Has anyone else given up on ecallers?

G

GJJ

New member
I have. I owned an FX3, FX5, and a Fury. Each one went back to the factory multiple times. Without going into the gory details, I do not find the remotes to be reliable. I just got tired of setting the call out 50-75 yards, quietly sneaking back to my spot and not having the call work. There are times when I considered shooting the call.

I am now a handcaller. The coyotes will be coming to me, not a box away from me. I don't have to worry about batteries or technology.

Anyone else return from the dark side too?
 
GJJ, please send me your "cast-off" electronics and I will put them to good use...
smile.gif


I use a mix of both electronic and hand calls, and for most setups, I do not even use the remote, I simply set the electronic next to my foot, within reach of my hands.
 
All I use is hand calls. I've owned 4 or 5 different ecallers over the years. I still have a JS tape player in the shop, I believe. As you, I found myself getting frustrated at remotes that would sparadically work. I'd get so frustrated that calling wasn't enjoyable anymore. I tried different models and different manufactures. Kept finding the same basic problem. No fault of the makers, the technology just isn't there for 100% reliability in my opinion. I finally went back to something that I can trust...my handcalls.

Tony
 
Never really had tha problem. Once in a while I'll get behind something and the remote will be blocked, but I usually know when I set up what will work and what won't. Still like the hand calling too though...
 
You know, cell phones use radio (RF) to communicate with towers that may be a mile or more away. They do it very well and very reliably. Cell phones cost very little too!

Why is it that the manufacturers of e-callers are unable to make the RF (radio) communication between the call and remote at least acceptably reliable at just 100 yards?
 
I gave up on the remote, sold my FX3, and went with an NX3. No remote. I make my own loops and then just set the call out there and let it work. You could do the same with an mp3 player and a Radio Shack amp/speaker (which I used to do!), but the NX3 is a decent non-remote unit.

And by the time I sold the used FX3 and bought the new NX3, I was $100 ahead. I put the money into some nice hand calls.
smile.gif
 
I have owned four of the most popular ECallers in the last decade. Each one of them is different from the others in features, price, and style. Each one effectively assisted me to call in coyote and shoot them. Each one of them, invariably, hiccup'd at one point due to a number of factors. But I use them all the time and find that each product has its own parameters that I force myself to adjust to so that I can use the product effectively and predictably. But as to totally giving up on them? No, I have not done that and don't plan on it. I used to hand call in Colorado before I came to Az and once I went electric, a few of my hand calls find their home as trusty backups on the lanyard that holds my remote.
It is too bad that you have given up on ECallers. But all is not lost and you will still do well with hand calls as so many do. You also save a boatload of bucks and that is always fun! Good luck and continued success to you as you hand call and shoot the yellow dog!
 
Ill take the fury if you arent using it!
I love my FX3..dont see getting rid of it anywhere in the near future.But I still carry my handcalls..
 
I have never had a remote problem that was not my fault or battery related , never not once . some people just dont do well with electronic stuff , my wife is like that, she can screw up a cell phone , computer , camera, dishwasher washing machine. you name it she can make it fail , and its always the user in her case as well .My brother could never find a wrist watch that would not quit on him , a doctor told him it was a chemical imbalance, true story .BUT i never sit a stand without a call around my neck LOL.
 
i just get more satisfaction out of calling myself then a recourding of someone else calling.
i have several electronic callers but never had one with a remote
tony i'd take the tape deck caller my tape player eats tapes. i got lots of tapes yet. {i liked this one best}
i also have the JS you hook a walkman to but can't find a walkman cassette player in town
then i have a homemade mp3 player one
and a cheap foxpro can't think of the number no remote or downloading sounds
but i have lots and lots of hand calls
 
I called a dog Thursday in with both my new Fury and using hand calls at the same time. Ive just started testing the elect thing, so Ill have to see where it goes myself.
 
Actually I could give you a very long list of hand calls and their names by brand like you did and honestly say that they are prone to malfunction and totally ineffective for calling predators.

I've been using hand calls for many years and they are not 100% reliable. That's why you carry two, three or more to the stand. Most of the problem with ecallers is operator error. Forgetting to learn the equipment, not charging the batteries, stetting up in a less than desirable locations, etc.

Are they 100% reliable? Nothing is. Not even hand calls.

E-callers are a tremendous help for those that refuse to learn their hand call equipment or who do not have a grasp of the basics of calling. Apparently you have what it takes to effectively use a hand call. Some people don't.

Is it possible to get a lemon of an ecaller? Sure it is, just like the lemon of a car I once bought 100 times more expensive than any ecaller at the time. I didn't start bicycling because of it.

I had issues with my e-caller just last weekend more than once. I'd turn the unit on, walk back to sit down and nothing happened so I used a hand call.

What happened was that the last time we broke stand, my partner picked up the unit and turned it off. No problem except that he also flipped the speaker switches to the off position. Cant blame him. He wasn't familiar with the equipment and I didn't check it close enough when I set it out the next time. Other times, I've had weak batteries.

E-callers are not 100% foolproof and they do malfunction at times. There's no denying that, so it would be prudent to have a back-up plan. Carry a hand call with you to every stand. And carry a second handcall for a back-up just to be safe.

Bottom line is that you should enjoy calling. If you are comfortable with hand calls and are confident, then it doesn't make sense to lug around an ecaller.
 
My FX5 works great. So do most of my hand calls. I won't rule anything out. If it will increases my odds, or if I have some use for an item, it gets used. I've learned that blowing a distress while an e-caller howls or vice versa is often the ticket to putting a dog or two or three right in front of me.

Now if I started having difficulties with an electronic unit, or hand call for that matter, I wouldn't hesitate to drop it like a warm turd.

But to each his own. I will say this- it's sure a lot easier to carry a few hand calls around than a Foxpro.By the same score, I like the electronic's ability to keep the attention off me. So, I guess it's a push.
 
This is my first year with an ecaller. Well kinda my first year, since I used to have one of the old school cassette tape callers, that was a PITA in the winter time, well most every time really.

Its been a blessing and a curse. I love getting the sound away from me, I don't think I have more come into the call, but I'm able to set up in better spots, and have a little more freedom of movement, and possition. More often then not I have been able to sit, when normally I would have to go prone, and more often then not the coyotes look at the caller, not at me, even if I move slightly to get the shot.

As I have said, I honestly don't think it has resulted in many more coyotes coming in. Perhaps one or two that came in well into the stand that I assume were a long ways out, I suppose the extra volume got them in when a hand call wouldn't, but who's to say.

The flaws so far have been with me, not with the caller. I have to drill it into my head that I need to stop setting up the caller where a coyote can see it, and I can't see the coyote.

This happened to me today, and it cost me a coyote that was literally right on top of the caller (I saw the tracks in the snow), but I didn't see it until it was well on its way out. Had I called this spot with a hand call, I would have wrote that side off, you can't really be looking 360 all the time, you have to choose. But after thinking on it today , I could have set up the caller in a much better spot, and may have been able to draw a coyote into visible range had he come from my back side.

I suppose I'm still at the bottom part of the learning curve, or maybe just getting to the crest of it. Well for ecalls anyway, I've been calling forever. But I'm still not sure its a magic weapon in coyote calling, I am sure that it makes things easier, and once I figure out more tricks, I'm sure it will make things more productive. Or to put it another way, I don't think it makes more coyotes respond at all, but it makes it somewhat easier to bag the ones that do.
 
i use electronics when i need to call a coyote into a spot i can't hide but if i can i get more satisfaction in calling it in with mouth calls.
when calling bobcat i prefer the electronic call because i call constant and at a lower volume
my lips get tired on a two hour set. i do long sets for bobcat and lions but i haven't got a lion in on perpose only on accident.
a couple weeks back i called a blister on my lip by curling my lower lip over my teeth calling on a open reed call
they are both necessary tools.
I'm with jay on packing multiple calls to a stand. even freezing closed reed problems can be cured by carrying two of the same call to the stand when one freezes switch calls. open reeds i'll bend break or lose the reed taking more then one saves the stand.
some day i'll be able to walk to a stand location and i'll have a call already there I've lost so many threw the years.

 
Last edited:
Being "hearing impaired" (almost as deaf as a fence post, according to my wife), I have a very hard time knowing if my XR6 is sounding off - or not. Therefore, my hand calls still get quite a work-out!!
Mark
 
Back
Top