Great lies...

[Rick]

You know, like "The check is in the mail." And "Honest, I won't..."

Well, still jonesing from duck season, I've been tumbling down one rabbit, er...duck, hole after another and came across this from yours truly in a 2014 thread optimistically titled "One Last Duck Whistle":

"Really do feel like my call bases are about as well covered as can be..."

Thread was about the Montana Lite herding dog whistle I'd just bought and still use for squealers today (and never mind the three, count 'em 3: aluminum, brass and stainless steel double-holed and hopefully appreciably louder Logan Turbo versions I auditioned last year). Really had pretty much settled in on my quacking duck calls, though, and the torrent of contenders that once flowed through my hands had slowed to what's become at least a few seasons between drips.

'Course any who've read the "Looking ahead..." thread in my log know there's been yet another call in my life, and a promising one at that. And now in accordance with the Fifth Step (of Twelve), I'll "admit to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature of my wrong" - that I've just ordered another duck call. Not that the Singleton cutdown I've been enjoying isn't louder than anything else I own, thus offering potentially more reach, and may even offer a tad of finishing advantage with its snotty chatter and greenhead dweebs I can't match with a J-frame. Just that I was watching this video:


And that cat in the gray hat's cutdown is so, so much more real deal sounding than any of his buddies'... and I'm weak.

[Ricky Spanish]

ZomboMeme 04032023152845.jpg

What's a cutdown boss?

[Duck Engr]

Have said that about probably every piece of equipment I own save maybe waders, yet I still tinker. With as smart as the ducks are getting, if you aren’t trying to get better you’re going backwards.

[Rick]

The fewer we see, the greater the need to improve the percentage of them that end up front and center, for certain.

But a lot of it may just be caving to addiction. One of the things I recall from getting clean and sober is the conclusion a gal drew from her extensive study of addiction in prisoners, which was that those who managed to stay clean channeled their addictive natures into activities they derived a sense of pleasure from. That's me. And as someone recently noted on another board, "If it wasn't for duck hunting, I might have made something of myself."

[Ricky Spanish]

The fewer we see, the greater the need to improve the percentage of them that end up front and center, for certain.

But a lot of it may just be caving to addiction. One of the things I recall from getting clean and sober is the conclusion a gal drew from her extensive study of addiction in prisoners, which was that those who managed to stay clean channeled their addictive natures into activities they derived a sense of pleasure from. That's me. And as someone recently noted on another board, "If it wasn't for duck hunting, I might have made something of myself."

They will keep us humble.
This past season I tried like hell to call mallards and they do not want to play.
One day a suzi lit off in the woods and started quacking.
I called that one over and swatted it and that's as close as I came to calling any mallards.
Up in Illinois is where I killed 80% of my mallards.
How? It wasn't skill or calling.
After hunts I'd drive and find where they were "safe", set up there, and basically swat them when they land.
Pretty sick but I couldn't call a mallard. They weren't here to call.
The only people I know that were killing em and calling em was Henry and Chad.
Chad is magic on a two reed
Pisses me off.

[Darren]

Always have to be tinkering, scheming, bettering our game. It's perhaps at times debatable as to whether I prefer the planning and prep for duck season as much or more than the grind of actually hunting them.

Whatever you come up with, hope its your new ticket to what you at least think might sell another duck or two into buying in. We'll look forward to what comes of the process along the way

[Deltaman]

Channel brother, channel!!!!!
Looking forward to your call new call assessment, and hope it offers you something you can add to your lanyard.

[Rick]

Well, the Brute R arrived today, and the bad news is that even after tuning for fit I still can't make it sound like the gray-capped fellow in the above video or those of two out of the four others of whom I could find video sound files. 'Course one of those two won this year's World Cutdown Championship with his and the other tunes calls for the maker: better Indians than I. Good news is that the Singleton I've been enjoying is quite appreciably louder and looser handling (read "versatile and fun to run) - and now I know.

Not in any hurry to give up on the Brute R and send it down the road, but just that much happier with the Singleton and that much more anxious to give it a go on contrary game. Anticipation's a fine thing.

[Duck Engr]

They came out with a Brute XL this year that has a bigger exhaust, which I suspect would be more to your liking, though I’ve never blown one. Have tried both a brute and their original call and neither fit me. Realize I’m setting you back a step in your 12 step process…

[Rick]

They came out with a Brute XL this year that has a bigger exhaust, which I suspect would be more to your liking, though I’ve never blown one. Have tried both a brute and their original call and neither fit me. Realize I’m setting you back a step in your 12 step process…

Naw, I was chasing a tone or resonance I've not heard from the XL examples I could find. So it's no temptation at all...yet. Might still find it in the R one day, which Spencer and crew rated just a single notch below the ("loud as we can make one without giving up something important") XL on their Brute comparison scale, So I'd not expect the XL to offer volume advantage over the loud-assed Singleton, either. The most tempting, to me, XL claim is for greater "looseness" than their other models, which should translate to greater tonal and volume versatility, which the Singleton has scads and scads more of than the R - at least given my tunings and in my hands.

Will note that I, too, had one of Rolling Thunder's early calls, a BSOD that I purchased along with one of Black Ops DFB and a Mondo when I first gave cutdowns a go. Of those, the Mondo was the closest to right for me out of the box (which still wasn't very without a bit of trimming), so I let the other two go and focused on it. But Spencer was apparently an obscure music fan and was nice enough to include a note about a musician and song he had done about hunting with a now-gone friend of mine here. And that thoughtfulness may have played a bit into my hope that I'd find something special in his more recent call.

[Ricky Spanish]

They came out with a Brute XL this year that has a bigger exhaust, which I suspect would be more to your liking, though I’ve never blown one. Have tried both a brute and their original call and neither fit me. Realize I’m setting you back a step in your 12 step process…

Naw, I was chasing a tone or resonance I've not heard from the XL examples I could find. So it's no temptation at all...yet. Might still find it in the R one day, which Spencer and crew rated just a single notch below the ("loud as we can make one without giving up something important") XL on their Brute comparison scale, So I'd not expect the XL to offer volume advantage over the loud-assed Singleton, either. The most tempting, to me, XL claim is for greater "looseness" than their other models, which should translate to greater tonal and volume versatility, which the Singleton has scads and scads more of than the R - at least given my tunings and in my hands.

Will note that I, too, had one of Rolling Thunder's early calls, a BSOD that I purchased along with one of Black Ops DFB and a Mondo when I first gave cutdowns a go. Of those, the Mondo was the closest to right for me out of the box (which still wasn't very without a bit of trimming), so I let the other two go and focused on it. But Spencer was apparently an obscure music fan and was nice enough to include a note about a musician and song he had done about hunting with a now-gone friend of mine here. And that thoughtfulness may have played a bit into my hope that I'd find something special in his more recent call.

Wish I could help.
Sounds like you need kirk McCullough to hunt with you a week so he can figure you out and build a call meant to fit you.
That or one of the other guys who.learned how with Gary at lower vallier campground. Bayou Meto, Arkansas.

The cutdown was perfected there.
Good luck man. Buying a cutdown off the shelf and having it be "the one" requires some luck.
Good luck man.

You're on the right track.one day I hunted at the brake with 21 other guys. When I Said "cutdown" they all whipped out calls and let me try. I knew that day which one to buy and I think maybe you bought one.
My memory is shot I should have written it down but I think that day at Rainy Brake I decided the bsod was the one but I never followed thru.
I mentioned them olts and Gary built me one for a gallon of honey. Heck of a deal.

[Rick]

Mike, I got past expecting anything off the shelf to fit my particular physiology, methodology and tone preferences decades ago. All God's little duck and goose callers would be ahead learning to tune their own. Only stock reed in memory that I've been unable to improve on for me and mine was, surprisingly, the one John or Butch (one of whom then did all of their MVPs) cut for the stage.

[Ducaholic]

Always have to be tinkering, scheming, bettering our game. It's perhaps at times debatable as to whether I prefer the planning and prep for duck season as much or more than the grind of actually hunting them.

Whatever you come up with, hope its your new ticket to what you at least think might sell another duck or two into buying in. We'll look forward to what comes of the process along the way

You sold me on the idea of the agitator duck decoys that squirt water. I found your thoughts on cutting the nozzle just under the water level to be a great idea to create more natural motion so this year I will sport two of them on the mornings where light or no wind at daylight has the spread looking dead and unattractive to wary 2nd split ducks. Just one example of never being to old to tinker

[Ricky Spanish]

Mike, I got past expecting anything off the shelf to fit my particular physiology, methodology and tone preferences decades ago. All God's little duck and goose callers would be ahead learning to tune their own. Only stock reed in memory that I've been unable to improve on for me and mine was, surprisingly, the one John or Butch (one of whom then did all of their MVPs) cut for the stage.

New reeds and cork matters.
I bought a brand new mvp that'd been in the box so long its cork was no good. Remember?

Oh...
The joke goes like this, "that call sounds a bit flat you want me to pitch it for you?".


Do not surrender your call it will get pitched...into the water.

[Rick]

Mike, I got past expecting anything off the shelf to fit my particular physiology, methodology and tone preferences decades ago. All God's little duck and goose callers would be ahead learning to tune their own. Only stock reed in memory that I've been unable to improve on for me and mine was, surprisingly, the one John or Butch (one of whom then did all of their MVPs) cut for the stage.

New reeds and cork matters.
I bought a brand new mvp that'd been in the box so long its cork was no good. Remember?

Oh...
The joke goes like this, "that call sounds a bit flat you want me to pitch it for you?".


Do not surrender your call it will get pitched...into the water.

That's an old one, but one of our guys did once ask a hunter who was "helping" him with specks if he could see his call and pocketed it. Then overheard the poor offending soul confide to a buddy that he had and another and demanded its surrender, too.

I never had the moxie to pull that off, but have often quit calling when someone else started.

[Darren]

Always have to be tinkering, scheming, bettering our game. It's perhaps at times debatable as to whether I prefer the planning and prep for duck season as much or more than the grind of actually hunting them.

Whatever you come up with, hope its your new ticket to what you at least think might sell another duck or two into buying in. We'll look forward to what comes of the process along the way

You sold me on the idea of the agitator duck decoys that squirt water. I found your thoughts on cutting the nozzle just under the water level to be a great idea to create more natural motion so this year I will sport two of them on the mornings where light or no wind at daylight has the spread looking dead and unattractive to wary 2nd split ducks. Just one example of never being to old to tinker

Glad to hear, give it a shot. Can only offer you the following observations for whatever they're worth:

1. Live ducks dont like a bunch of "ducks" sitting on glass-slick water, probably not too many that will assert the contrary. Have found the splashers to look absolutely dynamite mixed into a fairly dense decoy spread, have run as many as three.

2. the splashing/squirting above surface can be too much and had seemed to flare a few birds on quiet mornings, but is fine when its windy (but if it's windy, why are you using these?). Cutting the tube down to below the surface cuts down on the spraying quite a bit.

3. There was a hunt noted on my log this season in Bunkie where we opted to mid-hunt pull the splashers altogether, only to find the birds still acting sketchy immediately thereafter with them now out of play.

4. Lucky Duck's wiring/battery/switch design is superior to Higdon's, though Higdon's use of the inverted pump placement can be crucial if your water is marginally shallow and/or lots of vegetation to contend with.

Now back to uncle Rick's cutdown call tinkering.....I need to look up a few of these brands/names to better understand what the heck is goin on.

[Rick]

Now back to uncle Rick's cutdown call tinkering.....I need to look up a few of these brands/names to better understand what the heck is goin on.

Just me doing my best to be even harder on guest ears. Splashers may be more interesting. The kind y'all are discussing would be clogged three minutes after LST in the mudhole, but, given what I've seen with motion I can control, I'd be a hard sell for any I couldn't.

[Darren]

The kind y'all are discussing would be clogged three minutes after LST in the mudhole

Other than on your shallowest of conditions where your "water" is hardly that, I think the Higdon design would stand a chance. If LD would simply flip theirs to orient the same way, the Higdons would be entirely irrelevant.

...........and the Lucky Ducks sync with your remotes, same remotes that run their spinners.....so you can run all the gadgetry from same remotes. Higdons are not remote-compatible that I can recall.


And go right ahead with the loud calls, I wear plugs. Let it rip! Can't speak for others though, imagine you get plenty through the blind without any.

[Rick]

Perhaps if one picked his spot very carefully, but we'll never know.