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Learning how to use the mouth turkey call can be fascinating for the beginning caller, but with a little instruction and help almost everyone can easily learn this art form.
Two of the most recognized national experts in calling the wild turkey both competitively and in hunting is the father-son team of Dick and Chris Kirby from Quaker Boy Game Calls.
Collectively their successes include wins in the US Open, the US Open champion of champions, the Masters Invitational, the Grand Nationals, and the World's Championships.
In the past 20 years they have won major championships in over 30 states.
Chris's biggest win came in 1995 when he was the coveted World's Champion in Montgomery, Alabama.
They have successfully hunted wild turkeys in over 30 states. Over the past 15 years, Dick has completed 14 successive Grand Slams with additional double and triple slams and a World's Slam in 1986.
Together these two masters have traveled nationally teaching thousands of beginners how to properly use a mouth call each year.
Now let's spend some time with Dick and Chris as they take a break from scouting fall turkeys and share some of their expertise in helping us get started with the mouth turkey call.
Turkey calling can be a lot of fun, whether you call competitively or whether you're just out calling turkeys in the wild.
Learning how to use the calls properly will make you a better caller.
My name is Dick Kirby and with me is my son Chris. Together we've called in almost every major turkey calling championship across the country and we've hunted all over.
Together we're going to try to teach you the basics of how to use a mouth call.
I tell you what, many of you have been inspired by friends or family members to get into turkey calling and I was.
My dad was a big inspiration to me and it all started in the woods much like this where he called in the first turkey and my heart was pumping.
But it takes a lot of practice to get to the level that you need to be to get into the woods and to get into any competition.
There are tremendous advantages both in the woods and on stage when you practice a lot.
The mouth call is without a doubt one of the most popular calls used by turkey hunters today because it has so many advantages.
Can you explain some of the advantages dad?
Mouth diaphragm call has many advantages. One is that it's so small and easy to carry.
But the other of course is the fact that when you've got it in your mouth your hands are free and it gives you the ability to have your hands right on the gun and be able to call as the turkeys are coming in.
Another advantage is the ability to change pitch to get loud to get soft. With many of the hand held calls that's more difficult.
I think that you can put a lot more personality into your calling with a mouth diaphragm as opposed to any of the other friction type calls.
You know a lot of people have a question about how a mouth call is constructed.
We at Quaker Boy take a great deal of pride in how we make our mouth calls. We still build them one at a time by hand.
It all starts with a piece of aluminum, some latex and some tape.
This one here is a call that comes with your video here. It's a beginners double.
Again we take an aluminum frame, stretch latex in between it, tape it, cut the tape, put it in a plastic bag, box it and it comes off to you.
The difference between mouth calls, there's numerous. Layers of latex, whether the reed is split or not. There's two basic categories.
Either a clear category or a raspy category. And clear is what most people want to start on.
That's a clear call. There's no splits along the latex here at all. Something like the World Champ here has a split.
You'll notice how it has a complete notch cut right out of the reed. That split allows that latex to flutter, give you a little bit more realistic rasp.
That gets back into the versatility. This call you can get clear and raspy on it. And just a combination of the both.
Where the clear calls you want to stay real pretty with. They're real great beginner calls and they'll work both in the spring and the fall.
Well let's get started on learning how to use this beginners double. Let me start off by saying this.
Many people have the misconception that they cannot use a mouth diaphragm call.
There is only one type of person who can't use a diaphragm call. And that's a person who has a natural gag reflex.
That means that every time this call is laid back on his tongue and touches the back portion of his palate, he'll automatically up chuck or throw that right out.
If you can get the call into your mouth to where you can slither and slide it around and spit and have air squeak out the side, you can use a call.
It just takes a little bit of fitting and getting the call into the proper place.
Let's get started with proper fit. Let me show you how and the various different things that you can do to make this call work and fit better in your mouth.
First of all, as Chris mentioned, there's an aluminum frame and this frame can be bent. As you can see I'm going to bend it for you here.
See people's mouths are formed in two ways. Either their teeth are very close together and they have a very high arc in their palate.
A person that has a mouth like that has to bend the call and sometimes they have to be very, very extreme.
But whenever you do that, make sure that you keep the front portion of this latex. It can't be loose like that. It has to be tight.
But by bending the call in this form, it will fit up between your teeth. The latex should be at where your tooth meets your gum right straight across so that your tongue can just push up against that latex as the air comes out of your throat.
The other thing that you can do is that this tape skirt can be cut right here. It can have just a little bit of a cut so it can make it smaller so that it isn't as big up against your palate.
The first sounds that you're going to get, I like to tell people before they ever even put the call in their mouth, the first thing they want to do is to remember that it takes very little air to make the call work.
The normal breath of air is no more than as if you were going to talk. You take that breath and if you were going to say the word like huck.
When you hit that K part of huck, for just a second your tongue pushes up against the back portion of your palate all the way around by your teeth and you block everything off.
That's what you want to do. Take a very short, easy breath of air, push your tongue up against there, lock it, and then if you were going to say like the word year, your tongue then stiffens and goes all the way up into your molars on both sides, up inside your palate.
It stiffens and your tongue is almost like if you were going to say the word yuck, or year, your tongue can feel molars on both sides. The call is going to lay right up there.
You've said the word huck, now you're going to say shh, to let a little air out. Your tongue will push up against the reed and you should get sound.
If you don't get sound, you're either too tight or the air is leaking out. You've got to regroup and start over again. I'll do it this way. I'll say yuck, huck, huck.
but you can see it takes very little air to make the call work. Now on this call the beginner's
double there are two weeds so that if you get one sound there will be a second sound. If you push
hard onto the call it'll be higher pitch if it's a real if you say E E it'll be high and then slowly
come down to saying E E it'll hit the double tone. Let me let me show you what that sounds like.
Now all I'm doing is laying the call in there start by saying the word huck
huck huck sealing it off making sure my tongue is inside my upper palate and it's you can feel
the molars on both sides the call lays there I've got the air down to my diaphragm by saying the
letter T or K E or T E release the layer push your tongue up against the call and say chick
chick chick chick chick chick or chuck chuck chuck chuck chuck you'll hit the high read and the low
read. Let me show you that one more time for the basic yell. That's all there's there's no tricks
there's no gimmicks it's that simple. Chris why don't you share with us how you can get a cluck
out of one of these. I sure were that was some super yelping too those were clear yelps what
I'll do real quick for you here is on the world champ again a raspy style call is do some some
quick raspy yelp and then I'll get into the cluck for you again just some yelping same mouthpiece
but you're you're going to need to use a little bit more jaw action with a raspy call because
you're going to go from a read that's not cut to one that's cut so it's going to take a little
bit more jaw action you'll probably notice my jaw drop a little bit more than my dad's did when he
was using the beginner's double. But again fundamentally it's still the same I'm going
from one read to the next. The cluck is a sound it's made just one quick buck and you see turkeys
doing it a lot when they're feeding just milling through the woods maybe up and down a logging road
it's probably something that you hear turkeys do more than than anything else it's just a real
simple sound the way you do it you keep your tongue right against the roof of your mouth with
the call pushed right in between there just release again a normal breath of air close your lips off
and just say and just let a quick burst of air right through the call. Now I'm controlling that
with my lips letting a quick burst air go right through there. There's some basic clucks and yelps
on a raspy call. You know there's a there's a difference there Chris between you know the
cluck the putt let's especially that alarm putt that alarm putt that's one that's one you don't
want to use. This is the raspy boss this is that double framed call it's become a favorite of mine
and I'll do an alarm putt this is the one you don't want to do it's very very sharp
and it's rhythmic and it's when any of the turkey family whether it be a small pole or an adult
hen or a big gobbler when they putt it's much like a beaver when he slaps his tail on the water
it's an alarm and everybody is usually their heads will come up and the body language starts telling
them it's time to get out of here. This is the one you don't want to do.
And it's one when you when you hear it if you've got a clear shot at your turkey
you need to take it because they're not going to be around much longer. If you haven't heard a
turkey do that you haven't hunted very long because you will somewhere along the way. Now
the other one is Chris was talking about the cluck or it actually gets into cutting but the
cluck is is is more subtle. That's a call that you want to learn to do the basic yelp and the
cluck they're probably the two calls that you'll use the most. Well we've learned the yelp and the
cut and the alarm putt now those are sounds that you're going to the alarm putt you're going to
hear but you're not going to want to use the yelping and clucking you're going to want to
use and something that I know my dad and I both use a lot in the spring of the year especially is
cutting and all it's cutting is is just real excited faster rhythm clucks you've got a little
more feeling it's an excited hen she's either saying look at hen this if you're if you're out
and another hen starts cutting back at you and you cut back at her that's kind of like two old
ladies yelling at each other right there so what that is again she's a real fast you'll hear the
inspiration behind the call it's real excited sounds personality in it without question and
again it's it's going to be called cutting. Let me answer him let me answer him you cut
and I'll be a second hen cutting and this is what it'll sound like in the spring.
Good yelps boy Cobbler would go crazy with that wouldn't he? He sure would. Let's see I guess
we want to talk okay a fly down cackle this is uh early in the morning uh can you quick knock out
a tree call there? Yeah sure uh turkeys are just waking up and uh it's early and just listen as
Chris does a tree call as the morning wears on it gets a little bit lighter and that hen's going
to get excited now she's going to fly down and she'll get she's on the ground now another one
about that time is when the gobbler should really start to be going crazy
that's for sure that's for sure tell you something else we might want to show them a
new path for us we were talking about cutting there this is our little one-sider and we've
instituted it's called an automatic cutting system and it's just that it's automatic every
time you you use it it's automatic you're going to get some great cutting now all you do is you
take the rubber band that comes with the call that's what it would look like close you just
want to open up just a little bit take this rubber band underneath the bottom you want to wrap it
right underneath the bottom come right up over the lid just under the words box call you want
your rubber band to set you see it just setting right up against there and then if you just take
and just you don't want to really well on it you just want to get it so it gets a nice cluck and
then your rhythm is just controlled by your your how you hit it again that's the automatic cutting
system on the little one-sider it's easy to use just perfect yelps every time
well that thing really really does sound good i like the way that thing cuts that that's really
good let's talk about uh some other calls uh the whistle and call of young lost turkey the kiki
or the kiki run all young baby pork turkeys and uh chris give me uh why don't you do it what do
you want to do it on a clear call a raspy call we can do it on both i do you do it on a clear call
okay and i'll do it on uh i'll do it on a uh kermak which is it's a little bit raspier
go ahead explain the kiki run the kiki run again is a young lost pulp she's away from her mom and
it's just a lot like when babies are screaming in the airports or wherever you might be
they're doing just that they're screaming for mom and that's what a young poult is doing um hasn't
really developed its vocal chords yet he's just starting to he or she is just starting to crack
over where they can yelp real good so it can sound really really poor or you can have one that sounds
really really good on the call that came with your your packet here again the beginners double
just like the yelp the yelp has those two tones a high tone and a low tone keyoke keyoke with a
kiki run is just that front tone that kiki and you can either say kiki kiki and all you do is
you keep your tongue up tight there kiki kiki and then to get the yelp you just drop it back off
kio kio kio and that's the basic cadence that you're going to hear is boy beep beep or kiki
kiki kio kio sounds just like this again not a lot of air pressure
and uh there is a difference in the whistle between young jenny's or girl turkeys and jake's
boy turkeys and a jenny's usually a little higher pitch and uh will yelp maybe a little bit more
where a young jake his whistle will probably be as high but his yelps will be real deep
now i don't know what i can do that i'll try to do a jenny turkey first
that's kind of jenny the jake would be more like
uh and an old hen uh that's trying to regroup them
because when an old hen like you would if you were
we'll give you a scenario of what it would sound like he'll be the hen and i'll be a pole
okay what else we got here perrin perrin this is your favorite right this one this not only
gives me trouble on stage in the woods it's not as critical but on stage it's my my shaky call i
guess you could say this is the hardest for many many many of the callers to do uh those that are
gifted that can use to kind of roll their throat can per extremely well on a mouth call chris and
i both have to kind of and it's kind of hard to do but we'll show you how to do it in a couple
different ways just do it on a mouth call i'm gonna use the world champ again uh raspy call again and
all i'm going to do is a steady stream of air goes through the call and my lips just water
here now watch just lay the call in
and on the beginner's double that came with the call it can be a little more clear high pitch
uh
that's hard to do uh let me let me do it uh the way the conventional way and that's just on a
regular slate call this is the magic touch and you're just going to make like a c a very very
very slow c
chris why don't you do it there on an old faithful yeah call it i use you a call i
use all the time in the woods an easy uproar all you have to do is drag it back
people think it's a beginner's call but it's in the woods with me every time i go
when we first put that on the market i thought it was it was a joke but that thing yelp on it
that thing you get 40 50 yards in the woods it sounds so real and it is so easy to use the easy
helper another call that people associate with turkey hunting is the gobble and to do it on a
diaphragm i'm going to explain it once i don't do it too much anymore because it's difficult you
have to do three things you have to uh get your tongue on the reed and let your air come out
then go up and down
and then purr with your lips and then huff from your chest
i'm glad you're explaining this to the rhythm of a gobble i don't do it too much anymore but
it sounds something like this it's pretty good
it sounds like a jake huh yeah but there are other ways that you can gobble uh this this is
the hottest call that i think uh uh people have really associated turkey hunting with it is the
gobble shaker without question and it is extremely effective very easy to use um simply grasp the
bellow down at this end grab the top end and just come in and out on it
it's just that easy or you can just do it one handed by just shaking it back and forth and
let the weight of this bellow take the sound back and forth
great gobble call man that thing is unbelievable i get excited every time
i hear that when you cup the end that's what makes that unbelievable super sounds real
okay chris let's just review very quickly with these folks uh how you can get started in in in
using a mouth call remember that takes very small flow of air no more than when you normally talk
um you want to force your tongue up against the back portion of your palate your tongue goes
inside your upper palate so that you can feel your molars on both sides your tongue will stiffen
as if you're going to say the word yuck year you then take that breath of air lock it
and say you can say chick chick chick or chuck chuck chuck to make the yelp uh on the call again
on the call again remember it's an aluminum frame and it can be bent and that's important
we may remember that that the latex should be at your gum and tooth level so it's very comfortable
for your tongue to push up against it make sure that when you bend it that you make sure that you
keep this latex taut very very important that you keep that taut keep the call formed properly
okay there is on each of the calls on the inside of the horseshoe there is a bump and that bump
is where the call will always go on your tongue that will always keep the long read farthest away
from your tongue the shorter reads as their step will always be on your tongue that way again let's
just try it take a breath of air lock your tongue stiffen your tongue as if you're going to say the
word chick or chuck let's try it very simple very easy basic yelp on the beginner's mouth call
that's super now to uh to go over some caring for your call everybody asks well what should i do when
i'm not using the call it's a real good idea in the off season and if you're not going to be hunting
for a week or two to take your call rinse it off under normal tap water just shake the call off a
little bit uh you can take and put a toothpick in to separate your reads it's not a necessity
um reads will stick together because of your saliva just rinse them and if you're going to slide a
toothpick in just slide it in very gently so as not to damage the reads put it back in the box that
comes with the call keep it in your refrigerator at least keep it out of the sun you don't want it in
the hot area you don't want it on the dashboard you don't want it in the glove compartment you
want to keep it in a cool dark damp spot because that is latex that you're dealing with and you
don't want the sun to deteriorate the latex another thing that you want to do is uh is is to practice
now this is where this is where a few divorces i think have developed between using these calls
guys like to take them and gals too will use them to and from work when they're writing it gives an
excellent opportunity to practice but try to develop to where you can get the two tone that's
what you want you want to get the high pitch when you stiffen your tongue and push it in and get the
high and then drop it slowly and you'll hit that second tone get that tone now once you get that
that develops you to where you can develop the help extremely well have a friend it's great if
you've got two or three guys get together and together you will critique each other get out in
the woods and and practice in the woods because your calling will normally sound better there
tape yourself with a tape recorder that's the best way you may think that you're just sounding super
and and then you tape it and you listen to it and you say wow i need some practice
we've done that a lot but get to a point where you can become proficient with the call so that
when you want to yelp you can yelp and when you want to cluck you can cluck and you can do the
various calls that you want to make that's probably the biggest problem i see with people
they try to go too fast they get their beginners double they think they're great on it and they
want to move right into say a classic v or a magnum cutter that is a lot thicker and has raspy
reach don't try to go too fast once you've mastered those fundamentals and you can yelp
like my dad said when you can yelp every time the same you can cluck every time and there's
no whiff fans or butts about it then you want to start moving into some of the other stuff
fundamentally the calls are all the same but you're just going to have to use a little bit more air
pressure a little bit more jaw action with the raspy type calls but take it slow one more one
last aspect of this that we want to share with you and that's the safety aspect
of it turkey hunting is different than most hunting because you totally camouflage yourself
you sound like a turkey so there are a number of things that you want to do for the purpose of
keeping yourself safe number one you want to eliminate all the colors that a turkey like red
and white and blue of a turkey's head you want to stay in a camouflage pattern you want to keep
all your movement down you don't want to be up against the tree and be moving around because
first of all the turkeys are going to see you and secondly it's movement and that's what you want
to eliminate if you see another hunter approaching your position never move or try to alert him with
a movement speaking a clear voice hey i'm a hunter i'm over here you may sound foolish at the time
but you want to keep safe and you want to make sure that he doesn't mistake you for something
so it's important to keep your movement to a minimal without question and safety like you've
always taught me dad is is the most important part of a hunt not only when you're sitting
but when you're walking around a lot of many people hunting teams getting the habit of just
asking each other throughout the day hey is your safety on you're not humiliating the other person
you're just reminding and constantly getting the habit of checking your safety constantly be aware
of where the muzzle of your gun is pointed you tie all those safety factors together and you're going
to have a fun hunt one last thing that that i'd like to share with you is the national wild turkey
federation is an organization that keeps this sport alive it is responsible with the help of
game agencies across the country for restoring the wild turkey across the country if you're not a
member of the nwtf the national wild turkey federation get involved they're a great group
and they're fun to be around and this spring or this fall chris and i hope that you have just the
most fun you've ever had turkey hunting but just remember to always keep safety first
quaker boy offers today's turkey hunter a complete line of mouth turkey calls
the single the kiki the twin the pro triple the gobbler special and the beginner's double
are great clear calls for the beginner to the intermediate recipe calls provide an even greater
variety the classic v the old turk the jake special the quaker boy special the old boss hen the magnum
old boss hen the magnum cutter the world champ the magnum split quad the old sly the cutter
the split quad the raspy boss and the classic v light are all tremendous calls for the intermediate
to advanced level callers for these and other fine quicker boy products check your local sporting
goods dealer if unavailable write to quicker boy at this address waker boy inc 5455 webster road
orchard park new york 14127
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