Hoochie mama elk call.
 

I gave this call a try a couple nights ago while taking a client on a elk hunt because I have heard alot about it and it seems pretty popular. We had bulls all around us bugling, and usually I have no problem calling them into range but I have never been so dissappointed in a call. It sounds like a magpie! You cant control the pitch or lenght of the sound and it is not very loud at all. I have never felt so helpless than I did when trying to call in bulls with that stupid call. I think the reason it must be popular is because it is so easy to use and some hunters are to lazy to practice with a mouth call. I was suprised when I found out that primos makes the call, their calls usually seem to be pretty good, but this one sucks. Have any of you guys used this call? What did you think?
I prefer my Primos "Imaka da bullcrazy" mouth call.

Maybe you had a lemon of a call. I have used to the hoochie mamma with great success over the past 5 years, as well as my brothers and my father. I am not a "professional hunter" by any means, but there are enough racks and mounts between us to warrant that this call aint bad!

I can only tell you my experiences and those on hunts were i have been involved, and the hoochie worked well!

Have you called in a elk with it? Or have you been carrying it when killing a elk? Do you use the hoochie mama or the hoochie calf? Cabelas ratings on the hoochie mama are pretty bad. Have you compared it with a mouth call?

they're so popular is the thing that turns me off about it, everyone seems to have a hoochie mama in their pocket, besides a handheld/mouth call is so easy to use/operate, so that's all I use nowadays pretty much.

Ya I feel the same way. Plus the mouth call sounds way more realsitic and you can make it sound like their is more than one cow. Unlike the hoochie mama.

From what I have experienced with it, they do work. I always have one hanging close to my left hand while hunting for easy access to stop an elk. It's just another tool in the tool box, and it's not a one call fits all. I like to let off a mew when walking and I step on some noisy to cover my sound. I've done that before and got answered from elk close by that I didn't know were there. You can get a lot more creative with other calls but the HM does have it's nitch.

I've used one a lot, but I don't use it alone and expect it to be the "end all" in calls. I normally use 4 different calls in any one calling situation during archery season.
When you hear a heard of cow elk talking, they make several different sounds at several different volumes. To expect to imitate them with JUST a hoochie moma is a big mistake.
I like the call, but if I had to choose just one call, it wouldn't be the one I'd pick.

I have a Hoochie Mama, a Hoochie Mama Calf, a I-Maka-Da-Bull-Crazy and a Cow Girl call. I don't even carry the Hoochie Mama or Hoochie Calf call with me any more and I think I'm going to start leaving the I-Maka-Da-Bull-Crazy home as well.

I've been practicing with a mouth reed diaphram call and it is so much better than any of the other calls. I use it 90% of the time now. The Cow Girl has a really high pitch that I can't get with my mouth reed so I will keep carrying it as well.

Knowing when and how to use a call is as important, if not more important than the call itself though.

Not my fav call, but...Wanna sound like more than one elk? How about the hoochie mama in your hand while working the mouth call...My buddies 6 point liked it enough to give him a fifteen yard broadside.

UH? Now that is a pretty good idea. :party0005:

I bought one years ago and never had an elk respond to it. Other hunters in the area have good responses. Go figure. I've a few different calls, but it is hard to beat a diaphragm call and a grunt tube to bugle, chuckle, cow call, etc...

Used to carry one, called in many many elk with it with my buddies. I have always used a mouth diaphragm reed, but I can't get volume with it. Its great in thick timber close in where you don't need that volume. Right now, I like the Imakadabullcrazy calls both long and short range, and the Carltons Fighting cow call. Called my bull in with all three on Sept 16. The hoochie stays on the shelf anymore.

Are you an elk guide?

The hoochie mama has two issues:
1) to easy to use, so MANY people grab it. In seconds you are ready to roll
2) Almost impossible to vary the sound

These combined make it not such a good choice as an "only" call. I have used it and have had bulls respond, but I've used it in conjunction with others. Best result I had (very limited being from NH!) is guide with a bugle, me with a hoochie mama and diaphram/tube. My job was to cow call, his was to bugle. I was to move around a bit to. Worked great, brought in a herd bull from a good distance.

Yes I am. :biggrin:

Ya I guess I can see how the HM might be a good call with another call. I might give it a try.

I think they would work great if hunters would stop using them for the first two weeks of archery season letting every elk in the woods know that the hoochie mama has arrived. If the elk aren't being vocal why would hunters want to be>? Food for thought.

ah, because I can't count on one hand the number of times that we've called in bulls that never once bugled? Good enough reason?

Elk often come in silently, though I find more subtle calling seems generally better if the elk are quiet.

I am not trying to be an a-hole when I ask this but is this your first year guiding?

Because I honestly can't believe that a professional elk guide has never tried a hoochie mama in the several years that it has been on stores shelves, has never used multiple calls in conjunction with each other to sound like multiple elk, and a professional guide would be relying on "cabelas reviews" to determine if he should use a call or not with paying clients.

Seems to me that a guide would want to have this all figured out before he used a clients paid hunt as a guinea pig.

I know if I were a paying client I would want my guide to know what calls work and what calls don't seem to produce the results (bulls) on a regular basis.

Just sayin ya might want to think about it.

Yeah go ahead and have everybody and their brother blasting out calls from opening weekend on and see how many bulls you get that's bigger than a 4x4 raghorn. Maybe in a limited draw unit. People over call and don't let the situation dictate the calling. Educate the elk some more I like it, means bigger bulls next year.

Come back to apologize didn't mean to sound gruff. So many hunters are going into the woods calling all day long walking around with a call stuck in their mouth tooting it like a boy with his first whistle. In a lot of area's I think calls are overused and abused. I've seen hunters calling in an open field and then talking afterwards. Insanity I tell ya. I've called in my fair share of elk but over the last ten years I've just shut my call up and went to the elk with a lot better results. Being in a OTC unit elk have became very wise to calling. The best thing still going is a reed if you can manage it. Plus it's hands free.

A lot of hunters should have someone audio tape them. I've heard a lot of elephants in the woods lately.

No apology needed here. I just know that our group of 5 killed 4 bulls this archery season, in an OTC unit even. Smallest was a 5x5 and the largest a 325" 6x6. I'll admit that only 2 off them were killed when they came to the calls, but we got results none the less and as warm as it was this year, I think we did pretty good.
Also, we hunt hard and put a lot of days in the forest. The 2 guys from out of state only hunted 10 days, I hunted 12 days, and the other two hunted 16 days each which helps in the success department.

I have called in a couple bulls just calling with the HM but have had more success using the HM and a mouth call just like some of the others on this site. But I would never discount the Call but that is just my opinion and I always carry it with me during archery season just cause you never know what the bull is going to like and go crazy for.

"you never know what the bull is going to like and go crazy for."

That is a good point. It seems one day they will respond to one call and another they won't, but will to a call they ignored before.

A professional elk guide asking about diaphrams(replied to your other thread)???? Not thinking about using a squeeze call in combo???? That's how i used the HM. Now I just stick to diaphrams and can herd talk without switching.

Well there you go from the experts mouth i guess... I cant argue with the online warriors they have much more time than i do!! The HM call that we have used works great at getting bulls attention and even bringing them in, it has even stopped and turned them when they were taking off. I have used the mouth calls, and I still do, but everything in time and place, and HM call has always been a performer for me...

Well said!! And i couldnt agree more!

My brother and I called one to us on a ridge where we were sitting last Friday. When we saw him he was a good 1/2 mile away and came right to us. 330-340 class bull.

No need to apologize, spot on to me. As for the HM, I don't care for the sound.

Hoochie mamas are worthless for elk hunting in earnest.
The call is waaay to short to sound realistic and you can only make 3 different elks sounding sounds.(that sounds weird)
A mouth call is a much better way to go.

Apparently the elk where I hunt are different than the elk where you hunt, because I have heard cows many MANY times sound pretty much exactly like the hoochie moma that I use, or your hoochie moma don't work right..

A Chirp Is short and should last about 1 Sec.
Which is what the HM call does.
But if you want an authentic estrus call it needs to be long and pleading or it sounds akward. But like you said mabye your elk are different.
Where do you Live?

i used one last year and it kicks A$$

That might be true but it is supposed to call in elk.
Its advertised as a "elk call" not a "a$$ kicker". :hit:

I hunt here in CO., and when we call elk we don't just use estrous sounds, hence the reason that I stated earlier in this post that we use the HM along WITH several other calls.
When you're around a heard of cows/calves, they're not all doing estrous chirps all the time, matter of fact, a relaxed herd will be making many different sounds as they communicate back and forth.
There are times that we will use estrous only, but we usually make it sound like there's more than one cow/calf when calling.
At times, we'll even have two guys bugling behind the shooter, one guy sounding like a rag horn and the other sounding like a mature growly old bull, mixed in with cow calls.