Clayton, Deliverence aside, here's another homemade call that works on pigs - and lots more. I first saw them in an article by one or the other of the Burnham brithers in Outdoor Life - or perhaps Field and Stream. I've been making and using them ever since; for over 50 years.
I stuck my pipe and a lighter in for size comparison. It's simply made, from two pieces of wood and three rubber bands; one of which needs to be one of the slightly wider bands - about 2mm wide. The wider band is used for the reed.
Almost any type of flexible wood works well for call 'body', and even plastic works. I've used old eyeglass temples to make some. Two sections from a broken hardwood arrow shaft works well too. Bamboo works very well. The call shown here was made from a section of a broken table leg, about three days ago, and is what appears to be laminated birch. It's for a Christmas 'stocking stuffer' for a friend. The only tool used to make it was my Swiss Army Knife.
The inner top and bottm sections of the body are left flat at each end, for about 3/8". Then an inner arched section is carved into the body section. The rubber band reed needs enough room to vibrate freely when you blow on the call, and the thickness of the top and botton sections; above the arched-area; needs to be thin enough to flex slightly when you squeeze down to press them together, with just modest pressure.
The sound created is regulated by the tension you place on the reed. Stretch the reed very tight for high pitched sounds, and lower its tension for a lower pitched sound. To create the 'Whaaaa' sound, bite down on the top and bottom of the call, start blowing as you gradually release the tension of your teeth against the call's body.
Depending on reed tension, any tone between a very high pitched 'bird in distress' sound, through cotton tail or jack rabbit in distress right on up to the low-toned bleat of an adult deer can be created.
A nice thing for bowhunters is that the call is used 'hands free'. Add a neck-cord to the lose loop of the call's rubber band reed, and the call can just be dropped free when you're ready to shoot.
Under calm wind conditions, the call's sound carries for at least 600 yards - I've seen animals responding from at least that distance.
A very effective piglett in distress call can be achieved with the call, and I've called in several species of swine (and Javalina) with them. In fact, I've called more species; and more total animals; with these homemade calls than I have with all the (many) commercial mouth-blown and electronic calls I have used. That's largely due to the fact that I almost always have one of these with me, no matter what it is I'm out hunting, and get a lot of 'target of opportunity' chances to use it. I always carry a few spare rubber bands too.
Hope that helps,
Ed
Topic: Piglet in distress (Read 487 times)
