Do former band geeks make the best elk callers?

Fogalo

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I’m trying to teach my wife to use a reed call to cow call. She’s struggling some. I’ve always taken to all manner of calling. Ducks, geese, turkeys, and elk. All types of calls. Hear it once and I can usually come pretty close. I played saxophone (poorly and 20 years ago) until my sophomore year of HS in the marching band.

What I’m wondering is - is anyone a former band geek and is calling easy for you? Are the two correlated?
 

KHNC

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My elk hunting partner is a sax player and current band geek. He is a pretty good caller. Ironically, he wont call much though.
 
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I'm tone deaf, not much of a caller but passable apparently, ducks, gesse, elk, and turkey have died from it.



Maybe it was that bad, they just wanted me to shut up.


Incase you were wondering, no, not a or ever been a band geek. Couldn't play the recorder.
 

wyogoat

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It’s funny you ask this because I’m convinced it makes a difference. Recognizing pitch and rhythm is huge. I was an all state trumpet player and can generally pick up calls and figure them out pretty quick…everything from competitive turkey, duck and goose calling. Elk is no different….
 

Legend

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I’m trying to teach my wife to use a reed call to cow call. She’s struggling some. I’ve always taken to all manner of calling. Ducks, geese, turkeys, and elk. All types of calls. Hear it once and I can usually come pretty close. I played saxophone (poorly and 20 years ago) until my sophomore year of HS in the marching band.

What I’m wondering is - is anyone a former band geek and is calling easy for you? Are the two correlated?
I bought the EZ Suckr from Phelps to let my 12yr old try. He can make a little noise with a mouth Reed. But with that EZ suckr I am ready to have him be my caller after 5 minutes. I was surprised it really is easy. And it sounds good as it really is just a mouth call reed.
 

Hnthrdr

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To answer your question: I doubt it/ don’t think so. People who are good with mouth reeds ie Turkey or pred hunters tend to pic it up quickly
 

NMonit

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Uh, I too was a saxophone player, but I can only make dying noises with a diaphragm call.
 

Poser

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I’ve thought about this and it would make sense that wind instrument players are going to be more in tune with getting the sound that they want. For that matter, having a background as a musician of any type is going to have an advantage in terms of a developed ear and technique adjustments.

That being said, there is a genetic aspect to this and some expert callers who never played music likely would have been excellent musicians due to their innate sense of pitch and discriminate ear.
 

COelk89

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Nov 18, 2022
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I was a pretty talented trumpet player in high school. I suck at calling. I have to use small diaphram also. Air flow is no issue, however...I tried one of the phelps ez buglers and kept blowing the latex out lmao. Hope my buddy has some time to hunt with me this year!
 

gtriple

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You, sir, have won the internet today.

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