Once told my cousin, "Hey let me adjust the pitch on your call..." He hands it to me and I pitch it into the marsh! I would never do that to anyone else, we thought it was quite funny, but how many of you would like to do that with some guys you hunt with? I take a lot of people out yearly, and it never fails that I'll get a few tone deaf people. It's always awkward asking them to not call, but I want them to have a great experience with heavy kills. It has always baffled me because I learned at the age of seven when to call, and when not to call around superior callers. I could just hear it.

Buddy this is what I feel like doing..when I see some one

In the blind or in stand..

some of us.... myself included still have a lot to learn and ya being tone deaf both musically and call wise drives me nuts. I still need to practice more.

That is perfectly fine. Calling is constant work, forever! I still work at it after 27 years. Some people just don't hear it though. doesn't make me mad, but confuses me.

Creek,

I think it is literally an issue with not being able to actually hear the difference in the tone.

I can't call for squat, I just started calling this last year, but I can hear the tones very well, and know when something is off.

I've hunted with guys though that can call pretty well, but sometimes get a little excited when the birds are coming in, and they hit a note that is slightly off (usually too high), and they don't understand why the birds turn away.

One guy actually had this high note as a normal part of his call, and every time he hit it, it seemed you could see the birds hesitate a bit, but he couldn't hear the slightly higher pitch difference.

It may be a case of full blown tone deafness, or just to certain pitches. It's also going to be worse for you, hearing these off notes, if you are left handed, as lefties can usually hear slight differences in notes that righties can't.

I am unsure how much of the tone differences actually are affecting the birds, compared to how much they are affecting us, but I would about swear they hesitate, or start veering off when those off notes hit.

Yes... I have seen them veer quite often with poor judgment calling on decent callers. The most common mistake I see is guys chattering the hole time... The birds only do this in flight, so why do it? Also hailing when they are locked in is bad. A lot of these guys do not understand the difference between a hail, comeback, and greeting call.

It is still hard to tell someone to stop though. I couldn't imagine being a shooter only. Just isn't the same. I have also seen in a lot of cases that these guys do not like to be coached up in between flights. I have tried to ask them to practice with me in between flights, but 9 times out of 10, they decline.

Just hate the situation.

I've heard some ducks that are tone deaf.

Must be something in the water.

I went one of my first times with a guy who had to do all the calling, because I couldn't do any, and when I heard him hit the off note in his cadence, and saw the birds turn on that note, I told him immediately not to hit that note anymore.

I have no idea if he thought me an arse for it or not. I explained myself to him after making the statement though. While I have no idea how to work a call, I could tell that note was off, and sounded like it had distress in it, and the birds showed they did not like it. Basically just told him, hey man, you had them right up until you hit that one note, then they turned, I think this is why, blah blah blah.

Just because you can't play the Moonlight Sonata, doesn't mean you are unable tell when someone is playing it wrong.

I don't think there should be a problem letting them know to hit this note, and not that one, or hey stop calling at this point because A-B-C, whatever. Just so long as you are not a jerk about it.

I know I appreciate any and all the help I can get. Especially when it comes to something like hunting, and it's going to increase my odds.

I was raised different. I had ducks thrown threw the blind at me when I messed up, so I ALWAYS took advise from other hunters and asked how they made that sound. That is what gets me. I really enjoy helping them work on it, but most times they are bent out of shape when I/we bring it up. I've never been rude and have never thrown a duck at someone either!

Well...I think I'd rather be hit with a duck than by #2's...Which if I call, will be exactly what people want to do.

Some people have difficulty with tones just like color blindness. Practice will not help because they cannot hear the differences in tones. It will be frustrating because to such a person it all sounds the same. They usually can distinguish major differences though.

They may not realize the difficiency.

I don't think there is that many people who are that tone deaf, just that many folks who aren't willing to go sit and listen to the woods without a gun first or without the prospect of trying to kill something first.

People now more than ever are just busy bodies. Don't know how to stop and hear the music if you know what I mean. It is a lot easier to imitate a duck if you have actually taken the time to scout or just be outside when not hunting first and listen to them or any other animal and watch what they do.

Too many people just have to be doing something, smoking, talking, texting, looking a dumb pictures, blowing duck calls, squirting doe urine. Its like you know there were ducks before credit cards. I don't know. I say just go for a walk in the woods every once and a while or better yet sit and be still and quiet and listen. Stop doing all the time. My rant for today.

Heard an "old"? mallard hen this morning that sounded like she had a boot on her neck every time she called. It got to the point that me and my buddy were laughing too hard to call back to her. We tried to imitate her sound but came to the conclusion we would have to run a call over with the truck to sound that raspy and still get the squeal she had on the end of her calls..

Hunt with a couple guys who call at birds that are cupped up, on top of that they suck. Imo, calling is overrated. Dont get me wrong, it can be a useful tool but many people tend to do to much of it. Shoot, I don't and haven't ever carried a call, even when hunting by myself. You're only going to do more harm than good if you don't know what you're doing.

I rarely use a call, and when I do it is single quacks. Calling is overrated, being on the X is the key

I agree that too much is bad and quacking are sometimes enough. Don't know about not having a call when hunting by yourself though.

I think calling is overrated as well, I call when they are flying away to try and turn them, but it is annoying to me when ducks are coming in, and someone is calling. And also if you are in a hunting area with other hunting groups and someone is calling all morning long, Barneys, put the stupid call away.

It's more volume than tone that spooks the birds.

I've been doing it for quite some time, not sure why it'd make a difference if I was with 3 people or by myself. You don't need a call to have a successful duck hunt, I can assure you. If you're where they want to be, that's it.

Hunting by yourself without a call just kind of seems like dove hunting. Don't get me wrong, I love dove hunting, but seems more like shooting than hunting. Below is a video with about 30 ducks in the decoys, which you can't really see all of them due to it being 5 minutes before LST, but I kept calling the 100+ circling above my head. Lets just say we had 5 limits in 18 minutes.

I agree with everyone that calling is overrated, but if done effectively, it is the MOST important tool in hunting ducks.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q83rTK8glhk

So it went from hunting to shooting because of a chunk of acrylic hanging from my neck? Guess I'll need to brush up on my grunt call so I can effectively deer "hunt".

You can call it what you want, but I've been very successful with no call. Everything is the same, save for someone blowing on a duck call.

Maybe I'm old school, but I prefer cocobolo instead of acrylic.

I apologize if I offended you. I have just never heard of someone hunting ducks with no call and a group without at least one caller in almost 3 decades of hunting. What do you do if they are sitting down just out of range? Fire one off and start over? Is it a lot of pass shots? Just curious.

Duck commander ranks it at #7, as far as importance. If you are on the X, it's easy to look like a good duck caller.

Try putting your call away one morning and just running a couple jerk strings. You might be surprised what you can pull in.

I sort of understand the last sentence, but what about when you are not on the X. How important is a call then? Duck Commander hunts in the swamps of East Louisiana within the heart of the MS Flyway. The ducks can sit down anywhere over in that country. I would bet that they have never Not Needed to Call for an entire hunt. Jerk rigs are effective and I use a lot later in the season. You still have to get them in range to see the waves when hunting in thick marsh or woods though.