"all wood" deer call tutorial ???

[JandJ]

Does anyone have a "all wood" deer call tutorial or some info to give to put me in the right direction? I love the way they look! I have made the calls that came with the kit. Is it much different?

[dogcatcher]

I created the all wood grunts years ago, they are really simple, All you have to do is extend the coupler, instead of a couple of inches of wood, make it about 4 or 5 inches long.   You will have to step drill the hole, 5/8" for all but the last 1" of your blank, then drill out the last 1" with a 1/2" bit.  Another option is to make a gut sert to fit between the mouth piece and exhaust piece. 

Marvin

[VECtor Calls]

Just understand you are never going to be able to get an all wood grunter to sound as natural as a grunter with one of those ugly extension tubes on the end.  I wish there was a way, but there is not.  The user creating a cup around the end of the call with their hands is good, but still not as good as that tube. 

Parker

[VECtor Calls]

Not sure why you can't achieve an excellent hard body call. I have my thoughts but will keep them as thoughts till I get a chance to stick them to a pc of wood.

I'm interested to hear more from you when you've completed your testing. 

Parker

[dogcatcher]

I won't get into which sounds better, the wood or the plastic tube, but in my world the all wood deer grunts outsell the plastic tube 3 or 4 to one.  My all wood versions cost at least twice as much, and in some cases almost 3 times more.  If the customer likes that sound, and they send me reports that it works, I will keep doing what I am doing.

Marvin

[Nelson Woodworks]

Pr   You said a dirty word, go wash your mouth out with box call chalk  

My guess is that the all wood design makes the call too loud, and adds inflection and echoes that just aren't there in a real deer's voice.

I shot one buck right in the peak of the rut about 4 years ago. I could tell he had been running all night, he was soaking wet with what I can only presume was sweat because though the air was fairly humid, the ground itself was still pretty dry that morning. His head was held out forwards and low, and his mouth was gaped open. At every step as he came he was blowing a big cloud of steamy breath into the air and I suspected he was grunting with every step. When he got to about 20 yards or so I was finally able to hear him, but barely. Even when he was 30 ft away right before I shot him, I could still barely hear him. But he was most definitely grunting with everything he had. It was not a relaxed sounding grunt, it had an urgent inflection to it. But it was still very soft and quiet.

The only all wood grunter I have ever blown sounded too loud and rather distorted, just not realistic at all. I have used the same Truetalker for 12 years now (though I hope to replace it with my own custom call this fall), and I have had very good success with it whereas I have barely gotten responses from any other grunt call. One thing in particular that I have noticed about that call is that is locks up instantly if you blow any harder than simply exhaling into it. It is very very quiet, yet I have had deer respond to it at distances I though were impossible even for a deer to hear it. My theory is that there is a lack of noise canceling ridges in an all wood barrel such as what are in the ribs of the flex tube extensions.

I would like to make and all wood call too because I really like how they look. My plan is to try four things: 1. use my dad's die set and tap some deep threads into the barrel. 2. make the barrel out of two halves glued together into which I have separately cut 1/8" deep ribs with a rotary bit every 1/4" or so. 3. line the inside of the barrel with either a flex tube, foam tubing or maybe ribbed drain tubing. Or 4. make some sort of baffling system, like a muffler sort of that would be inserted into the barrel.

Feel free to try my ideas if you like and let me know how they work if you do. I hope to try them myself soon.