There’s the ducks…”grunt, squeak, squeak” NO! My call froze up. *tapping and blowing through the call backwards” And the ducks are gone.
Having a call freeze or stick during a hunt is extremely frustrating. 
Saliva can freeze inside the call, causing the reed to stick to the sound board. This can cause major problems when the next group of mallards comes by and the other blinds start hailing them. Here are a few tactics to help prevent call freeze-up:
- The best prevention for call freeze-up is to keep your calls inside your jacket. Your body warmth will prevent them from freezing. This means it will take you an extra second to grab a call when you see ducks, but you’ll be spared the squeaking sound of a stuck reed. Put the call inside your jacket, but keep the lanyard string handy for quick access to the call.
- Another trick is to rub a little chapstick on the tone board under the reed. Be careful to not bend the reed too far, or you will crease it and permanently and irreparably damage the reed. Just put a little chapstick on the tone board under the reed, and the chances of the call freezing will be greatly reduced.
- Eating, drinking, and dipping cause extra saliva build up in your mouth. This extra saliva then goes into your call. To reduce saliva build up, take a swig of water to wash out your mouth after eating or drinking.
- While the dog is out retrieving the latest greenhead, or while you’re debating who was big-eyeing the last group, blow the call backwards to blow out as much moisture as you can right away before letting the call sit. Doing this after especially rigorous calling sequences will help tremendously.
- SBO duck call tone boards, such as the ones in the Chopper and the Super Duty, are not sanded to a mirror finish. The slightly rough surface seems to help keep the calls from sticking as compared to a mirror finished tone board.
Do you have other tips for keeping your call from freezing up? If so, connect with us on social media and let us know! We’ll add it to the list, and credit you.
