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Paddlesdown Wildfowling Pro-Staffer "Stotty" gives a review of the Big River Banded Lady, Sweet Cherry and Painted Lady Mallard Duck Calls

ProStaff Review: Wildfowler "Stotty" April 2009

Flambeau’s Big River Series: Sweet Cherry, Banded Lady and Painted Lady Duck Calls

 

Met Robert and his other pro staff at the recent BASC Eden Game Shooters Evening, Carlisle. He was on the look out for a ‘hunch backed character’ with a limp and one leg shorter than the other; the natural posture of all keen ‘fowlers developed from too much gutter crawling over the years! 

 

I was presented with what I now call the Big River 3 (The Sweet Cherry, The Banded Lady and The Painted Lady). Visually, a nice range of duck calls from Flambeau that fit nicely in the lanyard & are not cumbersome round the neck. All have an ‘easy to grip’ shape and are well balanced. The band (gold/silver) will hopefully prevent the call from splitting during extensive field action (obviously this needs to be tested fully this season).

 

My test calls for mallard:-

a)      ‘Hail call’ (most effective for getting the ducks attention at distance and for making ‘drakes hit their brakes’) Learn this well!! It can be deadly!!    

b)      ‘Lonesome Hen’ (single low contented quacks, good for getting their confidence and interest at medium to short ranges).  

c)      The ‘Feeding chatter’ (I do not use this one much to be honest but still a useful call to have up one’s sleeve if your staring into a decoy spread)

 

 

 

The first two calls tested:-

1) The Sweet Cherry

A double reed duck call made of wood with the brass ring to prevent the wood from splitting. My acrylics/polycarbonates have always tended to crack after extensive wildfowling use/abuse so I’ve high hopes for this wooden call. It’ll have to get it wet and gritty though first. Straight out of the box though this call works a treat! Its one of the easiest wooden calls I’ve ever blown. I’d say it’d be a good beginners/juniors call but also makes a useful addition to the lanyard of your more experienced caller. As with all calls, practice makes perfect though. This has a smaller bore mouth piece compared with the Banded and Painted Lady calls. It doesn’t take much air to get this call in full throttle. The mallard ‘hail call’ sounds rather raspy/high pitched indoors but get this call out in the open space of an estuary & it sounds totally different!! It has a good range of tone and pitches and the beauty is that you can control them depending on the force and amount of air you put into the call. Give it a ‘full on’ lung & diaphragm ‘hail’ call and the sound can belt out of this one as its so easier to blow. I’ll be using this one for those rangy mallard on a windy estuary. It’s not going to make your throat sore either! Remember that wind distorts the sound of a duck call so it doesn’t have to sound exact at full volume. This call forgives mistakes. In calm conditions the hail noise from the Sweet Cherry was too much at close range. I had to tone it down and use much less volume under these conditions so wouldn’t use a hail in flat calm conditions unless the mallard were a long way off. Sweet Cherry ‘Lone hen’ call sounds good, a tad sharp, but by opening your throat more you can achieve a mellower sound. I like a ‘duller, more throaty rasp’ of a sound for this lonesome hen call. Feeding clucks and chatters were sharp and you could get a range of pitches with the ‘dugga dugga dugga’ tongue sounds that are needed to produce this call. This one’s going onto the ‘Estuary Lanyard’ come September. I’d highly recommend this the for estuary or ‘open’ flooded fields inland.  

 

 

2) The Banded Lady

This is a visually striking duck call with two tone ‘drake’ green and clear polycarbonate barrel sectioned by a silver ring. Like the Sweet Cherry it’s a double reed duck call but with a slightly more open bore. I really like this one. I’d say its not for the absolute beginner but for a slightly more experienced caller. It does needs more air and vocal control than the ‘Sweet Cherry’ but what a great volume in the open!! It has a duller guttural tone resembling that of the mallard duck herself. The Lonesome hen quacks are loud and can be controlled to allow that nasal rasping sound. This one is also going on the lanyard next to the Sweet Cherry. It pulled a drake mallard sitting out at 500 yards on a river channel to within 20 yards of me. Need to see if it with stands a proper field test in salt water, grit, and frozen conditions without cracking though. Will let you know if it the survives the season. It’s going to take some abuse for sure. I’d recommend the Banded Lady for estuary or open flooded fields inland.   

  

 

Out of Season Field Tests

 

Sweet Cherry & Banded Lady tests

 

Both calls were tested on the 5^th & 6^th April 2009 on the estuary near my home. Weather conditions: on the 5^th it was overcast and very windy but it was flat calm and sunny on the 6^th. Two contrasting conditions in which to test the duck calls out. “On Saturday a strong wind was blowing from the West across my front. Three mallard (2 drakes and a hen) were on the River channel directly in front 100 yards away, definitely a ‘pair’ and a bachelor drake. Kicked off with a Sweet Cherry ‘Hail call’ followed by mixing in lonesome hen quacks. The reaction from the bachelor drake was astonishing. His head went up on alert. He swam across the channel toward me and once on shore actually starting running, yes running, towards me. (note I was standing on the flat salting in full view). Must have given him some good ‘Come and get it’ lady talk. Swapped over to the Banded Lady and he continued his ‘charge’. The other pair then followed behind him. Great start I thought, (with exception of the ‘non flying bit’). I moved 400-500 yard further ‘up wind’ from them crouching in a gutter close to the river channel edge and hailed him again. Now this time, all three lifted and winged their way well into range for a ‘fly past’. They don’t know how lucky they were. Not so long ago one, two or even all three would have been lying belly up in the channel if they’d have done that in the last season!!  These reactions were encouraging even though the drakes ‘brains were in their pants’ due to the time of year! Watch this space when the 2009 season starts again.

 

Sunday 6th saw a flat calm estuary. A single drake mallard was on the estuary river channel. A hail with the Sweet Cherry in calm conditions at 100 yards caused him to turn and swim away from us. A quick change to the Banded Lady had no effect of bringing him any closer. I’d put this down to lack of any breeze & the fact that he was probably wary of the figure standing on the mudflats. I moved 400-500 yards away from him, like yesterday, dropped into a gutter out of site and hailed him with the Banded Lady. His head went up, he turned completely to face the direction of where the noise was coming from and he ‘lifted’ for a fly past at 20 yards before landing with total confidence in the river channel to my left. He’d have been regretting that move come the new season. Note that was without decoys as well. He was reacting purely to the call!! 

Stotty testing out the 'Big River' Banded Lady from Andy Stott on Vimeo.

 

Stotty in action with the Big River Series calls from Andy Stott on Vimeo.

Painted Lady

 

A few days after trying the Sweet Cherry and Banded Lady Duck Calls I was able to Field Test the Big River Painted Lady Mallard Call. Here's what I found:

 

This is an elaborately ‘turned’ and decorated call composed of a Diamond wood mouth piece and an acrylic exhaust barrel fitted together with a 1cm thick brass ring. Like the other two calls, it’s a double reed call but has a slightly shorter mouth piece than the Sweet Cherry and Banded Lady. As a quick comparison, the Sweet Cherry mouthpiece measures 63mm compared with 60mm for the Banded Lady and 56mm for the Painted Lady. The exhaust piece on all three calls are the same in terms of length i.e. 42-43mm. The Banded Lady and the Painted Lady have an exhaust bore diameter of 16mm which is 3mm longer than the Sweet Cherry. I must admit the mouthpiece on the Painted Lady fresh out of the box doesn’t taste that good (like burned plastic) but I’m sure this will wear off with use. I found that the shorter mouthpiece makes the Painted Lady a much more difficult call to blow for lengthy periods of use and for hitting the right notes for a high comeback/hail call. It takes a lot of lung, diaphragm and larynx control as I mention in the instructional videos on Vimeo. Not a call for the novice to pick up immediately. I’d have liked to have seen a much narrower bore on the exhaust barrel (e.g. 13mm) combined with a longer length of Diamond wood on the mouthpiece. This call is the inland duck shooters flight pond or decoyers call. Not one for the estuary or open spaces I feel due to the sore throat it gave me blowing the ‘hail/comeback’ at out of season mallards on the estuary recently. Use it in the relatively ‘confined’ space of a flight pond to give yourself the echo and volume. It still worked a treat on mallard as you can see from the demonstration at the inland flight pond on Vimeo videos. The drake circled four times within shotgun range before finally pitching in. Remember I was standing in full view. The hail/comeback is hard to get to grips with and has not got the volume as the Sweet Cherry or Banded Lady. The Lonesome hen calls (remember to say ‘Gwit or Quit’) and the Feed Chatter (say Dugga, Dugga) on the Painted Lady sound very duck like and are of a much lower pitch and tone than the other two in the Series from Big River.

 

 
Stotty in action with the 'Painted Lady' from Andy Stott on Vimeo.