=========== Duck Calls - Acrylic Versus Wood by TakeEm ======================
While wooden duck calls have proven themselves in the field for decades more and more duck hunters have been lured into buying a flashy often times much more expensive acrylic duck call. The question is: "Are acrylic calls worth the price and will they make you a better duck caller?"
Let's quickly look at short list of a few of the advantages and disadvantages of wooden and acrylic duck calls, along with one of the most common myths about acrylic duck calls.
The most common myth surrounding acrylic duck calls is volume. Many duck hunters have been lead to believe that an acrylic duck call will be louder than a wooden duck call. This is a very broad statement that isn't necessarily true. Volume itself is a result of the calls design and the person operating the duck call, not just the material the call is made from.. We recently compared an acrylic RNT Daisy Cutter to a wooden Bois d'Arc Daisy Cutter. Listening a short distance away from my duck hunting partner who was blowing each call, I didn't have a clue which call he was using.
One clear advantage of acrylic duck calls is durability. Acrylic is rock hard and will not crack like a wooden call could. There is no reason an acrylic call shouldn't last you a lifetime.
The most discussed disadvantage of wooden duck calls is that the wood can absorb moisture. When moisture enters the wood it can change the dimensions of the barrel, which can then cause the sound of the duck call to change. This is a clear advantage of acrylic calls over wooden calls since the acrylic material will not absorb moisture. But woods with higher oil content and density such as cocobolo and bois d'ar greatly reduce the absorption of moisture.
The most important question to ask yourself is do you think the ducks can tell the difference between and acrylic or a wooden duck call? Secondly, can the majority of duck callers hear and tell the difference?
The bottom line of this whole discussion is that if you can't kill a duck with a quality wooden call you sure aren't going to do it with an expensive acrylic call.
Our advice to you is to choose a quality duck call that allows you to consistently produce the sound you desire. For additional help on choosing a duck call read our article, How To Choose A Duck Call.
=============== How To Choose A Duck Call by TakeEm ======================
Through many years spent in the field hunting ducks we have learned what we need from our calls to kill ducks. The duck calls we have on our lanyards and recommend on this site are here for one reason only,we use them ourselves with great success.
How we choose a duck call:
1) Matching The Call To The Situation
2) Production Of Consistent Sounds
3) Versatility Of The Call
4) Your Confidence In The Call
Matching The Duck Call To The Situation
The situations that you hunt in should be the first set of criteria that you use when choosing a duck call. Why do we believe the situations you hunt should impact your call selection? Here's why. Different situations can and will require different sounding calls. For example, if you're hunting a large reservoir you need extra volume to attract highflying ducks, a soft sounding timber call is probably not your best choice. However, if you're hunting that same reservoir on a very quiet or calm day, the timber call will probably be your ticket to success. The same scenario could also be applied to the timber or marshes. Even though most hunters would pick a midrange or low range call for these situations windy days require the volume of a open water call. You would also want to use an open water call for attracting highflying flocks coming back from feeding.If you're like us and hunt a lot of different situations, you will need more than one call to be as effective as possible. We blow calls that we believe can be broken down into one of three categories. They are: • Open Water Calls • Timber Calls • Mid Range Calls Open Water Duck Calls are great when you're hunting wide-open areas, windy conditions, migrating ducks, aggressive ducks and can be effective when hunting in areas with a high degree of competition. Timber Duck Calls aren't just for the timber, they are a great call to use in any of the following situations; tight closed in areas, calm days, call shy or heavily hunted ducks, ducks that you're hunting over ice and whenever you need to sound as realistic and natural as possible.Mid Range Duck Calls are perfect when an open water call may be to much but a timber call just isn't enough. We use our mid range calls a great deal throughout the year because they are extremely versatile and they can be used in a variety of different conditions and terrains.Production Of Consistent Sounds The next step is to choose a duck call that can produce the right sounds time after time, day after day. A call with consistency will allow you the ability to vary the sounds that come out of the call easily and predictably. The call you choose should allow you the ability to sound exactly like a duck, not a person blowing a duck call.Many of today's lower priced calls are made of plastic or cheap wood. These calls are not constructed as well as calls made of quality hard woods, delrin, or acrylic and are more apt to change sound or tone after only using them a few times. The old adage "you get what you pay for" is definitely true when it comes to purchasing a duck call.The call materials that consistently reproduce the most realistic sounds time after time are; high quality hard wood such as cocobola, bois d'arc, bocote, diamond wood, walnut, delrin and acrylic. Calls made with these materials will allow you to consistently get the right sound over and over again.
Versatility Of The Duck Call Your third step is to choose a call that is versatile. Although no one call can do it all you want the most from each call you can get. In today's market, you have a variety of calls to choose from. There are: Duck Calls
• Single Reed Calls (Arkansas Style)
• Double Reed Calls
• Triple Reed Calls A versatile call will allow you the ability to blow notes on the high end on the scale as well as the notes on the low end of the scale simply and easily. In addition, a versatile call will give you the opportunity to produce the sound of multiple hen mallards which, as we share with you in "Rising Above The Crowd", is your key to success for those late season, call shy, heavily hunted mallards.
Much like people, all hen mallards do not sound the same. Therefore, you want a call that will give you the ability to produce more than one tone or sound. Understanding how reed selection will impact your ability to produce more than one sound is critical. Multiple reed calls (i.e. double reed or triple reed calls) can initial be easier to blow and easier to learn with than a single reed Arkansas style duck call, but with most double reed duck calls you are limiting yourself to only a couple of different sounds (The exception to this rule is the Mallard Mauler acrylic double reed call which has been designed and produced to sound almost identical to a single reed call yet with much of the forgiveness of a double reed. In addition, the Mallard Mauler double reed can be easily switched to a single reed simply by changing the reed and cork). A call that produces the same tone and sound at its top end as well as its bottom end lacks the versatility needed to sound like different ducks.In our opinion, the call with the most versatility is the Arkansas style single reed duck call. A single reed duck call has the ability to produce duck sounds from a scale of 1 to 10 while a double reed call may only have a four or five note range and a triple reed call may only have a two or three note range. Arkansas style single reed duck calls can initially require more time to learn, (check out Mastering The Fundamentals Of Duck Call Operation to quickly and easily learn how to master your duck calling skills) but they have the ability to naturally create the sounds of multiple ducks throughout the duck sound scale.
Your Confidence In The Duck Call The fourth and final step is to choose a call that can produce the right sounds time after time, day after day. A call with consistency will allow you the ability to vary the sounds that come out of the call easily and naturally. Simply stated you want a call that you have confidence in. Here's what we're talking about.
Let's take a highball or hail call for example. You want a call that will hit the high note the first time you blow the proper amount of air to produce a high ball into the call. You don't want to have to try three or four times to produce the sound you want. If you do, you'll have a call that you have very little confidence in, you won't blow it much and you've wasted your money.The same is true for duck calls on the low end of the scale. If you're trying to blow a hen mallard squeal, you certainly don't want to spend unnecessary time trying to get your call to produce the sound you want. If that's the case, you'll lack confidence in the call and the best thing that you can do with the call is to put it away or sell it.
Rich-n-Tone Duck Calls Old Style
We have dug even deeper, gone back even farther, to the beginning days of RNT on this one. Old style logo. Old style sound. And new old style shape. We took the 7th call Butch had ever made and duplicated the exact shape, the exact sound, and the exact looks of this call, to bring to you the new, old, oldstyle. 1/4 inch tone channel. 1/4 inch bore. And that soft, mellow, deep sound, with top to bottom versatility, that could only have been brought to you by Butch?s old garage. Developed in a more simple time, when duck hunting was duck hunting, and duck calling was duck calling. Tie an Old Style on your lanyard, breathe easy, fill your lungs with the air of the outdoors, and step back in a nostalgic time when volume was not as highly regarded in a duck call as a realistic pure ducky sound. Enjoy.
Rich-n-Tone Duck Calls Short Barrel
Snotty, whiney, but not obnoxiously loud. We designed the short barrel to be just that. Marred as the Originals little stepbrother, the Short Barrel has become the nastiest, gnarliest, plain out ?bad to the bone? call ever packed in a 4 1/4 inch duck calling machine. It?s intricately designed toneboard along with its shorter barrel makes for an easier blowing call as well as allowing the caller to come down softer on the call without sacrificing a meaty ducky sound on top. The bore was designed to produce a nasally ducky sound with just the right amount of back pressure to make this and unbelievablely awesome medium volume call.
Rich-n-Tone Duck Calls Daisy Cutter
No contest ring. No Fluff Gimmicks. No compromising. It?s just pure, raw, Balls-to-the-wall, don?t tell your mother, most powerful, non-nuclear duck calling machine on the planet. Modeled after the super nasty short barrel, we have added a much more aggressive calling style to its design. It?s a short Barrel on steroids. We have given the call a higher reed set along with a wider bore to give it a more demanding presence than the Short barrel, while still maintaining the ability to get down and dirty on the low end. Louder, raunchier, and more powerful than its little brother. This call may not be for everyone. But if you can drive it. Game over.
I own the quacker stacker, j frame, and timber. now as far as the j-frame and timber go, they are great calls for the money, i love blowing on the timber call it sounds so great in my ears when im blowing it. when i blow the j-frame my buddies say it actually sounds better, but i just like the sound of the timber personally. okay, now the quacker stacker, i dont know what the hell that thing is still doing on my landyard, maybe just for looks but holy crap is that thing the most horrid sounding call ever made. the one and only thing i use it for is the feeder call, other than that it is a very very bad investment and wouldnt advise anyone on purchasing that call. have a buddy that owns one and he's just as disappointed in it as me.
just my .02
If you want more grawl in your call you will most likely like the Timbre. I prefer the Short Barrel or the Dasiy Cutter. Like RNT says...If you can drive it, Game Over! All jokes aside if you can learn to blow a highend single reed duck call, you will be able to make more duck vocals than you ever dreamed. Gook luck with your selection
I've got a short barrel and the thing keeps sticking! It sounds great when it doesn't stick but MAN, a call that sticks really pisses me off when they get in close! Any advise?
most rnts IMO stick alot. Ive got an DC and a SB they both are prone to sticking, its not just me, i've talked to alot of people that say they have this problem, maybe we all just are spitters, im not sure, but... i have heard people tell me that if u go up to the RNT shop and get butch or somebody to tweek the call a little bit, it'll be great and won't stick much anymore
Sounds like the timbre would be your best bet, however i am a SB and DC blower and they work well for the same type of calling.
I blow the original, my best buddy blows the short barrell. Because it is a shorter barrell it takes less air to make it work. It is hard to get used to but once you do it gets a growly low end sound. We have found that I call at them when they are further away and he finishes them off with the short barrell. The Timbre call is a combanation of both with a high end and a deadly low end as well. The short barrell may be the call you want if you hunt ponds. The call that you probably should get is the Daisy Cutter. It is a little raspier then the timbre. If you can't get the sound out of it then maybe you should look at a double reed, like the quackhead. As far as wood goes, it gets cold where I live and hunt, and my duck commander always would sound different in the field when it got cold, so I went to the acrylic and I will never own another wood call again. If you are serious about calling then you will end up with an acrylic anyway. Good luck.
Duck Commander? I'm new to calling but...
I just got several DC calls. To my uneducated ears, they sound great! I can get ducky sounding calls pretty easy.
So, what do y'all think of the Duck Commander calls?
I dont knock a guys choice of call, but when asked I'll tell, and might volunteer if I have to listen to it long enough IMO, this poly KW is gonna be hard to beat. That's for a beginner or not so beginner. Easy to blow and sound good on.But it does look weird for a KW to be in a package I still picked up two of them though. I went to the Delta dinner in St Louis last night. I managed to become the owner of a Daisy Cutter(I've been wanting to try one for a while)and I think it will be a fine call too. As far as the stick deal. I believe some of that is an operator mismanagement of moisture
A duck commander will do fine..hell I hunted for 15 years with one and called a bunch of ducks with 'em. I use a Daisy Cutter now though as I liek to use a call with more range and control to it.
If you're a beginner caller, you probably have trouble blowing a single reed. The duck commander for you is fine, but the best beginner call for you would be a echo poly double. RNT is mainly single reed, and they're sometimes hard for beginners to pick up and use automatically. But you can't go wrong with DC.
Do yourself a favor.
Quit buying the cheap calls and get a deuce acrylic Kwack Wacker.
You'll never need another call, and you'll be able to do just about any style of calling with it.
Keep buying the cheapies trying to "save money", and you will only end up spending more money than you would have with a high-dollar number.
I would definately go with the Acrylic Kwack Wacker...
I have A Mallard Mauler, Daisy Cutter, BGB, all of them and the Kwack Wacker is the shiznit....
Seriously, I am gonna sell most of my other calls on the Ebay, except some heirlooms like some Olts and other calls that my pops may have gave to me...
Just got mine last night, and I am here to tell you, If there were any birds in MoMO land right now I would have probably kilt a limit of Mallet drakes and a Gadwall that came while I was loading my dekes up.....
But I never have kilt any Fowl....
When leaving I waited at the ramp for another member of the weekday crew from the other side of the water, showed him the new call and talked about what it would be like to have some birds on the strap...
After our conversation and him blowing my call. Dude says he has to have one. I gave some info on where to get one... He's supposed to get on and check the banner...
Do yourself the same favor I did him....
DuB
There's nothing wrong with DC calls....I have a mule, miss salty and one of the originals.......they sound great and are pretty easy to use...........it doesn't matter if someone thinks you are a beginner or a newby as long as you are killing ducks.
agregate