When it comes to calling ducks or geese, it's imperative that a call sound as much like one of the feathered critters as possible or the risk is greater that you'll scare them away.

If you're trying to sound like a hen mallard sweet-talking some greenheads into range, it's the difference in saying, "Hey good looking, love that flight pattern. Come on down here with us." and a drake hearing "You! Up in the air! I have a mudhole that needs cleaning and none of these 198 duck-looking things bobbing on the water want you down here now!"

A well-tuned duck call can make all the difference in the world, and tuning comes with trial-and-error that can be assisted by a longtime hunter who knows what to do and how to help you.

Brian Phillips, founder of Dixie Land Calls in Guntersville, in the last three years or so of making calls has heard by his estimation "more than 3,000 people call for me." He listens to them in his shop, in a parking lot, even over the telephone, although the latter isn't his preferred method due to acoustics and being unable to see a guy present air into the call.

In Monday's installment, we finished up with a little bit about tuning the reed in the insert and how that affects the sound. But Phillips said another important part is having a piece of cork that holds the reed firmly to the insert, and an old piece of cork that has lost its grip can change everything.

"If the cork sticks out further to help hold the reed on the tone board it changes the sound of the call," he said. "People will tell me their call sounds bad, sounds shattery, and what has happened is the cork has shrunk and the reed is loose.

"Anytime that happens you should put a new cork in it. I was at Rich-N-Tone in Stuttgart recently and Butch Richenback was talking to a guy who said his call was sounding bad. Butch said anytime the cork goes, the call goes and it's time for a new piece of cork.

When Phillips is asked for help to tune a call, the first thing he does is ask what brand and model they're currently using. Meeting someone in person is better, so he can watch and listen.

"The biggest thing is listening to how much air is coming from their diaphragm," he said. "That's where that air presentation is from, that's why being in person allows you to hear how much they grunt or blow into the call.

Come from the gut

Anyone can "blow" into a duck call, but it takes air from the diaphragm to make the appropriate sounds of a hen mallard.

"You don't blow like you're blowing a whistle. It's like when you're playing football and the quarterback says "Down, set, huuuttt' and it comes from the diaphragm," Phillips says. "Or when you're fogging a mirror by huffing your breath on it. You want it to come from the stomach, the diaphragm, not the throat.

"The other thing I see a lot of people having trouble with is cutting off their notes. They'll quack but they'll drag it out. They're not cutting it off with their tongue. They need to use the back of their tongue and shut the air off. They try to stop it with their diaphragm or lugns and you can't stop the air flow that fast. Sot it kind of drags."

Any duck hunter worth his shotgun knows a hen mallard, which is the basis of all calls and pretty much works on everything from greenheads to spoonies and teal, doesn't cut loose with a competition-style call routine. If she's on the water hanging around, her contented quacks and occasional feeding chuckle isn't too loud.

"Work on just the quack," Phillips recommends. "Everybody wants to do a (loud) hail call first. They pick up a call and try to do a hail call. But that's the last thing you should learn."

I recently was thumbing through an old magazine that had a feature about duck hunters in the olden times who used live birds for decoys. Back when that was legal, they raised hen mallards, treated them well, carried them to the blind and secured a leg or their neck with a measure of string that allowed them to swim and call.

One hunter said he would place one hen behind his blind and the other in front, so they could not see each other. Once they settled down and became contented "happy ducks," they would quack loudly at each other since they couldn't see each other ... and therefore would provide more contented, but urgent, calling that helped attract ducks flying overhead.

Those days are past, though, and today that same "happy duck" routine of a contented hen is what hunters should strive for. To get there, though, takes practice.

Keep on practicing

"The first thing you should learn is a single quack, then move into a three-note quack," Phillps said. "Buck Gardner says to do the cadience of "Three Blind Mice," which everyone knows. 'Three blind mice ... three blind mice ... quack, quack, quack' That's about right, and then you can add four, five or six quacks.

"Everything is built off the quack. Once you nail that then you can start working on the other stuff, the cadiences and comeback calls and feeding chuckle. For a feeding chuckle, I use more of a cut instead of the ticka-ticka most people use. I use more of a cut, a real slow cut with a quack thrown in. At a show I may go into a rolling feed chuckle to help sell a call, but that's not what I use in a blind.

Part of hunting and learning to call ducks also involves learning when to save your breath and when to call at ducks. Hunters know "wingtips and tail feathers" means to call when they're on the swing or going away, but not when they're coming directly at you. If they are coming toward you, and you just have to call, scale back and hit a contented feed chuckle or light quack instead of the full-bore routine.

"If they're coming at you, don't call because they can zero in on it and know exactly where you are," Phillips said. "I use a five-note greeting call most of the time with the cut and finish them off with a quack. I've only duck hunted for 15-16 years ... but I've seen a lot of people calling at the wrong times at ducks, calling at ducks that I know would not work and aren't interested. I don't waste my breath on them."

-- If you're interested in Dixie Land Calls or want to contact Phillips, visit www.dixielandcalls.com