[Ange]

Successful Duck Hunting, like sucessful Golfing is a convergence of key fundamentals. I love both though I am medicore at best with each discipline. If I had to use one word to sum up why I am enamorered by these challenging pursuits, it would be intensity——- The type of intensity that makes you competely forget about job issues, mother-in-law issues, tax issues, polticial isssues and on and on.

I started out with a Duck Commander Smoke Double Reed but my attention was quickly diverted by the boys in the cool club using modified keyhole Olts. I say cool club. Perhaps the better phrase would be boys in the what works club. During that era, not that many Duck Hunters blew cut down P. S. Olt calls and they were magnificent. For the record, there wasn’t near as much Duck farming in the country as there is now either and points North of Arkansas still had sustained Winters. In any event, there was a clear difference between the old, jerry rigged hard rubber black Olt and other calls.

Had it not been for that day in November of 2013 when my last, good, modified P. S. Olt cracked in the flooded timber of Bayou Meto, I would still be using them. By that time, all of the good ones were off the market and the few acceptable renditions were too expensive given the unpredictable nature of that high compression, horse hoof derived hard rubber.

On November 27, 2013, I went back to the hotel room, showered and drove to the pre-fire RNT shop. The late Butch Richenback was one of the few people there and he was busy tuning Duck calls behind the sliding glass window. The old call rack was up on the shelf near his roost and to his right, my left. I tried every call on that rack and the excalibur was a Mallard Green 2013 Daisy Cutter with the large-lipped barrel used wheb they had “ toned this model down “ to make it more user friendly. Whatever it was, it took to me. It barked and chattered loudly. It was a joy to operate.

To be continued.

 

[Ange]

At this time, we lived in the Dallas, Texas Metro Mess. On the way back from Arkansas, I gave the DC a workout. Immediately, I figured out the call was LOUD and raspy with smooth chatter. Coming from the modified Olt, it was much easier to blow as I stated earlier. The next weekend, I took the 2013 Daisy Cutter to a large Corps of Engineers lake in North Texas. Around 8:00 AM, two high flying Mallard Drakes checked up and came right to the Decoys after a blistering five-note and 7-note cadence. That morning started a 10-year relationship with the RNT Short Barrel on steroids.

I was remiss in mentioning I grew up in South Arkansas in an agrairan/timber-centric area. Money was hard to come by. You had nice, well-made things but not to the point of excess. This is to say A good deer rifle, A good shotgun, ONE good Duck call that would do it all and so on. Growing up, the mentors I hunted with didn’t have extravangant lanyards with multiple calls. More often than not, they suspended their call from black twine. From this perspective, I’ve always expected one call to do it all from wail to whine; from cluck to chattter.

It took some time to learn the full range of the Olt and it took time to get the one Daisy Cutter to do it all. The fact is I still have a lot to learn about calling Ducks and many other aspects of life. Since 2013, I belive Ducks have wised up to the Cut Down. They are still effective but not like they were in the 1990’s and early 2,000’s. Back then, only a few hunters carried one. Now every other gun in the public woods has one. Still, on public ground you must have a loud call with enough bass in it to carry above the hardwood canopy with a caveat. My experience has been in recent years, after Christmas, you better have some soft finese as well. I can do anything with the RNT DC that I did the customized Olt.

In 2017 the move was afoot to bring the Daisy Cutter back to its early roots where the sound was more important than usability. I bought another Mallard green version. Out of the gate, it was harsher and raspier with the same smooth, gruff chatter. I can tell you I don’t win every Duck impersonation contest but seldom is the time I don’t at least get a wing check. When they do come in under the trees, I can choke the call down enough not to spook em’ so I am getting closer to fully utilizing it.

I have far more mornings in the rear view mirror than I do in the windshield. I probably won’t need another coat. I don’t need any more decoys. Chances are, I won’t require another shotgun either. Note I said “ require “, I didn’t say want. I bought a 2018 Mallard Green Rich-n-Tone Daisy Cutter this week. I won’t need another Duck call as well. It’s done. That box is checked for eternity.

On the one hand, the finality of life here is we know it is stark. On the other side of the coin, there is some solace in knowing what works and what doesn’t work. There is comfort in living each day to it’s fullest, in not taking anything for granted, in savoring the moment while being thankful for what you do have versus fretting about what you don’t have. Knowing beyond a shadow of a doubt you are ready for eternity is even better than any temporal thing on this earth. Aging can be a good thing and something to look forward to.

 

[ohio mike]

At 78 I've found that neither humans nor ducks have a freakin clue what I'm mumbling about anymore. I'm just lucky they keep trying to get close enough to figure it out. My dog understands me and that's what really counts.

 

[HNTFSH]

At 78 I've found that neither humans nor ducks have a freakin clue what I'm mumbling about anymore. I'm just lucky they keep trying to get close enough to figure it out. My dog understands me and that's what really counts.

Huh?

 

[Rick Hall]

...I have far more mornings in the rear view mirror than I do in the windshield. I probably won’t need another coat. I don’t need any more decoys. Chances are, I won’t require another shotgun either. Note I said “ require “, I didn’t say want. I bought a 2018 Mallard Green Rich-n-Tone Daisy Cutter this week. I won’t need another Duck call as well. It’s done. That box is checked for eternity...

Brought a smile, as I did some of my own old guy rambling elsewhere yesterday, under the title "Great Lies":

You know, like "The check is in the mail." And "Honest, I won't..."

Well, still jonesing from duck season, I've been tumbling down one rabbit, er...duck, hole after another and came across this from yours truly in a 2014 thread optimistically titled "One Last Duck Whistle":

"Really do feel like my call bases are about as well covered as can be..."

Thread was about the Montana Lite herding dog whistle I'd just bought and still use for squealers today (and never mind the three, count 'em 3: aluminum, brass and stainless steel double-holed and hopefully appreciably louder Logan Turbo versions I auditioned last year). Really had pretty much settled in on my quacking duck calls, though, and the torrent of contenders that once flowed through my hands had slowed to what's become at least a few seasons between drips.

'Course any who've read the "Looking ahead..." thread in my log know there's been yet another call in my life, and a promising one at that. And now in accordance with the Fifth Step (of Twelve), I'll "admit to God, to myself, and to another human being the exact nature of my wrong" - that I've just ordered another duck call. Not that the Singleton cutdown I've been enjoying isn't louder than anything else I own, thus offering potentially more reach, and may even offer a tad of finishing advantage with its snotty chatter and greenhead dweebs I can't match with a J-frame. Just that I was watching this video:

And that cat in the gray hat's cutdown is so, so much more real deal sounding than any of his buddies'... and I'm weak.

 

[Ange]

There’s only 194 days until Early Teal Season in Arkansas———-that Singleton call does sound good…….

 

[Rick Hall]

There’s only 194 days until Early Teal Season in Arkansas———-that Singleton call does sound good…….

While I've been enjoying playing with Singleton's LA cut, the call in that video that caught my attention, and pulled me off the wagon - yet again, is a Brute R. Should be here sometime tomorrow.

Gots to have something ducky to do until September teal rolls back around.

 

[Ange]

While I've been enjoying playing with Singleton's LA cut, the call in that video that caught my attention, and pulled me off the wagon - yet again, is a Brute R. Should be here sometime tomorrow.

Gots to have something ducky to do until September teal rolls back around.

There are worse things you could be doing with your time and money and it doesn’t kill brain cells either.

What keeps me faithful to the Daisy Cutter is what I and others have seen it do in the public flooded timber of Arkansas. Granted, it is not anything like a cut down but the people at RNT figured out how to make a J Frame that will keep it’s bass when you pour the coals to it.

One thing is for sure, it is impossible to be monogamous with waders!

 

[Rick Hall]

One thing is for sure, it is impossible to be monogamous with waders!

Ironically, I just picked up and set back down my current favorite set of so-said "breathable" waders. Great fit, super meaningful tread and a couple or three years of fine service on our banding parties and working on - and too often through - the flotant around my marsh blind - before apparently starting to literally fall apart at the seams: first at the crotch and, now, where the uppers bond to the boots. Aqua seal made pretty easy work of the crotch leak, but I bought the giant economy size tube for the boot seams and still haven't worked up the gumption to tackle them. Hoping that being prepared for the worst will find me just needing a bead around the the top of the boot rubber on the outside, but not feeling lucky...

 

[Ange]

When I got home after a week on the road, this strange box from a place called “ Simmons Sporting Goods “ was on the kitchen table. Someone keeps sending calls to my house. I told my wife this is concerning but it’s not worth spending a lot of time on it so I will just keep it

 

[Ange]

 

[Ange]

Looks can be deceiving. The first two pictures show the 2017 Barrel to the left and the 2018 barrel to the right.

In the last pic, the 2018 insert is on top and the 2017 insert is on the bottom.

The 2018 barrel is fatter, slightly taller and the lip and opening are larger. The 2018 insert is definitely shorter and made differently. The 2018 insert I. D. is larger.

I haven’t compared the tone boards yet. I won’t disassemble the new Daisy Cutter until it needs cleaning, a new reed or a new cork. If they ain’t broke, I don’t fix em’.

Here’s a soundfile of my first attempt on the call. I was barely blowing it. I had just gotten in from a sales trip and didn’t think it would be a good idea to spend more time this new call someone sent me than the Missus. My best guess was screaming on it right when I got home would not have been prudent either. I will get better after a day or two. It definitely requires more control than my 2017 and 2013 Daisy Cutters.

2018 RNT DC: THERE WILL BE RASP!

‘First attempt with latest version of the RNT Daisy Cutter.

youtube.com

 

[Rick Hall]

Sounds fine.

I eventually broke the finger nail thin trim tab of an early half-scroll DC insert, and while the fellow I spoke to (Cody?) assured me it's replacement would be as close to the old toneboard as they could get it, that turned out not very. But while I thought of that old DC as "the Janis Joplan of Susies" and loved its tone, I never could convince myself it had the same, much less more, draw as the cleaner and far more nimble MVP I'd gotten at the same time. But, hey,. I liked it, so I chased that early DC sound with a said-to-be throwback Anniversary DC and another from a forgotten year said to be much the same as the old ones. They weren't much the same, but that might not be a bad thing. I'd not have been too surprised to find they might have actually been better from the birds' vantage, were there a way to compare. And none of them was prone air lock on the quiet clucks and chucks, as was my handling issue with the half-scroll that Jim couldn't take out without risk of also taking out the harshness that made it special to me.

Anyway, I thought the newer ones I've had fine duck calls, and the half-scroll's barrel and its tamed replacement tone-board have stayed on my lanyard longer that old one did, albeit tuned to do things quite different than its original intent.

Have fun with yours.

 

[bluesky2012]

Sounds fine.

I eventually broke the finger nail thin trim tab of an early half-scroll DC insert, and while the fellow I spoke to (Cody?) assured me it's replacement would be as close to the old toneboard as they could get it, that turned out not very. But while I thought of that old DC as "the Janis Joplan of Susies" and loved its tone, I never could convince myself it had the same, much less more, draw as the cleaner and far more nimble MVP I'd gotten at the same time. But, hey,. I liked it, so I chased that early DC sound with a said-to-be throwback Anniversary DC and another from a forgotten year said to be much the same as the old ones. They weren't much the same, but that might not be a bad thing. I'd not have been too surprised to find they might have actually been better from the birds' vantage, were there a way to compare. And none of them was prone air lock on the quiet clucks and chucks, as was my handling issue with the half-scroll that Jim couldn't take out without risk of also taking out the harshness that made it special to me.

Anyway, I thought the newer ones I've had fine duck calls, and the half-scroll's barrel and its tamed replacement tone-board have stayed on my lanyard longer that old one did, albeit tuned to do things quite different than its original intent.

Have fun with yours.

Yeah I’m not as big of a fan of my newer model daisy cutter (I think it’s from around 2017ish?). I changed to a conartist and found it made more of the sound that I had wanted from my daisy cutter though the daisy cutter is still a fine call and obviously works well for many.

I haven’t found the mythical one call for me yet, but tend to always bounce between an MVP, Ducklander Conartist and a Mondo. The mondo seems to carry its weight on migration days but once the have gotten a little more stale, the MVP and Ducklander seem to fight for the prize with both having distinct days that work better and I can’t figure out why.

The only call that stays on my lanyard without fail and hasn’t rotated out in a few seasons is my riceland, but if I ever get the chance I may see if a redbone or other speck call would give it a run for it’s money.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ange]

It’s not the arrow for sure.

If you are looking for an RNT call and they have it, there is a place in Bastrop Louisiana that rhymes with Timmons that is your best bet. I will allow you to figure out why. You’ll notice it at checkout.