.357 Hunter
New member
What do you guys think of flextone calls? I have a few and I think they are pretty darn good.....I have the Rabid Rabbit, Dying Rabbit,Dying mouse , coyote Rage . I also have the Randy anderson series of calls
flextone calls
- Thread starter .357 Hunter
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Varminterror
New member
As far as "factory production calls" go, I'm a big fan of the Randy Anderson Primos calls, the Double Cottontail is the best closed reed factory call on the market in my opinion (as a collector/obsessor of predator calls). The howlers, Hot Dog and Lil Dog, aren't great, but they're about as good as anything in the factory call market, 2nd only to the Dan Thompson howlers.
The Flextones in general, there's nothing "wrong" with them, but nothing that makes me want to recommend them to anybody like I might recommend other calls. I personally think if you throttle them much (squeeze the bell), they sound like a dying rabbit underwater. In my experience, I lean towards harder materials to get better sound and better volume out of closed reed calls, like Acrylic, aluminum, horn, or antler, so these soft rubber calls are goin the opposite direction from what I want in my calls. Your mileage may vary. There's nothing wrong with the Rabid Rabbit except that they copied Kerry's name!! (I don't care which one of them came up with it first, it's KERRY'S!!!)
The flexible bell/bodies deal is kinda a gimmick to me. I have better control (read: I'm well practiced) using my hands/side of my finger over the end of the bell to change the pitch of my calls, so I just don't see the benefit in bending the rubber calls. Again, your mileage may vary.
The Flextones in general, there's nothing "wrong" with them, but nothing that makes me want to recommend them to anybody like I might recommend other calls. I personally think if you throttle them much (squeeze the bell), they sound like a dying rabbit underwater. In my experience, I lean towards harder materials to get better sound and better volume out of closed reed calls, like Acrylic, aluminum, horn, or antler, so these soft rubber calls are goin the opposite direction from what I want in my calls. Your mileage may vary. There's nothing wrong with the Rabid Rabbit except that they copied Kerry's name!! (I don't care which one of them came up with it first, it's KERRY'S!!!)
The flexible bell/bodies deal is kinda a gimmick to me. I have better control (read: I'm well practiced) using my hands/side of my finger over the end of the bell to change the pitch of my calls, so I just don't see the benefit in bending the rubber calls. Again, your mileage may vary.
.357 Hunter
New member
I got several of the Randy Anderson calls...The Lil Dog, Hot Dog, and the Ki-yi.....wish I would have seen the set that carver offer's before I bought the Primos stuff.....As far as the flextones go....I do bend them some but really use my hands and my own voice to give them the sounds I produce.....and for some reason I can sound better with them as far as distress so go...I pretty much just use the lil dog to howl with....I think the Hot dog is much to loud for the terrian I hunt...The ki-yi I have doest work very well....At the end of the day I will be ordering a set of calls from carver....
Varminterror
New member
Originally Posted By: .357 HunterThe ki-yi I have doest work very well...
I don't think it's just your Ki-Yi that doesn't work very well.
For a "ki-yi" sound, they're not bad, but they get marketed as a howler/distress/Ki-Yi, and frankly, it doesn't do any of that particularly well. I pretty much only used mine as an open reed Ki-Yi, since it WILL go pretty dang loud as a ki-yi after the shot, but for anything else, I'm not impressed. The closed reed Randy Anderson/Primos calls are better than the opens, in my opinion (distress only of course). The Cat Nip is a fun call, although I'm not a big user of bite read calls.(read: I'm not very good at using them).
Take a stroll through the Custom Calls Forum sometime, you'll see a lot of stuff you like. Several of the custom makers here offer 'production calls' that are more budget friendly, but frankly, you can get fine wood customs through these guys at prices that rival most Factory calls. Not saying that Carver's aren't a great way to go by any means, I have several of his calls and love them, but there is a ton of talent wrapped up into that forum that you might want to take a look at.
If you like the lil' dog, you might look into Tony Tebbe's Overdose call. Hybrid distress and howler, with a little better volume control than the Hot Dog would have, and a lot better sound.
I don't think it's just your Ki-Yi that doesn't work very well.
Take a stroll through the Custom Calls Forum sometime, you'll see a lot of stuff you like. Several of the custom makers here offer 'production calls' that are more budget friendly, but frankly, you can get fine wood customs through these guys at prices that rival most Factory calls. Not saying that Carver's aren't a great way to go by any means, I have several of his calls and love them, but there is a ton of talent wrapped up into that forum that you might want to take a look at.
If you like the lil' dog, you might look into Tony Tebbe's Overdose call. Hybrid distress and howler, with a little better volume control than the Hot Dog would have, and a lot better sound.