Duck Calling Tips - Bring 'em in Close!

Alright...Duck calling. Aside from making fun of a hunter's dog, I would argue that there is no other put-down that is more insulting to an avid duck hunter than making fun of his calling...so fix it! Learning the basics to duck calling will advance you as a hunter, making it more fun for you to go out and enjoy what God has given us. Let's get to the basics of duck calling.

The first thing I feel that is important to cover when blowing a duck call is learning where to deliver the air from. For the longest time, this was the hardest thing for me. It limited the type of calls that I could blow and often times resulted in skirting birds.

If you're new to blowing duck calls, start here. You don't even need a call to master this key point. You have to learn to deliver the air to the call from your diaphragm (via your lungs, of course). If you try to blow from your throat, you're in for a terrible duck calling experience. To do this, practice saying hut-hut basing this sound from your belly. You want to feel your abs tighten - this is how you know you are controlling the air with your diaphragm. It's OK if this feels awkward for a while, but before you move on, get to a point that you feel you can comfortably cut the air flow clean. Your hut-huts should be crisp.

The next point is learning to seal your tongue to the roof of your mouth to enhance the crisp cut-off of the air to the call. It's alright to have a bit of a "remnant" of air after you cut the air off with your tongue, so long as this remnant doesn't make a sound as it moves over the reed of your call. Practice this without a call, again, until you feel comfortable that you are effectively cutting the air flow off with little to know remnant.


If you feel comfortable with the first two points, grab a call and get ready to make some noise. The correct way to hold a call is by grasping the butt of the call with your thumb and index finger and cupping the end of the call with your idle fingers. It's important that you don't over-cup the butt of the call...it will make your quacks sound like you trapped a duck in a jar (which I'm pretty sure is not thier idea of a good time).

Next, you want to seal your lips on the rim of the call. Make sure you have a good seal for two reasons: if you are losing air out of the side of your lips, you will not get the desired sound from your call and your calling will be much more ineffecient, thus tiring you out quicker.

Now let's move on to making some noise with the duck call...that is, after you feel that you have these points down.

Remeber the hut-huts we looked at earlier. Practice making these into your call. Start by just blowing one hut into the call. Click this link to hear the sound you should try to mimick, specifically the last few quacks - http://www.ducks.org/media/_global/_images/waterfowlGallery/sounds/American%20Black%20Duck.mp3
When you get a bit more comfortable with making a simple quack, move on to stringing about 5-7 of these quacks together. When you do this string, try to make your first faster in tempo, then drag the last few out a beat or two. If it sounds dumb to you, it will probably sound dumb to a duck.

Keep working on these basic quacks and you'll be on your way to learning exactly what ducks want you to say. More posts to come that will build on these fundamental duck calling skills, next being the grunt: an important skill to master if you want to be able to blow any call out there.