Well as far as your mouth call...if you cant get a noise out of it...maybe you have it backwards....make sure the latex is facing towards the front. I started out by making a chuck-chuck-chuck sound or a turk-turk-turk sound. Basically just play with that thing in there all day...I do it when I am driving to school everymorning...on the way home...on the way to work...and so on. Practice makes perfect. Overall, I prefer my slate call over anything...box calls tend to be to dry sounding for me...but i also enjoy mouth calls