The present disclosure relates generally to game call devices, and more particularly to a game call device that may be used to project sounds such as game calls or howling sounds over long distances or for extended periods of time.
When calling animals such as game animals, the calling sequences may require long periods of calling, such as up to five minutes long, or longer in some instances, and up to four or five sequences per location. A caller typically blows extremely hard into a game call in order to project desired animal sounds over long distances. State of the art game calls are typically made of hard material. Thus, the calls can be difficult to grip with teeth, and, when the caller grips the hard material with his/her teeth and lips, he/she has to press so hard on the mouthpiece to maintain constant pressure to not only hold onto the call but to totally seal off any air leakage that reduces the overall performance and distance calling capabilities. This type of constant lip pressure can quickly cause lip and cheek fatigue.
According to an aspect of the disclosure, a game call device is disclosed that is easy to use and reduces lip and cheek fatigue, among other benefits. An embodiment of the game call device comprises a mouthpiece having a mouthpiece portion and an insertion portion, wherein the mouthpiece portion includes a tone trough that carries and guides air moving through the mouthpiece, a reed aligned with and positioned proximate the tone trough, a reed lock that secures an end portion of the reed to the mouthpiece, a lip cushion that securely attaches to the bottom portion of the mouthpiece, wherein the insertion portion comprises a chamber that receives air from the tone trough through an opening and projects sound away from the tone trough. The game call device may further include a bell that receives and envelopes the insertion portion of the mouthpiece. The bell may comprise a chamber that receives and guides sound from the bell. The projected sound may be projected from the mouthpiece chamber to the end of the bell and towards a prospective animal being hunted.
The mouthpiece may comprise a hard and rigid material. The material may comprise polycarbonate, acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), or other hard and rigid material.
The lip cushion may comprise a material that is soft, flexible or depressible. The material may comprise silicone or PVC soft material.
The lip cushion may comprise a fastener that connects and securely affixes the lip cushion to the mouthpiece. The lip cushion may comprise a base that has a surface that contacts a user's teeth. The fastener may comprise a wedge that engages a lip cushion receiver in the mouthpiece to secure the lip cushion to the mouthpiece.
The reed may comprise Mylar.
According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a game call device is disclosed having a mouthpiece, the game call device comprising a tone trough that carries and guides air moving through the game call device, a reed aligned with and positioned proximate the tone trough, and a lip cushion that securely attaches to the bottom of the mouthpiece on the game call device. The lip cushion may be positioned to contact a user's teeth during operation of the game call device. The tone trough and reed may be positioned such that air escaping from the tone trough causes the reed to vibrate and make variable sounds according to the location of a user's lip on the reed.
According to an embodiment of the disclosure, a game call device is disclosed having a mouthpiece and a bell, the game call device comprising a tone trough that carries and guides air moving through the mouthpiece, a reed aligned with and positioned proximate the tone trough, a lip cushion that securely attaches to the bottom of the mouthpiece, wherein the lip cushion includes a base having a surface that contacts a user's teeth. The base of the lip cushion may comprise a material that is soft, flexible or depressible. The lip cushion may comprise a fastener to securely attach the lip cushion to the mouthpiece.
Additional features, advantages, and embodiments of the disclosure may be set forth or apparent from consideration of the following detailed description and drawings. Moreover, it is noted that both the foregoing summary of the disclosure and the following detailed description are exemplary and intended to provide further explanation without limiting the scope of the disclosure.
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the disclosure, are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the disclosure and together with the detailed description serve to explain the principles of the disclosure. No attempt is made to show structural details of the disclosure in more detail than may be necessary for a fundamental understanding of the disclosure and the various ways in which it may be practiced.
The present disclosure is further described in the detailed description and drawings that follows.
The embodiments of the disclosure and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments and examples that are described and/or illustrated in the accompanying drawings and detailed in the following description. It should be noted that the features illustrated in the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale, and features of one embodiment may be employed with other embodiments as the skilled artisan would recognize, even if not explicitly stated herein. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques may be omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments of the disclosure. The examples used herein are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the disclosure may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the embodiments of the disclosure. Accordingly, the examples and embodiments herein should not be construed as limiting the scope of the disclosure, which is defined solely by the appended claims and applicable law. Moreover, it is noted that like reference numerals represent similar parts throughout the several views of the drawings.
Referring to
The insertion portion 101 of the mouthpiece 100 may be substantially cylindrical in shape, as seen in
The bell 200, including bell housing portions 210, 220, 230, 240, and 250, mouthpiece receiver 201, and the chamber 202 may be formed by, for example, an injection molding process, or any other suitable manufacturing process as understood by those skilled in the art. The bell 200 may be configured to be easily and securely gripped by the user's hand. The openings in 215 and 225 in the bell housing portions 210 and 220, respectively, may be formed during the injection molding process, or later opened using, for example, a drill bit (not shown). The housing portions 210-250 may have the shapes and designs seen in
The mouthpiece 100 and bell 200 may be made of the same material, or different materials. For example, the mouthpiece 100 may include a material such as, for example, metal, wood, ceramic, glass, plastic (e.g., polycarbonate), or the like. The material may be hard and resistant to environmental changes, such as, changes in temperature, humidity, sunlight, and the like.
The bell 200 may be made of the same material as the mouthpiece 100. Alternatively, the bell 200 may be made of a different material such as, for example, a material that provides for better bell by a user's hand or fingers. The material in the bell 200 may include, for example, thermoplastic elastomers (e.g., TPE), rubber, foam, silicone, PVC, or the like.
Referring to
The mouthpiece 100 includes the tone trough (or air channel) 120, which may be formed longitudinally along a length of the mouthpiece 100. The tone trough (or tone trough) 120 may extend from the non-insertion portion 102 to a part of the insertion portion 101, as seen in
The opening 122 may have an elliptical shape formed in the inner region 105, which may be a solid wall (except for the opening 122) that is integrally formed with the mouthpiece 100. The width of the opening 122 in the inner region 105 may be wider than the width of the tone trough 120 in the area of the reed lock receiver 150, as seen in FIG. 8. The height of the opening 122 in the inner region 105 may be greater than the height of the tone trough 120, as seen in
The tone trough 120 is configured to direct air flow in the tone trough through the opening 122 and through the chamber 107 (shown in
The reed 30 is aligned with, and positioned proximate the tone trough 120, as seen in
The reed 30 may be shaped and sized based on the desired sound to be produced by the game call device 1.
The reed 30 may include a material such as, for example, biaxially-oriented polyethylene terephthalate (BoPET), Mylar, Melinex, metal, or the like.
Referring to
The surface of the base portion 430 is configured to be contacted and held by the user's lower (or upper) lip and/or teeth. The base 430 may be made of a soft material that prevents or minimizes lip fatigue, lip abrasion, or any other mal-effects to the user's lip during extended usage.
The fasteners 410A, 410B may be integrally formed with, or attached to the base 430. The fasteners 410A, 410B are configured to slide into and engage lip cushion receivers 145 (shown in
Referring to
Referring to
Alternatively, the game call device may be provided as, for example, three (or fewer) pieces, including the reed 30, lip cushion 40, and housing 10.
The reed 30 may be installed by aligning the reed 30 longitudinally along, and over the tone trough 120, and positioning and centering the distal end of the reed 30 within reed receiver 150 (Step 620). After the reed 30 is properly positioned, the reed lock 50 may be aligned and inserted into the reed receiver 150 (Step 630), thereby securing the reed 30 in the mouthpiece 150. Alternatively, the reed 30 and reed lock 50 may be pre-aligned and simultaneously inserted into the reed receiver 150 (Steps 620 and 630 combined). The reed 30 and reed lock 50 may be formed as a single piece (not shown).
Alternatively, the reed receiver 150 may be sized so as to receive only the distal end portion of the reed 30 and securely hold the reed 30 in the mouthpiece 150, without the reed lock 50.
The insertion portion 101 may be aligned with and inserted into the mouthpiece receiver 201 of the bell 200 (Step 640). This step may be skipped where the mouthpiece 100 is formed integrally with the bell 200 as a single piece (not shown).
The assembled game call device 1 may be packaged and readied for shipment (Step 650).
Referring to
The user may implement the game call device 1 by placing his/her teeth against the lip cushion 40 while wrapping both top and bottom lips around the entire circumference of the portion 102 of the mouthpiece 100. Once the caller's lips have sealed completely around mouthpiece 100, the caller may begin to blow into the game call device 1. The caller may grasp the bell 200 to maintain control, with lower teeth lightly biting up (or down) on the lip cushion 40, so that the game call device 1 does not slip. The caller may begin to slide his/her upper lip along the length of the reed 30 to change tones to replicate animal sounds such as, for example, distress sounds of smaller animals, yips, barks and howls of coyotes of all ages, and/or mews, chirps or estrus cries of elk of all ages.
If a need occurs for caller's lower lip to slide along with the upper lip, the caller may simply reduce tension of teeth on the lip cushion 40 to allow both teeth and lower lip to slide accordingly along the lip cushion 40. With the majority of the holding power being accomplished using the lower (or upper) teeth against the lip cushion 40, the user does not have to use his/her lips and cheeks for this purpose and may, instead, use his/her lips and cheeks to seal off air flow around the mouthpiece 100 while maintaining a semi-tight cheek for variable air pressures to accomplish multiple volumes and pitches of desired sounds.
Referring to
The terms “including,” “comprising” and variations thereof, as used in this disclosure, mean “including, but not limited to,” unless expressly specified otherwise.
The terms “a,” “an,” and “the,” as used in this disclosure, means “one or more,” unless expressly specified otherwise.
Devices that are in communication with each other need not be in continuous communication with each other, unless expressly specified otherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with each other may communicate directly or indirectly through one or more intermediaries.
Although process steps, method steps, or the like, may be described in a sequential order, such processes or methods may be configured to work in alternate orders. In other words, any sequence or order of steps that may be described does not necessarily indicate a requirement that the steps be performed in that order. The steps of the processes or methods described herein may be performed in any order practical. Further, some steps may be performed simultaneously.
When a single device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of a single device or article. Similarly, where more than one device or article is described herein, it will be readily apparent that a single device or article may be used in place of the more than one device or article. The functionality or the features of a device may be alternatively embodied by one or more other devices which are not explicitly described as having such functionality or features.
While the disclosure has been described in terms of exemplary embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the disclosure can be practiced with modifications in the spirit and scope of the instant disclosure. These examples given above are merely illustrative and are not meant to be an exhaustive list of all possible designs, embodiments, applications or modifications of the disclosure.
This application claims priority to and the benefit thereof from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/271,650 filed on Dec. 28, 2015, titled “LIP CUSHION FOR OPEN REED GAME CALLS,” the entirety of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62271650 | Dec 2015 | US |