When it comes to duck hunting and the calls I use, picky isn’t the right word; maybe “obsessive” is.
For years I’ve used the big name, national calls after meticulously choosing the ones that I thought would coax that extra group of mallards into range.
Not an expert caller by any stretch of the imagination, after trying and failing to successfully implement advanced techniques such as the Cajun squeal, I told myself I would stick to the basic greeting call, quack and feed chuckle. But then Scott Keith with Quack Shack duck calls visited Lone Star Outdoor News.
The call I tried was the acrylic Outlaw, and I’ll be honest — I sounded horrible at first. It’s like shooting a certain shotgun for years, and then being handed a different one and asked to dust clay pigeons on the range.
The problem I had with the call is that it was too easy to blow. Once I figured out that I didn’t have to hack up a lung to make a hail call ring, I was hitting the notes necessary for a successful cadence, with breath left over.
“Man, I’ve tried to do that Cajun squeal for years and I’ve given up,” I said to Scott as he finished off a routine sure to make any greenhead shiver with excitement. “You make it sound easy.”
Scott told me to try it, so I picked up an Outlaw and prepared to be the focus of some laughter.
I wasn’t sure if what I was hearing was actually from me. Since the call is so easy to blow, I had no problem creating the proper airflow to make the squeal. I blew a cadence with the squeal like it was second nature.
“Now what was wrong with that?” Scott asked. “The difference with our calls is the barrel is shorter, so it doesn’t take as much air to move the reeds.”
Also included in the group were two hunters who had close to zero experience with duck calling. They were blowing successful quacks within 15 minutes.
I’ve owned duck calls costing close to $150, and the Quack Shack calls rival all of them in quality and sound. This season the Outlaw will be hanging from my lanyard on every hunt.
For more information on Quack Shack calls, visit quackshacktexas.com.
