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Outdoors: Steps to make wing bone turkey calls

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  3/19/2008 7:29 am

Jim Groenier has made hundreds of box calls and wing bone turkey calls, and has won more than 70 ribbons in the NWTF Midwest and National Call Making Competition.

"Wing bone yelpers have been used for thousands of years by the Native Americans," said Groenier, of Oregon.

He is very willing to share his instructions, which in detail can be found on the Internet at Groenier's Custom Turkey calls or http://hometown.aol.com/wingbonecall/wingbone.html.

The basic process involves obtaining wing bones from a turkey. The wing bones can be from a domestic turkey or a wild turkey, but if obtained from a wild turkey they cannot be sold in Wisconsin, though the calls can be made for your own use or given as gifts.

Groenier begins by taking off all feathers, meat and sinew, and then takes the wings apart at the joints. Normally the three wing bones (humerus, ulna and radius) are used for making wing bone turkey calls.

Remove the marrow from the bones using a pipe cleaner or an air hose, and then place the bones in boiling water to which you add a small amount of dish detergent or bleach.

Remove any remaining "webbing" from inside the bones with a knife, file or drill.

After drying, glue the bones together using epoxy, gluing the large end of the radius bone into the small end of the ulna bone and the large end of the ulna bone into the small end of the humerus bone. Masking tape can be used to temporarily hold the glued wing bones together.

Groenier said that sometimes it is necessary to cut some of the ends off the bones or sand them on the inside or outside to get them to fit together.

The bones are then sanded and buffed with a buffing wheel, which provides a high gloss ivory shine.

He then wraps the bone joints with rod thread, adds a color preserver to the thread and lets it dry. It normally takes Groenier about three hours to make a call, or a total of four days with drying times.

"To use the wing bone to make the turkey yelp, cradle the large end between your thumb and index finger," Groenier said. "Place the small end against your lips with the tip barely in the lips, close your lips and suck in air."

Groenier adds these tips to beginning call makers:

If you are buying a domestic turkey to get the wing bones, buy the smallest turkey you can to get smaller bones.

You can tune the call the way you want it to sound by shortening the length of the bones. Put the bones together before gluing to check the sound they make and shorten them to the desired sound and then glue them together.

Tim Eisele
Special to The Capital Times  —  3/19/2008 7:29 am