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Gaston Speck Call

3K views 17 replies 5 participants last post by  Klondike 
#1 ·
Well my girlfriend gave me my Christmas present a little early this year. She remembered me saying a while back that I needed a speck call and one of my buddies knows Mr. Gaston and picked one out for her to give to me. On top of the it happens to be in camo swirl and was the only one he had in that color.

Im looking for some information on getting started with this call. Some help getting all the notes and cadences that they produce etc. Any help would be appreciated.

Jake
 
#2 ·
I'm worthless as a calling instructor but can tell you the Gaston's a nice call. Didn't fit me as well as some others, but I ran one for a season, and we killed what most would think a lot of specks over it. And a more impressive reference might be that Nathan Wright's last speck call before he started making his own "Redbone" line was a Gaston.
 
#4 ·
Any call with brass guts is the way to go, you can do anything with them from scratches, whips, whistles, yodels and everything else on a specks vocabulary. Im running the Anatra right now and I love it. The Redbone, Riceland, JB Custom, Chien Caille are some good options as well. Never heard of this Gaston till now, ill have to try it out..
 
#7 ·
As far as a marketing tool,maybe so,but the same could be said of using hedge for a call barrell or insert to give that speck down in a barrell resonance. Hollow ground sounds can be achieved with acrylic,hedge,cocabola,african blackwood,derlin,polycarb. However,we agree that it is outside realm of possibility for us humans to even touch the full tonal range of the real birds with the current equipment available.
 
#9 ·
The Gaston is a well made call,and yes,Nathan Wright is a viable reference.

As far as a soundfile,nope,yet to find one with thin hedge,just as yet to find one demonstrating a direct comparison between low end work,(ground yodeling),being done with the same toneboard,wedge,and reed in an acrylic call vs thin hedge. I would like to hear the speck in a barrell reference though. I have seen it posted many times on various forums other then here,just would like to hear it for my own curiosity.
 
#10 ·
Hear it a good bit when close to birds on the ground, but here's the only sound file I've encountered of it:
http://ibc.lynxeds.com/sound/greater-white-fronted-goose-anser-albifrons/2-calls-individual

That's not as low as they go, but a fair example. Seldom hear anything close when they're in the air, so I'm thinking posture (standing, as opposed to flying) plays a role. Know I can't rattle nearly as readily or well on an acrylic, delrin or poly as with my hedge. Perhaps you trained musicians can with your brass, but I've not heard it.
 
#12 ·
After working on that deep down rattle for a couple decades my technique is probably pretty well set, and material and design have helped me get what I'm after. Perhaps an expert such as yourself can nail it with technique alone. Well, that and brass guts.
 
#14 ·
AUduckman, how are you coming along with that Gaston?
I had a buddy of mine show me how he was taught to blow them and I can't seem to get the hand position right so that the note "breaks" when I have the right hand position. No matter how I position my hands it never breaks and I eventually end up closing off all the air.

I'm sticking with it, just going to take some time. I'm still looking for a video or some instruction for getting going. If anyone has any advice for a new guy on a speck call Id appreciate it.

Thanks guys
 
#16 ·
The video segment is excellent.
I would place the exhaust end of your call between the thumb and forefinger of your right hand,closing the remaining fingers down as if to form a tube, thus extending the insert of the call. Make sure nothing is obstructing the exhaust and slowly blow a steady stream of air through the call,relaxed air as if you would gently blow out a candle,no voice,no grunt just air. Now don't change anything once the call is underway with this steady stream of air,now take your left hand and make a slight C-shape and SLOWLY bring it around the end of the tube you have formed with your right hand. You will DO THIS WHILE BLOWING A STEADY STREAM OF AIR. While slowly bringing the left hand around,you should feel the call change sounds as well as hear it. This is the break point. If you are able to do this ,repeat it,then rep this until you can automatically find this point through hand positioning with your even eyes closed. This is the hand position for you,may not be the same as mine or the next guy,but it is the point where you are able to make that reed close and slap down on the toneboard of your call. Do this before ever trying to make a two note,three note,cluck,whatever. You can never advance to making note shapes UNTIL you can find this break point. You will have to go stupidly slow,because if a burst of air is used,it occurs too fast to zero in on the proper hand position.
 
#17 ·
Being fitted for a Chien Caille speck call by their maker, Mervis Saltzman, is still something of a cultural rite of passage for speck hunters here in Southwest Louisiana, and I seldom miss a chance to accompany lodge guests interested in his calls to the shop just to watch and visit. But back when I first took that pilgrimage, in the mid-'80s, it was an experience greatly embellished by taking place in a shack Mervis hauled in from somewhere and furnished with assorted hangers on and free-flowing beer for they, the Master and we pilgrims awaiting our turn at his knee. When my turn came with the new call that was handed to me and I raised my off hand to afford back pressure in the manner I'd become accustomed to with my Olt and Haydel speck calls, Mervis unceremoniously batted that hand away. Something no one of my background was accustomed to allowing to pass in the first place, much less be repeated in front of an audience, as it was when I again raised my off hand. That ended our calling session.

But Mervis' contention was, and remains, that one can more quickly/efficiently control back pressure by flexing and unflexing the hand holding the call than by adding a second hand to the equation. Never did learn to do so, myself.
 
#18 ·
For a beginner,less variables in my opinion. I agree that the on hand can be flexed to create backpressure sufficient to break the call or find the break point,BUT this flexing can be very subtle,and if the exhaust is too obstructed to start with by the on hand,the caller might start past the break and never find it. This is why I advocate unobstructed on hand grip,finding the break with a cupped left hand slowly coming down over the end of the tube formed by the on hand. And it may not take much closing of the off hand to push it over,or depending on the call,one may have to almost completly cover the end of the on hand tube.
 
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