Duck Call Reviews
Best Duck Calls Goose Calls
A common question a duck hunter asks is what are the best duck calls. This often follows by what is the best goose calls. This post is meant to take a high level look at what goes into answering this question.
To begin with, we must separate out duck calls into single reed and double reed. A single reed call is a very versatile call that can run the gamut of sounds and ranges, but it more difficult to master. Especially for a beginner a single reed call might not be the best choice. The double reed duck call has two reeds and therefore lacks the range of a single reed, but makes up for that in terms of being much easier to blow and master. Double reeds are generally softer than single reeds which is great for calling in close quarters.
Another aspect is what material is the call made out of. The two most common high quality materials is wood and acrylic. You will also find a fair amount of poly calls as well, but in general I have found them to lack the sound you are looking for. The key difference in materials is that acrylic calls can be much louder and carry much further than wood duck calls. This is especially important when considering what type of hunting you will be doing. In an open space you want a loud call and should gravitate towards an acrylic duck call. Another key aspect is that acrylic has less variance in sound over the temperature ranges you would expect to see in a duck blind. Wood expands and contracts to a much greater degree leading to different sounds depending on the air temperature.
Personally, if I were to pick a perfect duck set up it would be two calls. A single reed meant to reach out and grab them, in which case I would choose a Rnt Daisy Cutter duck call. I would couple that with a double reed meant to work the close in birds, and that would be Fred Zink XR-2 Paralyzer duck call. Both would be in acrylic due to the wide array of temperatures I hunt in.
