Home Forums Birds & Dogs Turkey Hunting Okay, I admit it. I can't use a mouth call worth a...

...[bleep].

They never fit right. Not matter how I trim them. The stick to my tongue and move out of position. The turn clockwise in my mouth.

I've tried for years. I have 6 sitting on my desk and every year I try get competent. I can make a few yelps and clucks before the call turns in my mouth and I have to use my fingers to reposition it. Nothing saounds quite right. And if I get a decent sounding call, I only get two of three before the call is so out position I can't reposition without my fingers.

I can't be the only one. I just can't.

Anyone else?

Thankfully, no. But it took a while to master them. My family, and dogs, were more than patient with me. I didn't go anywhere without one in my mouth, constantly working it, moving it, playing with it.

I am determined to master it, eventually. I always have some on hand. I can get soft yelps and clucks. I can't get out many calls with much volume before the position gets screwed up. I can't get a purr out to save my life. I can get a reasonably competent kee kee out, but once I transition to the yelp, the call turns after a yelp or two.

I was watching a video last night of some guy who does a purr using his uvula. Da hell? The only time I can get my uvula to start moving is when I'm gargling. Who has that much control over their uvula?

I think my cynicism is working against me. Every time I put a call in my mouth, I think there is no way this is going to work.

Whose calls? I like the H.S. STRUT calls. The flat ones, no plastic hump in them, just cloth and rubber with the metal bar in them.

I've tried many makes. Right now I have several Primos and Quaker Boy calls on hand. I have been practicing with a Primos mouth yelper for a week or so now. If I can keep it positioned, the sounds aren't dreadful. The problem is they all tend to rotate in my mouth.

There's nothing wrong with the calls, obviously. There is something I've learned that is causing them to rotate and I can't fiugure out what it is.

Call has to "seal" to the top of your mouth, don't use your tongue, air has to pass between the call and your tongue to produce noise. Maybe your tongue is pushing it around?

If you're past the gagging stage...

I'm past the gagging stage. I can seal it againt the roof of my mouth. I'm doing something when blowing that is turning it.

Years ago, I gave it a try and did not care for it. Back to my antique box call and guess what? More fun and pay more attention to what the birds are doing.
I finally evolved far enough to realize that hunting turkey can be fun and easy IF I am on a turkey rich property! My last deer lease was such a property and getting a gobbler in deer season before Thanksgiving was routine. Spring gobblers would often be calling from all directions around camp. My older brother would spend a week there every year hunting spring turkey and we always shot our limit. Ah, the good old days.

Try using less air, like you’re huffing on a mirror to wipe it clean,

If it’s moving in your mouth you’re doing something wrong for sure.

I've never felt handicapped by not using mouth calls well. I can make any call I need on a box and/or pot. I very rarely call once a bird comes into view, though I've used a push peg call in close on occassion. I figure if he came that far, he'll be all the more interested if I go silent and come the last few yards. It's worked so far.

It just bugs me that I cannot seem to get the hang of mouth calls.

I'm with you 10Glocks-----I can't make them work either. I've tried for over 10 years. I'm think it's the shape of the roof of my mouth. I use my box call 100% of the time.

chhew on the ends of the latex a bit. it softens the tape and allows a more comfortabel seal. mouth calls are like boots. they ened to be broke in so to speak.

I've been videoing myself so I could listen to myself like a bird would.

Here one I did a few minutes ago in my work at home office. Forgive the heavy breathing the phone is in my face.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8N14Mr9zFWZNTsyg6

Looks like you're trying manipulate the call with your lips and mouth....you might call a Turkey like that you never know.

People try and over think playing a diaphragm caller.

Put the call in the roof of your mouth hold it in place with your tounge... blow a high pitch yeee....then drop your jaw and the second part of the Yelp happens .....yawk.

Then just put it together at the spacing and speed you want....yes yawk... yew yark....yeeyawk.

Practice learning by lengthening and holding the high note...or front end of the Yelp

The azz end of the two note yelp comes pretty much automatic when you drop your jaw.

Its been said in the past to get in front of a Mirror watch and make your draw drop.

Next step is finding a diaprapham call you can play well.....this is the hard part.

The ones sold in big retail stores are sold on gimmick....the guys endorsing them and winning contest aren't using those calls.

Before I started using custom made diaphragms the Bass Pro parking lot was littered every spring with diaphragm calls that never made it out of the parking lot.

I use a guys diaphragm calls from Alabama...Sadler McGraw (look.him up on farce book)....years back he offered to make some calls for me.
He sent me a few I asked for a couple of changes mainly that I wanted a call that would play on a light whisper a call that I could whisper in a turkeys ear with and had back bone if I needed it.

He made a couple of changes and I told him that's it....

I told him he should name the call "The Judge the Jury and the Executioner"....he named it "The Judge and the Jury "

And I still use it.

I have used the diaphragms for years and mostly now I just call with my voice.....yelps, clucks, & purrs mostly. Takes a lot of practice and dedication to get it down. About this time of year if I am out and walking around in woods I will do these calls....just to get my confidence up I guess. I think you can lose it some if you don't keep it up.....kinda like a whistle. I know I cannot whistle like I could as a child simply because of not practicing. Just like shooting a basketball, throwing a baseball, snapping your fingers, and many thing that we take for granted. If you do not keep in touch with these you will lose them. I know that and when that ole bird is getting in my wheel house so to speak and you can't make a move, not having to use my hands to use a call is the advantage of the mouth calls. Like shooting off shoulder....once you learn it and do a little practice before season it will reward you at some point and save your day.

I agree, Winnie. Each winter I notice a regression from the previous year. I have to relearn things.

These guys we see on YouTube, guys that make videos for Primos and other makers, are doing it all the time. It's easy for me to keep a crow call, owl hooter or pot/box call on my desk beside my work computer and play with them during the day. It's not so easy to keep a call in my mouth. It's hard to practice enough to get good. Moreover, its hard to practice enough to stay good.

As far as calling with my voice, I can make a pretty convincing deer grunt and bleat call. I can purr better with my mouth than with a diaphram call. My son, though, can make a mouth GOBBLE that's more realisitc that one I've heard from a call. He's in Okinanwa but I'll see if he'll record himself gobbling next time I talk to him. It really is pretty cool.

Ok

I've been a turkey addict for 35 years. I could not use a diaphragm until about 12 years ago. I tried for YEARS and just could not do it.

Just get one and put it in every day for 3 minutes... make those few minutes count. Most people try for too long and get discouraged... I did this for years.

Everyone can use one... trimming is usually NOT necessary. Allowing the call to conform to the roof of your mouth ABSOLUTELY IS...

By getting proficient with mouth calls, you will negate all the movement you did with friction calls and increase your success exponentially

Call me sometime and I will walk you through it.

My technique needs improvement, no doubt. But I also have a high arched palate. Been told that by my dentist. Some people just do. And I think that contributes to the breaking of the seal the call makes in the roof of my mouth and the turning of the call.

I've been having SOME fun with my mouth calls the last few days. I have a dozen or more squirrels in my yard at any given time due to the seed I thow out for them, along with all manner of birds. For the last week or so, the starlings have been coming by the thousands and they will eat every scrap of food I throw out. They must know that a turkey is very aware and the sound makes them less cautious. They'll sit in the trees over the food but when they hear the turkey call they come down. I've been able to shoot about three dozen starlings from my home-offce window in the last 3 days doing this. The opossums and the foxes are eating good at night. I throw them over the fence and the next morning they are either gone or just a buncch of feathers. Hoodathunkit.

I struggle with these calls and pretty much gave up.

Please attache links of the better instructional videos and I'll try again.

I guess working from home during the pandemic has an advantage I can practice calls while working...

I find that I can take a new call out of the package and if I contour it over the steering wheel on the truck, it fits my mouth better. Some call makers have gone to using a plastic frame instead of the alum frame, you can't bend the plastic ones so I don't buy them.
Mouth calls from the same brand, same model don't always sound the same, some will be great and the next one sounds like crap.
I have a guy send me about 10 of his calls to try (different cuts, and reed configurations) I think I still have 2 or 3 of them but they all sounded good. I think small time makes do a much better job getting call to call consistency than mass produced makes do.