It’s doubtful any serious duck hunter doesn’t recognize the name Barnie Calef. Barnie is the host of the best selling Take‘Em waterfowl videos produced by Hunter’s Specialties. Prior to appearing in front of the camera, Barnie won the World Duck Calling Championship three times, in 1989, 1999 and the final time in 2000. According to the rules, when a competitor wins the “World” for the third time he is officially retired from competition.

Thus, it’s safe to say Barnie knows a thing or two about making a duck call sound good both on stage and in the blind. Three years ago he left his position at Hunter’s Specialties to venture off into the call manufacturing business. His company, Calef Calls was recently purchased by Hunter’s Specialties and expanded their already extensive line of waterfowl calls.

The latest addition to the H.S./Calef call line up is the Neckbreaker single reed duck call. Barnie designed this call from scratch utilizing the tricks he learned over the years winning three world titles. Although, he admits this is a hunting call, it does offer many of the perks of a contest call and is built with all the latest technology and materials.

Much like on the contest stage, Barnie specifically built this call to be able to reach out and touch ducks at long range. When a properly blown ringing hail call is blow on this call, ducks literally “break their necks” turning around in mid flight! That’s how the name was derived and it just stuck.

Like most of the high end duck calls, the Neckbreaker is available in both acrylic and wood versions. Currently, the acrylic colors available are smoke, chartreuse and what Calef calls “light bulb” which is a black insert with a pearl white body. Additionally, the call is offered in Cocobola wood, as well. Acrylic models retail for approximately $125 with the wood costing approximately $80.

Barnie describes the Neckbreaker as his “everything” call. By that he means it’s a versatile enough call that it can handle all the calling duties in the blind. “It’s a real raspy call,” eludes Calef. He designed it with an extra “raspy-ness” in it so even a novice can blow it with ease.

Veteran callers will love the top end. Calef says it will scream hail calls just like those heard on Main Street in Stuttgart. “One of the keys to the design is to get the attention of distant ducks,” explained Barnie. Building volume into this call was a priority, yet it does blow really quiet as well. Yet according to Barnie,”it’s got enough hang in it, that you don’t have to blow it very hard.” Hey, what could be better than a loud ringing hail call that doesn’t wear you out?

Remember, more the rasp that Barnie built into this call? That allows it to get real whiny and do those “Cajun squeals” that drive the drakes crazy. Calef can be heard on the videos making this squeal, which is a really unique call and not one that a lot of duck calls can mimic.

The Neckbreaker also has a special tone board, which eliminates sticking and maintenance. In fact, Barnie claims to have used several Neckbreaker calls for over three seasons with no maintenance at all. All Calef acrylic calls are turned on a CNC machine to keep tolerances very tight and to produce the highest quality call available. Every call is individually hand tuned by Barnie himself, so the buyer knows it will run right out of the box.