# Your opinion; Best Specklebelly Calls



## Franco (Jun 27, 2003)

The Speck season closed yesterday and now my attention has turned to improving my calling for next season. I've hunted ducks all my life but, since I've moved to SW La. my opportunities for good/great hunting on a regular basis is in the goose fields. 

One of the guys I hunt with uses the Chien Caille by Mervis Saltzman. I don't remember any Specs this season that didn't repond so I bought one a few weeks ago. Not a good call for a beginner but in the right hands an awesome call. 

I actually had my best success with a $15. Flextone Speck call. But, that success was limited by my ability and the ability of the call. You just can't get the notes that one can get with the Chein Caille. 

The Redbone Call has been suggested but they are awefully pricey and start at $200. I just ordered the Riceland as suggested by one of the guys I hunt with.

My idea is to work with several calls during the off season and hunting the one I am most confortable with.

Any suggestions on calls?


----------



## PocketLab (Apr 23, 2010)

Franco, me and one of my buddies have made a new years resolution to blow the speck call also. I think the Chien Caille replicates the speck about close as you can. That's my choice. 

Good luck and push a few to your east.....


----------



## Franco (Jun 27, 2003)

PocketLab said:


> Franco, me and one of my buddies have made a new years resolution to blow the speck call also. I think the Chien Caille replicates the speck about close as you can. That's my choice.
> 
> Good luck and push a few to your east.....


I closed out the season yesterday hunting by myself south of Welch in Thornwell. A pit blind I hunted half-dozen times this season without seeing any ducks and thousands of geese. 

As day broke, temp was 31 with a 15 mph wind out of the north. I couldn't keep the Pintails out! Damn birds know when the duck season is over. I could have shot 50! Got my two Specs by 7:15am and the Snows and Blues started flying and were everywhere. There must have been 20k in the sky at one time.


----------



## robertnla (Oct 16, 2008)

I have hunted for over 40 years and had both Red Bone and Chien Caille. I had the Red Bone for 2 years and sold it. I have had the same Chien Caille for over 15 years. If you can visit Mr. Mervis you can not go wrong. He will tune the call to your style. Just listening to him call is worth the trip. When is comes to meat hunting the Chien Caille will shine. The new calls are easier to blow with the mylar reeds but I perfer the old rubber reed which are harder to blow but the specs love the sound. He will also service your call for as long as you own it for free. His service is hands down #1.


----------



## BHB (Apr 28, 2008)

The red bone is by far what all the speck guides in our area use(believe me there are a lot!). It is the best and can make more speck call than most all the others.

There is another call out just recently that a buddy bought that replicates the interior workings of the red bone and so can replicate the notes. It goes for about $150 as oppose to the red bone at $200+. I don't recall the maker's name but I can get it. 

BHB


----------



## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

Until Olt went under, that Chien Caille was an Olt predator call with a homemade reed, so I'd think the new ones largely a copy of the Olt's relatively small-bored "guts," insert and barrel dimensions. Which is a very good thing from an ease-of-use standpoint. The rub with Chien Caille is that Mervis and Kendall have lungs like industrial air compressors and are inclined to making relatively stiff reeds that are tough to break over. But if you sit with Mervis and let him file your reed down to better suit your air presentation, you'll little doubt find it a whole lot easier to run. That, and being fitted for a call by Mervis is something of a Cajun cultural experience. Know that while I haven't used one of his calls in decades, it still tickles me to take new Chien Caille owners by his place and sit in while he gets them up and running.

The Riceland call you've ordered is what, along with a much lighter tuned RNT, I used this season, and I'm tickled with it for general usage. But it has bigger, more open-bored guts and may take a little more doing to get underway with than most calls with smaller guts. And if you don't care for the Riceland, you probably wouldn't care for the Redbone. Again, it wouldn't hurt to sit a while with James Meyers or Bill Daniels, who make the Riceland and let them fit and instruct you.


----------



## Franco (Jun 27, 2003)

Rick Hall said:


> Until Olt went under, that Chien Caille was an Olt predator call with a homemade reed, so I'd think the new ones largely a copy of the Olt's relatively small-bored "guts," insert and barrel dimensions. Which is a very good thing from an ease-of-use standpoint. The rub with Chien Caille is that Mervis and Kendall have lungs like industrial air compressors and are inclined to making relatively stiff reeds that are tough to break over. But if you sit with Mervis and let him file your reed down to better suit your air presentation, you'll little doubt find it a whole lot easier to run. That, and being fitted for a call by Mervis is something of a Cajun cultural experience. Know that while I haven't used one of his calls in decades, it still tickles me to take new Chien Caille owners by his place and sit in while he gets them up and running.
> 
> The Riceland call you've ordered is what, along with a much lighter tuned RNT, I used this season, and I'm tickled with it for general usage. But it has bigger, more open-bored guts and may take a little more doing to get underway with than most calls with smaller guts. And if you don't care for the Riceland, you probably wouldn't care for the Redbone. Again, it wouldn't hurt to sit a while with James Meyers or Bill Daniels, who make the Riceland and let them fit and instruct you.


I spoke with Bill Daniels on Thrusday and he offered to do some tutoring if I was willing to drive to Sulfer La. I might look him up on that as well as when I have him in town in July for the Outdoor Expo at the Cajundome & Convention Center. 

I ran into Mervis at G & H in Gueydan Tuesday monring. I am trying to get him to judge the Spec calling at the Expo. He offered to tune my call which I will take him up on. Actually, the La. Waterfowl Alliance asked him to judge at the event and I just confirmed as the new promoter of the event that I really wanted him as a judge.

Any advantages with either Faulk or Haydel?


----------



## clent586 (May 29, 2010)

I am a newcomer to the site and I live in Georgia.......which probably takes my opinion out of the loop all together! I was shown a couple of years ago how to modify the Olt's but have came up with a couple of more modifications to get a little more volume. The smaller bores are MUCH easier to use and learn on. The Meyers and Redbones are awesome calls but you do need a set of gorilla lungs when starting with these. If you can get an Olt T-20 with unmodified guts, I would be glad to put my spin on it and see what you think. We had the best year ever in Central Arkansas this year running these old Olt's. I also have a Micarta call I made with my own set of guts modeled after the Olt gut that sounds great as well. I am just a small time callmaker that does it more for fun and satisfaction than for profit. Just thought I would offer. Clent


----------



## PocketLab (Apr 23, 2010)

Franco said:


> I closed out the season yesterday hunting by myself south of Welch in Thornwell. A pit blind I hunted half-dozen times this season without seeing any ducks and thousands of geese.
> 
> As day broke, temp was 31 with a 15 mph wind out of the north. I couldn't keep the Pintails out! *Damn birds know when the duck season is over.* I could have shot 50! Got my two Specs by 7:15am and the Snows and Blues started flying and were everywhere. There must have been 20k in the sky at one time.



You are right. Did some work on the roof at my camp, the thousands of greys 200 yards away were very distracting. My son was watching my cork the other day while speck fishing because I was watching birds the entire time.


----------



## John Kelder (Mar 10, 2006)

watching birds ,fishin' ,shooting specks, lots of pins ,call makers tuning the call just for you...........Color me JEALOUS..
I hate New York


----------



## BonMallari (Feb 7, 2008)

maybe its a west coast thing but a lot of the guys I have talked to use a JJ Lares, but most of my Texas pals use a Redbone...and then I have the hardcore guys who use their own voice/throat, and they all seem to kill specks


----------



## Franco (Jun 27, 2003)

I'm going to order a RNT and added it. If I can work on getting the right tones/notes on several calls, it can't hurt.

Bon, the guy that runs the club calls with his voice. Best done by a person with a high-pitched voice.


----------



## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

Should find the RNT very easy to run - and effective.


----------



## whitefoot (Aug 19, 2010)

They're hard to learn on, but I don't think any call sounds as good as the Chien Caille. I'd go to Mervis' and get him to tune it up...maybe he can swap the reed with a flimsier one that's a little easier to blow. They do require a lot a lung capacity, so maybe not everyone is ever able to master them, though.


----------



## whitefoot (Aug 19, 2010)

Rick Hall said:


> Until Olt went under, that Chien Caille was an Olt predator call with a homemade reed, so I'd think the new ones largely a copy of the Olt's relatively small-bored "guts," insert and barrel dimensions. Which is a very good thing from an ease-of-use standpoint. The rub with Chien Caille is that Mervis and Kendall have lungs like industrial air compressors and are inclined to making relatively stiff reeds that are tough to break over. But if you sit with Mervis and let him file your reed down to better suit your air presentation, you'll little doubt find it a whole lot easier to run. That, and being fitted for a call by Mervis is something of a Cajun cultural experience. Know that while I haven't used one of his calls in decades, it still tickles me to take new Chien Caille owners by his place and sit in while he gets them up and running.
> 
> The Riceland call you've ordered is what, along with a much lighter tuned RNT, I used this season, and I'm tickled with it for general usage. But it has bigger, more open-bored guts and may take a little more doing to get underway with than most calls with smaller guts. And if you don't care for the Riceland, you probably wouldn't care for the Redbone. Again, it wouldn't hurt to sit a while with James Meyers or Bill Daniels, who make the Riceland and let them fit and instruct you.


My first Chien Caille was an old PS Olt body. My current one I bought at Lafayette Shooters and it's not an Olt body, but it appears to be the same size. 

You've listened to a lot more specs than me, so in your opinion, how do the RNT and Riceland sounds compare to the Chien Caille? I know you said you don't use the CC anymore, but thought that might just be that it's harder to blow and the RNT and Riceland sound "good enough".


----------



## whitefoot (Aug 19, 2010)

Last thing...I've got friends and family who have strayed from Chien Caille to calls that are easier to blow, but I find they sound really dull and...I don't know...muddy? Anyway, whatever the word is, they don't sound crisp and sharp like the Chien Caille.


----------



## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

whitefoot said:


> My first Chien Caille was an old PS Olt body. My current one I bought at Lafayette Shooters and it's not an Olt body, but it appears to be the same size.
> 
> You've listened to a lot more specs than me, so in your opinion, how do the RNT and Riceland sounds compare to the Chien Caille? I know you said you don't use the CC anymore, but thought that might just be that it's harder to blow and the RNT and Riceland sound "good enough".





whitefoot said:


> Last thing...I've got friends and family who have strayed from Chien Caille to calls that are easier to blow, but I find they sound really dull and...I don't know...muddy? Anyway, whatever the word is, they don't sound crisp and sharp like the Chien Caille.



Right up front, the problem with discussing the "best" of any type call is that everyone's physiology, methodology and tone preferences differ. So what sounds good in your hand my sound like crap in mine, and you may hate a tone I love.

And it may sound nuts to you that I abandoned the Chien Caille because it sounds just like a Chien Caille, and what it does best with the heavy Chien Caille reed that differentiated it from a factory Olt was the Saltzman style of yodeling that sounds just like the Saltzman style of yodeling. (Older readers might want to think "Benny Goodman".) Both very distinctive and both the mainstays of just about every gun toting ******* in my part of the country until very recently. Just made more sense to me not to sound like what shoots at 'em. Which contrarian stance has seen me generally more than hold my own across the canal or farm road from a goodly number of State and festival champions who are far more accomplished call operators than I've aspired to be and, as a rule, pretty dang solid hunters.

For a very long time, what I looked for in a speck call wasn't musical clarinet clarity but edgy specklebelly scratch closer matched by a rusty hinge - or nails on a chalk board - than most speck calls. And, if memory serves, I once determined that I'd owned or borrowed some 18 models and hybrids in that search - and that was a while back. But my current infatuation is with the hollow, down-in-a-barrel, turkey gobbler-like rattle specks have when their feet are planted on the ground. Don't know whether the difference between that and how they sound in flight is acoustical or physical, but it's there. And while I was getting plenty of scratch (screech?) out of my modified RNTs, I couldn't help but wonder if James Meyer's (now Riceland) big-bored, thin-walled design wouldn't help add what I was after, especially in hedge, a wood I find lends itself to such. 

Turns out it does, and I've developed great confidence in it for most calling, but it's substantially harder for me to maintain clucks and other groundwork for extended periods on the large-bored, heavy-reeded Riceland than it is on my small-bored RNT with a thin duck call reed shaved even thinner primarily for that purpose. Always something it seems. 

Plus, I now have to watch that I don't fall into sounding like every other gun-toting ******* out there doing the current contest winning riffs on their Ricelands and Redbones...


----------



## Troy B (May 25, 2005)

The RNT is a great spec call and easy to use.


----------



## Gun_Dog2002 (Apr 22, 2003)

I bet you can get a Foiles call pretty cheap


/paul


----------



## whitefoot (Aug 19, 2010)

Hey Rick...thanks for the thorough breakdown. My friends who have strayed from Chien Caille, have gone a much less expensive route than RNT. Maybe that's the difference. I think they've got Haydel/Primos models and I find that the notes aren't very distinct sounding.


----------



## 2 Fowl (Mar 6, 2008)

Lots of great speck calls out there...Meyer's, J.J. Lares, Basin, Redbone just to name a few.
I use a Lares because it's easy to run and it sounds good....It tricked a lot of specks this year...

2Fowl


----------



## Ray Shanks (May 23, 2004)

Go see Bill and James with Riceland Calls. It will be worth your time. They are good people and they will show you that the chamber you make with your hands will have a large effect on how much air it takes to run their calls. Please post when the calling contest is I have a client that would like to enter.


----------



## Dustin D (Jan 12, 2012)

Franco said:


> Any advantages with either Faulk or *Haydel*?


I absolutely love this one;

Haydel;
XLS-83 X-tra Loud 
White Front Goose 



> For long distance calling and windy days. Developed for the guides in Gueydan, Louisiana. Winner and Runner-up in the 1984 International Speckle Belly Goose Calling Contest. Also, 1986 Louisiana State and Gueydan Duck Festival. First and second in the 1988 Louisiana State Contest. Winner of the 1991 Hunters World Goose Calling Contest.












Can't wait for the Expo!


----------



## 7pntail (Jan 20, 2010)

Dustin D said:


> I absolutely love this one;
> 
> Haydel;
> XLS-83 X-tra Loud
> ...



Me too. Got a few. Basin calls do sound great and are from my home state. The price, a bit spendy. 

I love all of the Haydel's---my "go to" call for mallards and specks. 
Easy to toot. 


We have a special extended season this weekend---hope to entice a few!


----------



## Kyle Farris (Jun 21, 2011)

I'm pretty fond of my J.J. Lares and Basin calls, a lot of specks this season while calling on them. Saturday starts our late season speck hunt hopefuly we can kill a few more before it's back to dog training and fishing!


----------



## Gun_Dog2002 (Apr 22, 2003)

http://youtu.be/jjLZd3JFtRI


/Paul


----------



## Franco (Jun 27, 2003)

Dustin D said:


> I absolutely love this one;
> 
> Haydel;
> XLS-83 X-tra Loud
> ...


The Louisiana Waterfowlers Allience out of Crowley is trying to get Kelly Haydel to thier exhibit at the Expo in July at the Cajundome & Convention Center.

I got a Riceland acrylic from Jim and with the number of Specs we had down this season, it was the best!


----------



## Travis Schneider (Aug 31, 2010)

JB Custom calls has one of the best speck calls on the market.

http://www.jbcustomcalls.com/

And no...RNT's speck call isn't anywhere near the top.


----------



## Charlie Sawdey (Aug 23, 2011)

Lynch Mob Speck Reaper is solid...

http://www.lmccalls.com/speckreaper.htm


----------



## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

Greenhead Smacker said:


> And no...RNT's speck call isn't anywhere near the top.


Wasn't too many years ago that Jason Campbell took a second in the "Worlds" against Redbone and the other big kids of the speck call world with a $10 poly RNT...


----------



## Travis Schneider (Aug 31, 2010)

Rick Hall said:


> Wasn't too many years ago that Jason Campbell took a second in the "Worlds" against Redbone and the other big kids of the speck call world with a $10 poly RNT...


I was there.

You can't deny that there are better speck calls out there than RNT. Redbone, Riceland, and JB...all of these companies are in Louisiana or Texas where they've been chasing specks for years.

Speck hunting...the new fly fishing.


----------



## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

Greenhead Smacker said:


> You can't deny that there are better speck calls out there than RNT. Redbone, Riceland, and JB...


I can say that some of the very best speck callers I know use none of the above. And while I don't claim to be in their league, there are times and places where my small-bored RNT (albeit with a non stock reed) is a "better" call than my big-bored Riceland. Different strokes...


----------



## ducktrickster (Feb 19, 2007)

Rick Hall said:


> Wasn't too many years ago that Jason Campbell took a second in the "Worlds" against Redbone and the other big kids of the speck call world with a $10 poly RNT...


Don't kid yourself by thinking he was blowing an "off the shelf call" that he picked up from Academy.

There are many options, of which, I only have experience with cc, riceland, and a brief stint with haydel. The only one I no longer use is the haydel.


----------



## Raymond Little (Aug 2, 2006)

Franco, live the call be the call! CC is a beotch to learn but with Laffy traffic being what it is there is plenty of time to practice your notes. If you can get a good two note out of it and learn to cluck you'll have success next season. Way too many peeps try to get flashy with the tool and ruin their chances when less would have been better, IMO.


----------



## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

ducktrickster said:


> Don't kid yourself by thinking he was blowing an "off the shelf call" that he picked up from Academy.


Doubt I know any decent speck caller who runs anything "off the shelf," without some personal tuning tweaking, but I'm virtually certain Jason told me the call, if not the tuning, in that call was stock. As for it's tuning, anyone who doesn't learn to tune his own calls for fit is cheating himself.


----------



## Dustin D (Jan 12, 2012)

Raymond Little said:


> Way too many peeps try to get flashy with the tool and ruin their chances when less would have been better, IMO.


I think we've all heard that before. However I believe that realistic will always trump.

If your spot has a 100 decoys you can/should sound like more than '1' Duck 
Doesn't matter if four of you are calling at the same time, 
as long as you sound real.


----------



## 7pntail (Jan 20, 2010)

Well, after a great weekend on a special cali speck hunt, my buddy went to Kittles in Colusa and purchased a Basin call. I was the only caller(Haydel) and we did have a great shoot. But, the season had been closed for two weeks. I must admit that call sounds like music and is very easy to blow. I have three speck calls, but clearly the Basin call sounds the best. He paid 130 bucks! Not cheap, but I may purchase one myself--that's all I need is another call!


----------



## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

Of course you need that Basin. And it won't stop there...


----------



## 7pntail (Jan 20, 2010)

Rick Hall said:


> Of course you need that Basin. And it won't stop there...




That I can assure you is not true


----------



## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

Easy enough to say, but once the seed is planted, the "need" grows and grows...


----------



## bobbyb (Jul 31, 2005)

Cocobolo or hedge call Riceland is the bomb.. don't know why you would want to learn on a CHEAP call instead of one that will last a long,long time and sound better... If you need a piece of either wood let me know..

BobbyB
cajun


----------



## Rick Hall (Jan 21, 2003)

What? Not the micarta???


----------



## GulfCoast (Sep 24, 2007)

Rick Hall said:


> What? Not the micarta???


linen or paper micarta? ;-)


----------



## bobbyb (Jul 31, 2005)

Rick Hall said:


> What? Not the micarta???


I didn't want to overwhelm him with some high tech stuff...


BobbyB
cajun


----------

