No doubt trying to somewhat sound like an elk will get the attention of a suicide 3 yr old or rut crazed bull.
Here's a thought........
You are engaging a very pressure sensitive herd oriented animal.
Being a herd animal there are many, many eyes, noses and ears, constantly on post for anything that trips their radar.
They (cows) are a very vocal animal, communicating with sounds and body language constantly when on the move. We, as hunters, try, and have, exploited elk vocal tendencies into a hunting advantage.
My opinion is that most hunters have unknowingly blown many potential encounters/opportunity by jumping on the bugle and cow calling and alerting elk to your unnatural presence. I can sight numerous first hand examples of sitting on a group of elk at first light looking over a few bulls.
Then...tweedal dee...tweedal dee goes a bugling hunter from below.
All heads pop up from feeding and stare downwards at the source of the sound.
Few stomps....couple barks and away the herd goes.
Thirty minutes later a hunter strolls up surprised to see someone else up there.
Conversation generally goes something like this.......
"where did you come from!?"
"see anything?"
Response....
"nope"
My point - your success on calling elk will grow exponentially when you learn more about elk by being in elk country and observing them without relying on calling for said encounter.
I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with keyboards and forums. - F L Wright
Try and be kind to everyone but fear no one. - Ourea
Getting back to the OP's original question .....
Best mouth diaphram?
The one that fits your mouth comfortably is a good place to start.
Softer latex calls with one or two reeds are easier to learn on.
Softer frames that hold the latex membranes will reduce one's gag reflex
They take less tongue pressure, articulation and control.
Guys that are aggressive buglers have the tendency to prefer a stiff 3 layered membrane diaphram to get the deeper resonance and authentic sound of a mature and agitated bull when combined with a echo chamber/tube.
There is a lot to be said about external latex calls.
No gag reflex.
Softer tones, cow chirps, calf calls, yet you can blast a piercing high pitched bugle that will carry endlessly in calm conditions.
I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with keyboards and forums. - F L Wright
Try and be kind to everyone but fear no one. - Ourea
Rough textured frames such as Carltons help prevent sliding around .
Cheers
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Try the Wapiti Outdoors calls. Very good calls. Made in Grande Prairie. I think Nechako Outdoors carries them or you can order online from the wapiti outdoors website. They have relief cuts in the outside of the reed which seems to help it fit in the mouth better snd the calls are smaller than some others I have tried which helps with the gag reflex.
I use a variety of calls, berry x-weave work the best for me. They start out really tightly stretched but once you use it a while it softens up. I find the call to be somewhat like a single reed call as you can get a three toned bugle with relatively little air and tongue pressure, but you can also get a lot of volume when you want to. I can also do decent cow sounds. One thing I do a lot of is blow partial bugles or groans in higher hunted areas. Changes things up to not sound like all the generic calls most guys use.
I'm sure the wolves are not in the area to howl Kumbaya at the moon and eat granola. "Ourea"
TRAVIS at wapiti river is
great and you phone and he will solve your problem and you order on line great slection the single reed is my preference
Last edited by Big Mac; 07-25-2018 at 06:34 PM.