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Turkey Hunting

Make a Pill-Bottle Tube Yelper

Crafting a custom tube call can be easy. Just modify an old pill bottle using these steps to create a great call for spring and fall.

Steve Hickoff •August 30, 20212 min read
pill bottle tube call

This effective and inexpensive turkey yelper is easy to build and fun to use — yet another call option in your turkey vest. First, gather your materials and tools.

Materials

  • An empty pill bottle.
  • An unpowdered nitrile or latex glove.
  • A rubber band.

Tools

  • A hacksaw, sharp scissors, and a knife or utility blade. Tweezers can be handy, too.
  • A black permanent marker.
  • Camo tape.
  • Sandpaper.
  • OK, you’re ready to build a pill-bottle tube call.
Here are the materials you'll need to make a pill-bottle tube yelper.
Here are the materials you'll need to make a pill-bottle tube yelper.

Step 1

Pill bottles and caps have size and shape variations. Remove the prescription tape from the outside. Wrap your camo tape of choice around the pill bottle. Take the empty pill bottle and cut off the bottom with a hacksaw. Sandpaper any rough edges.

Cut off the pill bottle's bottom and camo tape the call.
Cut off the pill bottle's bottom and camo tape the call.

Step 2

Take off the white cap. You’ve several options here. Remove the inner cap liner (on childproof, twist-on caps). Use it to make the call’s lid. Or use the snap-on cap and liner.

Step 3

Ink a half-moon with a black marker on the pill bottle’s thin inside liner. This marks the section to be cut out. When using the hard snap-on lid, it and the inside liner need to be cut to match up correctly. Either way, carefully cut out the half-moon, keeping the rim intact, and discard it.

Step 4

Fit the cap liner from the inside of the lid, with a half-moon cut out, on top of the call. Again, if you use the hard white cap (it’s a bit tougher to cut) and liner, fit both back on the pill bottle.

Here's a look at the pill bottle's cap and liner.
Here's a look at the pill bottle's cap and liner.

Step 5

Cut out a square of the nitrile or latex glove. Party balloons also work. This square of material should cover roughly half of the call top. Stretch it across the half-moon opening, leaving a small gap between the lid edge and the glove material. The rest hangs loosely. Yep, some tube-call makers put the taut reed inside and cap the top with a half-moon opening.

Step 6

Hold the taut glove material in place, and slip a rubber band tightly over it. Tune the reed — and the gap space — by gently adjusting it to suit your calling style. Add a fresh square (and rubber band) as the other one wears out.

Finished pill-bottle tuber yelper.
Finished pill-bottle tuber yelper.

How to call with a tube

Put your upper lip against the call reed’s rounded end. With your lower lip, apply gentle pressure on the reed’s straight edge, gap opening and cap to control sound as you call. Yelp or cluck with the same cadence as you would a mouth diaphragm. Keep trying until you get the sounds you want. Open and close your hand at the call’s end to vary volume. You can even gobble with some practice.

And I really love it for making autumn’s post-scatter flock assembly kee-kees.

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