
	Jim James - Owner of Carlson Championship Calls and 1996 World Duck Calling Champion

Volume.... Too Much? Not Enough? Where & When?

by Jim James - Owner of Carlson Championship Calls and 1996 World Duck Calling Champion

Volume has always been a very important element of calling waterfowl. In its simplest form it can be said, "Too loud and you’ll blow ‘em away...too soft and they can’t hear you." In reality it’s a bit more complex.

First off, one should be aware of the acoustical environment in which he’ll be hunting and calling. A timber pothole surrounded by hardwood trees, combined with the hard surface of the usually still water will generally dictate a softer volume call in an effort to prevent echoing. In this situation, because of the surrounding timber and lack of a clear field of view, very little if any "high balling" of the ducks occur. Usually, the ducks are fairly close when first seen and consequently softer sounds are used to greet and work them on into the hole.

An open water set-up would fall at the opposite end of the acoustical spectrum. Here one finds himself hunting wide-open expanses of water with virtually unlimited visibility. Factor in the affects of wind and inclement weather and at times it seems you can’t have a loud enough call. In this environment the ducks can be seen when they’re just specks in the sky and loud, shingle-rattling ringing highballs are the norm. Usually, the entire vocabulary of the waterfowl hunter will likewise be louder as he greets, quacks and chuckles as the ducks swing and work the spread.

The time of the year and the amount of foliage on the trees and brush also come into play. Early in the year the sound of the call can be absorbed by lush vegetation whereas later in the year, when the leaves have fallen, the acoustical environment becomes harsher and can be drastically different.

Obviously, there are countless other acoustical environments that would fall between the two just mentioned. Being aware of the area you hunt, the wind, weather and even the time of the year will help you better select the proper volume of call and calling with which to start.

The overall volume of any call is generally dictated by its design. A callmaker may make a range of different volumes in his line of calls, at times making it difficult for the waterfowl hunter to decide which call may be right for him. Keeping in mind one’s acoustical environment can help. Also, keep in mind that the top-end volume of a call is relatively fixed by design. Having said that it should be noted that it could be somewhat variable due to refined operational abilities on the part of the caller as well as physical characteristics such as the overall size of the caller’s head and mouth. This relates to the overall size of the resonate cavity consisting of the fixed internal size of the call’s barrel and the variable size of the Mouth Cavity as produced by the caller. If the call’s design is somewhat efficient in terms of PSI in for dB out one’s lungs and lung capacity have very little to due with maximizing the volume of a call.

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It goes without saying that one must first have a versatile and functional call if he is to maximize its potential in terms of creating both loud and soft sounds. While functional loud volume calls can be made to produce very soft sounds by a skilled and versatile operator the same cannot be said about making soft volume calls produce more volume.

Many of the calls being sold today seem to be designed with high volume in mind. The old adage of, "If a little is good, more must be better", seems to be the circling cry of callers and callmakers alike. What the callmakers are not taking into consideration is that the majority of waterfowlers would recognize that as the alarm call of the hen mallard. There’s no quicker way to run off ducks.

I’ve known champion callers, who could make all the sounds ever needed to successfully call ducks, sound like rank amateurs in the blind. What they possessed in operational skills they lacked dearly in field savvy. It sometimes takes years of quality field time to become proficient at what most refer to as, "Reading the birds." Even then I have found that the learning curve in this "art" can be drastically different dependent upon the waterfowl hunter's calling abilities.

One waterfowler may have many years of field experience but has been doing nothing more than tootin’ on a junk call. Consequently, his idea of what the ducks do and how they react to calling is dramatically different than that of the waterfowl hunter with the same amount of field savvy, a functional call, plus many more operational skills.

The greater one’s operational skills with the call and the more savvy he has in the field the more the tendency he has to use louder calls and do more aggressive and demanding calling. Generally, these guys will have louder calls, will call more often and call with much more confidence. And, more often than not, they’ll be more successful. Others see the results as the ducks work the calling and this only adds fuel to the fire. They see the ducks work and hear the loud calling. They rationalize in their minds that the loud calling is the answer. First thing Monday morning they pull out their catalogs or hit their favorite sporting goods store looking for a louder call.

Just recently I experienced something similar. Three other accomplished callers and myself were hunting a small marsh pothole on an extremely large public area. Another party had set up within a couple hundred yards. We called loud and aggressively, as we have always done, and in short time worked in many flocks of ducks. Some were easier than others. Some we really hard to scream at, and hammer with demanding aggressive comebacks as they worked out and over the other party of hunters. Shortly before noon we had shot our limit of greenheads, picked up our decoys, and headed back to the ramp. I don’t remember but hearing only a few shots from the other party’s boat. That night we ran into one of the hunters from the other party. He commented on how we "had the spot" and that "the ducks really wanted that spot bad." I explained that it wasn’t the spot but the calling that led to our success. I asked him if he saw the ducks we had to scream at to turn. He acknowledged the calling by saying, "Yep...that was really impressive to watch."

The following day the story repeated itself as we once again shot our limit while they watched and pass shot a couple ducks. After picking up the decoys we motored out of the pothole. Upon exiting our pothole we were surprised to see that the other party had picked up their decoys and were waiting to pull into the spot we had just exited. Shortly another boat pulled up. We later learned that the two boats belonged to the same group of hunters and they had been communicating via two-way radio.

We motored across a small expanse of water where we cleaned our ducks on an island. The entire time we were picking and cleaning our ducks we watched as flock after flock of ducks passed over the pothole. The entire time the hunters were screaming with loud calls but the sounds they were creating were far from duck-like. As a result, the entire time we watched they managed one long pass shot at a single hen mallard. Obviously they took what I had said the night before to heart. It had to be the loud calling, and lots of it, and if that’s what it was...then by-golly we can do it, too!

While volume is important and can be a tremendous asset one should not put the cart in front of the horse. Before investing in a loud volume call it would pay dividends to also invest in some form of meaningful, make-sense instruction. Preferably instruction geared towards the call you currently have, or are about to purchase, in order to maximize the call’s potential. Meaningful instructional material geared towards one make or brand of call may or may not work with other makes or brands.

Once again, experience has taught me that many a blind alley can be avoided by going at learning proper call operation like a job. Making the firm commitment to want to learn, getting a functional and properly designed call and related instruction can pay huge benefits in the field. Don’t be too concerned with excessive volume until you first learn to play the instrument (call). Once you have it mastered you’ll see amazing results and others will be watching you pull those birds down from the sky.