Entries Tagged 'Calls' ↓

Calling for Duck and Goose Hunting

If you’ve ever gone duck and goose hunting chances are you’ve heard people calling these animals. Many people sit in their blinds or in their duck boats and call repeatedly. Unfortunately, most of them are making sounds that the birds would not recognize as one of their own. That’s why it’s not uncommon to hear people calling and calling without ever hearing them take a shot at waterfowl. The ducks and geese simply know not to come in that area because someone’s making a strange sound that they don’t recognize.

When calling for duck and goose hunting it’s important to get the sound right if you want to attract the birds. Just having a duck call and blowing on it doesn’t mean that you’re going to do a good enough job to actually attract ducks or geese. Many hunters seem to treat these things like they are kazoos and below with all their might as if the sheer volume alone will attract the birds.

There’s actually a technique to proper calling for duck and goose hunting. The first thing you should do is actually listen to ducks and geese. You’ll never hear them call the way many hunters blow on those duck calls. Ducks and geese make very short and simple sounds unlike the trumpeting whale people seem to produce on their calls.

It’s important to practice and when practicing try to emulate the sounds that you hear the birds making. Thinking that perhaps you’ll call louder and longer than an actual bird to get their attention isn’t going to help you. You will get their attention and tell them that there’s not a duck or goose where you are. Listen to the short and choppy quacks and honks that these animals make and practice mimicking those.

Also, don’t be fooled into thinking you need an expensive duck call in order to be successful. You can purchase a cheap duck call. It’s not the call itself but what you do with it that will attract the birds or drive them away. If you’re new to calling and unsure of your ability, stick with duck calls. They are easier to mimic than goose calls because geese are more vocal and have a larger range of sounds.

If you do have trouble mimicking the sounds then a more expensive call might help you by limiting the sounds it’s capable of making. Look for short reed calls especially for goose calls. Acrylic calls over wooden ones may also be better because they also limit the depth of sound you can produce. They are also far easier to blow than the old wooden calls. This means you automatically know you don’t have to blow as hard as it prevent you from creating a mighty honk that will drive all the waterfowl in the area away.

If you’ll spend just a little time practicing calling for duck and goose hunting you’ll do a much better job of attracting the birds when you’re actually in the blind or the duck boat.

Photo Credits: anyjazz65

Originally posted 2010-04-06 09:00:56. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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Calling Ducks

Too many people think the calling ducks is simply grabbing a duck call and blowing. If you do this, you probably drive more ducks away than you attract. The key is to sound like a duck not out-quack the duck. Volume and length of tone will not get more attention. In fact it will make the ducks aware that something’s wrong and they’ll probably avoid you and your entire area. There is a little bit of technique to calling ducks and it goes far beyond just buying a brand-new, expensive call and blaring at every bird within earshot.

First of all, you need to stop and listen to ducks to understand what sound you need to make. Compare the sounds coming from the actual birds to the sounds made by all the hunters around you and you’ll see why so few people actually get off a shot. You need to sound just like a duck which probably means that you need to make your call shorter and softer. It’s also important to know what kind of ducks you’re trying to attract. Different ducks have a different method of calling each other and knowing what ducks are in the area and which call to use can make you a much more successful duck hunter.

People calling ducks at competitions at state fairs probably wouldn’t be able to attract many ducks in a blind. Those calls are done more for the complexity and to impress listeners, even though the best way of calling ducks is actually just making soft quacks at random intervals. Complex patterns might win blue ribbons in competitions, but just learning to make the right kind of quack is the best way to get ducks to come near when you’re hunting.

When you’re actually in the blind or the boat, just make one soft quack in the best imitation of actual duck sound that you can. Then stop and watch and see what happens around you. If there’s absolutely no activity, you may need to adjust your tone or think about the types of ducks that you’re hunting.

Listen to the ducks that you can hear from where you are. Mimic that just one time to see if you can get into a conversation with a duck. If you’re doing it correctly you should be able to use the call and get a response back. Be very patient because sometimes this takes a little while.

If you’re hearing a duck make a series of short quacks, then softly do the same and stop and listen. See what kind of response you get in doing so. Wait a little while and try again and listen for the response. If the sounds change, then change the way you’re calling ducks, too. Just by being aware of your surroundings and understanding that all the animals are different and may be needing different things at the moment, you’ll be able to adjust the way you’re calling ducks and help make your hunt a success.

Photo Credits: icathing

Originally posted 2010-04-06 03:57:23. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

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