Game Calling Made Easy

There's more to calling deer, elk and turkeys than just going out and making sound. But, it doesn't have to be complex. With today's advanced technology, hunters can pick up a hunting call, spend a half hour working with it and see success in the field. Below are a few general tips on calling that need to be noted, and some suggestions on specific calls to get the most out of them in most any situation.

Call with emotion and empathy. Ask any calling guru and the first thing he'll tell you is to put yourself into the body of the animal you're mimicking. If you're using a deer call to grunt up big bucks at the peak of the rut, pretend you are a big buck, maybe greedily tending a doe, and call like one with deep, authoritative grunts that say you're bad and ready to fight. If you're predator hunting with a prey-in-distress call, make like a trapped rabbit with pleading squeals and screams. Calling elk with a cow call? Be that cow.

Another tip for calling anything is to overcome your shyness and realize that you will make mistakes. No animal makes perfect calls every time and neither will you. The idea is to set up a realistic scenario. One or two faulty sounds just add to the realism.
Speaking of a realistic scenario, combine multiple calls to create a scene that appeals to your prey. Predator hunters can produce a few coyote barks before hitting a prey-in-distress sound to create the scenario of a young coyote catching a rabbit – perfect for more dominant coyotes to come in and steal. Throw in a doe bleat or two while grunting to hint that there's a hot doe by the buck's side. Elk hunters commonly mix a variety of cow and calf sounds together to produce the image of a whole herd of elk.

Next we'll cover tips specific to each type of calling and call.

Deer Calling Tips

Knight & Hale's new Rack Blaster deer call produces the volume needed for deep, loud and angry grunts, but also has the ability to be used quietly to coax a buck the last 50 yards. It's also an inhale/exhale, hyperventilating call, meaning that it produces sound on the inhale as well as the exhale. One great tip is to grunt several times by exhaling into the call, then turn the call around and exhale into the other end to produce a doe bleat.
Another tip for the Rack Blaster is to squeeze the soft plastic endpiece together to both quiet the call and to manipulate the sound.

Combine the Rack Blaster with the new Snort Wheezer when you want to call out a buck for a street fight. The new Snort Wheezer features a baffle that produces the nasally, wet sound of a real buck snort/wheeze. Set up a big time scenario by using the Rack Blaster, Snort Wheezer and Rattle Bag.

Elk Calling Tips

Longtime elk guide and host of Higher Ground Outdoors television show Weston Clark has combined efforts with Knight & Hale to produce a new line of signature series calls. Two new kits, the Cow Kit and the Post Rut Call Kit, both come with instructional DVDs to show not only how to use the calls, but some advice on which calls to make for a variety of situations.

The Post Rut Call Kit comes with a new Dead Bull Walk'N bugle is the easiest bugle to use on the market. New hunters can start bugling immediately, and experienced hunters love the realistic and loud sound, as well as the size – collapsed it will fit in a fanny pack. Clark says that the Dead Bull Walk'N is a fantastic locator call because of its tremendous volume and non-aggressive sound. This non-aggressive, non-threatening young bull bugle begs big bulls to approach.

Also in the Post Rut Kit is the Mountain Mistress Cow Call, which is essentially two calls in one. One, with the sound chamber on the end of the call, is a loud, pleading cow sound. Remove the sound chamber and you've got a quieter cow call.

The Post Rut Kit also comes with a single-reed Extreme 1 cow/young bull diaphragm and a double-reed Extreme 2 for bugles and louder cow calls.

The Cow Call Kit comes with the Mountain Mistress Cow Call and a new Backwoods Babe Cow Call. The Backwoods Babe produces the calls of a mature cow with a nasal sound. Like the Mountain Mistress, the Backwoods Babe's endpiece can be removed for a whole new sound.

Turkey Calling Tips

Turkeys can be called in fall, and many times you don't even have to bust the flock to get them to come within gun range to investigate your calls. Knight & Hale's new Fall Turkey Kit comes with a great-sounding Slate Hammer slate friction call and a Super Striker with a polymer tip, plus a Setbak 3-reed diaphragm for long, extended boss hen assembly yelps. But the really cool part of the kit is the new Whistl'n Jenny kee kee diaphragm. While it may be difficult for medium-level-ability callers to consistently kee kee on other diaphragms, the Whistl'n Jenny makes it easy.

One tip for the Whistl'n Jenny is to keep the call clean, and never keep it in the truck or anywhere temperatures can rise and cause the latex to stick. When not in use, keep your diaphragms in a cool, dry place such as your refrigerator.