Are [goose callers] completely useless, or am i using them wrong?

[splainin2do]

I don't think I have much trouble with them breaking (from what I can tell?) unless:

1) it's a massive flock - they've got all their friends with them already and don't always care for making new friends
2) it's a pair of geese - they're a happy couple together and don't need any other company
3) it's a flock of FIVE (Canada) geese - not sure what's up with that?

What I do is almost exclusively use the flag lure. If the geese pass by overhead and still haven't broken yet, I'll quickly switch to the long range caller for 1-3 honks at the most, then right back to the flag lure. They seem to break a lot after that.

And of course, be sure you are not in a 'run' state when you're in your blind.

[Gah_Montilladrinker]

If u don't want to get them airborne, and have them break hoocairs has an old video by putting a tower about 120m away pop them with the plinkton
Especially how they break when your not around and by your decoys

You can't do that anymore either (Tower shots from distance) because any change in state including "Living vs. Dead" is an automatic spook and the whole flock will depart.

Still able to do it.