How To Use A Diaphragm Elk Bugle with Dieter Kaboth

If you’d located a giant bull elk in the western Mountains , and it was riled up and searching for cows, and you needed to get that bull across a canyon and into bow range, you’d want Dieter Kaboth to be 30 yards behind you with a diaphragm call in his mouth and a grunt tube pressed to his lips.

That’s because many people consider Kaboth to be the best elk caller on the planet. That is backed up by Kaboth’s accolades, which include four Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation world elk calling titles in the professional division. Got elk? Want them close? Get Kaboth.

In this video, Kaboth shares simple tips to take your elk calling to the next level. Just starting? Got a stack of antlers to your credit? Doesn’t matter—Kaboth’s words are valuable no matter how green or experienced you may be. Check out the video and have your diaphragm call at hand. These easy to understand tips could make the difference between a full freezer and an unpunched tag this coming fall. Now’s the time to hone your calling skills.

Make sure to check out our lineup of grunt tubes and diaphragm calls from Primos and other brands.

Hi. My name is Dieter Kaboth. I've been very fortunate over the years to win four world elk calling championships with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation. Well, today, I'm teaming up with North 40 Outfitters, and I'm going to talk to you about how to use a diaphragm elk call.

Now, how do you use a diaphragm elk call is it fits into the roof of your mouth and it's really important to create a real good seal across the roof of your mouth and this tape right here. Then, what you're going to do is you're going to force air across this latex in your tongue. If you press very soft with it, put very little pressure, you get a low tone. As I steadily increase the pressure on the latex with my tongue, it'll go from a low tone to a high tone and that's your bugle. This is how it sounds.

Now, there's some things we can do to that to add some realism to the call. Number one is use a grunt tube. The dual chamber technology with Duel Game Calls allows you to have a fuller sound. For instance, if I'm talking to you right now and I sound pretty natural but the second I pinch off one of my nasal cavities or one of my chambers, you might say, duel between my throat and my nasal cavity, it sounds kind of different like this. We all walk around, it just wouldn't sound the same as a full voice, hence, the dual chamber technology. We have a larger opening on this side and maybe a smaller opening up here on top, but it allows a fuller sound when you're making the elk sounds.

Let's go back to the diaphragm. We got a low tone to a high tone, which is your bugle. A couple things we can do to this is growl a little bit in the beginning. It'll sound like this. Okay. Another thing we can do is hum during the high note. We can go mmm, or buzz like a bee, bzzz. Now, put a diaphragm in your mouth and buzz like a bee and this is how it's going to sound. All right, you got that. When I raise my finger, I'm going to start humming and you're going to hear the difference and it will add a little bit more realism to the sound or more feeling into the sound or more realistic type of a bugle, so this is how that sounds.

I'm making it sound easy but it takes a little bit of practice. Okay, we got the bugle down. Let's talk about the chuckle or the grunt that you hear at the end of it. To me, this is the hardest part to master out of all the elk sounds and how to achieve that sound is you know how we end the bugle with the high note by pressing hard? We're going to start there, and what we're going to do is we're going to drop off our tongue and go uh when we do. Then, I'm going to put it together. Once you get that down, then you can start speeding up the progression of it and it's going to sound more like this. Adds a lot more realism to the call. I'm going to take it one step further, so bear with me here, okay? When you practice this at home, practice it one chuckle at a time and then you'll steadily build up the progression and the coordination to get this all down.

An elk is a big animal. When they breathe out … it's like a bellows on a fire … but then they suck air back in, you hear them go … just like that. That's what I'm going to do here with the diaphragm next is, I'm going to blow her out just like I showed you before, but then you're going to hear me go … suck air back in. This is how it sounds when you put it together. Sounds pretty good, right? If you do a little bit of practice, you too can become proficient. The guys at North 40 are very good and capable as far as telling you how to use the calls and to be a little bit more proficient at it. Thanks for your time and thanks for shopping at North 40 Outfitters.