SDHowler
New member
The fall calling season is coming upon us and for those of you who may not have seen the following post on how the Primos Hot Dog call can be modified to make the call easier to blow and hopefully improve the sounds that a caller can make with this call.
The following pic shows a Primos Hot Dog call:
I'm one of those guys that takes calls apart and experiments with them. I have heard and read that many callers were not satisfied with the Primos Hot Dog Call. Hence I attempted to make some changes and improvements to the Hot Dog call that would make the call easier to blow, without pitch breaks out to the tip of the tone board. This is one of the main calls used by Randy Anderson.
The following pic shows the original tone board portion with no reed block and the lower call portion with the reed block in place. You can remove the tone board portion of the call by twisting it out of the holding assembly.
Please note the small white reed piece #2 in the below pic. This is what I call the reed block or a riser that I have added to the call to create a gap between the reed and the tone barrel. You can experiment with various reed material from 0.020 to 0.040 in thickness for these blocks or risers under the call reed. Sorry, but I can’t say which reed thicknesses works the best.
I cut the white plastic piece #2 to a diameter that allows the piece to fit within the back portion of the tone barrel under the reed and I used a rotary punch to make the small holes.
You can experiment with your call by using portions #1 - #4 of the tone barrel shown above and blowing the call to see if you note any improvements. If you have one of these Hot Dog calls or other open reed calls, give this tone board modification a try. I feel you will be impressed with the various sounds made by the call.
For the finished product, the small wedge portion #4 of the call that covers the reed, will need to be sanded down to allow the components to be placed back within the tube #5 that holds the tone barrel portions. I used my orbital sander for this project and held the small wedge portion with a vise grip while sanding the down the bottom of the wedge surface.
I have used a recessed or scalloped area at the top end of my Dakota Howler for several years and have been well pleased with the tone board change. This allows the calls to be blown without a break of pitch and a better sound to the end of the sound channel. I have always said "where there is a will there is a way".
I used small round and/or half round files to recess the areas on my Dakota Howler tone boards.
The following pic shows one of my Dakota Howlers with the tone board modified at the upper end below the castrating rings. I also changed the metal jigs I use to cut out these tone boards with my scroll saw.
I was very grateful to Will Primos when he sent me some Hot Dog tone board components to work with my changes with the Hot Dog call. The following pic shows my latest modification to the Primos Hot Dog tone board:
Such filing to the Hot Dog tone board amounts to a permanent change, but it sure made POSITIVE changes to the Hot Dog with the recessed area on the top upper end of the tone board using a small round or half round file.
As you will read in the following replies about my hot dog modifications, I was glad to read that some guys tried these changes to the Hot Dog tone board and were satisfied with the results. I would appreciate your comments to this post whether it may be negative or positive. I have shared these modifications and some of the modified calls with both Will Primos and Randy Anderson. Hopefully they will take some time to read this post and our comments on changes to the Primos Hot Dog call. As of this revision on 3/5/2017 to my initial Predator Master's post on 3/16/2007, this post has received 10,317 views.
THANKS to all of you that have taken the time to review this post.
The following pic shows a Primos Hot Dog call:
I'm one of those guys that takes calls apart and experiments with them. I have heard and read that many callers were not satisfied with the Primos Hot Dog Call. Hence I attempted to make some changes and improvements to the Hot Dog call that would make the call easier to blow, without pitch breaks out to the tip of the tone board. This is one of the main calls used by Randy Anderson.
The following pic shows the original tone board portion with no reed block and the lower call portion with the reed block in place. You can remove the tone board portion of the call by twisting it out of the holding assembly.
Please note the small white reed piece #2 in the below pic. This is what I call the reed block or a riser that I have added to the call to create a gap between the reed and the tone barrel. You can experiment with various reed material from 0.020 to 0.040 in thickness for these blocks or risers under the call reed. Sorry, but I can’t say which reed thicknesses works the best.
I cut the white plastic piece #2 to a diameter that allows the piece to fit within the back portion of the tone barrel under the reed and I used a rotary punch to make the small holes.
You can experiment with your call by using portions #1 - #4 of the tone barrel shown above and blowing the call to see if you note any improvements. If you have one of these Hot Dog calls or other open reed calls, give this tone board modification a try. I feel you will be impressed with the various sounds made by the call.
For the finished product, the small wedge portion #4 of the call that covers the reed, will need to be sanded down to allow the components to be placed back within the tube #5 that holds the tone barrel portions. I used my orbital sander for this project and held the small wedge portion with a vise grip while sanding the down the bottom of the wedge surface.
I have used a recessed or scalloped area at the top end of my Dakota Howler for several years and have been well pleased with the tone board change. This allows the calls to be blown without a break of pitch and a better sound to the end of the sound channel. I have always said "where there is a will there is a way".
I used small round and/or half round files to recess the areas on my Dakota Howler tone boards.
The following pic shows one of my Dakota Howlers with the tone board modified at the upper end below the castrating rings. I also changed the metal jigs I use to cut out these tone boards with my scroll saw.
I was very grateful to Will Primos when he sent me some Hot Dog tone board components to work with my changes with the Hot Dog call. The following pic shows my latest modification to the Primos Hot Dog tone board:
Such filing to the Hot Dog tone board amounts to a permanent change, but it sure made POSITIVE changes to the Hot Dog with the recessed area on the top upper end of the tone board using a small round or half round file.
As you will read in the following replies about my hot dog modifications, I was glad to read that some guys tried these changes to the Hot Dog tone board and were satisfied with the results. I would appreciate your comments to this post whether it may be negative or positive. I have shared these modifications and some of the modified calls with both Will Primos and Randy Anderson. Hopefully they will take some time to read this post and our comments on changes to the Primos Hot Dog call. As of this revision on 3/5/2017 to my initial Predator Master's post on 3/16/2007, this post has received 10,317 views.
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