How to use a mouth call for turkey: placement, air and your first yelp

A mouth call (also called a diaphragm) is a small frame with latex reeds stretched across it and taped, and it sits against the roof of your mouth. Of all the turkey calls a beginner can buy, it takes the longest to learn: our published rubric scores a double-reed mouth call 4 for learning curve, against 8 for a box call. The payoff is that it needs no hands, makes no noise in the vest and has no chalked wood or slate surface to keep dry.

The steps below come from the National Wild Turkey Federation's instruction articles and Phelps Game Calls' published diaphragm instructions. We haven't run these calls ourselves. As the NWTF's Brian Lovett puts it: “Never get frustrated, mouth calling takes a lot of practice.”

How to use a mouth call: the steps at a glance

1. Start with a two-reed call with no cuts or a simple cut (NWTF).
2. Rinse a new call in warm water to remove latex residue (NWTF).
3. Wet the reeds with saliva and make sure they are separated (NWTF).
4. Place it in the roof of your mouth, reeds facing forward, the small tab on the bottom side (NWTF).
5. Press it up with your tongue and keep constant tongue pressure on it (NWTF).
6. Huff, don't blow: push air from your lungs through your throat using your diaphragm (NWTF).
7. Get a whistle first, and practice until it comes every time (NWTF).
8. Yelp: whistle, then slowly drop your jaw and/or ease your tongue pressure (NWTF, Phelps).
9. Cluck: a quick, forceful huff of air across the reeds (NWTF).
10. Cut: an excited, uneven series of clucks (NWTF).

Step 1: Start with the right call

Mouth calls come with one to four reeds, and the NWTF's Ryan Fair writes that “the fewer number of reeds in the call, the easier it is to use.” Steve Hickoff's advice for new callers: “start with a single- or double-reed option, and stay away from latex cuts,” because “thinner reeds are typically easier to run for beginners.” Lovett says the same: “Start with a two-reed call” with no cuts.

Fair makes one exception worth knowing: he rates the double cut, the least aggressive cut, as the easiest call for beginners. So a plain double reed or a simple double cut is the place to start. What each cut name means, from batwing to cutter, is in mouth call cuts explained.

Step 2: Prep a new call

Hickoff's first step is simple: “Wash mouth diaphragms with warm water to remove latex residue from new calls.” If a call feels too big or sits wrong, he describes trimming the tape on the sides and along the back curve a little at a time, checking the sound as you go, and gently adjusting the frame's tension. Take off less than you think; tape doesn't grow back.

Step 3: Where a mouth call goes (and which way it faces)

This is the question every new caller asks. The NWTF's Mouth Call Madness is specific:

• “Reeds should face forward, toward the front of your mouth.”
• “The small bump or tab on one side indicates the bottom side, facing down.”
• The call's curved back end “should fit tightly.”
• “Use the center of your tongue to press it against the roof of our mouth.”
• “Moisten the reeds with saliva and make sure they are separated.”

Phelps's diaphragm instructions agree: place the call “in the roof of your mouth (cut latex facing up). Position it where comfortable.” In other words, there is no single correct spot; find the one that is comfortable for your mouth.

Step 4: Tongue and air

Phelps describes the tongue position: “With the tip of your tongue placed behind your bottom teeth, roll your tongue up until it touches the latex (keep your tongue as flat and relaxed as possible.)” Then: “After taking a deep breath, force air across the latex. While your tongue is against the latex you will start the high note.”

The NWTF's wording on the air is the part beginners most need to hear: “Don't ‘blow,’ forcefully ‘huff’ air from your lungs through your throat using your diaphragm.” Keep “constant tongue pressure on the call” and “use your diaphragm to force a slow steady stream of air.”

Step 5: From whistle to yelp

Don't try to yelp on day one. Lovett's instruction: “Be patient. Practice huffing until producing a whistle is second nature.” Phelps calls that sound the high note, and the yelp starts there.

Then the yelp itself. The NWTF: “whistle and slowly drop your jaw and/or tongue pressure.” Phelps says the same thing another way: “Drop your bottom jaw so you are applying less pressure to the latex, creating the break over.” Zink describes a classic yelp as a “high-to-low note,” and the break over is that drop. What a yelp means to a turkey is covered in turkey calls and what they mean.

Step 6: Cluck, cut and purr

• Cluck: “huff a quick, forceful blast of air across the reeds” (NWTF).
• Cut: “an excited, uneven series of clucks” (NWTF).
• Purr: “Produce a gargling sound in the back of your mouth,” or flutter your tongue (NWTF). In a separate NWTF article, caller Mitchell Johnston describes using the back of the tongue as you would to gargle, but closing your mouth more “to help build back-pressure.”

The purr is usually the last sound to come. Both callers in that NWTF purring article say finding the right mouth call is critical for it, which is one reason a multi-pack is a sensible second purchase.

How to practice

You don't have to wait for the diaphragm before your first hunt: a box call can do the talking while you learn. Our guide to how to call a turkey for beginners lays out the order to learn your calls in.

When a mouth call won't sound right

• No sound: check that the reeds are wet and separated and that you are huffing from your diaphragm rather than blowing (NWTF).
• Reeds sticking together: “Use a toothpick or something similar to keep the top reed separated from the other reeds. If that reed sticks, the call won't sound right” (NWTF). Primos builds its True Double with 1/16 in reed separation for the same reason.
• Pitch too high or too low: Hickoff writes that “the tighter the stretch the higher the pitch,” and that thin latex gives high-pitched yelping while heavy reeds give “hard, deep, raspy notes.” If a call never sounds right for you, a different reed count or latex weight may suit you better.

Cleaning and storage

Hickoff's care routine from the NWTF:

• “Soak in a solution of one part mouthwash, one part water before rinsing again. Pat dry.”
• “A flat-tipped toothpick, gently run between the reeds to clean them, helps maintain call quality.”
• “Keep your mouth calls in a plastic case or bag in the refrigerator. This cool, dark environment keeps reeds tight, providing optimum sound.”

Some calls ship with a case for this: Quaker Boy includes one with the Beginner's Double, and Primos includes a pin box with the True Double.

What to look for in your first mouth call

• Two reeds. The NWTF's advice points to a single or double reed, and our rubric scores fewer reeds as the easier learning curve.
• No cut or a simple cut. A plain double reed or a double cut, not a cutter.
• Thin latex, where the maker publishes it. Zink lists .003 in reeds on the Z-Yelper; Primos lists “super-thin” reeds on the True Double.
• A maker that says it's easy or for beginners. Quaker Boy, Primos and Zink all do for the calls below.
• More than one call, if you can. Mouths differ, and a pack lets you find the fit that seals.

Beginner mouth calls to learn on

The Primos True Double and Zink Z-Pak both score 7.4 on our rubric, and the Quaker Boy scores 6.5, mostly because Quaker Boy publishes no sound list or warranty, not because it is harder to run. All three are double reeds. If you want instruction in the box, Zink's Triple Pak includes a DVD, though two of its three calls are triple reeds. For the full ranking, see our picks: the best mouth calls for beginners.