Maintaining Your Duck Call

With the materials and resins used in call making it can almost be forgiven when a hunter decides to forgo duck call up-keep during the season or afterward. Even though acrylic calls aren’t quite as temperamental as the wood calls of our uncles and grandfathers, they are still susceptible to failure if mistreated. Regardless of the material of your call, it's important to take good care of these tools so that they don’t fail you the next time green heads are circling above your spread.

Before the season starts, you can get some practice in and clean your calls, but be careful! There are a few pitfalls you’ll want to avoid. Joe D’Amico of Tekton Game Calls suggests, “Clean your acrylic calls in dish soap and towel them dry – be particularly careful with cork notches on J-frame style calls. I know everyone loves to practice calling in the car, but the summertime car temps get way too hot for calls. Heat degrades cork, and can also cause the material to swell; then, when you cool the car off, the cork will shrink too fast and bands can fall off. Oil finished wood calls can’t handle the heat and will lose their luster —  swelling, shrinking, and potentially cracking.”

It almost always seems when you are sipping your coffee or taking a bite out of a powdered donut, a morning flight comes by for a look. After the hunt is through for the day, turn your call around and lightly blow air through the call; backwards if you will. This will help clear any crumbs, dirt, or debris that might have fallen in. If the call doesn’t sound quite right, take the insert out of the call and gently slide a dollar bill under the reed. This trick also helps for drying out duck calls after hunting on those downpouring days; or, if you happen to have a dip in your mouth when you call. 

Moisture builds up in a call no matter if you are using acrylic or wooden calls — even on bluebird days. The excess moisture at worst can swell wood calls and cause splitting (which is why calls usually have metal bands around the barrel), and at a minimum can cause the cork holding your reed to rot over time. You want to allow your calls to dry out between hunts and not sit in moist conditions. But we need a happy medium for temperature. While you might have the best intention to place your calls on your dash or in front of the heat ducts of your truck or back at camp, too much heat can absolutely have negative impacts on your calls. 

“If you are hunting multiple days in a row check your cork on the call. Wet cork will dry like that green and yellow sponge used to clean dishes. The size will change and pressure on the reed can decrease and cause the call to squeak or lock up,” Joey said.

• If removing your reed from the tone board, first mark with a sharpie on the reed where the cork ends. It helps the re-assembly and tuning go much smoother! 
• Many callmakers are happy to do re-tunes, oftentimes the only cost is mailing the calls. Plus they like to see how the calls are holding up.
• For the little o-rings that keep the fitting between insert and barrel tight, condition with a little bit of cooking or vegetable oil to maximize their lifespan.

Make duck call care a post-hunt regimen 

So, how can you keep all this straight? Keep your call care as part of your hunting routine. Just as you have made a habit of ensuring chambers and actions are clear, and chokes are finger-tight, build the same kind of muscle memory with the tools on your lanyard. Reverse your calls and blow out any loose debris. Good calls are an investment, and treating them right will maximize their longevity. Take them apart after soggy hunts to air dry on the fireplace mantel in camp or kitchen counter between hunts. Between seasons, hang your lanyard up in the hunting closet so you know where to find them when it comes time to practice. (Yes, everyone needs to practice!) Wear and tear of the season can add up from the early mornings and long days in the field, but a few simple things to keep in mind can keep your favorite call in sporting shape for years to come.