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.