How To Use Diaphragm Elk Call

Choosing your first elk call: Tips for external calls, internal calls and bugles

By K.D. Johnson

If you've decided to venture out of your "condolement zone" of ducks, geese and gobblers in favor of hunting your beginning elk, congratulations are in guild! Sure you've been challenged before — weather, stale birds, henned-upward toms, hunting pressure and miles upon miles boated, biked, hiked, glassed — but trust me: at present you're in for something altogether different.

Hot one day, water ice-cold the next, elk can take you lot from zero to hero and back to zilch in the blink of an eye. But in that location are ways you can sway the odds in your favor — at least a bit. Getting in proficient concrete condition, scouting ahead, becoming proficient with your weapon of option, etc. Among these, researching and purchasing your showtime elk call. But where to begin? Permit'south await at the basic types of elk calls, and go from at that place.

External calls

External Elk Calls — Calf & Cow, from Slayer

The name — external — is the showtime clue here, every bit this style of call is operated outside the mouth. External calls may be entirely operated by mitt, often by squeezing a rubber or plastic bulb that then forces a current of air over a reed or reeds, thus creating the desired sounds.

External calls may as well involve air (breath) being physically diddled into the device; again, causing the reed or reeds to vibrate and produce "elk language," (i.east., the chirps and mews that elk — primarily cows and calves — employ to communicate within the herd). General consensus is either style is convenient; however, both withal require practice and patience.

There are two primary types of air-operated external calls: open reeds (with an open or exposed mylar reed) and the "bite" fashion, which employs a similarly-shaped mylar reed — think duck call reed! — housed inside a rubber tube. Biting or applying pressure to the condom tube at different points along its length changes the tone and pitch of the phone call produced. Many (myself included) find the bite mode call to exist easier; even so, some believe open up reeds can exist more versatile in the sounds they create.

Internal / reed elk calls

As well known every bit diaphragm calls, these horseshoe-shaped pieces of metallic, latex rubber, and textured tape are, for those familiar with them, identical to the diaphragm calls used by turkey hunters (east.chiliad., Slayer Calls' Black Bat Wing or Snake Bite diaphragm calls).

Diaphragm calls are placed on the roof of the caller's oral cavity (internal), and pressure is applied to the reed/reeds with the tongue while air is forced through the gap created. More than pressure equals a college pitch; less pressure, a lower pitch.

Internal elk calls offering several advantages over external calls, nevertheless there are less-than-user-friendly trade-offs that come with these excellent little devices. Here are the pros and cons.

Pros:

Hands-free operation allows for aiming/cartoon
Hands-complimentary functioning eliminates elk-spooking calling motion
Unaffected by weather condition conditions
Extremely versatile in the range of sounds created

Cons:

One size does non fit all; the play a trick on is finding an internal phone call that fits properly
There is definitely a learning curve involved with internal/diaphragm calls

Bugle tubes

Elk hunter in the woods bugling with the Slayer Swagger elk call

Biologically, a bull elk forces air from his lungs, up through his windpipe and out his rima oris, using a combination of tongue and pharynx pressure to cause the rise and fall of the extraordinary audio known as the bugle. Information technology'southward a combination of things, but largely it's the balderdash's windpipe that adds much depth, resonance, trunk and inflection to the sound.

Humans, obviously, lack the balderdash's windpipe; still, we compensate for that missing part of the audible puzzle with an artificial windpipe. Enter: the bugle tube.

Typically constructed of a stiff, lightweight, corrugated plastic, with either a straight or megaphone-shaped end, the bugle tube is used in conjunction with a diaphragm (internal) phone call in an effort to reproduce the exact depth of the balderdash'due south bugle. These innovative instruments (eastward.grand., Slayer Calls' Swagger Bugle Tube ), allow for a greater range of inflection and realism, every bit well as adding calling altitude when needed.

Or, give Slayer's ArchAngel elk call a try. This acrylic bugle elk phone call enables callers to take much better control of the reed which, combined with Slayer's tried and tested acrylic fabric, ways hunters can create loud, realistic sounds. Simply drawing air back against the rifling in the acrylic when chuckling, grunting, or panting produces scary-realistic, deep, and guttural bull elk diaphragm sounds. With this acrylic bugle elk call, you'll be able to scale upwards octaves with ease and reach some of the highest notes ever achieved. The acrylic material too eliminates all that plastic sound that is mutual amid other bugles.

It'southward easy to become overwhelmed with today's broad variety of elk calling tools that are bachelor; still, the best advice when it comes to choosing a call and and so learning to use that call from a technical standpoint — Note: The field work will come later — is to find one style and become proficient with it earlier progressing onto the adjacent. Season'due south coming, simply yous have fourth dimension.

Run across M.D. Johnson

Originally from Ohio, Grand.D. Johnson, and his wife/business organization partner, Julia, spent 18 years in Iowa earlier relocating to her native Washington country in 2015. A full-time freelance outdoor author since 1992, Johnson, with the photographic assist of his wife, has authored and illustrated 6 full-length books, including three on waterfowl hunting. Today, The Johnsons reside in Wahkiakum County, where they both enjoy a 107-day duck flavor, salmon fishing, and everything the wonderful Pacific Northwest has to offering. Oh, and if you ask, M.D. will tell you he prefers 16 approximate doubles to anything else.