It's spring, and it's turkey time.
Indeed, it's a special time of the year, a time when amorous tom turkeys greet the dawn with gusto, their rattling, deep-toned gobbles echoing from lofty perches. It's a time when male turkeys do their best to woo a lady friend by fanning their tail feathers in peacocklike fashion, erecting their iridescent body feathers that glow metallic green, gold and bronze, all while their heads are radiant with patriotic colors of red, white and blue.
It's also a time when otherwise sane humans arise well before dawn and attempt to dupe a passionate tom turkey by imitating the calls of a hen with romance on her mind.
Turkey calls come in a variety of types. The three most popular styles are the box call, the slate call and the diaphragm call. Perhaps the least known of the turkey calls is the wingbone call. There are wood and plastic versions of wingbone calls on the market but, as the name implies, the original wingbone calls were made using the actual wing bones of a wild turkey.
To a hunter the excitement of calling a tom turkey into shotgun or bow range is seldom equaled. If the hunter called the bird using a wingbone call he or she made, the experience is even more gratifying.
Follow these simple steps to make a wingbone call from the next turkey you bag.
• Remove the wing at the shoulder joint. Do not cut through any bones. Instead, separate the wing from the body by cutting between the bones. The bones needed to make a wingbone call are the humerus, radius and ulna. Clean as much meat from the bones as possible.
• Separate the bones and cut off the large ends with a hacksaw. Clean the insides of the bones by running a wire and paper toweling through them to remove the marrow. The humerus is filled with a series of bony, weblike membranes that can be drilled out.
• Boil the bones in soapy water for an hour or so. A final soaking in hydrogen peroxide will further whiten the bones.
• Cut the bones to length and bevel the ends with sandpaper until the three pieces of bone fit properly. Finally glue the bones together using two-part epoxy and allow 24 hours for the glue to harden.
The wingbone call is now ready to use. Some hunters embellish their calls by adding artwork such as scrimshaw or decorative painting. You can wrap the joints with thread like you'd wrap line guides on a fishing rod.
Some turkey callers glue a rubber washer about a half-inch from the tip of the call to ensure their lips are positioned the same each time the call is used. A lanyard can be fashioned to hang the call around one's neck.
Emitting convincing yelps, clucks, and purrs -- a hen turkey's lustful language -- on a wingbone call requires practice. Put the small end of the call between your lips just off center and cup one or both hands around the end of the call. You do not blow on a wingbone call; instead suck convincingly on the call with a kissing motion. Be patient because it takes a lot of practice to sound like a hen turkey.
The wingbone call has a unique sound, and experienced hunters claim they are especially effective for calling heavily hunted toms.
By the way, if you don't have a turkey wing lying around and want to make a wingbone call for this hunting season, you can utilize the wing bones from a grocery store Butterball.
Bill Marchel, an outdoors photographer and columnist, lives near Brainerd.
