Your Favorite Predator Call?

[uncle buck]

I have them all open reed, closed reed, hand activated, etc, My favorite is major Boddicker Crit-R-Call Pee-Wee, Standard, and magnum open reed calls. Talk about making a call talk. You can do everything on the Crit-R-Call.


What call is around my neck when I hunt predators? "The Crit-R-Call!"

 

[cmiddleton]

i carry loghmans wooden open reed,a cercie mvp-4 and a hydals hight pitch cotten tail goverment trapper.
i like the tone of the loghman it has a smooth even tone
i use critter calls for a higher pitch
i have a new jonny stuwert with a big barrel and a cone that works well to.
the wooden mouth peace is easyer for me to get a flat tone with no wavers.
i feel fluctuating howls are warnings to coyotes the flater the tone the better the challange.
tell one answers and i start mimicking him i try not to fluctuate the tone.

 

[Cdog911]

I haven't sold you one of mine, so I know you don't have them all, Uncle Buck.

The Crittr-Call is a fine call but I don't think it's quite as great as you make it out to be. In many cases, neophyte callers have a tough time mastering the Crittr because, simply put, it's an open reed call, and like all OR call, it is harder to control. In the right hands, such as those with Quinton Wagoner on the other end, they sound incredible. But he puts in a little bit more practice time than the average recreational caller. As Leonard Bosinski inferred "elsewhere", there is very little difference between the CC and any other call when used by an experienced caller. Proper application and set up have more to do with stand success than what whistle you blow.

When I started making my calls, I identified one weakness of the CC common to many other calls as well as something in need of correction. That "something" is loss of tone at low volumes and low pitch. I wanted a call that can produce acceptable tone as soft as a "mew" as well as if I'm blowing my lungs thru the thing. The CC just doesn't offer this, nor do a lot of other calls, OR or CR. Mine do, as do a very few others.

You asked for my favorite calls - my "go to's". For closed reeds, the PREDATR PC-3 or the Sly Dog L-45 with double-reed voice (TNT's are moving up my list pretty well, too); for OR calls, the Sceery AP-6 and 3, or the CC's (I have the peewee and the standard. My magnum is still beneath a tree in rural Russell County, Kansas.) I personally love the ELK Inc. Power Howler, especially the Higgins variant, for a close range howler. If I'm reaching out, I use my own CC Standard attached to a cowhorn. For coaxing, I use a K-Kall Kisser button. I have about forty-something other calls, and all of them call coyotes. But the above list is what hangs around my neck on any given day.

 

[Doug]

I've never tried a Crittr-Call, and most open reed calls give me fits when its a long cold night and my mouth is dried out. I have an old modern call products closed reed call that I use a good bit. I also have a slydog call and a sceery call, and a whole mess of less used calls. I haven't tried one of c-dog's calls yet, but I've heard very good things about the one made from the 25-06 casing. Hey Lance.....do you have any problems with that brass sticking to your lips when it gets real cold?
Doug

 

[Cdog911]

Doug, I
I've sold over fifty of them from just before this past season and up to now, the vast majority of which had the brass mouthpiece. I've only had one customer tell me he had that problem. I anticipated that, and continue to make the all-wood version for the colder environments but they just aren't as pretty to me.

Personally, I used a flame maple Predatr brass all winter, down to -2 degrees without a problem. Of course, I have this bad habit of holding the call between series with the mouthpiece covered, and even blow backwards thru it when it's really cold. Works for me.

 

[imported_Ron]

Walts Betts closed reed calls with the JC double stainless reed have the high and low volume capability that Cdog911 described so eloquently above. You can blast air into them for a shrill scream or you can blow softly into it for a low volume smooth moaning tone and he tunes them so there is no flat spots in between from high volume screams to low volume sounds. I put the same reed Walt uses into my calls. Along with my own calls Walts are my favorite. My favorite howler is my Rich Cronk Buffalo horn howler.

 

[ELKCHSR]

I have one of Slydogs calls, I didn't get a chance to use it this spring on bear, but will be out and about in the fall and seeing if I can call in a bear up close and personal....

 

[Cdog911]

Elkchsr,

I'm eager to see fall get here, too, so I can test drive my Sly's. They sound good, but best of all, my non-collecting type buddies (all just use the lohman OTC calls) just drool all over the tacklebox where I keep my toys when they see them. LOL They're definitely functional and great to look at. Very traditional type call.

 

[nitro x]

I have to agree with the thought that setup is more important than the call.and I don't think the sound is as important as the cadence and pattern of the call.
I call in a lot of places that get hit hard by other hunters, and am usually more successful when I do what others don't.Some times curiosity will bring them closer than hunger.especially on the young ones.
I use several calls and they all work.some better than others at certain times.

 

[uncle buck]

You are correct all hand predator calls will call in predators.

However there have been 100's of times when using an electronic call for 30 minutes that nothing comes in. You do a a few minutes of mouse squeak or puppy whines on a hand or mouth call and the fox is there right in front of you.


Sometimes the electronic sound gets their attention but they will not come in. However after they hear the variable pitch of a good open reed mouth call they show up immedately.

You can say it is the set up but many times it is the use of the different pitch of a hand call that brings them in for a look see.

 

[Cdog911]

UB,
I'll go so far as to say that setup, to an experienced caller, includes what sounds are used. Like Ron said, the e-callers have a fixed cadence while hand calls allow the hunter to vary cadence, sequence, even volume throughout the stand. (How many newcomers to calling all make the same genereic canned rabbit distress squeal? All of them?) I don't think hunger is as much a trigger for a responding coyote as is plain old curiosity. Stomach content analyses over the years have found very few starving coyotes, and far more than not, the one you shot last time out had an 80%+ likelihood that his belly was already full. Coyotes take it when and where they can get it. The old saying should be "curiosity killed the coyote." I think a good caller recognizes the value of varying all the variables on any given stand, is willing to think outside the box, and on occasion, introduces (willingly) innovation to his technique as a way of gaining an edge on the other guy (especially in late season hunting).

 

[Slydog]

Well guys I have to agree with cdog911. Thinking outside the BOX, being willing to adapt and overcome is what will put up coyotes..... there is a handfull of guys that put up numbers that will intimadate most recreational hunters. It realy shouldn't because we do it full time, not just 2 days a week or in some cases 2 days a month.

The fellas that I'm talking about think outside the BOX and can hunt behind others and still kill dogs but we prefer to get away from the masses and take the least traveled road, walk a little further and shoot a little better than the average weekend hunter............. No matter what you do if you do it full time your going to do it better than the guy who does it part time

BTW I carry over 40 calls with me on any given day but there are only 4 that I use when the calling gets tuff

Predatr calls..... Willkechum calls....... Todd McLaughlin calls and then there is lil ol' slydog custom calls...
These calls are the ones that I trust never to fail in the tuff times..

Don't get me wrong there are some other fine call makers building some good calls that I use the rest of the year but the ones I named above have never failed me yet.......

sly