Best duck call for the money?

[Wildfowler]

If you can make a variety of other calls with your call, I wouldn't worry too much about it. I won't say most, but other calls can also produce that squeal at the end of a note. It doesn't have to be a Haydel's.

Under certain conditions, I have been able to make the sound using a Greg Hood single reed call, and a Howard Harland double reed call. But it seems to happen almost involuntarily. Once it starts, I can do it, but I can't just pick up my call at random and make that sound at the end of the note. It only seems to happen to that last 2 or three notes, at the end of hail call series, or something like that. (no acorn chuckles, please) The ducks didn't respond anymore favorably. And I think you're too prone to making an error at a critical moment. Long story short, I wouldn't know how to tell you what to do. It's all in how you push that last little piece of air through the call.

But if you call Haydel's, I know they'll try to help you. They helped me on the phone about 15 years ago. They're nice like that.

When you get it right, it does sounds pleasing. But I would recommend that you just reserve it to impress your friends who know, not the ducks. They don't care.

Hambone, I'm going to buy one of those ninja duck calls to go with my ninja shotgun.

[mallardchaser]

To make the "squealey sound."
Rick Dunn of echo told me, via email last year, it's all in the air contol as Wildfowler said. He said learn to use your tongue to cut it off. It's hard to master, I haven't yet. I found it helped to touch your bottom lip w/ your tongue. Like I said, I haven't mastered it. I think the cajun squeal haydel is a marketing ploy. I think it's the dr85 with the reed cut down to make it a little higher pitched. Just like the black one with the hole in it, is a black dr85 with a hole in it. Nothing against the haydels. I have a squealer myself. I think the haydel sounds as good as the $125.00 acrylic, and it costs $15.00. You may not be able to go "up and down" like a single, but for duckey sound it's hard to beat. I recently got an old d2 from ebay, thanks webfoot. I have a buddy who sounds great on his. It's a totaly different single reed than any other I have. It takes a ton of air to blow. It is easier to contol though.
Like hambone said, try a bunch 'til you find one you can blow.

[Deadeye]

[Wildfowler]

[LODI QUACKER]

[Hammer]

I have not field test it yet but I bought a $20 call at the Wal-Mart in Batesville, MS that sounds jam up so far...I went in there looking for the Roten Vortex you guys been talking about but they did not have any so I bought a CUT DOWN GAME CALLS call instead...It's made/marketed by a couple of good old boys out of Texas and it sounds might fine- RIGHT OUT OF THE BOX...I'm looking forward to field tests starting in mid-November!

[MALLARDBUSTER]

I'LL HAVE TO SIDE WITH THE JUDGE ON THIS ONE, ANY OF THE WENCH CALLS ARE GREAT. HARD TO STICK,EASY TO BLOW,YOU GOTTA BE REALLY BAD IF YOU CAN'T BLOW ONE OF THESE. THE WENCH IS A TRUE MEAT CALL, SOUNDS MORE LIKE A DUCK TO ME THAN ANY OF THE OTHERS.PISS ON ACRYLIC,SAVE YOUR MONEY AND BUY YOU A FEW DOZEN DEEKS OR SOMETHING.

15 BUCKS ANYWHERE,CAN'T BEAT IT.

[Hammer]

Regarding Judge and MallardBuster:

I've never heard a Primos duck call of any type that sounded worth a damn, in the store, in the woods, in the field, on TV, anywhere, ever...
They make great turkey calls, good deer calls and OK elk calls, but their duck calls have never, ever impressed me so I got to ask:

Just how many Robo Ducks are you using anyway?

PS Call me a purist but I aint for Robo Ducks...I bought one used it a time or two and said that this isnt why I hunt and sold it soon after...Maybe yall got that rare Wench that is tuned properly and maintains its tone but I dont know anybody else that likes them...

[MemphisStockBroker]

Hammer, I have one and like it. (matter of fact, I bought 8 of their calls when a store went out of business last year - $40 total). I am not into competition calling, so I can't dicuss the finer points of duck calling. But I do know that sitting in a swamp, I call and the ducks respond. guess that's all I really care about.


It's kida like the discussion I was having with Jr.StockBroker about my old bummy Browning A-5 and my peice of junk Chevy p/u truck with a huge dent in the side. Yeah, I could get the best. But sometimes the fun is in hunting with stuff you know works - and you didn't break the bank to buy it.

I just can't figure out these city boys that buy $40,000 trucks to tear them up in the mud.... or people that pay $125 for a dang duck call. Guess I don't need those things to feel like I am a 'real' hunter. Some people like that expensive stuff, and that's cool for them - I guess. Maybe for competition it helps. But its just not for me...

[timberjack]

Hammer, maybe you just ain't heard the right fella blow one. For the record-- I don't like 'em either. The only one I ever held was almost too raspy and just didn't feel right. But I got a buddy who found one floating in the bootom of the boat one morning and took that thing and called all last season with it. I'm here to tell you he can forevermore turn some ducks with that mutha'. It is one of the best sounding calls in the woods I have ever heard anyone blow. I'll gladly let him call with it as long as it works.......besides, the ducks seem to like it and isn't that what matters?

[Wildfowler]

They float too?

[Hammer]

Primos sends me 4 or 5 of their new calls every year and they all sound like $#@^!!! Besides if you aint a good enough guy to keep Brad Farris happy, then you aint a good enough guy...Plus I hear that there is still bad blood between Primos and Mossy Oak...Primos sounds like he is hard to get along with...

Regarding the Olt D2: I believe that is the best production duck call ever made until they switched from hard rubber to plastic...You dont blow that call from the cheeks, you grunt it from the diaphragm so the D2 separates the pretenders from the contenders...Not on the stage in Stuttgart or in Memphis or some other Johnny Come Lately hocus pocus, BS deal but out in the woods and the water with the birds...No decoys, no spinners, no corn hole, no pit blind, nothing but you, the woods, the ducks and the call...The Olt D2 required grunting and grunting is what it takes when it is a truly fair chase hunt...

Something about that rubber call, as it aged it sounded better and better...Jim Olt told me himself at the SHOT SHOW in the early 1990s that Wally World forced him to change to plastic...He had to cut his price to the bone or they would drop his ENTIRE CALL LINE- not just ducks but crows, predators, everything- so he had to go from more expensive rubber to less expensive plastic...

Another great production call from the old days was the old wooden Chick Majors Dixie Mallard call...They sounded great and were easy to tune but did not last long...You had to buy a new one every few years cause they would get wet and crack...

I've got a Greg Hood el cheapo single reed and it sounds pretty good as does my double reed RNT, but I'm more excited about the CUTT DOWN call than I have been about any call since Olt went to plastic.

[dkman]

It doesn't matter how much you spend on a duck call. The best duck call is the one that you put the most practice in, hands down.
The finest craftsmanship in the world and a price tag that reflects it will never be good enough to replace good old fashioned practice.

[H2OFowl]

[GulfCoast]