So, I had a customer in Australia contact me recently with a request. He had ordered a mallard hen and a blue wing teal call back in 2015. He stated he loves both calls but wanted to know if I could make two more teal calls to specifically target the grey teal they have in Australia. He explained that while the blue wing teal call I made him works on the grey teal and they respond well to it, the grey teal has a deeper and raspier sound than our blue wing variety. I accepted his request and, using his description as well as some grey teal sound files I found on the internet, I got to work. After turning the calls to shape, I played around with various JC reed sets until I created what thought was a close match to the sound files of live ducks. I sent him a sound file of both my blue wing teal call and the new grey teal call via Facebook to get his feedback. (Turns out Facebook is good for more than just political posts and pics of duck calls… who knew!)
Anyway, he loved the sounds these calls achieved and they’ll be shipping out soon.
Some things I learned in my research… Grey Teal are only found in New Zealand and Australia. Also, according to my Aussie friend, there are no commercially produced grey teal calls. So, I may have both cornered and saturated the global grey teal call market with these two calls!
Clear stabilized buckeye burl with oil finish.
