1st attempt at making a wing bone call

[Divenut2]

Well, I was fortunate enough to tag out with a double a few weeks back. Plucked them and broke them down to parts and frozen them up. Thawed the wings and backs to make some delicious barbacoa yesterday and figured since I was pulling all that meat off the bones I would give a wingbone call a try.

While not the prettiest thing, I'm now officially hooked!  Still getting the hang of it, but already like the tones and can see how it may be just the ticket when them old toms have heard all the standard calls.

Have enough bones for three more calls and look forward to making more here in the off season.

Be well folks

[Divenut2]

Pic

[Sir-diealot]

Purdy don't mean a thing, look at me!

[Divenut2]

Purdy don't mean a thing, look at me!

LOL 

[larry9988]

If the joints are airtight, does not matter if it's pretty or not, it will work just fine. But after you get comfortable with making them, then you can think about prettying them up. Use it next year to hunt with, get a turkey with it, then you will be hooked. Very satisfying to kill a turkey with a call you made.

[crow]

 

[EZ]

Looks good. Very neat and clean. Dimensions look pretty good 

[Divenut2]

Thanks folks! I'm pleased with the 1st attempt for sure. Also driving my wife and kids nuts as I figure out the right technique for using it 

[trkehunr93]

As long as it sounds like a turkey it doesn't matter about looks.  A gobbler's not gonna give you a ribbon for using a pretty call to fool him with.  I think that wingbone looks great.  Keep practicing!  I have about a dozen sets of bones in my freezer waiting to be cut, boiled, cleaned, assembled/tuned and put to good use. 

[Jbird22]

Looks good! It certainly is addicting.

[earl9932]

Looks good. Very neat and clean. Dimensions look pretty good 

Is there a specific dimension or thereabouts for a wingbone call? Asking while I'm learning about these calls.

[buckmark13]

What's the process to "tune" them? 

I assume that you have to glue them together to get the final sound. Once that's done,  how do change the sound of needed or wanted?  What does making it longer vs shorter do? Or does the length of one piece vs another make a difference?

Any and all insight and advice would be much appreciated!

[EZ]

What's the process to "tune" them? 

I assume that you have to glue them together to get the final sound. Once that's done,  how do change the sound of needed or wanted?  What does making it longer vs shorter do? Or does the length of one piece vs another make a difference?

Any and all insight and advice would be much appreciated!

Just remember that asking these questions "can" be akin to asking someone how much money they have in the bank, lol. For any callmaker, regardless of what he/she makes, methods, dimensions and materials usually have come to them by a lot of experimentation over a lot of years and a lot of calls thrown in the trash.

That being said, most callmakers are great guys and gals and don't mind giving you "a little" to go on and let you come to your own conclusions and results.

I will leave you with this:
Put them together with putty first, then you can experiment with the sound you want by taking the call apart and making changes to the lengths of individual pieces. General info: longer = deeper, mellower sound, shorter = higher pitch, quicker rollover. And yes, every component of "any" call comes into play.

[earl9932]

Thanks EZ, very helpful starting points.

[Divenut2]

Ya, I'm winging it.... no pun intended LOL ! Made a 2nd call this weekend. Stained it in coffee grounds. At this point I'm just fitting pieces together without much thought about tuning. Just having fun experimenting.

That said, my 2nd attempt (top) has a much better, raspier, sound than the 1st attempt. Guess like anything else, there's gonna be a lot of trial and error. But really enjoying the process of making the calls. Very therapeutic!