Anyone have any experience with this companies calls?? I spent some time at their booth at the DU expo in grapevine a couple months ago. They had a 10-1 whistle that combined the standard 6-1 with a roller style whistle...it was strange but very cool...they are a Texas based company so i was hoping someone on hear may have had some experience with them. I'm looking around for a good acrylic and will probably go RNT but was open to these guys if I could hear some reviews

http://www.cuttdowncalls.com/

love their calls.

Try them out for yourself. Buy a cheap one and take it hunting and put it through the paces.

I would encourage you to try many calls. All you really need to be an excellent hunting caller are a few well made sounds---well made every time.

The biggest mistake in duck hunting today is over calling period even above poor location. Many times even when you are in a location that is not the best, a few well made notes will make them just curious enough to come in and take a look.

Learn to make a relaxed quack, learn to make an excited quack---excited as in come on down here not excited as in get the heck out of here!

Learn to how to make a call bark with some loud greeting notes. Learn how to plead with greeting notes.

Learn how to cluck with a duck call. Many over look this but hen mallards put or cluck on the water when they are feeding in abundant food sources contently. These clucks are like what a chicken does. They can be single or spaced together.

This is all you need and there are tons of calls out the at all price levels that will get you where you want to be. The key is to find one that fits you and one that will allow you to call softly or loudly at will. The Lord made us all different and what works for me will not work for you.

Furthermore, you need to hunt with some old school hands that know what they are doing. I call with a style that my Grandfather used and his dad used.

When I have time, I would be happy to make you some sound files describing what I am talking about and I will post them on Z-Share. If you are interested, keep reminding me.

The bottom line is find that call that will allow you to do it all and have fun on your quest. The other important and critical aspect is you must find a call that will work in all weather conditions not just at home in the garage on a summer evening. That is crucial and I tell you that from experience.

Remember this, 98% of the duck callers today sound just like each other. They listen to the same tapes, go to the same duck calling contests and watch the same videos. You want to be different than the rest of the pack especially when hunting on public land. You want to be unpredictable. You want to sound just like a duck in the wild----a happy duck in the wild.

I kid you not, I have sat hidden in buck brush for many hours in a National Wildlife Refuge when allowed to after hunting hours with no shotgun and listened to ducks. More often than not, I have seen wads of ducks not make a sound for two or three hours----not a sound. They will do this late in the season when pressured. When I have been observing them and they are talking to each other, some of the sounds you hear will startled and surprise you. The first time I heard a hen single cluck she was on right next to me in the buck brush and I did not know it, I almost wet my waders! Listen to Jim Ronquest or John Stephens call in an RNT Video----you will hear them going "Chuck---chuck---chuck.chuck"----this is what I am talking about and it is the foundation for all "feed" or "chatter" calling. While we are at it, chatter is totally different from rolling feed calls or clucks. I have heard tons of ducks chatter overhead AND on the water. I have never heard one do a rolling feed call anywhere. For that matter, did you know Drakes feed cluck or chatter to? I have only heard them do it once or twice but they will do it. I wish I could make a call to duplicate that sound!

Watch how ducks in the sky react to those dominant hen mallards on the water. Often if there is a dominant hen in the air, she will bicker back and forth with the dominant hen on the water or she will tell the hen on the water "we are coming in----we are hungry".

If you can duplicate what you hear actual ducks in the wild do----not park or golf course ducks,-----you will kill ducks when others are not.

Good luck and sorry to get off on a tangent. I love this subject!----calls and how to use them to talk WITH ducks; NOT to or at them. I still remember the first time I heard a hand carrying on a conversation with a hen mallard overhead. There is no drug or no alcoholic drink that can mimic the sensation of talking with a duck to convince her to land in your decoys.

thanks for the advice top, i appreciate it

I've blew on just about every acrylic call I can imagine and the best I have found for me personally is the RNT Shortbarrel. It can get loud when i need it to (not very often) and can also hit those soft clucks to bring em in. You can't go wrong with an RNT.

Good advice Top. Those clucks and chucks your talking about are very important. Once I get the ducks attention with quacks,I pretty much just do those clucks and chucks. They are deadly to closing out the deal.

Awesome advice guys. As a guy that is still learning, this stuff is priceless.

+1

@TOPH20- I can blow the basic quack but still have so much more to learn...the meat and potatoes- the cadence and rhythm and inflection...can you not learn this type stuff from listening to "golf course" ducks??? I know that the thing that will help me the most is listening to ducks talking, but i cant listen to wild ducks at this time of the year...what can I do? thanks for all the advice top

Yes you can learn it from pure bred mallards not the ones who have been crossbred with Muscovy ducks or what not. Gold course and park ducks call WAY more than wild ducks. Park and Golf course ducks are better than nothing.

I don't agree with this. In a spot where ducks have no desire to land you will get no reaction by calling passively. The first option in that situation is to move where they want to go, then if that doesn't work, try calling aggresively.

+1

Gotta be where they want to be. If you can't get there, call more, adjust the spread, etc.

I call LOUDLY and in an excited manner for a few notes and then I shut up. Just like in working with metal, you can always cut more more you can't put it back when you cut too much.

I believe in General, people like to blow their duck call. I am dumbfounded by hearing some hunters start calling 10 minutes before sun up non-stop. Why not see how the ducks are going to react to your decoys first you may not need to call at all?

There are times when a lot of calling is needed but I always start out with a little calling. One surefire way to know you are calling to much is when ducks repeatedly come within gun shot range but they want land in the decoys.

I see this on videos continuously. The hunters are in prime spots where the ducks want to be but the ducks will not land in the decoys. Everything is right---the wind is right, the ducks have a place to get in and out of, everyone is hidden and there is no movement but the ducks come in and want to land but on the second or third pass, they jet. Meanwhile Gomer is hammering them with a feed call or what not.

When a duck is just out of shotgun range, rest assured it knows your spread is there already. It saw it from a ways off. If it veers off then I will hit it with a call. To me, ducks make much larger passes than they used to. You think the duck is leaving and right about the time you shower down in it, it has decided to come in and then you blow it out of the hole.

Tips and Tails

I agree with waiting on seeing what the ducks are doing. This past year they seemed Call and Decoy shy early. When you hunt around public and everyone out there is calling sometimes less is more...

Perhaps my experience comes from the fact that 98 percent of my hunting until the last five years has been on public land. I am sure that plays into it.

It all depends on where you're hunting. I've found that farther north I get the ducks seem to respond better to aggressive calling, where as in east Texas and farther south the less you call the better.

What does any of this have to do with Cutt Down game calls

Nothing...

Back to OP, I own a few CDGC that I really like. I have blown a couple of their calls that just didn't fit me right, at least not how they are tuned in the box. But some of their calls sound really good.

The CD calls I have blown sounded like hunting calls and not contest calls. I could kill a duck with one for sure. They seem to be small in size but carry a big sound which is a plus.

If I were the author of this thread, I would surely get one. That is just part in parcel of the quest he is on----learning by experience. If down the road, the CD doesn't work out then he can either put it in his collection or let some other person starting out have it. It might fit them perfect.

As far as calling in general goes, I know I am highly opinionated to a fault. I will admit I am skunked as many days as I put them in the decoys in front of me. When I truly got serious about duck hunting, my goal was to take the good I learned from others and form my own style of calling. My goal is to put them on the water. The downside is the odds are against me and I miss a lot of shots. There are days I come home empty handed because I wanted to wait one more pass in the hopes they would light in the decoys.

Take what I say with a grain of salt. The last thing I want to do is get into a urination contest over my method versus your method. Life is way too short.

I would close by saying make a few sounds and make those few sounds perfect every time starting out. Build on that. The one I have was one of his first calls and is the first generation of this call. You can slide the insert in or out to change the tone.

http://www.cuttdowncalls.com/Cajun-Hen.htm

Well then lets just hope Moose doesnt get back in this thread. haha

I have just seen more hunts ruined by over calling than I have ruined by under calling. Most of us can't call like Jim Ronquest
or Rick Dunn.

I have seen folks set up where ducks want to be and then have a bad hunt because they were over calling. If you know what and when to say it, then fine you can be more aggressive. If you are just starting out, take it easy.

I think the only way Pike will find the call that best fits him is to buy a few and even then it takes a while to get used to a call and figure out how it works. I think this is the reason so many people buy calls and then turn right around and sell them. They do not take the time to get used to the call.

Know that call. Does it sound better with the call indexed to your mouth with the reed under the tone board? Does it sound better with it indexed to your mouth with the insert indexed to your lips so that the reed is sitting on top of the tone board or to one side or at an angle?

It is a tough deal. Money is not as easy to come by now and a man wants to make the most of it. It is a catch 22, do I go with a sure thing or do I stray off the path a little and buy one from a less well known maker?

My advice is to go buy polycarbonate calls from the companies you are interested in and try them. If you like those then you have a decent idea of what the $100 plus acrylic call will sound like.

Pike if you are interested in keeping it a Texas thing then also look at Cadence calls. They are on the web and that fellow is a nice guy. He will help you but then they all are good folks I have found.

I will also advise you to go buy a Quack Head Quack Pipe at Academy and start learning how to run a single reed duck call. You will probably end up with a single reed down the road anyway.

I better also make it clear I call LOUD and AGGRESSIVE. I just don't call that much.

If any of your friends have a call collection, see if you can borrow a couple.

I loaned one to Judd and he's making it sing.

That is a good idea.