I just went out and bought me a new diaphragm call today and can' t quite seem to get it. Does anybody have any pointers on using these things?
I' ve decided that my old hunting techniques needed a little help so I am learning to use a call this year. Besides, what would my wife do if I weren' t walking around the house making noise? She is almost over me learning to call coyotes and geese last year.
Pictures would be good.

First of all, buy the kind with the spacer on the top for the roof of your mouth.
The Primos are good. The kind with the spacer are MUCH easier to use.

Then just start messing around with it in the car on the way to work and back or when you are sitting watching tv.

Very hard to describe the technique other than once you get a noise out of it you will know how to do it. It is very easy after you get the first noise out of it.
Don' t give up.

You need to force air between the middle of your tongue and the roof of your mouth. Press the back of your tongue to the roof of your mouth, now try to breath out, build up pressure then slowly release the air against the roof of your mouth, now put in the call and do it and with a little practice you should be making noise.
Get the calls with the roof of the mouth spacer first.

Good luck, I use diaphragm calls for everything and it is the only way to go.

I' ve read, and also found in practice, that you need to push air from deep in your diaphragm when using any type of mouth call, especially with " in the mouth" type calls. I find that if I try to blow short bursts of air I get very inconsistent calls. You' ll also notice that if you' re using outside the mouth reed or rubber band calls you' ll alot less spit in them if you are pushing air from your diaphragm and not just using your mouth and wind pipe.

The advice to practice in your car is a good stuff, but you get some funny looks from other drivers. I got stopped by a cop a couple years ago for practicing with my power bugle. He said he thought it was a marijuana pipe!! We both had a pretty good laugh when I explained what it was!!

one tip i can give you is to use the sides of your tongue to put pressure on the diaphragm. if you use the middle of your tongue you arent allowing the reed to vibrate enough to get a good consistant sound out of it. also this will help if you tend to gag alot.
also try using it everyday so you can get a feel of it. i find i get the best sound with the open end of the diaphragm sitting at the back of my upper front teeth. this will vary from person to person though. just practice with it at different positions in your mouth and with varied amounts of pressure and itll become easier and easier.

Last year i purchased a handful of the Primos. You will end up wrecking one or 2 as your getting used to using them. The advice on using them while driving is great. I drive for a living so had plenty of time to practice. Even when your not blowing on it i suggest tossing one in your mouth for awhile each day. This helps you get used to having one in your mouth and getting rid of the " gag" reflex.

Next thing is when you get into the elk country dont be afraid to try it. Last year i hunted with Robert Scott, and Articbowman from the site here and we where in Montana. I was nervous to try to call because i wasnt sure how good i sounded. The last 3 days of our trip Artic talked me into using the call with a tube and we went agressive. I managed to call in 3 different bulls the last 3 days with 2 of them being 6x' s and one 5X5. The one 6X6 called in to Artic 3 different times over a 10 minute span and into 12 yards. We didnt get a shot off due to the brush but for a flatlander i was so excited and will never forget that..........

If you want to hear the sounds ,that you want to hear placement is the first start with any MouthCall , Practice runs in a near second. Hope this will help you get started

If it is Elk you are useing the Call for start the Bugle off with a RRRRRRRRRR in a very low pitch, then gain tongue presure on the reeds to get a high pitch...BT

Dang adrian..........

Thats getting detailed information!!!!!!!!!