Working in the Tongass N.F. I called in quite a few deer just stretching a piece of surveyor’s flagging between my thumbs & their bases and blowing across it. And remember the article on Ed Bilderback calling in a whitetail by blowing across a blade of grass held the same way. Haven’t tried it since moving to Ohio though.
The new people on my survey crews were always impressed, although it didn’t work every time.
There was a video in the Ketchikan Library years ago where a local made a deer call by splitting a small piece of wood, carving out matching hollows in the split sides and stretching a piece of flagging across one for a reed, then taping the halves back together. Cheaper than buying a commercial call!
~Kees~