Electronic Calls

As I said earlier, I kind of always felt like electronic calls took some of the sport out of it. Now that I own one, I think it's more that they take away from the tradition of things but you're not gonna get mine away from me.

THEY WORK

I bought a Johnny Stewart Preymaster 4 in the fall of 2008 and I've called more predators in 2 months than I have in the past 10 years. I do have to say that because I had success right away with this call, it has inspired me to go more frequently and "more frequently" is key to any approach.

The puzzling part for me has been for all the years I've called and all the different calls I've tried, why does the electronic work so well in comparison. So I've deliberately tried to figure this out.

Was I calling too loud? I don't think so. I have had success with the Preymaster at both high and medium volume.

Was I calling loud enough? As loud as I possibly could at times, still no great measure of success. And at lower volumes, still no comparison.

Was I calling too much? I don't think so. I have turned on the Preymaster and let it squal for several minutes straight.

Was I using the wrong sound? I don't think so, I've always used the rabbit squeal which is what I use with the Preymaster with the exception of I throw in a "coyote pup distress" call here and there. And the coyote pup distrees has been played at every outing. So the rabbit squeal is fine but the reality is the coyote pup distress may be the greater influence.

I discussed this with another predator hunter and he explained that throwing in the coyote pup distress may well imitate that a larger coyote has rushed in and pounced on a younger coyote and is in the process of taking away his kill (the rabbit squeal). That makes sense but I can't prove or disprove it.

I believe the single most important reason for the improved sucess ratio is that the speaker is positioned away from me. I am hiding in the weeds and the predator never looks at me. I shot one coyote that had focused on the speaker. When I raised my gun it stopped in it's tracks and looked at me. I know that until that point it was clueless that I was there. Since that time, I have started positioning the speaker farther to my left or right or not so directly in front of me.

Along with the speaker being away from me, I place a MoJo Critter next to the speaker. It adds some motion to the scene and I think it contributes greatly to the performance of the setup.

I will throw in here that I think the speaker with a wire would work well, I just figured without a wire, (the wireless Preymaster) I would have less to fuss with and have more options on speaker position.

I will write a product review soon on this particular electronic call and include some things that I don't like about it. But let me just say that if it died or otherwise was not available for me to use, I'd go buy another one.

Update 12/2011

Last Modified: Saturday, December 31, 2011 11:16 PM