# Farthest you have ever hail called ducks in from?



## fishndinty (Nov 29, 2010)

Tonight I got a greenhead at the last minute of shooting light from a flock of 12.  They were downwind of me in a stiff wind so far I could barely tell they were mallards (like a mile or more).  They worked straight in and landed then flushed- I shot one and my gun jammed.  Grrr.

Anyway it got me thinking because those birds were FAR!  How far is the farthest you have screamed them in from?  Try to list the terrain.  I was in a grassland swamp on very flat ground with a strong wind carrying the sound toward the birds.  I was using a Buck Gardner Tall Timber set as a reed and a half.  That call can ring!


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## drake2215 (Nov 29, 2010)

1.4 miles in flooded timber with a Haydel DR-85!  all kiddin aside prob about 3 or 4 hundred yards with my Daisy cutter well i like to think they came to my callin anyway


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## Sling (Nov 29, 2010)

1/4 mile downwind of the ducks in 15 mph headwind with an Echo Open Water..I have one left. No lie.


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## gsp754 (Nov 29, 2010)

2 miles up wind, from a sink box in the mississippi river. i did the whole routine just like i heard it when i was in stuttgart for the world calling contest.


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## browning84 (Nov 29, 2010)

fishndinty said:


> Tonight I got a greenhead at the last minute of shooting light from a flock of 12.  They were downwind of me in a stiff wind so far I could barely tell they were mallards (like a mile or more).  They worked straight in and landed then flushed- I shot one and my gun jammed.  Grrr.
> 
> Anyway it got me thinking because those birds were FAR!  How far is the farthest you have screamed them in from?  Try to list the terrain.  I was in a grassland swamp on very flat ground with a strong wind carrying the sound toward the birds.  I was using a Buck Gardner Tall Timber set as a reed and a half.  That call can ring!



When you saw the birds for the first time were they coming to you?


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## kenway (Nov 29, 2010)

id say over 500 yards there not going to hear you no mater how hard the wind is blowing at them. and i cant think of where i would see them any farther than that.


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## quackwacker (Nov 29, 2010)

Hail calling is for contest only!  Ive never heard a really good caller do a hail call.


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## browning84 (Nov 29, 2010)

quackwacker said:


> Hail calling is for contest only!  Ive never heard a really good caller do a hail call.



really? hum


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## quackwacker (Nov 29, 2010)

browning84 said:


> really? hum



Ive also spent hour and hours and hours in the flooded timber and Ive never heard a duck on the water do a hail call.  Or one in a rice field or a bean field make that call.

Can anyone say they have ever heard a duck make that sound?


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## nickf11 (Nov 29, 2010)

quackwacker said:


> Ive also spent hour and hours and hours in the flooded timber and Ive never heard a duck on the water do a hail call.  Or one in a rice field or a bean field make that call.
> 
> Can anyone say they have ever heard a duck make that sound?



Nope...never heard a duck do it.


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## nickf11 (Nov 29, 2010)

drake2215 said:


> 1.4 miles in flooded timber with a Haydel DR-85!  all kiddin aside prob about 3 or 4 hundred yards with my Daisy cutter well i like to think they came to my callin anyway



That's what I like to hear! I just ordered this call and can't wait to start practicin w/ it!!


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## browning84 (Nov 29, 2010)

A hunting hail is not the same as a contest hail. The idea of a hail call is to turn ducks to get them back to where you can get real with them again.


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## quackwacker (Nov 29, 2010)

browning84 said:


> A hunting hail is not the same as a contest hail. The idea of a hail call is to turn ducks to get them back to where you can get real with them again.



but if a duck has never heard that call before why would he turn and come back to it?

And whats a hunting hail call?


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## browning84 (Nov 29, 2010)

quackwacker said:


> but if a duck has never heard that call before why would he turn and come back to it?
> 
> And whats a hunting hail call?



Because it got his attention.

A hunting hail is a hail you do while your hunting


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## kenway (Nov 29, 2010)

he is right a competition hail call is different then a hail call in the woods i dont blow a hail call anyways in the woods only when im in comppetition. but when your hunting its just being as loud as you can but staying ducky at the same time.


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## drake2215 (Nov 29, 2010)

browning84 said:


> Because it got his attention.
> 
> A hunting hail is a hail you do while your hunting



A hail call in the field is nothing more than an agressive come back call. you dont hear comp. hail calling during live duck calling contest.


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## browning84 (Nov 29, 2010)

Live duck is live duck because you are trying to mimic ducks

Meat comp has a hunting hail because you are mimicing how you hunt and blow at ducks


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## Burritoboy (Nov 30, 2010)

quackwacker said:


> Ive also spent hour and hours and hours in the flooded timber and Ive never heard a duck on the water do a hail call.  Or one in a rice field or a bean field make that call.
> 
> Can anyone say they have ever heard a duck make that sound?



No one has ever heard a duck make that sound, because they can't.  But that is not the way to look at the logic behind blowing a hail call in a hunting situation.  My personal opinion is that when a duck is that far away they can't hear every note you blow.  It is kind of like when you hear a friend hollering at you from in the woods at the far end of a field.  You can't really understand anything they are saying and you don't know exactly where they are, but you know they are trying to communicate something you.  So you go and check it out.  As sound travels over distance and through obstacles it is broken up.  When you spit up a lung putting everything you have into a hail call you do so with the understanding that not every note you blow is going to make it to the ducks, you just hope and pray that one or two notes get there to get the ducks attention.  

My explanation may have come out as clear as mud, but it made sense in my mind.  All that being said, I don't blow a hail call when hunting.  If a group got  away, I let them go.  To me there is a greater chance that I am going to flare another group I have not seen than there is getting that group leaving out to turn around.


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## browning84 (Nov 30, 2010)

Sounds good to me. My personal opinion about flaring another group is yes its possible but if when you are scouting you get an average time between groups you might know how long you can spend being loud, and take some chances to see what works. 

everyone knows this is the secret to killing ducks anyway.


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## Larry Young Jr (Nov 30, 2010)

My 2 cents is do all hailing you want just do it about 300 yds from me and I will do all the shooting.  I use more Feeding and single quacks and Mallard drake sound ,I dont know what is called? But it works 95% of the time. So all Hail to the MIGHT DUCK that drives us all crazy. Hey browning 84 The brother-n-Law call works. Just give it a kid in a duck blind and get your gun ready.
Good luck and besafe
Larry


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## fishndinty (Nov 30, 2010)

browning84 said:


> When you saw the birds for the first time were they coming to you?



No, the birds absolutely were not coming toward me before I hail called at them.  They were crossing left to right about a mile out.  They turned after I called and made a beeline to within 200 yards.  I think as flat and open as it was and with the wind in my favor, the sound carried.

I don't normally hail call either; it was a few minutes of shooting light left and they were the only birds in the sky, so I thought, what the heck?


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## MudDucker (Nov 30, 2010)

I hit the call so hard one morning that one from S. Carolina showed up the next morning.


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## browning84 (Nov 30, 2010)

Hey Larry, I’m not suggesting someone sit out there and hail at every group that gets out 30 yards past em. It’s like that 3rd shot in your shot gun, every once in a while you find a use for it. I would say you’re better off with feed and tending or contentment quacks. It’s all applicable, a hunting hail in my opinion is not much louder than a comeback call but it is cadence. By no means am I suggesting some sit out there and blow a 30 note hail call.


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## browning84 (Nov 30, 2010)

MudDucker said:


> I hit the call so hard one morning that one from S. Carolina showed up the next morning.


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## Meat Dog Mafia (Nov 30, 2010)

Years and Years of working ducks will teach you what to do and when. Some things work some days and you wonder why, Timber is different than open water. One will learn what to do by blowing ducks out and thinking #%^& I dont need to do that again. My favorite thing to do is Happy Birthday song on my call. I dont know if ducks like or not, but heck I sure do.


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## decoyed (Nov 30, 2010)

not much need to in timber.  Do it all the time in the LA rice and marsh.  Turn plenty of birds every year with it.  All they know is they heard a duck sound and its worth taking a look.  Then the fun starts.


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## Larry Young Jr (Nov 30, 2010)

browning84 said:


> Hey Larry, I’m not suggesting someone sit out there and hail at every group that gets out 30 yards past em. It’s like that 3rd shot in your shot gun, every once in a while you find a use for it. I would say you’re better off with feed and tending or contentment quacks. It’s all applicable, a hunting hail in my opinion is not much louder than a comeback call but it is cadence. By no means am I suggesting some sit out there and blow a 30 note hail call.



I know you were not suggesting anything I was messing around and putting my 2 cents in.  I was serious about the brother-n-law call. we were in a blind with some kids and they wanted to call I had 1 and gave it to the kids. Now we only seen 2 ducks before that and after I gave it to them we seen 15 to 20 ducks and got 4. It was awesome So I carry it every time I have kids with me. I have never had it work for me.

Good luck and besafe
Larry


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## quackwacker (Nov 30, 2010)

decoyed said:


> not much need to in timber.  Do it all the time in the LA rice and marsh.  Turn plenty of birds every year with it.  All they know is they heard a duck sound and its worth taking a look.  Then the fun starts.



So you've heard ducks do a hail call?


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## gsp754 (Nov 30, 2010)

my question is this....... if a bird is so far away that the hail call doesnt sound like the loudest duck in the world, how does he know where it came from much less which direction to head towards.
seems to me like if hes far enough away for it to sound like a normal quack he would plop right down where hes at not be looking for the hen on the water a mile out yelling at him...... and if there was a hen yelling loud enough for any male to hear a mile away it aint cause shes glad to see him, & he sure aint going after her! aka wet hen, mad hen, etc.......
im calling coincidence, but what do i know?


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## jerry russell (Nov 30, 2010)

I once shot a ruddy shell duck. These birds are indigenous to SE Asia so don't try and tell me my hail call doesn't work!
You just gotta blow HARD from the diaphragm boys.


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## gsp754 (Nov 30, 2010)

jerry russell said:


> I once shot a ruddy shell duck. These birds are indigenous to SE Asia so don't try and tell me my hail call doesn't work!
> You just gotta blow HARD from the diaphragm boys.



Agreed,

i wonder if having a buddy hold a mega phone in front of you would bring in ducks from even farther?


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## Burritoboy (Nov 30, 2010)

gsp754 said:


> my question is this....... if a bird is so far away that the hail call doesnt sound like the loudest duck in the world, how does he know where it came from much less which direction to head towards.
> seems to me like if hes far enough away for it to sound like a normal quack he would plop right down where hes at not be looking for the hen on the water a mile out yelling at him...... and if there was a hen yelling loud enough for any male to hear a mile away it aint cause shes glad to see him, & he sure aint going after her! aka wet hen, mad hen, etc.......
> im calling coincidence, but what do i know?



You would be correct if the point was to get the duck to locate your spreads exact location with one series of calling.  That is not the goal, when the ducks are that far out you want to turn them and get them looking.  Once they are looking for where that sound came from you can commence to working the ducks closer and closer to your spread.  

When a duck is that far away and hears a call, I doubt that it sounds the same as a quack coming from directly underneath or like the loudest quack in the world.  A lifetime of hearing other ducks calling educates the bird as to the different sounds of the calling and what/where the call is generally coming from and generally means. 

It may very well have been a coincidence, but it could have been what the environmental factors allowed for as well.


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## gsp754 (Nov 30, 2010)

Im all for getting louder at times and understand calling them in and adjusting volume as they get closer, but i dont think a loud ringing hail call is worth its decibels in gold when your hunting. Ive got frustrated at birds not working out in rice fields and corn fields enough times that i have resorted to trying anything. Not once can i say a bird not already coming to my field changed courses after i hammered him with a stuttgart special a mile away. I think theres just a point you look out and see ducks and realize they are to far away to waste time trying to call at.


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## quackwacker (Nov 30, 2010)

gsp754 said:


> Im all for getting louder at times and understand calling them in and adjusting volume as they get closer, but i dont think a loud ringing hail call is worth its decibels in gold when your hunting. Ive got frustrated at birds not working out in rice fields and corn fields enough times that i have resorted to trying anything. Not once can i say a bird not already coming to my field changed courses after i hammered him with a stuttgart special a mile away. I think theres just a point you look out and see ducks and realize they are to far away to waste time trying to call at.




I agree...........until the invention of the Mo-Jo!


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## stringmusic (Nov 30, 2010)

So you can win a calling contest by making calls that ducks don't even make and cannot help you kill any birds?
Remind me to never go to one of those contest.


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## quackwacker (Nov 30, 2010)

stringmusic said:


> So you can win a calling contest by making calls that ducks don't even make and cannot help you kill any birds?
> Remind me to never go to one of those contest.


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## Larry Young Jr (Nov 30, 2010)

jerry russell said:


> I once shot a ruddy shell duck. These birds are indigenous to SE Asia so don't try and tell me my hail call doesn't work!
> You just gotta blow HARD from the diaphragm boys.



Ok Jerry, I will tell them we call in ducks from SE Asia with a DJ Goose call .
Larry


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## drake2215 (Nov 30, 2010)

browning84 said:


> Live duck is live duck because you are trying to mimic ducks
> 
> Meat comp has a hunting hail because you are mimicing how you hunt and blow at ducks



So when you are hunting you use your "hunting" callin And save your live duck callin just for Competition? That makes absolutely no sense.


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## grunt (Nov 30, 2010)

if you listen to a few birds that are out to far you give them a hail call just like somone yelling hey at you , what do you you look to see where it comes from so if they turn and see your mojo and keep coming in you start to lay off and got to chuckles and just good quacks  and then rhey  see you spread and all other conditions are right then it works dont just depend on a hail call but like you decoys and mojos ita just a tool that may or may not work!


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## grunt (Nov 30, 2010)

sorry for the spellin my key board is done lol works better from my phone!


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## decoyed (Nov 30, 2010)

quackwacker said:


> So you've heard ducks do a hail call?



sure. Never knew I was experiencing such a rare and special thing.  A few thousand times, give or take. Ducks on the water see ducks or hear small noises that a passing or high flock make and hollar at 'em.  They hear these ducks and say, well that sounds like ducks so they go to investigate.  Well, sure enough!!-ducks. Everyone is happy.


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## RB8782 (Dec 1, 2010)

why does every discussion in this forum turn into a world war?


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## Burritoboy (Dec 1, 2010)

RB8782 said:


> why does every discussion in this forum turn into a world war?



Because Browning84 has the most accurate avatar picture of people today on these forums.


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## browning84 (Dec 1, 2010)




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## quackwacker (Dec 1, 2010)

browning84 said:


>


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## Fowl (Dec 1, 2010)

happens all the time at reelfoot with metal reed calls.... those ducks drop in from the statosphere. It's loud and doesn't sound like a duck but they come from a ways off...I don't think it matters if they are a long ways off...I think everyone would agree many people overcall/call too loudly but if they are going away or are way up why not give them a shout. Works sometimes...


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## decoyed (Dec 1, 2010)

Burritoboy said:


> Because Browning84 has the most accurate avatar picture of people today on these forums.



all time best avatar!  Had my wife look at it last night and she said she was glad that she wasn't the only one who has to deal with this.  Good stuff for sure.  I say call them suckas the way that works for you.  One of the coolest things in hunting ducks and geese though is when some birds break out from way up high or at your last ditch effort and work.  Makes you feel like you have done something.  I know Quackwacker kills plenty of birds and do think the hail call is over used.  The birds I hunt have traveled a long ways and seen many a decoy spread.  Most of the time it seems to come down to either you have working birds or noncooperative travelers.


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## DUhollywood1 (Dec 1, 2010)

only comment I have on all of this, is it will hurt you and others that hunt around you more than it will help.


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## browning84 (Dec 1, 2010)

decoyed said:


> all time best avatar!  Had my wife look at it last night and she said she was glad that she wasn't the only one who has to deal with this.  Good stuff for sure.  I say call them suckas the way that works for you.  One of the coolest things in hunting ducks and geese though is when some birds break out from way up high or at your last ditch effort and work.  Makes you feel like you have done something.  I know Quackwacker kills plenty of birds and do think the hail call is over used.  The birds I hunt have traveled a long ways and seen many a decoy spread.  Most of the time it seems to come down to either you have working birds or noncooperative travelers.



Don't get soft on me now Sally.


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## Quackersmacker (Dec 1, 2010)

quackwacker said:


> Ive also spent hour and hours and hours in the flooded timber and Ive never heard a duck on the water do a hail call.  Or one in a rice field or a bean field make that call.
> 
> Can anyone say they have ever heard a duck make that sound?



you are right ducks dont hail call the purpose of the hail call is to get their attention    i have seen it work many of times


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## decoyed (Dec 1, 2010)

browning84 said:


> Don't get soft on me now Sally.



guess I had a weak moment.


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## decoyed (Dec 1, 2010)

DUhollywood1 said:


> only comment I have on all of this, is it will hurt you and others that hunt around you more than it will help.



Agreed.  The yahoo on pubic land blowing it like its a contest is as bad as skybusters.  I hunt private land and wma's that you don't see anyone else on so its not an issue.  As far as hurting myself, sometimes.  Birds that want to work and slip in while trying to get the non workers attention happens.  Prime times, I'm looking for birds that want to work and a hail call isn't needed.  Like throwing the hail mary pass at the end of the game.


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## MudDucker (Dec 2, 2010)

browning84 said:


> Hey Larry, I’m not suggesting someone sit out there and hail at every group that gets out 30 yards past em. It’s like that 3rd shot in your shot gun, every once in a while you find a use for it. I would say you’re better off with feed and tending or contentment quacks. It’s all applicable, a hunting hail in my opinion is not much louder than a comeback call but it is cadence. By no means am I suggesting some sit out there and blow a 30 note hail call.



I've heard some of the best hail calls ever ... blown at cormorants on Lake Seminole.


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## browning84 (Dec 2, 2010)

MudDucker said:


> I've heard some of the best hail calls ever ... blown at cormorants on Lake Seminole.



Wow, and I am sure they shot at them as well. I am not saying every joe blow should be out there blowing their lungs through a call to turn birds especially if they are not if they are cormorants. But if applied properly a hail call will turn birds. But it seems many times all people have in their calling arsenal is a feed and a hail these are the people I don’t want to set up near.


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## nickf11 (Dec 3, 2010)

stringmusic said:


> So you can win a calling contest by making calls that ducks don't even make and cannot help you kill any birds?
> Remind me to never go to one of those contest.



That would be correct. Lol. As Phil Robertson asks, "so a duck couldnt win it?" hah!!!


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