Fall turkey hunting is just around the corner. That's a great time to learn to use the mouth diaphragm call. If you have struggled with trying to master the mouth call....give it another try this fall.
To produce the Kee Kee, or whistle of the young turkey, place the call in the roof of your mouth, as far forward as possible, right up against the back of your front teeth. Then, applying a lot of tongue pressure...and a lot of air pressure, release air to pass over the reed producing a high-pitched sound: KEEEE...KEEEE...KEEEE. This is the Kee Kee or the whistle, among the first sounds made by a turkey. As they struggle to "talk like the big guys", this kee kee will progress into the kee kee run, a series of kee kees followed by an attempt at the adult yelp: KEE...KEE...KEE...KEOWK...YOWK! This kee kee run is the call you want to master (I say "master"...but it is an imperfect sound with great variation from poult to poult.) for fall turkey hunting. To the young of a passing flock, your kee kee run says, "Hey, guys....C'mon over here and play." To the boss hen, it says. "Hey, Ma....I'm lost, come find me!" The kee kee run can be used to lure a flock into shooting distance.
To produce the kee kee run, simply start with three kee's, with lots of tongue/air pressure, then drop your jaw and release tongue pressure to produce the lower KEEOWK YOWK. Keep in mind that this KEOWK is the yelp you will need for next spring. So you see: Your struggling with the mouth call this fall just might lure a turkey(s) to your gun, while preparing you with lots of practice for mouth calling next spring. (You can progress from the easily produced whistle to a decent hen yelp, just like young turkeys do as they learn to talk.)
My favorite approach to fall hunting is to position myself (before flydown) between a roost and a primary feeding site. (Note: To find such a location will take some scouting.) Then I listen for the morning turkey talk to begin. When I'm sure all birds are on the ground, I will begin to call, mixing kee kee runs with boss hen yelps. To do this, I use the mouth call as described above for the kee kee runs, along with a box call or pushbutton for the boss hen yelps. I call a lot, and soon the youngsters of the flock begin to answer my "come, let's play" call. If the flock starts to move in my direction, the boss hen will start to yelp in an attempt to get them to stay with her and go where she wants them to go. From then on, I'm competing with the boss hen with repeated calls of KEE...KEE...KEE...KEOWK...YOWK KEE...KEE...KEE...KEOWK...YOWK
KEE...KEE...KEE...KEOWK...YOWK
YEOWK...YEOWK...YEOWK...YEOWK...YEOWK...YEOWK...YEOWK!
I'll keep repeating this or a similar sequence of calls, trying to answer every kee kee from the young of the flock and match the boss hen call-for-call. Given the opportunity, I will cut the boss hen off with some boss hen yelps of my own. This often helps to drag her in my direction. If my setup position is good, more often than not, I will get a shot.
Good hunting,
GPA
