Duck hunters like to make a big deal out of the need for perfection when calling wild ducks into gun range.

But for all of their talking, most would admit that sometimes, even the ducks themselves don’t always sound like ducks.

So a few odd notes emanating from a duck blind doesn’t always spell the difference between success and failure and won’t necessarily send a flock of mallards into the next county.

However, when a group of people with a common passion like duck hunting come together, it’s inevitable that some kind of contest ensues.

This “I-can-call-ducks-better-than-you-can” challenge over the years has become the source of hundreds of contests across the country that, for the last 74 years, culminate with the biggest duck-calling contest of them all.

Each November in Stuttgart, Ark., the World’s Championship Duck Calling Contest brings together the best duck callers in the country to show off/sound off their calling prowess.

With one tiny false note or a slightest unnatural break in the cadence, a competitor quickly is sent packing.

Of this, Mike Anderson of Mankato knows.

He packed up his Suburban Thanksgiving Day and along with his wife, Susan, drove the 900 miles to Stuttgart, to participate in the contest which is part of Stuttgart’s annual “Wings on the Prairie Festival,” a week-long tribute to the area’s rich waterfowling tradition which hosts the elite duck calling contest.

When the last duck quacks and high-balls died down Nov. 28, the 29-year-old mechanic for Minnesota Elevator Inc. was selected at the top from a field of 66 contestants from across the United States, and became the first Minnesotan to win it.

For his effort, he took home $8,000 cash, another $17,000 in merchandise, a bragging-sized trophy and most important of all, membership in a select membership of duck calling legends.

His love of all things related to waterfowl began when he was 8, accompanying his dad and uncle on their waterfowl hunts in northern Minnesota beaver ponds and sloughs.

“But dad and my uncle were deer hunters who hunted ducks once in a while,” Anderson said. “I took it to the next level. ... I ate and slept waterfowl hunting, buying all the gear on my own — it became an endless pursuit.”

When he moved to Mankato in 2000, he continued to pursue his passion for waterfowl.

Duck calling was part of the routine, but it wasn’t until 2003 when he hooked up with an equally passionate waterfowler who happened to work in a local outdoor store that he developed an interest in competitive duck calling.

With kudos to an understanding wife, the two would practice for hours in Anderson’s basement, honing their calling techniques and routines

It didn’t take long for Anderson to enjoy success. In 2004, he won a Minnesota state calling championship, beginning a string of eight calling championships, including several regional competitions, that qualified him three times to compete in the world contest.

While Minnesota has a rich waterfowl hunting tradition, Anderson said that competitive calling doesn’t have the following that it does in other states.

The exception, he said, is in the Mankato area, where several accomplished competitive callers, notably Curt Schueneman of Mankato and Dave Luker of St. Peter, have qualified over the years to compete in Stuttgart.

In order to qualify, contestants need to win a sanctioned state or regional calling contest. Anderson managed to qualify by winning the Illinois River Regional earlier this year, a prestigious event in its own right.

In such rarefied competition, a little drama is to be expected. Anderson’s began long before the contest when he traveled down to Arkansas last January to do a little duck hunting and to smooze with Butch Richenback, founder of Rich-N-Tone calls, the brand of duck calls Anderson uses.

Unhappy with his poor showing in the 2008 Stuttgart event — he failed to make the first cut — Anderson was hoping the widely recognized “master of quack” would assist him in finding the right call.

“If you don’t have the right duck call in your hands, you can be the best in the world and it might not resonate on the stage,” Anderson said.

Richenback responded by making a call for Anderson on the hallowed Rich-N-Tone hand jig.

Understand there are three levels of Rich-N-Tone calls: A casual duck hunter might buy one of their plastic, mass-produced calls for $20 or so; a serious duck hunter might pop for a wooden model in the $70 range or a machined acrylic model for, say, $130 or so.

But a Rich-N-Tone made on a hand jig — and by Richenback himself, no less? How do you spell priceless?

As Richenback handed him the new call, Anderson asked if he would do one more thing. “I asked him if he would bless the call for me,” Anderson said.

The call maker obliged by engraving “Blessed by Butch” on the tone board, the internal component of the call that holds the reed.

The call was a good fit and enabled him to qualify for the world contest with his Illinois win. But then the day before the world competition, as Anderson practiced his routine, he “blew” the reed of the call — jargon for ruining the vibrating piece of plastic that creates the sound of a duck call.

At the highest competitive levels, much time is spent precisely cutting, customizing, and fine-tuning of the reed.

After several attempts — “I must have cut 100 of them and they were all bad,” Anderson said — he called Richenback and explained his dilemma.

Back at the shop, the master call maker was able to produce a reed that was in Anderson’s words “not bad, kind of in the middle.”

To make a long story short, on the day of the contest, he made the first cut from 66 to 31, and the second cut down to 11 contestants.

Remaining contestants gave their final 90-second calling routine for a panel of judges separated from view by a panel and then awaited their decision.

Beginning with the 10th runner-up, names were read and finally, only two were left standing: Anderson and Tyler Merritt of El Paso, Texas.

Though competitors, in competitive calling circles, the two men also are friends. “I leaned over and told him that I couldn’t imagine a better guy to finish second to,” Anderson said.

Except that Merritt’s name was called next as first runner-up, awarding the top spot to Anderson who admits that he cried “like a little girl” when he realized he had won.

He and his wife arrived home last Monday to find their Pfau Street yard decorated with a duck boat festooned with balloons and banners. A neighbor brought over a case of Bud to toast his victory.

His constant hunting companions Chris Conroy and Eric Ridow stopped by to offer their congratulations.

And by the weekend, still basking in the afterglow of his victory, he planned on being down in Kansas doing his best to call in flocks of wary waterfowl.

After performing for the judges, calling to the real McCoys ought to be a push-over.

John Cross is a Mankato Free Press staff writer. Contact him at (507) 344-6376 or jcross@mankatofreepress.com.