Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby Rick » Thu Aug 10, 2017 12:35 pm

Have to admit I'm curious about how the Amazon compensation for that works.
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby aunt betty » Thu Aug 10, 2017 12:50 pm

Oh I can teach you how to call ducks sometimes.

Rates:

Answers are $1
Answers that require thought $2
Correct answers are $4

Any questions? ;)
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby Rick » Thu Aug 10, 2017 1:16 pm

Displaced hillbilly, but been wearin' dem li'l white skrimpin' boots and shootin' dem teals since '83. Almost long enough to be naturalized.
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby Rick » Thu Aug 10, 2017 1:24 pm

I prefer to think of them as Camron cowboy boots or Delcambre dancing shoes, though I'm more apt to use them for the former than the later these days.
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby aunt betty » Thu Aug 10, 2017 2:00 pm

nopouldeau wrote:By the way, curious as to what your profile picture says Aunt Betty?

Really don't remember. (that's four bucks for a correct answer)

The free "story". You see it was like this see...
I had an Arkansas flag as my avatar then switched to dale gribble covered in bees when I got bees.
Another member used the dale gribble thing but not with the bees. It confused some people. I think they were from California or something so I got the bear humping avatar. Not 100% sure that's all true but it's my story and I'm stickin' with that version.

I'm pretty sure the flag says "California Republic" on it.

Google "bear humping bear flag".
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby Rick » Fri Aug 11, 2017 5:51 am

johnc wrote:the dr-85 is a duck killer---my issue was sticking once saliva built between reeds


First time I saw Eli, he was hawking DR-85s with a water glass full of them that he'd pull and run to show they'd not stick. Might could be a good thing he didn't add Moon Pies and Copenhagen. Until relatively recently, it could have been a good bet that I was the only guide in South Louisiana without a DR-85 or its hard-bodied internal twin Redleg on the string. They've made a lot of folks happy.
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby Darren » Fri Aug 11, 2017 7:17 am

Enjoyed being able to tell Kelly Haydel at the sportsman's show that a DR-85 is all I run for a mallard call. Have demonstrated the fill-it-up-with-water routine and blown it to many who complained about calls sticking in the rain, etc. It just runs and kills ducks, all for $20-$25
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby Darren » Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:10 am

Can't speak for the technical aspects of it locking, but have hunted in the rain plenty of times and it just goes quack. Lets caveat the whole thing here though: I mostly hunt grays and green wings in the tidal marshes of SE La.......we're not pushing a mallard call hard on any hunts so I'm not the authority on all things technical with DR-85's. I do lean on it a bit more in the fields in Bunkie but even still, I'm far from a demanding caller. It just works for me :thumbsup:
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby aunt betty » Fri Aug 11, 2017 9:40 am

If you're going to insist on two reeds get a Yentzen.
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby SpinnerMan » Fri Aug 11, 2017 10:01 am

I think the biggest "Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport" is to get good enough that it makes a difference.

It's like the golfer that goes out and buys a $300 driver or worries about all those details when in reality it doesn't matter what clubs he starts with and won't matter much for quite some time.
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby aunt betty » Fri Aug 11, 2017 10:26 am

Got sucked into the "buy a bigger driver" thing way back when I puttered around putting and stuff.
One day I pulled out the antique Ben Hogan driver I had saved since high school and gave it a try.
Gained about 15 yards and a ton of control. The giant-head driver got tossed into a water hazard.

A newbie duck caller should probably get two calls. One with two reeds and a single-reed to sound like a fool on until he gets how to run it right. That will take a few years. People will offer to
"pitch your calls" a lot and that's part of the fun of being a newbie duck hunter.
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby aunt betty » Fri Aug 11, 2017 12:02 pm

johnc wrote:I agree it takes years---learn a basic something and repeat until mastered then and only then tackle the next sound or sounds

I see A LOT of speck callers that want top shelf complex speck sound right out the box---does not work like that,never will,takes a marked effort to figure it out---microwave society---90 percent of new callers set out to light the world on fire,then that goes away once it is figured out that it takes substantial effort and the proper sounds are earned through reps

Learning how to hunt should come before calling anyway---Hiding the right way,realistic decoys that don't shine and set to mimic birds in the area,having the field prepped realistic---not crop circle crap,maintaining proper water level---not crawfish pond deep and try to kill geese--wont happen---(I realize a lot of guys in the fields of SW Louisiana have little to no control on how their place is prepped or water level management) They often "make do" with what they have and that is where the rubber meets the road
Save this speech for opening day at the boat launch on public. They'll argue back and say, "but we spent the money so we're entitled to attempt to take kildeer". Should be a great way to start another day on public. There is always some guy saying something about hunting together instead of a competition. Usually a game warden wannabee.
Has been going that way since I was a 14-year-old duck hunter.
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby Rick » Sat Aug 12, 2017 6:19 am

Another thread brought to mind the great Catch 22 of calling and call selection for those new to the sport: fit. It can be tough to run, much less learn on, a call that doesn't fit the caller well, and one can't know if a call fits him if he doesn't already know how to run one.

Each of our physiologies, methodologies and tone preferences vary, and the very same call in the hands most any three accomplished callers will likely vary some in tone - unless, perhaps, they're together and compensating through air presentation to mimic each other. Jim Ronquest is a pretty well known and past World Champion caller who's tuned three or four of my calls from their shop, and there's no question he knows his business, yet I couldn't run any of them to come close to suiting me until I re-tuned them myself and snipped a bit of reed off. (Am guessing Johnc will want to cut a longer reed for a shop-tuned call I've sent him to audition.) In fact, I can only recall one call from anyone's shop that I was unable to improve for personal fit through tuning: a spot-on for me MVP from a time when only John and Butch were tuning them. And whichever tuned it might have been having a bad for them day.

Then, too, there is some call-to-call variance within any make and model, even those produced by high precision CNC machines or careful craftsmen or combinations there-of. Pull two from any box of finished calls, and odds are high they'll differ some, maybe a lot. Aside from minor-to-me tuning issues, I've always had good luck with the quality of my calls from RNT's shop, haven't all been right for me and my purposes, but they've been well made - until I bought a used but unaltered 2011 model Daisy Cutter that wasn't just anemic by contrast to my experience with an earlier one but air-locked horribly on quiet little clucks and chucks. Planning to send it to the shop with a nasty note, I checked with the seller for its history and learned Butch had picked it out (pretty much "God's own hand" for RNT fans) and run it well over the phone for him, but he couldn't run it and had long since quit trying. If that story is so, all I can figure is that Butch grabbed one, quacked a few times and called it good without really putting it through its paces - and seeing the significant flat spots its milling left that were missed by someone's cursory sanding of its toneboard. And I've had duck calls from three of the most respected one-man shops in the business with serious flaws that would drive a new caller trying to learn air presentation nuts. Anyone reckon attention to detail goes up as manufacturing and retail costs go down?

Luck of the draw can play a mighty big role in how steep and bumpy the learning curve is.
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby Rick » Sun Aug 13, 2017 4:54 pm

Don't know if you saw it in the above post, but was my guess that you would. Just please be sure to return the shop tuned one with the call if you decide you don't want it, so it can remain unaltered for someone else.
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Re: Duck Call Guide for those new to the sport

Postby aunt betty » Mon Aug 14, 2017 3:09 pm

Once you get calling mastered you can sound good on most anything including the miniature calls at the gas station on bracelets. Kid I met in Arkansas could make one sound really good. His uncle Tim Bradley shoots for Binelli or used to.
I've heard that it's incredibly stupid to fuck around with a crazy man's head.
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