Perfecting The Whistle

Conventional wisdom holds that whistling is the first sound a turkey utters after it hatches. Certainly, it’s a fundamental vocalization, providing the basis for kee-kees, kee-kee runs and the front end of yelping.

Yet folks often struggle to imitate the call, as it can be tricky to reproduce on some instruments. Thankfully, tips from high-level contest callers can improve your technique and have you whistling like a champ.

Pat Strawser, award-winning call maker and three-time Grand National Calling Championship Friction Division champion, said a good box call almost kee-kees on its own. He prefers long boxes from Marlin Watkins, Scott Basehore and Matt Van Cise.

“You want to make sure you open the paddle out far enough to get the whistle and then stay out there,” he said. “Just a quarter-inch movement on the paddle is all that’s needed to whistle. You don’t want to ever break over the center of the lid. I find myself wanting to apply a little bit of forward pressure on the paddle as I whistle. The whistle should be the first sound the paddle makes on a good long box.”

Strawser said the biggest mistake people make when keeing with boxes is not opening the lid far enough and then closing it too much.

“Keeing takes minimal movement but maximum control,” he said.

Pots might be the most challenging device on which to kee, as producing good whistles requires special technique. Strawser believes a slate call makes the most realistic kees of any pot surface.

“I tend to hold my striker a little lower and a little tighter when I kee,” he said. “I move out toward the edge of the call just a bit more than normal and will keep the striker on a straight line from 2 toward 12 o’clock on the face of the call, starting at 2.”

He runs the striker in a straight line to kee and then hooks it toward the center of the call to break over into the yelp portion of the kee-kee run.

“While keeing, I tend to stand the striker up just a tad more, so I kee in the center of the striker tip and let it fall to more of an angle when I break over into the yelp,” he said. “So, I guess in general, it’s a little more pressure and a little more of a straight line.”

Woodhaven Custom Calls pro Steve Stoltz, the 1993 World champion, said the kee-kee and kee-kee run might be the hardest calls to learn on a diaphragm call, except perhaps the cluck and purr. He learned the call from GNCC Hall of Famer Ray Eye at a contest years ago. “He told me just to put the call in my mouth and then squeal with it,” Stoltz said. “Clamp down and get a real high-pitched note from that mouth call. So I did, and he said, ‘While you’re doing that high-pitched note, say peepee- pee three times.’ And I did that. Then he told me to yelp a couple of times after: pee-pee-pee, yelp-yelp. And that’s how I learned on the spot how to do a kee-kee run.”

Stoltz said his whistling technique hasn’t changed much through the years. However, he emphasized that some folks can whistle better with certain mouth-call cuts. He prefers a cutter-style or modified-cutter call. Many other callers like a ghost cut.

“I guess it just depends what you’re comfortable with,” he said. “I would recommend that if you can’t get a high-pitched note with one call, you might want to try a different cut.”