Originally Posted By: shelton573I just bought a new Wildfire 2 off of ebay for $162 and just wondering if it was worth it in your alls opinion? I know they typically run around the $200 mark, I have never used one or even messed with one and just curious how well it works. My hunting partner has the FP Firestorm and we have killed a lot of coyotes over it, but he lives in MO and I live in Iowa and don't have access to it except when I go home to hunt. I typically use hand calls but decided to give this caller a shot. Anyone have any likes or dislikes about the caller that I should know about? Is it going to be fairly loud? Also, is the FoxJack decoy worth the money or should i just stick with the old trusty mojo critter? Foxpro has refurbs for $30 right now on their site and thought about picking one up. Thanks in advance for any info!
Shelton
Sorry, I am long winded on this post for some reason......
Heck yeah! I have had my wildfire II for about 2 years now. As long as they haven't been pressured too much, I can bring them in no problem. I used to be such a good shot and sucked at calling. Now is completely the opposite. I can call them in no problem, but I get so excited watching them come in that my shots suffer for it. For this reason I enjoy hunting with a partner. I record and do the calling while cousin/friend takes the shot. I try to get in a shot or two here and there. But again to answer your question, YES, absolutely. It works great for me as I dont hunt huge open expanses and dont need the hellfire volume. I hear the more expensive ones have more advanced calls and better quality sound but I have yet to need them.
I love my foxjack. Your critter should work just fine. I just wanted a decoy. Any would do. Keeps their attention on the movement of the decoy and not so much me and my movement.
Likes: small compact, only used 4 AAs. Bring in the coyotes better then anything I can do with my hand call but thats only because I suck at hand calling. Bought my buddy a set like mine and he amazed me as soon as he got them and realized how bad I suck. back to the likes: its green, batteries last probably about 30-50 45min stands(rough estimate)
Dislikes: after dropping both the remote and speaker a few good times, am experiencing a little stubbornness with the remote. If I get to crazy with the button pushing, using the recall button too much, it will sometimes stop working. Id have to turn off and on again until it worked. happened twice now. No biggie. Just dont drop your stuff. Get a nice sling for it. and wrist strap for the remote. problem solved. Also, dont forget to set the foxbang to the weaker setting or just banging it on something will set off your foxbang and possibly blow a few stands. I was stubborn and had to learn the hard way. No real dislikes about it. Wish the quality was a little better sounding but it works great and have no problem calling anything in.
I recommend you space out your calls and dont let them continuously run. Learn how loud the calls are, the pauses in the calls, and be prepared to mute it when it pauses so you dont end up pausing in the middle of a scream or chirp or bark. I am not perfect nor is anyone else but were trying for authenticity here so do your best. For example, I went out this past sunday to one of my 100% spots and started out with vole squeaks which I just let play unless I am going to increase the volume which sounds funny if you increase while running so I pause/mute. Increase volume to 15+ or so depending on the spot as VSqueaks isn't that loud. Use your judgment on your area how loud you should be. After 5 min I switched to nutty nuthatch. I let the caller play the sequence through one time, then as soon as it stopped, I pressed mute/pause. I made sure to wait about 10-20 seconds and then let it play again and repeat. I also try to stop it in different spots so it doesnt end the same every time. By the 3rd or 4th time I had two coming in on the opposite side of the wash.
I have called a coyote in with two screams of Jackrabbit distress before. was having a problem with remote communicating with caller(not elevated enough). Caller came on for two screams and them I shot it off by accident and wouldn't come back on. I was on volume power 4 so it is quite a bit louder than vole squeaks or field mouse distress. I was messing with the remote trying to get it to work and looked up to see a coyote noticing me messing around. It came in within 30 second. Was super quick so most of it is experience. More you get out there the more you will learn. Watching videos for new ideas always helps. I recommend Foxpro Furtakers. I happen to like the Arizona episode. Classic AZ yote hunting. Made me laugh because its just like that for me sometimes. I connect very well with that one.
So anyway, you can get some good ideas from other people and just trying out new stuff in general.
I have had success with just about every sound on there. I have called in fox, coyotes, birds, javelina, hunters, rabbits, snowbirds walking their dogs and even a few deer with it.
Sound spacing and sound volume, time of day, weather conditions play a big part in success IMO.
All these things mean nothing if there arent any dogs in the area. So scouting can be key to your hunting.
Good luck and stick to it!
