)
Take a look at the pic to the right to see which bones you need to cut off the turkey. Most wingbone call makers say to use a hen's or jake's bones, but a gobbler's bones will work too. The smaller the hole in the lip end (radius), the better they seem to sound. The mouth piece should really come from a hen. If you want to make a 2 piece call, get the radius and ulna bones. If you want a 3 piece call, you need the radius, ulna and either the humerus or femur bones. Yelpers made with humerus or femur bones are a bit louder and have a lower pitch than 2 or 3 bone yelpers with smaller bones.
There are enough bones in a turkey to make 2 calls, so if you mess
up the first one, you can make amends on the second call. Don't worry,
it's not that hard, heck even my bumbling produced a decent looking
wingbone on my first attempt. 
Duane emailed me this about using
domestic turkey bones. "I used your instructions to create four
different wingbone calls - 2 two-bone calls and two three-bone calls. I
actually practiced on the wing bones from the store bought turkey I had
for Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house before attempting the work
on my own bones. The main difference between the sets of bones was the
domestic turkey had smaller bones in length than the wild turkey. The
humerous bones were also a little thinner."
It's best to cut the wingbones out when the bird is still limber right after taking it, once the skin and tissue dries it's a real struggle to cut the wingbones out. Be very careful cutting the bones away from the wings or legs as you can break them if you put to much force on them. Use a sharp knife to cut them loose. Also, look out for broken wingbones from the shotgun pellets that have sharp edges. If the bones are broken go ahead and still remove them, you might be able to salvage them or use them elsewhere. Try to cut or peel as much meat and crap off them while you're at it. If your in the field for a few days, throw the bones in a zip lock with some salt and store them someplace where they won't get broke. Make sure the bones are dry before cutting the joints (knuckles), off with the hacksaw, bench grinder or Dremel tool cutoff wheel, (see pic below on where to cut). There'll be some honeycomb looking bone material left inside the humerus and ulna bones, you'll have to grind it out with the Dremel tool grinding bit, (see pic below). Be careful if you try to chisel out the the honeycomb, you can crack the outer part of the bone. Wear a facemask to prevent breathing in the bone dust while grinding. Use the bore brush and small wire to poke as much of the debris as you can from the radius and ulna bones. Use an unfolded paper clip to poke the yellow crud out of the small radius bone. You can also use an air hose to blow out the small radius bone. Nasty stuff huh? I might offer that you blackmail your favorite cousin into doing this step for you.
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Once you get as much of the bone marrow and debris out you can, lightly sand off as much meat and crud off the outside of the bones with #400 grit sandpaper before you put them in the pot to boil the bones. This will save you from scraping the meat off later and you can smooth out the bumps on the ulna bone and any other ridges or deformities you don't like. A Dremel tool sanding bit works great for this. Be careful not to sand to much, some of the bones sections are pretty thin. You'll know if you're taking to much off by holding the bone up to the light and looking inside, you'll be able to see the thin spots easily. The larger humerus bone is thinner on the large end than the rest of the bones. After you get all the crud off the bones put the bones in a pot of water and add a tablespoon or two of dishwashing soap. Boil the bones for about 25 minutes. Remove the bones and scrape any tissue off with the steel wool or crocus cloth. Also scrape out any junk still left inside the hole of the bone with the bore brush, pipecleaners and paper clip wire. Nope, you're not done yet. Refill the pan and soap and boil the bones again. Repeat as necessary to get all the gunk out of the bone cavities. The bones need to be completely hollow. If you end up with clean bones but some stains on the outside, you can use your knife or dental picks to scrape the stains off. You have to get all the fat off so the call will not show oil stains.
Time to bleach the bones. Put the bones in a glass jar, covered with hydrogen peroxide, and leave them for 12 to 24 hours. The longer you leave the bones in, the whiter they become. Some bones will not bleach out all the way and you'll just have to live with this. Air dry the bones after they have been bleached to your satisfaction.
If I might offer one bit of advice to the viewing audience,
something to file under "Don't do what I did!" Make sure you never
subject the call to high temperatures during the process or after. I
made the mistake of drying the bones in a convection oven set to 200
and they shattered like plaster. Bones need to have moisture in them or
they will simply disintegrate. "Dry as a bone" is not always what you
might think! Regards, Bosaiya.
from Possum. "Don't use Chlorox bleach." I left some bones
in bleach and they started disintegrating layer by layer. Even after
they are dry they will continue to 'peel".
Now the surgical part. Cut or grind
the bones to fit using the pics to the left as a crude example for
which call you want to make. Wear a mask to prevent breathing in all
the bone dust. You can bevel (round), the edges of the bones where they
fit together. Don't round the mouthpiece (radius), end. (Note: Some
call makers cut an angle in the end of the mouthpiece to use just the
lower lip for the sound). See pic for angle cut on mouthpiece.
On a regular wing bone mouthpiece the caller
also uses their upper lip, which makes calling a bit more difficult.)
The sound of the call is determined by the length and depth of
insertion of the bones, so you might want to make a long wingbone call
first, than a short one to get a variety of calls. You can vary any
length of any bone or all the bones, it's up to you. Don't worry if
there are big gaps when you insert the bones together, the glue will
fill in these gaps. If you use an ulna as the middle bone, you will
have to cut it to fit the other bones. You can mix gobbler and hen
bones, but you will have to cut them to fit also. Cut the length of the
bones to get them to fit inside each other. You can use the Dremel to
widen the inside of the bones to help in fitting them together. The
bones will have a natural arch or sweep to them, try and keep this
sweep in line. Sometimes you will have to use more than one set of
bones to get the right fit.
Before
you cut the bones, try using electrical tape and some cotton or putty
in the bone joints to hold them together for a quick check of your
setup. You can even test the sound of the call, and if it doesn't sound
quite right, you can pull it apart and change the length of the bone or
the insertion depth of the bone. When you have a good sound, make a
small mark on each of the bones to help you align them when you glue
them together.
Put some glue on the
larger end of the radius and insert it into the small end of the ulna
bone, lining up your marks. If you're making a 3 bone call, glue the
femur or humerus on now and make sure your positioning is correct. Fill
any gaps in the bone junctions with epoxy and cotton and wipe off any
excess glue. Make sure you don't plug up the opening in the bones with
the glue.
from Pat. I have been using a plumbers epoxy that is a
green color for joining the bones, it buffs up real nice and looks good
with the color of the bones.
from Possum. For the joints I use drywall "mud". It sets up
nice and is sandable when cured. Buy the 30 minute kind or you will
wait forever for it to set. Then you can wrap in any thread you want
and seal with the clear eyelet cement. This creates a waterproof joint.
Mine haven't come apart in two seasons of hard and wet use (I do hunt
when it rains). You can sand it to whatever angle you want and then the
call flows well from one joint to another. This ofcourse is good if you
don't want the traditional look.
Pressing
on to step 4, we can now add the bells and whistles. If you want to get
the look of Ivory in your call, you can sand the wingbone with some
#400 super fine sandpaper and then polish the call on a bench grinder
buffing wheel using white buffing compound. Be careful while sanding
the bones, they are not real thick. Some makers use car wax or lacquer
to shine the call up too. If you like the look of scrimshaw, you can
have your name or a pic added to the yelper by an artist, or you can
paint the yelper as you like. The book "Scrimshaw" by Steve Paszkiewicz
and Roger Schroeder (ISBN # 1-56523-095-7), has great pics and
tutorials to learn scrimshaw. You can use waterproof Indian Ink to
write on the bones. If you want to wrap thread on your bone joints, I
have a section below on how to do it. An example
of some of the fancy dressing up can be seen in the pics of yelpers
made by Mike Davis from Louisiana. Jim Groenier's How to Make a Wingbone Yelper Page
has some pics and info on how to do the rod guide thread wrapping on
the bone joints and how to use cotton and epoxy to make a tapered bone
joint. Also, you can look at the Callmakers section to see the work of other fine
artists.
I
suggest a lanyard of some type so you can wear the call around your
neck while hunting. You can add a fishing rod guide to accept a lanyard
or whatever cord you can think of (see rod guide info below).
I use a leather shoe lace, but any kind of shoe lace or durable cord
will suffice. I don't use the rubber washer for a lip guide, but some
wingbone yelpers find it helps them keep a consistent lip placement,
especially when first trying to learn how to use the call.
from Pat. I have been using a slice of 3/8" or 1/2" dowel
for the lip stop, seems to work well.
from Burk Mantel. I like to use a # 7 split ring found at
most fishing tackle stores around the small bone and a rubber washer to
hold it in place for a lanyard holder. I use decoy cord for a lanyard
and a #7 split ring is usually just right. If you had a bigger than
average bone you might need a #8, especially if you are using a rawhide
lanyard. You can always put a ring around the bone and then another
ring attached to it for the lanyard. Black decoy cord is real good
lanyard material but the black rubs off on everything. So I wash it in
the washing machine. Just coil up a few yards of it and put a few wire
twist ties around it so it doesn't get all tangled up. It helps if you
put it in one of those polyester bags you can get at Wal-Mart for
putting stuff in to wash, like women's lingerie. When you wash the
decoy cord it comes out a real nice gray.
from Possum. If you want a rubber mouth stopper you can go
to a Lowes/Home Depot/Home Warehouse and get those little rubber cork
stoppers. The kind that goes in a test tube. These can be drilled with
a drill bit and can be turned on a lathe to form a round stopper for
the mouthpiece. It adds a little customizing to the call. I also use
the little black round washers about an 1/8" thick for the stopper,
too. Antler cross sections are a nice touch also. Just a few things I
have tried.
What? you haven't a clue on how to make a yelp out of one of the crazy calls? Well, you're in luck, the next step is the fine art of yelping with a wingbone call.
So you thought making the call was hard, now the frustration begins. Well, here goes on how to make this yelper work. I take no responsibility if you run over your yelper with your truck after reading the following. According to Lovett Williams, the following is the way to make turkey sounds from your wingbone call.
Hold the end of the yelper at the edge of your right palm between your thumb and forefinger. Curl your finger toward your palm to close the gap. Then, place your left hand on the call so your thumbs are parallel and close together. Close your righthand fingers to block the gap between your left thumb and fingers. Lastly, close your lefthand fingers together to from a cup.
Insert the mouthpiece barely into your mouth. While sucking in air, smack on the call's mouthpiece (radius end), with your lips, like making a mock kiss. Remember to drop your jaw like you do with a turkey mouth diaphragm call to get a good yelp. You should be able to make some turkey like sounds. Keep on practicing , working on tonal control before trying yelps or clucks. The pitch is controlled by the tightness of your lips. The volume is controlled by the amount of force with which you suck (smack) in air. Pitch and tone are also controlled by the depth of the mouthpiece in your lips, and the position and angle of the mouthpiece. Some call makers cut an angle in the end of the mouthpiece to use just the lower lip for the sound. On a regular wing bone mouthpiece the caller also uses their upper lip, which makes calling a bit more difficult.
Not sure if you should be sounding like a seal in heat? Here's some sounds of my yelpers for you to hear how bad I can play a tune on one. Make sure you put the dog outside and turn up the computer volume a bit. Maybe even dig out those headphones, prop the feet up and sink back into that grand leather chair to be enraptured by the master hisself. ; )
2 bone jake yelper, short length, approximately. 6"
2 bone hen yelper, medium length, approximately 8"
3 bone hen yelper, medium length, approximately 8"
3 bone tom yelper, long length, approximately 10"
First, you
need to pick out a color or colors of thread you want to wrap the
lanyard holder with and what kind of lanyard you want to use. You also
need to decide on a rod guide that grabs your fancy, there are steel,
nylon, ones for fly rods and many others. The fly rod guides are
smaller and have a lower profile than the regular fishing rod guides.
Wade into the local tackle shop and root around to see what kind of
guides they have in stock. Aluminum oxide rod guides hold their color
best, steel rod guides tend to have their color wear off. Make sure and
take the lanyard you want to use to make sure it will fit in the rod
guide opening. Once you get the rod guides and thread you want to wrap
on your call it's time for the fun part.
Inspect
the rod guide to make sure that the guide feet have been properly
ground to a tapered front to allow for a smooth wrapping transition up
the guide foot. Some guides come ready to wrap, others will need some
filing to get a smooth taper that will help the wrapping process. Place
the rod guide on the call where you want it wrapped and mark how far
you want the wrapping thread to go on the wingbone. Put some tape or
super glue on the rod guide end not being wrapped to hold it in place.
You can use a cup to hold the thread spool so it won't roll around as
you wrap or you can make a spindle for the thread to sit on. Keep
tension on the thread by running the thread through a the pages of a
book. Keep a steady and firm pressure on the thread to keep if from
unraveling.
Begin
wrapping the thread by crossing the thread over itself (see pic). As
you turn the wingbone, if the thread is at a slight angle it will lay
up against the last wrap to give you a tight and uniform wrap. Keeping
the wraps close together is essential for a strong neat job. Wrap about
1/8" and then cut the loose tag end of thread flush with scissors or
nail clippers. Keep wrapping the thread evenly and stop about 1/8" from
the end of the wrap. Place a loop of thread (see black thread in pic),
over the area to be wrapped, with the loop extending forward, past the
area where your wraps will end, and the tag ends extending back past
where you began your wrap.
Continue wrapping over the black thread loop to the end
of the wrap. Hold the wraps with your thumb or finger, release the
thread tension, and cut the thread leaving a 2" tag end to place
through the black thread loop. While still maintaining pressure on the
wraps, pull the black thread loop tag ends, and draw the wrapping
thread under itself until the tag end comes free. Pull the tag end of
the wrapping thread until the wraps are secure and trim flush with your
nail clippers or scissors. If you have any gaps in the thread wrapping
you can use a blunt tool like the nail clipper handle to push the
thread together, working from the outside to the inside.
To preserve and protect the thread wrap you can use Flexcoat to cover the thread. You can get Flexcoat at any rod building tackle store or at the links below that have the rod guides. Flex coat is a pain to work with so I use clear fingernail polish.
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If you like the look of scrimshaw, you can have your name or a pic added to the yelper by an artist or you can do the work yourself if you are adventurous. The book "Scrimshaw" by Steve Paszkiewicz and Roger Schroeder (ISBN # 1-56523-095-7), has great pics and tutorials to learn scrimshaw. "How to Scrimshaw and Carve Ivory" - by Blackie Collins and Michael Collins is another good book on how to scrimshaw.
You can practice on soup bones to get the hang
of how to scratch a design or name on your wingbone.
Native Americans have used wingbone yelpers since as early as 6500 B.C. The first wingbone design of the Native Americans used just the radius bone or mouthpiece of today's designs. In the late 1800's, a call maker named Charles Jordon helped the wingbone yelpers gain popularity with hunters by mass producing the yelpers. Hunters later added cane or the humerus or ulna wingbones to make a new style of 2 bone call. At the turn of the 20th century, callmakers started using trumpet-like bells made of cow horns or wood to make the 3 section calls we know today. Some refer to these trumpet wingbone yelpers as "Turpin" calls.
I like to horsetrade so here is my proposition. You send me two sets
of wingbones and I'll make the wingbone yelpers. You get one of the
yelpers and I keep one yelper for my time and labor. You curry favor
with the wife/husband by not spending a dime and get a custom made
turkey call with built in mojo to use on your next hunt. To send the
wingbones, bone the wingbones from a wild turkey, then let them dry so
they don't stink as bad. My email is 
if you need any help and for my address. Anyone
else that wants to trade homemade calls I'm open to that as well.
Bald's Calls
.... Wingbones, Turpin yelpers, tube calls and scratch boxes.
The
Box Call Page .... Bamaflier's great webpage on box calls. The
history behind them, how to make them and more. If you like to make
turkey calls, please visit Bama's webpage and join his call maker
network. Thanks.
Carolina
Game Calls .... Wingbone yelpers, they even have a camo yelper.
Mark Coppala Wingbone Yelpers .... from St. Albans
West Virginia. You just have to visit this website and see Mark's work.
Custom Calls
Online .... Great place to learn about the history and fine art of
call making.
Custom Wingbones
by Durk .... Fine wingbone yelpers.
Dry Dog Ridge Wing Bone Turkey Calls .... Dennis
Behm's website is no longer up. Anyone know where he went?
Jim Groenier's How to Make a Wingbone Yelper Page
..... Jim has a great page on how to make a yelper and some ideas on
how to snazzy up your call.
Lavender
Mountain Custom Game Calls .... Harry Burkett from Rome Georgia has
etched wingbone yelpers here.
Morgan's Turkey Callers .... They have the
"WingWood" with qualities of both the Turpin and Jordan yelpers.
Peters Game Calls
.... Peters Game Calls is a small, family business that emphasizes
quality not quantity. They specialize in finely crafted suction yelpers
and friction callers.
ProTurkeyCaller .... Jeremiah from Pennsylvania
has some nice looking wingbones and tips here on making them.
Real Turkeys™ Wingbone Yelpers .... Genuine
wingbone yelpers by Lovett Williams.
Ron
Shealer's Custom Calls .... Fine trumpet yelpers, box calls and
tube calls.
Rowanty Creek Yelpers .... David Collins from
Petersburg, Virginia has some great yelpers here..
Shoff
Tackle Co. .... they have nylon, metallic, silk and two tone thread
to wrap a lanyard holder onto your wingbone. All kinds of snazzy colors
to go with that polyester turkey vest you got for Xmas. They also have
rod guides to run your lanyard through.
Turpin
Custom Game Calls .... Fine Turpin
style yelpers by Steve Turpin. 4911
Essexshire Ave. Memphis,TN. 38117.PH# (901-685-0766). Email is gamecallmaster@aol.com.
Available in the JHO
online store.
Wingbone's Web
.... Kevin has some nice wingbones here and other great looking mounts.
If you know of any other turkey call links please email us at and we will update the list.
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-- Mark Twain
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