duck calls?

[wafisherman]

What do I look for in a decent duck call?  How many types are good to start with?  I was thinking one for ducks and one for geese to get things going.  What do I look for \ avoid?  I figure I'll spend the off season watching YouTube tutorials and practicing...

[bowhunter851]

spent about 20 to 25 buck on each and u should have a decent call. almost every call company makes a good enough call for beginers.  green horns shouldn't be calling to much anyway...lots of youtube videos and some calls come with dvds like the zink and buck gardner calls

[bowhunter851]

oh and I would stay away from the cheaper dunk commander calls in my opinion I think they are trying to push them out as fast as they can sence everyone buys them even non hunters there more expensive calls are good to go tho

[h2ofowlr]

Get a primos wench call.  A good one to start with and easy to blow.  They are under $20.

[duckman nale]

haydels dr-85 cant go wrong with it or primos wench or timber wench or buck gardner or if you can spend a little more look at echo

[aaronoto]

You can get great duck calls for cheap. I really like my Buck Gardner Double Nasty II.

If you're interested in hearing what a particular call sounds like usually you can YouTube it and find someone blowing that particular call.

[full choke]

Get a cheap haydels dr-85 as a starter duck call. They are good enough and might be all you will ever need. I would then spend the money and get a quality acrylic goose call. I think with goose calls you get what you pay for.

[REHJWA]

Double reed calls are the easiest to blow. Dont forget a 7-1 duck call. Drake mallard and Wiegon whistle are easy to mimic and should be your first go to calls.

[sakoshooter]

Get a cheap haydels dr-85 as a starter duck call. They are good enough and might be all you will ever need. I would then spend the money and get a quality acrylic goose call. I think with goose calls you get what you pay for.

You can get great duck calls for cheap. I really like my Buck Gardner Double Nasty II.

If you're interested in hearing what a particular call sounds like usually you can YouTube it and find someone blowing that particular call.

Get a primos wench call.  A good one to start with and easy to blow.  They are under $20.

I'll second all the above. My favorite that I've always gone back to it my Iverson dick call. For geese, I like the Olt 77 but I think they're under a different owner/name now days. I also use an older short reed Tim Grounds call that works well for our western WA geese - lesser and cacklers.
Knowing when to call and when to NOT is more important than what you paid for your call.

[270Shooter]

Hate to say it but a spinner and a jerk line combo is better than any call

[wafisherman]

Thanks guys!

and thanks Aaron for showing me the ropes the other day.  One of the good guys for sure 

[Badhabit]

The DR-85 is a nice call. Only problem you'll encounter is if you ever take it apart for some cleaning or other reason. The reeds don't have a stop which means you'll have to tune by trial and error. Take for instance an Echo poly double reed timber call. If you ever take it apart you can put it back together without a trial and error tuning.(just make sure you get the spine of the reed in the correct direction) If you're just starting out, there are some good calling CD's you can purchase to get the basics down. Double reeds sound great but if you learn on a single reed a double reed is a cake walk. For some top end calls  you can look at RNT Daisy Cutters, Echo Breakers, RM Gold Diggers to name a few. Calls are an addiction from cutting reeds and cork to tweaking toneboards to get the best sound. Same goes with goose calls, get a calling CD. I learned on the 2 that Dave Smith put out, great stuff. Bill Saunders is a local guy (WA) and makes calls for basically all the dark geese. It's hard to beat his Traffic. Learn on a short reed rather than a flute or long reed.
Finally, buy a call, blow the call, take the call apart and put it back together. Learn how to turn the call. Just as humans have different voices ducks and geese do as well so no "one" tune is going to be holy grail.
That just my opinion.   A great single reed is the blue Southern Game Calls Lil Joel that Ducks Unlimited used to give out as a gift for joining. Has great volume and on Ebay can be purchased for 15 or so.