HuntingNet.com Forums - View Single Post - How to make your own wingbone call

04-30-2009, 06:09 AM

#2

JW

Super Moderator

Join Date: Jan 2004

Location: Wisconsin

Posts: 7,435

RE: How to make your own wingbone call

How to Make Your Own Wing-bone (3 bone) call or a Leg-bone (2 bone) call.
Okay I was asked so here is a step by step pictorial.

I really try not to waste anything from the bird I have harvested. My tail fans are sent to a lady who uses the feathers and airbrushes wild life scenes on them. And now I save a few to use on my strutting decoys. But - you can only have so many tail fans mount on the wall! I do pluck the majority of my birds and these feathers go to a lady who makes Pine-cone turkeys as a hobby. I save my feet and use them for Hunter Education classes either making tracks for a tracking exercise or add the spurs to a few calls I make and send to others. I also have made a spur hat band. The wings of course are used for calls and so are the drumstick bones.

So let's make a call.

First ya need to get one of these!

- sorry bad pun

Now cut the wing away from the body.

You will need the three major bones from the wing. the Humorous(attached at the body) and the Ulna and Radius bones (two bones laying right next to each other in the turkeys so called forearm - Ulna is where the major flight feathers are attached and Radius lies under in the muscle.) The tip of the wing or the rest of the wing bones are thrown away.

Now I boil the wings to remove the feathers as I send these to people who can use them. some use them for kid's art classes and others use them for archery.

To boil I add enough water to cover the meaty portion of the wing. Bring to a boil and try to pull the wing our of the boiling water by a feather tip. When a feather comes free easily I remove the wing from the water and pull out all major feathers using gloves as it is hot! I then trim all meat away and toss this. You will end up with bones that look like this - well sorta at this point.

Above you can see where I cut the knuckles off using either a hack saw or a hobby band saw. I use the latter. NOTE: Keep you Radius bone cut as close to the ends as you can. One side is flatter than the other and that flat end I use as the mouthpiece.
Listed in order from top to bottom - Humorous bone [trumpet end], Ulna bone [ middle part of the call] & the Radius bone [your mouth piece]. it is like that old song the neck bone is connected to the head bone!

Well the Radius bone is connected to the Ulna bone and the Ulna bone is connected to the Humorous bone. Each will fit inside the other when we get done.

Now once the knuckles are cut off. I soak these bones in a Sodium Carbonate - 4 oz to a gallon of hot water to loosing marrow, gristle and any excess meat. This can be found in any taxidermy shop. I soak for one or two days and then clean the bones in soapy water. I use a Scocth brite scrubby and a small bottle brush and a pipe cleaner and a sharp knife. It is not necessary to get them all that clean.

Reply