Even with many years of waterfowling behind me, I have never forgotten my first hunt. “Be there on Saturday. Bring chest waders, shells, your shotgun… and you’ll need a call — a Sure Shot 650.”

Full disclosure: I started hunting waterfowl late, in my early 30s, but I was hooked that first morning when my pattern forced a mallard hen to roll mid-flight and fold her wings. At that exact moment, I also fell in love with watching my friend’s dog, a golden retriever, dart out to retrieve my duck — I still marvel at a properly trained dog’s patience in waiting and work ethic on retrieves.

During that first hunt, I learned the basics of calling like quacks, feeding and even hail calls, and that 99% of calling is at the ducks’ backs. I learned calls have diverse ranges of sounds and that I should outfit myself with more than one. Moreover, not all ducks sound the same. Specialty calls for wood ducks, teal, wigeons, etc. are vastly more important than mallard hen calls, depending on when, where and what you are hunting. I learned quickly that the same can be said for goose hunting.

My in-a-nutshell, first-hunt takeaway was the importance of guidance, setting up and calling. If a hunter wants to hunt ducks and geese, calls definitely make the short list, and new hunters need both advice and options. This is where retailers can and should step in. Stocking the right assortment of accessories, like duck and goose calls, and giving good advice doesn’t just make ancillary sales — it creates loyal, returning customers for years to come. All stated, take a gander at these duck and goose calls sure to lure in new and seasoned waterfowling customers.

Sure Shot Yentzen ONE2 Duck Call

Literally the call that built a brand, the Yentzen sprang to life with Sure Shot’s founding in 1959, and from 1960 on, beginning with Cowboy Fernandez, it helped callers win world duck-calling championships multiple times. While the classic double-reed patented Yentzen is still available, Sure Shot’s latest iteration, the Yentzen ONE2, is definitely a cut above its predecessors. The Yentzen ONE2 boasts a rugged polymer body, walnut band, advanced double-reed guts and a redesigned screw-lock system. The result is twice the volume of the Yentzen and Yentzen ONE, faster tuning and the fuller, more realistic mallard sounds serious waterfowlers are after. www.sureshotgamecalls.com

Sure Shot Rascal 7-in-1 Call

The Rascal 7-in-1 was designed to be the most diverse call on your customers’ lanyards throughout the full range of waterfowl hunting seasons. True to its name, the Rascal boasts seven sounds, including five ducks and two additional non-waterfowl species: hawk and bobwhite quail. The rascals’ duck sounds include mallard drake, teal, pintail, wigeon and wood duck. The Rascal is quite compact and includes its own lanyard.

Rich-N-Tone Original Duck Call

Rich-N-Tone (RNT) calls rank among top sellers for seasoned waterfowlers. The brand’s diverse array of calling products make it difficult to lock down a single do-all call, however, the brand’s Original Duck Call remains RNT’s most popular offering — and their most field-proven. Available in bocote and granadillo wood models, as well as 19 acrylic options, the RNT Original Duck Call offers a custom-finish-type touch for every waterfowler in the marsh. Even better, the ability to stock a single model in multiple finishes means you are catching every customer’s eye. In the field, the Original Duck Call has proven to be a great choice for all calling styles and volumes, from robust hail calls to soft, low close-range opportunities. www.rntcalls.com

Rich-N-Tone Hunter Series Goose Call

Founded in 1976 by World Champion and Champion of Champions duck caller, Butch Richenback, Rich-N-Tone (RNT) Calls has amassed over 40 years of expert call-making experience. As the company’s name implies, RNT is as focused today on producing premium, richly toned calls as it was when Richenback whittled his first call, and the Hunter Series Goose Call earns its Rich-N-Tone branding. The RNT Hunter Series Goose Call boasts a custom cocobolo or bocote wood barrel and polymer insert for a perfect coupling, classic looks and engineered reliability. Designed for hunters of all experience levels, RNT Hunter Series Goose calls are packaged with a calling CD and lanyard.

Zink Long Neck Rocker Goose Call

In the world of premium goose calls, and duck calls, too, Zink is not only a world-renowned name, it is consistently a top contender — quite an achievement for production calls. Of course, the good news there is availability for retailers and the discriminating waterfowlers you serve, who demand a lanyard full of top-tier, custom-level calls like the Long Neck Rocker. The Zink Long Neck Rocker Goose Call is available in multiple wood and marbled-acrylic finishes with laser-engraving, and they sound as great as they look! The Long Neck Rocker’s unique combination of Zink’s short-reed system, backpressure and well-balanced tone makes it a perfect Canada goose call.  www.zinkcalls.com

Buck Gardner Wood Duck Call

What is the next step for a World Champion and Champion of Champions duck caller? For Buck Gardner, it was building duck calls. Gardner won the two titles in 1994 and 1995, respectively, before founding Buck Gardner Calls in 1996. Today, the Buck Gardner brand is widely known and respected by duck and goose hunters nationwide, and given the company’s combination of performance and affordability, products like the Wood Duck Call continue to be extremely popular. Perfect for duck hunters looking for an early-season wood duck call, the Buck Gardner Wood Duck Call is constructed of a durable polycarbonate barrel and mouthpiece and delivers the consistently rich, contended whine proven to lure those woodies into range. www.buckgardner.com

Buck Gardner Double Nasty Poly Duck Call

Since winning top duck calling honors more than 25 years ago, Buck Gardner has committed his life to producing calls with the same level of quality sound that garnered him such honors — chiefly among them, the Buck Gardner Double Nasty Poly Duck Call. Since its unveiling decades ago, the Double Nasty has been foundational to Buck Gardner’s success, and it remains a top seller for the BG brand today. Buck Gardner’s innovative Spit-Tech toneboard not only keeps the Double Nasty’s double-reed system from sticking, it is the magic raspy-tone ingredient that makes it a duck-hunting favorite. Double Nasty Poly Duck Calls are constructed of polycarbonate and individually hand-tuned to optimize sound quality before they ever land on your retail shelf.

Duck Commander Triple Threat Duck Call

I could suggest stocking Duck Commander calls based on the “Duck Dynasty” TV show alone, but I won’t. Instead, I’ll base highlighting Duck Commander calls on the company’s history and call performance. Duck Commander patriarch Phil Robertson has hunted ducks since childhood, continues to do so every day of the season and is experienced, knowledgeable and passionate enough to own a pair of duck call patents. As for duck calls, the family company is alive and well. They continue to produce affordable calls with exceptional sound and reliability — case in point, the Triple Threat Duck Call. The Duck Commander Triple Threat employs a triple-reed system, housed in a friction-fit polycarbonate call body, and the calls are pre-tuned. The results are realistic quacks, feeds hail calls and more with the raspy realism your hunting customers want. www.duckcommander.com

Duck Commander Teal Hen Duck Call

In the word of specialty calls, especially for ducks, the Robertsons have always been industry front-runners. Phil Robertson invented and patented the first known mallard drake call in 1973 and immediately founded Duck Commander. While DC does produce an array of mallard hen calls, the company also still builds specialties like the Teal Hen Duck Call, perfect for early-season teal hunting as well as for use during the regular season when ducks are wiser to run-of-the-mill mallard hen calling. The Teal Hen call produces the high-rasp tone teal love via a double-reed system housed in a high-impact plastic body.    

Field Proven Workhorse Hybrid Goose Call

Relative newcomer Field Proven burst on the waterfowl call scene in 2010, but by then, brothers Clay and Field Hudnall already had a couple decades worth of hunting under their wader belts. The pair emptied their savings to craft realistic-sounding waterfowl calls, and for a decade before, Field Hudnall competed often in high-stakes calling competitions; in fact, Field has earned championship wins in both duck and goose competitions, including world champion goose calling honors, which translate well to, and explains the hunting success of, Field Proven’s Workhorse Hybrid Goose Call. The Workhorse features a proprietary Mark 3 World Championship Fully Worn Gut System, a replication of the system used to garner three world goose calling titles. Field Proven’s Mark 3 guts are encapsulated in a burnt-hedge barrel and friction-fit thermoplastic end-piece. Field Proven reports the Workhorse Hybrid Call delivers sharp cracks and deep, low tones, and is built to handle hardcore calling abuse. www.fieldprovencalls.com

Echo Diamondwood Duck Call

A lesson in perseverance, Rick Dunn, a passionate waterfowler since childhood, founded Echo Duck Calls in 1975. His first personally-built calls were lackluster, but he figured out a winning combination soon after, and Echo Duck Calls was born. A passionate waterfowler and caller, Dunn began competing in 1983 and won his world champion title 14 years later. Throughout his time as a competitive caller, Echo continued to grow. Today, Echo Duck Calls are a favorite among seasoned veteran waterfowlers in the know, and one of the most popular in Echo’s lineup, well worth your retail space, is the Diamondwood Duck Call. The Diamondwood Duck Call draws hunters into Echo’s ranks with premium looks and sounds at affordable price points. Diamondwood calls boast friction fit bodies and double-reed mylar internals, perfect for all manner of vocalizations from booming hail calls to soft, close-range calling. www.echocalls.com