NuffDaddy wrote:Id say learn on a single reed. They are a bit trickier to learn, but give you more range of sounds than the doubles. And switching from a double to a single was a bit tricky for me.
Learn how to make a single quack. And how to make it sound good before you move on to anything else.
Timing is everything when it comes to calling ducks. A couple quacks when they are at the end of their swing are all it usually takes. At least for me.
There are some guys on here that are far better callers and more experienced than me that can offer some better advice. I'm sure they'll be on here sooner or later.
mikecatt13 wrote:As far as timing and what calls to blow at those times, short of hunting with an experienced caller and then good ole trial and error is there a way to get a jump start on the basic guidelines? Would such a simple thing as watching waterfowling DVDs be a good idea? I tend to learn fast and am fairly good at analyzing things so if I learn the different notes first would this work?
Thanks guys!
AKPirate wrote:Jason is usually right but sometimes wrong
At its tactical core, calling ducks is about momentum: creating it, breaking it, maintaining it and, sometimes, just not getting in its way. So I take my calling cues by paying attention to the birds' momentum.
If the location and decoys are doing my job for me, and the birds want to come to the guns, I'll let 'em. Calling only enough to keep them coming if they waver and/or to put them "right there". Not getting in the way of birds that want to work was little doubt the inspiration for the old saw about calling only to tail feathers and wing tips.
By the same token, if the birds haven't shown me their intent, I'll call just enough to get our hat in the ring. And if they jump for it, chances are they can be finessed the rest of the way by tickling them "on the corners". Again letting the birds' momentum do most of the work.
But if birds blow off a simple greeting and drive on toward parts unknown, I've got nothing to lose and everything to gain by hitting them hard with the call. Here again, if they're quick to turn to it, they'll probably do most of the work from there on in.
And if they don't turn to, I really amp it up, watching for any little wink or blink of a wing suggesting the jackhammer will work if I can just crank it up a little louder and longer. When I can't get anything to flirt, I'm only out some wind. But when something will wink or blink, and I don't run out of wind, our chances of getting shooting out of it are excellent.
Wasn't always so, however, because when I'd worked that hard to break something off a flock or turn the bunch, I worried about over calling and backed off as they headed to us - only to lose them when I did. Took me a lot more such losses than I'm happy admitting to realize that even when I turned the whole flock and not just a bird or two from it, the real momentum was still headed toward whatever was drawing them away in the first place and might well stay that way. Many such birds are either coaxed all the way to the guns or lost, presumably to their prior destination.
If there's a "rule" to such things, it may be that the harder birds are to turn in the first place, the more likely the need to call to their faces until you call the shot. "Tails and tips" be damned.
Very often, too, we'll see that birds within hailing range appear deaf, because they're zeroed in on another nearby spot, and our best efforts aren't turning them. We can't break the momentum toward that location within their view, like we could toward a distant, perhaps less tangible, goal.
But it's often the case that we can then use their own momentum against such birds by letting those apparently locked on such a spot go to it, break down for it, and then, when their circling heads them our general direction, calling to their faces to keep them headed our way, perhaps thinking there might be a better deal just a little farther on. Or just caught up in the call.
Again, though, don't let up as they approach or pass a good shot hoping for a better one, because they've already shown that what they really want is over yonder.
And that's more than enough of that for a while. Lots and lots of other tactical stuff, including gosh knows how many under the label "most important thing" or "secrets" that probably aren't. But I think a fellow who really pays attention to momentum and calls accordingly has a far better foundation to build on than most.
Woody wrote:Find where ducks want to be, hunt there. When you get home throw away your duck calls. They are worthless 95% of the time and really are duck hunter jewelry.
Tomkat wrote:Go to the park and listen to the sounds real ducks make. Watch some very old Duck Commander hunting videos. They dont do anything fancy and kill lots of ducks. Best thing you can do is buy a drake whistle. That will kill ducks, you can master it quickly.
team216 wrote:Tomkat wrote:Go to the park and listen to the sounds real ducks make. Watch some very old Duck Commander hunting videos. They dont do anything fancy and kill lots of ducks. Best thing you can do is buy a drake whistle. That will kill ducks, you can master it quickly.
I second this, a whistle call is deadly in my opinion. Cause most of the ducks you see have already heard the hail call, the feed chuckle, the comeback call a million times on their migration. Simple calling and a whistle call. Deadly combo for weary ducks
Rick wrote:I've a good friend who is extremely successful with just a whistle. Well, that, legal access and a Lafitte skiff with radar, an airboat and a pirogue he's not afraid to pole that get him to where the ducks want to be anyway.
Flyway Stalker wrote:I sort of struggle with promoting anything from Jeff Foiles and don't know if you can even find one anymore, but he made an inexpensive call ($30.00 or so) called the Straight Suzy that was very easy to blow and created a sound as good, if not sometimes better than some of my very expensive calls. I still have one that I use all the time to finish ducks, as do all 3 of my sons. My oldest son has used his to teach his 5 year old daughter to call.
As the others have said, learn to quack first and get the hang of the drake whistle, the rest of the calls will come later.
You can make a bunch of noise to get their attention, but once you have it you need to stop acting like your in a calling compitition, and learn to listen and repeat what the ducks are saying back to you. If they are checking you out, but aint talking, I would be quite or maybe just through an occasional very lite quack or feeding chuckle at them.
You can't allways be on the X, so your going to have to learn to make some sound and good decoy patterns.
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