full circle on calls...

I started predator hunting about 5 years ago with a couple cheap mouth calls. Reading the internet made me think it was so much easier and I would have coyotes tripping over each other with an E-caller. So I bought an Icotec. It was ok and I was somewhat successful. But they weren't tripping over eachother... I used that a while but the grass is always greener so I had to spend more money to be more successful.
Of course I bought a FoxPro Banshee and used that for a while. It worked at first but I got sick of packing it. It was heavy. And it got to where I would see less and less coyotes with it. A couple times the rechargable batteries acted up or one went bad and I was stuck in the field packing a call that didn't work. It just became a pain. The last time the batteries acted up and I couldn't get it to come on I used a mouth call and had one come right in.
A week later I went out with just mouth calls and had another successful hunt. So I started leaving it at home and taking just mouth calls. I have had fairly good success. A lot more than with the Foxpro, so now I'm back to just mouth calls.
I think too many people have foxpros around here. Coyotes know the sounds. Mouth calls have been working great for me and are a lot lighter. Has anybody else went back to mouth calls after using E-calls?
 
Not completely, but I do still leave the e-caller in the truck and run hand calls from time to time. I've got a bunch of custom calls from makers here and like to take the opportunity to use them.
 
I have had an ecall for decades, there are places they work well.
Decades ago I realized a better success rate with handcalls even when calling from the truck.
This is one place that sounding pitiful can be a good thing.
I can recall many sets like yesterday but here is a good example,
Sitting on a barren ridge in my truck with three finger draws extending equally and within minutes of letting loose on a handcall, three coyotes came charging up each draw.
I could only get one as the windshield gets in the way. Got a second one a few days after.
 
Originally Posted By: DesertRamNot completely, but I do still leave the e-caller in the truck and run hand calls from time to time. I've got a bunch of custom calls from makers here and like to take the opportunity to use them.

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Still use an e-caller but it does get left in the truck a fair bit lately.
 
I have more success when using hand calls for my distress sounds. I do take along the Foxpro for some vocal mixes and some other sounds I just can’t do with hand calls. I called and killed my first ever using hand calls and a simple old Remington 700 in .222. I got the disease and got a foxpro, bought a bunch of rifles in calibers that all start with .22, added a lot of really nice custom hand calls from makers here, upgraded foxpro models, and bought a bunch of other gear I could’ve done just fine without. I still use my e call, but all I truly need is my simple .222 and some hand calls, just like when I connected on my first one. But it’s all fun and having a variety of rifles and custom calls isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
 
I let the stand tell me which is best. I hunt a lot of very tight cover alone where you don't see a coyote until he is in shotgun range, a remote e-caller works very well here. More open the country is the more likely I will use a hand call, even more so when hunting with a partner. I do use a Minaska M-1 Bandit allot which is the size of a small bible so packing a e-call isn't a big deal.

I've suffered from asthma for a long time and it has only been since I retired that I can use a mouth call without breaking out into a coughing fit.
 
I take both,if I don't take both I take mouth calls. For tight cover I like an electronic. I'll use one in open country too though. There are a bunch of sounds I can't make on a mouth call and if it's windy I can turn the volume up on an e-call. But I can't say I notice too big of a difference when I use an e-call or a hand call as far as numbers go. Coyotes don't think like humans. We can tell a difference but I think if they have a bad experience with a "rabbit" they're going to be leary regardless.

I don't just play one sound on a stand generally. Very rarely do I so I'd rather have a bunch of sounds to choose from. What time of year it is has a lot to do with that too. I've developed my own system for calling that seems to work well for me that I base off of the areas I call and when I'm calling those spots.
 
There are some hand calls that seem to work when nothing else does, because they do not sound anything like an e caller.

Hand calls are just another tool in the tool box.

One thing for sure, when the coyotes are call wise, knowing the coyote language, using various pitch howlers is the only way to go...forget distress calls, period.

If you ever get to go on a hunt where two guys know how to howl, you are in for a real treat!
 
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I find these days that the ECall gets brought out when the coyotes start to get really pressured. I know that's completely opposite of what everyone else does but I find mixing in oddball sounds like porcupine distress or fox fights along with my hand calls can often dislodge some of those call shy dogs
 

Day time calling is when I will use an e-caller as the sound is away from you and the animals focus on the sound. At night, I like the predator to be looking right at me so I will use the hand call. The night time calling requires that the animal looks toward you for the light to hit their eyes.
 
I have a hard time seeing the remote settings on my fox pro in low light, without my reading glasses. So I have been using mouth calls early and late. Anytime I believe placing the ecaller(super quiet conditions or snow super noisy, may skylight myself) would possibly ruin the approach to the setup I mouth call.
 
I use both on almost every outing. I like the electronics to stay downwind. I like the hand calls to give them sounds they are not used to. I also have some sounds on the FoxPro they've not heard from other hunters. Old sounds from cassette that got uploaded. They work well.
 
Sometimes the hand call works wonders. Good to switch things up from time to time. For me over a years time the E Call will kill more coyotes hands down.

Banshee heavy? I guess 2 pounds can be pretty tough to carry around all day. lol
 
Hand call is the most productive for me. It seems like everyone around here runs around playing foxpro sounds so the coyotes don’t respond as much. Every now and then I’ll take out the foxpro and I still call in a couple with it.

Originally Posted By: btech29Sometimes the hand call works wonders. Good to switch things up from time to time. For me over a years time the E Call will kill more coyotes hands down.

Banshee heavy? I guess 2 pounds can be pretty tough to carry around all day. lol


I agree with not wanting to carry the banshee around all day because even though 2 pounds isn’t much, if your walking 10 miles or more a day to hunt like I do a lot, then I dont need any extra weight than I already carry.
 
I am pretty lucky because I get to call coyotes on quite a bit of private property. From what I have seen it only takes 3 or 4 times of calling a area within a month or two to make the coyotes much smarter about running towards any type of distress sound.

Even if you kill every coyote you call in there are other coyotes out there that got educated while you are killing the coyotes you did call in.

Foxpro has probable 100 or more distress sounds that I have called in coyotes with. I use about 30 different Foxpro distress sounds to call in coyotes right up close to my Foxpro callers.

I don't believe coyotes quit coming into a Foxpro caller because they have heard every Foxpro sound. If a coyote runs towards any type of distress sounds and smells a human or gets shot at they are learning about distress sounds being a problem for them.

If 5 guys are hunting a area fairly often with hand calls and getting the coyotes educated do you think you could go to that area with a Foxpro distress sound and have the coyotes run right up to your Foxpro? I don't think so.

Smart coyotes that are being pressured with distress calls are not keeping track of ten different hand call distress sounds and 20 different Foxpro distress sounds that they have heard before and are just waiting for a new distress sound to run towards.

I do try not to use the same distress sounds when I go back to a area with my Foxpro callers. But back in the old days I used a Johnny Stewart Super Jack cassette tape for 4 or 5 months and did pretty good with just one sound.

For call shy coyotes the Foxpro coyote vocal sounds, pup distress sounds and coyote growls work great on coyotes that have been educated to rabbit and bird distress sounds.

It is much easier to call in coyotes if they think they are hearing other coyotes. If you can make it sound like a coyote fight in December, January and February you can have great results.

Using the actual recording sounds of coyotes is the best way I know of to have a coyote think you are a coyote.
 
Thanks everybody. I'll keep it around. I walk a lot and I carry a gun, vanguard bipod and a small stool that folds up. When I take the Banshee I usually put it in a back pack or sometimes a range bag type thing with a shoulder strap. I bought new rechargable batteries for it about a month or 2 ago. Before that sometimes the remote wouldn't work more than 5 feet away even when the batteries were fully charged. It was really annoying putting the caller out, come back sit and hit a button and nothing. I'd have to get up, walk up to it and hit whatever sound and it would work then walk away. I only went out once with it after buying batteries so I guess it fixed it. It worked just fine sometimes though so I can't say for sure if it's fixed. In the mean time I've found I called more in with mouth calls and I think it has a lot to do with so many people having foxpros. After reading all the replies I'll have to think about where it will fit in or work better than mouth calls. I know a few places that are hard to call with mouth calls.
 
I know a lot of you have been hunting them longer than me and hunt them more often. I have a couple different theories about E-calls. I wonder if coyotes remember different sounds or if maybe the E-calls have a different sound that they can hear. I have about 1000 acres of private land including my own that I hunt right here. And probably about the same that I can drive to. When I first got an Icotec it worked. It seemed it worked less and less over time. I got a foxpro. It worked and then worked less and less. and then the mouth calls have worked. And I know it's not a big area and it only holds so many coyotes but it's more than people think. I live in some prime habitat and know of 4 different packs just in my area. I also know a lot of people who have E-calls and no idea really of how to use them. I may be wrong but it's what it seems like to me
 
Watch your major and minor feeding periods along with weather fronts moving in. Leading edge of a low pressure front is best.

I rarely ever liked to hunt on a day where it was a clear blue sky, barometric pressure is usually high then.

Hunting coyotes is a lot about, population in a particular area, moon phase(major/minor feeding periods), barometric pressure(weather fronts).

During times of high pressure fronts, best to scout. Otherwise, you may just be educating them.
 
I started coyote hunting back in 1990, or so, with hand calls. No success the first year, at all, so I cobbled up an old car stereo/cassette player, small 12V battery and a Radio Shack speakerhorn, and started to call in coyotes. Worked pretty well.

After a few years, I started to use hand calls again, and, for over 20 years, that is all I use now, so, 'full circle' for me as well.

Last year though, I bought a J Stewart GS2 caller, primarily to target cats.
 
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