Duck-calling champ knows how to honk

Shane Rossen wore a lanyard dangling four duck calling devices around his neck. He also wore a cross, fitting for the founder of "Callers for Christ" and the state duck calling champion.

Duck hunting and Christ?

It goes together, Rossen said, along with his concern for protecting the environment.

"The sport of contest calling is another way of exercising conservation," Rossen said. "It gets youth and adults involved in the sport of hunting where they end up getting educated about the outdoors. Through competing and hunting, people become aware of natural resources and end up being more proficient stewards over the land and animals that we've been given by God."

The gospel minister, 37, and Minnesota native puts his skills to use when he hunts with Labradors Duke and Stitch and German shorthair pointer, Bean.

He eats what he harvests.

Rossen grew up hunting Mississippi River bottoms, sloughs and lakes with his father, Vern Rossen. When he worked at Joe's Sporting Goods, he began competing in calling contests about age 18.

He advises competitors and hunters through his work on the pro staff for Buck Gardner calls and Avery Outdoors. Rossen is a stay-at-home dad and is married to Jaqualine, a major in the U.S. Army.

I was amazed that he could "honk," just like the geese at our camping property near Concrete.

To call like a goose, Rossen wraps his hands just so around a device that's a little bigger than a roll of quarters, then blows or says words into the mouthpiece. Air vibrates a reed, like a flute, producing sounds intended to lure birds to hunting grounds.

In competition, judges are sequestered behind a curtain. Each caller has 90 seconds in each of three rounds to convince judges, who don't know their names, that they are the best competitor.

"You tell a story," Rossen said. "Paint a picture for the judges."

During the 90 seconds, you make sounds that will supposedly lure the birds, he said, then they leave, then you bring them back so they lay down right in the hole, or zone, where a hunter aims to shoot them.

Judges listen for the hail call, comeback call, feeding chuckle and serene hen call, said Rone Brewer, chairman of the Washington State Sanctioned Duck Calling Contest.

"Differences in scores are based on the five judges' preferences for the nuances each caller incorporates into each of the required calls," Brewer said. "Next year's contest venue and dates are yet to be determined, but will either be in February at the Monroe Sportsman's Show, or in late July or early August near Stanwood."

There are also two-man competitions and Rossen won the state championship with Robert Strong from Orting.

He is heading to the World's Championship Duck Calling Contest during Thanksgiving week in Stuttgart, Ark. He won some travel money at the state finals sponsored by the Washington Waterfowl Association. This year, he also won the Skagit Ducks Unlimited Two-Man Goose and Open Goose, Final Approach Two-Man Meat Duck and Snake River Two-Man Duck categories.

He can imitate a young duck, a middle-aged duck, an older, bossy hen and a goose returning to a lake with corn seeds stuffed in its neck pouch.

He said he practices every day.

When I asked what he loved about hunting, he said that was a loaded question.

"Standing in awe of creation, smelling coffee in the morning, sitting at a slough seeing the ecosystem come alive," Rossen said. "Being with your Dad and dogs, eating snacks, watching ducks work, is a thrill."

He said hunting is steeped in tradition.

"It teaches kids about nature," he said. "We get the glorious opportunity to reflect when we are in the field, on the wonder of creation and things eternal."



Columnist Kristi O'Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.

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To hear Shane Rossen's award-winning duck calling, go to www.heraldnet.com.