I got the new Randy Anderson howler by Primos. I like the sound of it and you can take the mouthpiece off and use it separately. I have about 7 or 8 howlers and I think I like the old Primos howler for $12.99 best. It is the easiest to use for me, but the new howler is more versatile as the mouthpiece can be used by itself. I guess you could do that with the old howler but the read wasn't as versatile. I didn't buy the Ki-Yi because that can be made on just about any open reed call. You must remember that putting the primos name on the call adds dollars to the price tag. I was afraid when Randy hooked up with Will Primos that his videos would start to go downhill and the new one proves that. We lost the old Randy and are starting to get the commercial Randy. Money has a way of doing that. Randy's old videos are the best because of his personality and his down-home style. When he went commercial with Primos I knew he would start to lose some of that. Nothing against Primos, but Will Primos and his videos don't do much for me. Randy took the field by storm with his earlier videos because he was just a good old boy who liked to call coyotes like the rest of us. I still like him and his videos, but the almighty dollar has once again reared its ugly head. I don't blame Randy. It is just the way of the world.
It is just like I don't blame farmers and ranchers who lease out their land to outfitters. They can have people on their land hunting for free or than can have paying hunters. I blame the outfitters who are tying up the land for a profit. I know of an outfitter in eastern Montana who has a million acres tied up for deer and elk. His gross sales for deer alone was $500,000. That doesn't include elk and antelope. I grew up in eastern Montana and hunted wherever I wanted to back in the "old days". Maybe I am jealous because I could have done the same thing. But it wasn't in my upbringing to lock up land for my profit. By the way, this outfitter is not a local boy, but an out-of-stater. All of the local boys that used to hunt on all of those ranches that comprise the million acres can't hunt those lands like they used to. I don't blame the ranchers and farmers because the outfitter is responsible for controlling the hunting on his land and the rancher or farmer get paid for it. I know of a farm in eastern Montana where I used to hunt. The farmer lets friends and family hunt on his place for no fee. Most people give him a nice tip. A few years ago a big name outdoor writer whose name most of you would recognize tried to lease his land. When the writer put the carrot in front of the farmer's face that he could make a lot of money, the farmer said no thanks. There are some things that money can't buy. For everything else there is MasterCard. If the writer would have gotten the hunting rights it would have been only people with big money hunting on that place. The local boys would have been out. If you have money you can hunt anyplace you want. I am proud to know that farmer, but couldn't have blamed him for giving in with the situation of the ag and beef industry.
Sorry for the rambling. I will get down off my soapbox now.
