the craze with these guy's, I have a couple of these in my bag with varying tones. These we're purchased around the time or just before the first duckmen video. (Early 90's late 80's) The reed on my go to is showing some stress but it's still hanging in there. I may have to replace it this season.

This brings back memories.

When I met Robertson that video was still hot off whatever VHS tapes came off of, and he was concerned about it ever paying for its production by a professional film crew over a much longer period than viewers might guess, but he gave me a copy - which I gave back after viewing it, so he could afford to pass it to someone else. Don't think either of us could have imagined what it would spawn.

At that time I was using one of his early Cutdown Reachers, which wasn't a "cutdown" in that term's common usage but a cutdown version of his Reacher (molded version of his original wood double-reed model). That initial CR run didn't sell well, and he'd quit trying to market them but still made some up "for me, thee and them few others that can run them" and was kind enough to give me another along with a mess of reeds to experiment with, so I could pitch one high and the other low. (They were eventually brought back into production and may, or may not, still be in their lineup.) Be surprised if he'd remember me, but I've not forgotten those kindnesses.

Dave, if yours is molded, you might see that the plastic has something of a wood grain to it, which he told me is from something like baking powder for plastic and he thought helped give it a more wood-like tone. Asked me not to write about it.

Good stuff guys...

I've still got an old wooden Duck Commander on my call strap, and when it was given to me in 1980 or 81, it was the sweetest sounding call I'd ever heard. A cousin of mine met Phil on a trip to LA, and brought it to me as a present for taking him duck hunting several times. Must've been one of his first editions??

Deltaman wrote:I've still got an old wooden Duck Commander on my call strap, and when it was given to me in 1980 or 81, it was the sweetest sounding call I'd ever heard. A cousin of mine met Phil on a trip to LA, and brought it to me as a present for taking him duck hunting several times. Must've been one of his first editions??

Probably an early, if not his earliest, production model: DC200??? or something like that. Ducky and super easy to run. Had one I'd long forgotten in my call junk drawer that I gave to a very young grandson and had him up and running PDQ.

An annual regular of mine who went to college with Robertson (who seemed to call everyone, or maybe just me, by their last name) showed me the trademark of his earliest calls, an offset barrel bore:

Wow, that one is obviously older than mine. I just checked, and although worn down hard, mine is not offset like that one.

Deltaman wrote:Wow, that one is obviously older than mine. I just checked, and although worn down hard, mine is not offset like that one.

Was how he turned them for buddies, not produced for sale. Yours should be centered.