open or closed reed?

[jdb]

so whats the concensus? open reed or closed? I much perfer open almost refuseing to use closed reed calls. I find closed have much better range of sound. just my 

[bearmanric]

i'll let you know when i get back mon night from the world predator Hunting expo in kansas city. i'll be selling over 250 openreed call's. 100 are cowhorn and springbok Howler's. i like them more and more lately. like a closed reed for bear. my 1/2 toneboard is killer. once people here it it will sell. so yes i like openreed's alot more these day's. this year i will get a greyfox. last year i called one in with a proto type openreed in oklahoma this year they will be open. will use these smaller openreed's there and in Arizona. excited. more game than here. Rick

[tlbradford]

I like both.  If you experiment with a closed reed you can really make a lot of different types of distress sounds.  It is a lot more versatile than most people believe.  They also don't clog up with spit as easy.

[Gutpile]

I like the closed reed but they freeze when It's cold. I use both but like open reeds better, some wear you out though and after long sets they become difficult to seal properly.

[Big10gauge]

 

[catwithboost]

Being new to calling I have found closed reed easier to learn for me 

[Krusty]

I use at least five different types of calls, on a regular basis.

Open reed, enclosed reed, bite type, bulb type, and whistles.

Don't get stuck in a rut, on a sound, or a call, or even a call type... the sound you make, and even what you make it with, isn't that important.

Krusty

[Bofire]

If I had to choose it would be open reed, but I dont. They all work.
Carl

[AWS]

I like close reed calls because they take little air to operate (asthma) but like gutpile they freeze on me.  I've turned to bite calls Screery and JS and smaller open reeds Tweety and Syco as I can get good sounds with out alot of air.  Nothing like a good coughing spell to ruin a stand.  I rely on electrics more as I get older.

AWS

[tlbradford]

I'd be interested in knowing the calls that you guys had freeze up on you.  I haven't had that happen to me except with a call that was manufactured over 20 years ago. It would be good to know which ones to avoid.

[AWS]

tlbradford

Any call that has a metal reed in it.  Before I starded using open I would carry a couple calls and keep them under my coat.

AWS

[Gutpile]

I don't know the name but the worst one was a dual call. Blow one end and it's a fawn bleat and the other side had a mouse squeaker. the others were just cheap fawn bleats.

[tlbradford]

I may be wrong and maybe Krusty will come in here and correct me since he knows more about call-making than I do.

I thought freeze up was much more common with brass reeds, but is very rare to have happen with stainless and mylar reeds that are predominate in todays calls.  The dual reed calls have a tendency to stick more than single reed, but proper tuning and dimpling of the reeds can help.

That is why I wanted to know the specific calls you had trouble with.  Are they much older calls with a brass reed or is it a newer one with a JC Products voice?

[AWS]

Specific callls,  Older Olt's, Lohman, Burhnam Black magic, and Sceery calls.  I'm not refering to sticking but actual freezing, calling in sub-zero weather and having slobber actualy freeze in the call during rest time durring a calling series.

AWS

[rainshadow1]

Any call you're blowing air through will freeze in extreme cold. You suck air into them, but it's much quieter, and hard to control. (Talk about your coughing fits!)

Open reeds don't freeze because you keep the reed and board inside your mouth.

Any of the JC style reeds are suceptible to the spits, just because of their size. They're tiny.

I'd prefer to not choose! I love having both, and usualy a couple of both in different voices to choose from. The open reed is more versitile, but the close reed is easier.

Here's a couple OR's I just did just this morning, they're tuned for elk talk, but they'll do just about anything from mouse squeaks and cottontail, to jackrabbit, to fawn bawls, to doe bleats. Just takes some practice.





The closed reeds are WAY easier, but they only make the sound they're tuned for.

[Krusty]

TLB,

Admittedly I don't know much if anything about tuning JC/Wintress type reeds.
The reeds I installed in most of the calls I've made, have been unaltered, as are ALL reeds coming from a commercial source.

But Bernoulli's principle explains the cause, the venturi created by forcing air at a higher pressure through a tiny slit, then out into the open air at much lower pressure... is a refrigerator pump, in it's crudest form.
Add moisture, and you'll make ice... add more moisture make even  more ice.

As others mentioned, there's freeze up, and there's lock up.

I suffer from both.

Each of us "transpires" moisture out with our breath, at different rates, for this reason you can never blame a brand or even a reed type (brass, steel, mylar).

Though for the most part it only relates to enclosed reed calls.

My own list of calls that will not work, due to lock and/or freeze up, is too long to go into here.
I have to regulate how I use some calls, because, in general, higher pressure "wrings" more moisture from your breath, as does longer notes.
Staccato sounds, short and choppy, mostly driven with a "puff" of the mouth and cheeks, can run for a while.
Whereas a long wailing bleat will lock the best of the best right up, for me.

But, to a large degree, it isn't just the way I use a call, but where the reed is in that call... how far from my mouth... set in wood, metal or plastic... and whether it's a high or low pitched reed... and even how thirsty I am... have a marked effect on how that particular call will "cool" (and heat back up).

In extreme cold, I'll even go to a single reed open reed, because like AWS says freezing when it's not in my mouth  can be a problem (freezing the petals, together or apart).

I will "bite onto" a call between series, to keep it in my mouth and warm, as Rainshadow mentions, but I can't always do that, sometimes I need to catch my breath (or warm up my shooting finger, sticking out of my glove).
When I can, I tuck the call inside my jacket, or in my scarf and under my beard.

The colder it is, the denser the air, and the better that air will carry sound. But in cold times, it's usually very quite outside, with everyone with any sense warm indoors.
I rely much more heavily, on the below handcalling volume of my e-caller, at times like that.

Rainshadow,

It's not just because JC/Wintress reeds are tiny... look at the Dan Thompson Pup Squaller, or a two piece closed reed that can be used in the same "tiny open reed" way the squaller type calls can.

Because it's kept warmer than the refrigerant effect can cool it, it will continue to operate.

I believe the closer a truly enclosed reed is, to one's "warmth" (be it your breath or your body), the less it will suffer from the venturi effect, regardless of size.

*The tiny open reed, actually makes a sixth type of call I regularly use.

Krusty

[tlbradford]

It has to be really, really cold to freeze the moisture in your call.  I have called in temperatures down to -10 and have yet to have it happen to me with stainless or mylar reeds.  They do get tucked into my coat between sequences, so maybe that is the reason.

[Bofire]

I have had closed reed calls "freeze up" but not due to cold and freezing. Sometimes the reed just gets stuck from spit or something and it makes no noise. I have had lots of closed reed fall out or blow out of a call. Slydog in idaho tunes his closed reeds and they work slick. I have ruined many a closed reed trying to tune it!!! but then I am a certified idiot. I have also had to send calls back to Krusty, open reed, cause I ruined them too.
Carl

[tlbradford]

+1 Carl on messing up voices trying to make them sound better to my ear.