Originally Posted by
BJ from IL
I knew going in that Foxpro was the best out there, one of my good friends has a $400 FoxPro and the thing is magical, but i just simply dont have the budget for these things. I might end up sticking with my small arsenal of mouth calls but the Ecallers are just so effective and take my user error right out of the equation that i wondered if anyone had any thoughts on other brands or maybe knew something I didnt. As far as lights go, I have a decent handheld LED spotlight but it seems to spook animals. And I have another good friend, my friend i do most of my hunting with, who has a scope mounted red light that works well (for him) however my night vision is just so poor that unless the animal is within 100 yards i cant really see. That is my problem with those different colored lights, maybe his is just too dim and maybe its just up to me to find one i like but i seem biased away from those things based on the few we have used.
I also would have loved to know beforehand that the Primos Ecaller was a learning tool, but I suppose it wont go entirely to waste.
And to clear up any confusion, it is 100% legal in Illinois to shoot most furbearers at night (coons, coyotes, foxes included) as long as the light used is handheld and not connected to any vehicle, and you are not hunting them from the vehicle. Pretty standard, just wanted to clear that up.
BJ: Not all FoxPro's are $400. Right now you can still pick up FoxPro Spitfires (discontinued, updated to Wildfire) for $150.
Personally, I'd feel like a d***head if I recommended any E-caller that runs less than $150-200, i.e. FoxPro Wildfire or Spitfire, Johnny Stewart Jury, or Primos Turbo Dogg. I do not recommend the Flextone calls, period. Recommending anything less than those 4 models would be a waste of your money if you followed my advice. These 4 don't compromise. That's the order I would recommend them in as well, by the way. WF, SF, Jury, TD.
For your handheld lights, colored lenses seem to help NOT spook animals, red, green, blue, or yellow, my preference in that order. It's not perfect, but it works. I actually like old incandescent lamps, out of habit, over LED's. IC lamps produce a brilliant center spot, with a dim halo. This lets you hover the dim halo and glow their eyes, then drop the center dot on them to shoot (bright dot can spook them regardless of color). The LED's ARE much more efficient for battery life, lighter, run cooler, and have a uniform brightness across the beam, but you lose the dim halo "technique". No biggie, but I do seem to spook more game with LED lamps, regardless of color.
One of my favored spot-lights is a Brinkman $50 at walmart. Has 3 white Cree LED's and 33 red LED's (MUCH dimmer). Hover with the red, glow their eyes, make the shot if possible, then hammer on the bright white to track and/or follow up.
It's hard sometimes to justify even $200 for an "entry level" E-caller. Grab up a few handcalls and you'll do fine. Very hard to mess up with a closed reed distress call, and they'll be perfectly productive for you. $50 will buy 2-4 calls that will bring in any dog in the country.
Handcalls are where it's at for calling predators. If you're an internet shopper, I can recommend a few custom makers that will produce a much higher quality call at about the same price as the factory calls you'll find at hunting shops.