Prior eCaller is dead. Wanna upgrade, realistically what is min. FoxPro model you'd upgrade to?

[TheGDog]

on/off switch on the Johnny Stewart GS2 now has problems. So will need to upgrade.

Those of you who've used eCallers a lot of years, if you were in my situation, and wanted to get a eCaller that's good enough you'll be happy with it for a long time to come, where it can use rechargeable battery packs, and good remote range.. and not soo big that carrying it in your pack for miles is not a problem... what would your choice be?

ATM I'm thinking either a ShockWave or X24S is likely what I should consider as the starting point?

My thing is I'm believing the eCaller's with tweeters on 'em (and high enough quality recordings) should enhance the realism perceived by the critter. And therefore lead to better success than that which is possible by the smaller horn-speaker-only designs. Like Patriot/Inferno/etc.

 

[unchained]

I have the shockwave and I think it is excellent. I would make sure whatever call you get has the same remote as the shockwave. Prior to the shockwave I had one of the smaller calls. I rigged up the same horn that the CS24 is built on and used it as a second speaker. Worked great for volume, but the sound quality is better on the shockwave.

 

[Grip_tony]

I just fired up an X24 that I got on sale a couple of months ago. I’m liking it. Seems to be good quality.

 

[cobbc03]

I would not go below the Fusion. Fusion, shockwave, x24 all use the tx-1000 remote and its the best there is. Don't expect much more than 50-60 yards range for the remote though, plenty good for most people.

 

[*zap*]

tagged

 

[TheGDog]

I would not go below the Fusion. Fusion, shockwave, x24 all use the tx-1000 remote and its the best there is. Don't expect much more than 50-60 yards range for the remote though, plenty good for most people.

Yeah they like to say 100yds, but that's if no vegetation in the way, etc.

IS the sound quality on the Fusion anywhere near that of the ShockWave?

 

[dirtytough]

Definitely get one with the TX-1000 remote.

I would try to find out what brand the people in your area use. If most use a Foxpro I would look into Lucky Duck and Icotech.

My buddy has a Shockwave and just got a Lucky Duck. He likes the LD better.

I personally think it’s more important what sounds you are making than what is making the sounds.

 

[cobbc03]

Yeah they like to say 100yds, but that's if no vegetation in the way, etc.

IS the sound quality on the Fusion anywhere near that of the ShockWave?

I cant compare the two, but the sound quality of the fusion is fantastic, I cant imagine the shockwave is any better, just louder.

 

[TheGDog]

Definitely get one with the TX-1000 remote.

I would try to find out what brand the people in your area use. If most use a Foxpro I would look into Lucky Duck and Icotech.

My buddy has a Shockwave and just got a Lucky Duck. He likes the LD better.

I personally think it’s more important what sounds you are making than what is making the sounds.

Which Lucky Duck model did he get where he likes it better than the ShockWave?

Yeah... RE: FoxPro - I'm definitely only going to consider units with that newer TX-1000 remote. I have to wear glasses as it is.. don't need some crappy hard-to-see display making it any more difficult for me.

 

[dirtytough]

He got the Roughneck. I haven't gotten to hear/use/play with it yet to form my own opinion. I have been around a Shockwave a little and it seemed fine. I used to use a Banshee and it was fine except the remote didn't light up for night hunting. I killed a lot of dogs over the Banshee last year. Which is why I think its more important what sounds than what is playing the sounds. I killed around 35 dogs over 1 specific sound last year.

 

[TheGDog]

Ended up going for an X24 purchased thru AllPredatorCalls.com

We'll see how this goes, but right off the bat... if you have a sound that's recorded well with high fidelity up into the high frequencies this thing sounds dang good! Playing in my office just at like 8 or 10 was startting to get painful to my ears!

Gonna take the AR .223 Rem (and the .17 HMR) this weekend and try these Hornady NTX 35gr lead-frees. For S&G I popped a large Crow with one on a prior outing. Instant lights-out.

 

[Trapline]

The Johnny Stewart finally bit the dust huh, I upgraded my icotec 300 to a hellion a while back, really liking it. Any suggestions on ripping software? I used one where I could pull audio off YouTube when I first got it but took me hours to figure out how to isolate the sound bytes I wanted to use. I think it was over kill for what I wanted to do.

 

[TheGDog]

You just need some kind of Stream Recorder. Then sound editing software to chop out the parts you wanna keep. And possibly enhance things about the recording like bring up the EQ on the highs, normalize the volume of the recording. And for these callers. You really don't need the lower bass parts of the sounds really, so you could also pass them thru a Hi-Pass Filter to, that would help them play back even louder since the amp wouldn't be having any bass input signal to be bothering with needing to amplify, so instead all that power would be even more available for higher output levels of the frequencies that are coming thru.

I happen to have already purchased Sound Forge long ago for doing DIY Audio production tasks. Such as sampling from stream or from media like Vinyl, cassette, etc. Sometimes have used it when laying down a melody with a Synthesizer. Recording it as an MP3, then going into your "Piano-Roll" Multi-track composing software of choice, and paint-in all the loops and hooks and hits you've created to go at various places within your music track.

Biggest thing is to have the stream recording encode them at the highest bitrate you can so the playback is HiFi as possible.

Once you start doing sound editing a bit, you notice and realize the differences in how each next higher grade of bitrate encoding further improves the clarity and realism of the output from that recording. Original CD Redbook Audio files, it's said that 128Kbps bitrate is where CD-like reproduction clarity begins at. But in all honestly, 128's kinda sound like crap once you get used to hearing 256's and 320's. 192Kbps is like the beginning of sounding decent IMO.

 

[TheGDog]

Welp X24 works like it's supposed to. However... I must have "Traffic Jam" my AR without realizing it.

I had easily 3-4 shot opportunities on this damn Yote. But the damn trigger on the AR was locked up TIGHT!

Because in the Breech there was already one round in the chamber and I think I recall pulling the charging handle back a little bitt to look in and see if I'd gotten that first round chambered before I headed off from the truck.

Well... I must have caused it to grab a 2nd round. Another round was in there and jamming it all up but good.

I wanted sooo bad to curse at the top of my lungs!!! I'd even managed to eject the mag, and sooo carefully put it back in, but you know, had to give it that smack to make sure the mag locked into place. He did hear that...looked my direction... I froze of course... but then with the eCaller and decoy whooping up a storm with a Group Yip Howl... he quickly turned his gaze back on it instead. And with the angle of the Sun, it was a PERFECT setup, I KNEW he wouldn't be able to see me in that shadow where I was, cause the Sun would constrict his pupils, and I had on the leafy mesh facemask, AND the wind was blowing a decent bit so the 3D Leafy would quickly convince em they must have just saw the leaves swaying in the breeze!


As much as this opportunity slipping thru my fingers burns in the pit of my Soul right now. We did learn some valuable lessons today. And it confirmed that I setup the sit well! If I'd have had my bolt gun in my hand? I'd be skinning him out right now. GRRRR!!

But yeah... the FoxPro did it's job well.

 

[badlander08]

X24 is a great call. Seems like the volume is crisp and battery lasts forever.

 

[TheGDog]

X24 is a great call. Seems like the volume is crisp and battery lasts forever.

When you can a good recording with a high-fidelity, recorded at a high bitrate, it's crazy clear and crisp!

And while i'm sure they've given the amp a Hi-Pass filter of some kind to improve output, doesn't sound like they set the Hi-Pass filter too overly high up in the frequency range. Which is good because then sounds aren't "tinny".

Like my "Pocket Prey" lil mini handheld eCaller device, with it's small speaker and just one call recording of a sort of baby cottontails type of deal... it makes sense to do that because that critter can't even produce lower frequencies below a certain MHz. So you get blistering output from a ridiculously small form factor, since it's limited to just those upper freqs. From my adventures in car audio I know that lower freqs take a lot more energy to reproduce loudly.