Electronic vs hand calls

[Retterath]

Who uses electronic and who uses hand calls? I started off using hand calls and bought a fox pro cs-24 two years ago and now thinking of selling it just for the fact that when walking in always having to carry that bag with me and also have to alway keep track of batteries and make sure there charged and had it happen when set up and batteries died and had no extras. Just curious what everyone is doing and using for coyote calls.

 

[StrutNut]

I use all hand calls. My favorite are the old Critt'r calls. I have also used the hand calls fron Zink Calls. I prefer the open reed design.

 

[Wasatchbuck]

I used electronic calls years ago(think old school johnny stewart) and then switched over hand calls again. Truthfully I haven't done a whole lot of predator hunting in the past few years but this year I have been out quite a few times and I will be purchasing a FoxPro this week. The availability of sounds on an e-caller and being able to have both hands free is enough for me to switch.

 

[Jordan Budd]

I use both depending on the time of year and pressure. In my opinion the electronic calls have more benefits than hand calls. I will say though, having a quality e caller makes all the difference in my opinion. Some lower end calls have poor sound quality that doesn't travel very far on windy days. I use the Foxpro fury, which is discontinued but has a couple predecessors the fury 2 and the fusion I think. Got it used off eBay, great mid level call.

Why I like e callers:
1. Gets the sound source away from your position. Since he's hunting the sound, I'm going to have a better chance at getting away with movement if the sound isn't coming right from where I'm sitting.

2. Allows me to have a little influence on where I get a shot and the scent trail. Such as setting the caller off to the upwind side, knowing the coyote will want to be downwind of the sound at some point. The caller will have some scent on it but it's not the constant scent trail that comes off of us, so I think they have to be in very close range of the caller to smell a human. On that same note, I try to set my caller up so my scent trail is parallel to the callers scent trail, so when he tries to get wind from the sound he's not going downwind of me.

3. Volume and sound selection. My caller is louder than I can make my hand calls I think, and I can't make the variations of sounds on my hand calls like those that are on the e caller.

The most important to me is getting the caller away from my position. You can definitely call em in with hand calls, but my success rate went up when I could adjust on the coyotes that came in unexpected without being busted. This leads into my sound theory... If I'm calling and have a coyote come in and bust me for whatever reason, the next time he hears that call there's a good chance he's not going to come in again. So having the variations of the calls (without having a ton of hand calls) is very helpful... Just the other day I noticed they were being very stand offish towards the sound "coyote screams" (pup distress) so I switched to a fox in distress and it had a total different effect.

Sorry for the long post! I love getting after coyotes and I'm learning every time I go out.. I'd be happy to answer any questions!

- Jordan Budd