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Short Reed Notes.. ...by Zink® Calls Z-Unit Member Rusty Hallock  Rusty "Tiny" Hallock is an established caller in the hotbed of championship callers and contests, the Eastern Shore. While competing competitively, he travels to different states and regions following the "circuit" so to speak and entering as many competitions as he can. When not calling competitively or spending time with his wife and two daughters, Rusty's job as a fire fighter and his role as a Flyway Manager for Avery Outdoors® and Z-Unit member for Zink® Calls keeps him busy throughout the off season. Rusty enjoys sharing his knowledge on calling and the "how to's" of getting better on a short reed; additonally he gives seminars to those interested at various events and retail locations to assist competition callers and hunters alike. Listed below are some of Rusty's calling accomplishments... Championships: Runner Up: Honk
How to Produce: The honk is the sound that everyone associates with the Canada goose. When I teach new callers how to use a short reed goose call, this is the first note I teach. The honk is the foundation of learning all other goose notes. I present clean air into the call until you produce a low moan sound. Then you increase the velocity of the air being presented to turn over the reed. This will produce the crack at the end of the note. I personally do not use reference words, but I find it easier for new callers to learn the honk by using a reference word. I tell new callers that are having a hard time with the honk to use “grrrrrrr-ick”. I like telling people to use words that end in a “c” or “k”. This will force callers to keep their tongue anchored behind their front lower teeth.
When to use the Honk: The honk is effective as a greeting call for both contest and hunting. The honk is a note that a content goose will produce. That is why I will use it in the greeting portion of my contest routine and hunting repertoire. The honk is also a good note to use when hunting geese over water as the honk is very effective when you are trying to mimic a flock of content geese rafted up on the water. To Hear a Soundfile of the Honk, Click the Call Below...  Cluck How to Produce: The cluck is the second half of a honk, isolated as a note. I present a quick burst of air into the call to produce a cluck. I present clean air into the call. As with the honk, the key is air velocity and not volume. You want to present a quick burst of air into the call to turn over the reed. For a new caller that needs a word reference, I suggest using “icckk”. Once you master producing one cluck, you can speed up the progression of notes and change hand positions. This will allow the caller to produce a wall of sound that will mimic a flock of geese.
When to use the Cluck: As with the spit note, geese use the cluck to demonstrate aggression to other geese especially incoming flocks. I use the cluck in my greeting, laydown and come back portions in my contest routine. I use the cluck more then any other note in my contest routine. In the field, I use the cluck as much as a spit note and use the cluck for greeting and laydown work to finish geese. A lot of callers will slow down the tempo and the volume of their calling as geese approach their decoy spread. In my opinion, nothing tips off geese more than callers going quite as geese approach. Most of the time hunters blame decoys or their hide for making geese slide off, but going silent as geese approach is on the biggest factors in geese sliding off of a spread, especially late season geese. I believe as callers we need to pick up the tempo as geese approach. I constantly watch flocks of geese across the street from my house during the winter. The one thing that I have noticed is that 9 times out of 10, geese on the ground become more vocal and aggressive as incoming flocks join the flocks on the ground. To Hear a Soundfile of the Cluck, Click the Call Below... Double Cluck How to produce: The easiest way I have found to teach the double cluck is to have the caller produce two clucks rapidly and change hand positions from one cluck to another. The caller will produce one high pitched cluck and one low pitched cluck or vice versa. Once you get your air presentation and hand movement coordination in synch, you will be able to vary the speed of your double cluck.
When to use a Double Cluck: Along with the cluck, the double cluck is a very important note that I use in my contest routine. I use it predominately in my greeting, laydown, and come back sequence of my contest routine. When I am hunting, I will also use it for greeting, comeback and laydown. I will normally hear geese double cluck more in late winter when breeding pairs are being formed than other times of the year. A double cluck is produced from two aggressive geese clucking. These geese are normally breeding pairs. Geese will double cluck while they are on the ground or in flight. It can be an effective note for finishing late season geese, especially for hunters in the field during the late seasons for resident geese. To Hear a Soundfile of the Double Cluck, Click the Call Below... Hail Call How to Produce: The hail is produced the same way you produce a honk. The hail call is a honk that is designed to be delivered with maximum power and volume.
When to use a Hail Call: The hail call is primarily used as a greeting call in a contest routine. It is used as the first few notes of any contest routine. I very rarely use it during hunting. In my opinion, the use of a flag is more useful at gaining the attention of geese at a distance than the hail call. To Hear a Soundfile of the Hail Call, Click the Call Below... Moan How to produce: As with the honk and cluck, the moan is another fundamental goose note. When I am teaching new callers to use a short reed call, I tell them if they only learn two notes; clucks and moans, they will kill geese. There are a lot of variations of moans, such as the spit note and train, but they vary in pitch and rasp which changes the intensity of the note. When the moan is stripped down to its basic form, it is a simple note to reproduce and one of the first notes I teach new callers. I present clean air into the call. While I am presenting the air into the call, I drop my jaw slightly. By dropping your jaw, you will increase the size of your mouth cavity. The slightest jaw movement will create the sound that you desire. My tongue remains anchored behind my lower front teeth during the entire note. If a caller needs a reference word to use to produce this note, I would suggest using “aaaawwwww”.
To Hear a Soundfile of the Moan, Click the Call Below...When to use a moan: The moan is used in the greeting, laydown, and comeback portion of both hunting and contest routines. Along with the cluck, the moan is the most predominant sound that a Canada goose will produce. The moan is produced by geese to demonstrate dominance. I will use moans mixed in with clucks to break up my clucks and to add another goose to my greeting sequence. During a laydown sequence, I would predominately use moans with clucks mixed in. When using moans during a comeback sequence, you need to increase the intensity and volume of the note. There is not a day in the field that I do not use moans in varying degrees of intensity. Murmur How to produce: I use clean air to produce the murmur. I do not use any voice inflection. I will present only enough air to start to move the reed. You can present more air and open your hands to increase intensity and show aggression.
When to use the murmur: The murmur is used during lay down work. I use this note mostly on stage. I will use it when I am hunting on a still day in a small field, as it is a good call to use to finish tough birds on windless days. The murmur is a call that the geese use to communicate their area to other geese, especially when feeding. The murmur will increase with intensity as geese become more aggressive. To Hear a Soundfile of the Murmur, Click the Call Below...
Spit Note
How to produce: I produce the spit note by delivering a quick burst of clean air. The call is on the edge of sticking. Then I continue to push air through the call to make an extended moan. The key to air presentation is air velocity and not volume. I use no voice inflection when I produce the spit note. Explaining the spit note is very difficult, but a demo in person from an experienced caller will greatly shorten a caller’s learning curve. When using the spit note, I will close down my hands for lay down work and open my hands for comeback calling. The more open your hands, the more demanding your spit note. It will demonstrate aggression and excitement to geese. When to use the Spit Note: The spit note is effective as a greeting call and in lay down work, but it is especially effective as a comeback call. I use the spit note on stage, but I use the spit note as much as any note in the field. The spit note is a sound that geese will use to demonstrate aggression and excitement. I will really lay on the call for a comeback sequence of spit notes with hands open. I will close down my hands to produce a lower and more subtle sound when I want to sound like a gander with a throat full of corn trying to produce a note to keep the other geese away from his corn pile. This is a very effective sound for finishing geese. To Hear a Soundfile of the Spit Note, Click the Call Below...
Quick Spit Note How to produce: I produce the quick spit note by delivering a quick burst of clean air. The call is on the edge of sticking, like with the spit note. Unlike the spit note, however, the caller does not extend the note with a moan. You want to isolate the first note of a spit note. The key to air presentation is air velocity and not volume. I use no voice inflection when I produce the quick spit note. Explaining the quick spit note is very difficult, but a demo in person from an experienced caller will greatly shorten a caller’s learning curve.
When to use the Quick Spit Note: I will use the quick spit note during my laydown sequence in my contest routine. I also use the quick spit in the field when finishing geese. The quick spit like the cluck is a note that geese use to demonstrate aggression. The quicker and louder the note is presented the more aggressive the goose. To Hear a Soundfile of the Quick Spit Note, Click the Call Below... Train Note When to use the Train Note: Geese will produce a train note for increased aggression from a murmur. It is more subtle than the quick spit or cluck, but can be extremely effective on late season geese. I use this note in my contest routine during the laydown sequence of my routine. It can also be used to transition from laydown sequence to the come back portion of a contest routine. In the field, this is a deadly note for wary late season geese. I like to use this note on still days especially in small fields. I like to use the train note in conjunction with the murmur. As geese approach the spread, I will pick up the aggression from a murmur to the train note.How to produce: The train note is also known as a push moan. The train is a course sounding moan and it can be a difficult note to produce. Callers want to put voice inflection into the call to give the note a raspy sound. The key to producing the train note is proper air presentation and practice. A caller needs to keep their tongue anchored behind their lower front teeth arched towards the roof of their mouth with their mouth cavity closed down. Present clean air into the call to produce a buzz sound. Remember do not use your voice. Once you achieve this buzz sound, continue to push air into the call. When done properly, you will produce a raspy moan. To Hear a Soundfile of the Train Note, Click the Call Below... Note: All of these sound files were created by Rusty Hallock, on a Zink® Calls Birds Eye Maple Money Maker Copyright © 2008 Game Hogg Hunt ClubTM. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission from the author is prohibited. |
