Rookie Predator Hunter, E-Caller Suggestion

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knighttime22

New member
Hello everyone, "new" to predator hunting and new to the forum! I've dabbled in predator hunting over the years but it was more just an excuse to get into the woods. Anyhow, I'm on a lease now in central Texas with quite a few dogs, a couple bobcats and foxes. There's only a handful of spots on the property that are wide open most of the property is thick mesquite/cedar brush. I mainly try to predator hunt at the first couple of hours in the morning or evening, although I'm tempted to get into the night calling as well but I think I'll need a thermal over digital NV to be successful due to the dense brush.

Anyhow, with that said myself and a lease member are looking to purchase an E-Caller but I've got to be honest I have no idea what to pursue after reading some threads. I would originally like something with programmed hunts as I hone my craft to better understand the unit and better understand what our animals react to best. I've looked through several threads with a lot of FoxPro references but then I see folks with a lot of remote issues. I see people throwing out LD but in limited fashion. I see Icotec and I was leaning this direction due to remote functionality. I'm thinking I'd prefer a digital display on the remote versus a button setup but I guess I could be convinced either way.

Any help in some units I should be focusing on would be fantastic! Thinking we'd probably like to keep it under $400-$500 for now.
 
Luther Calvin said:
I've used a cheap dollar store blu tooth speaker and my phone with free sounds downloaded from the Internet as my first ecall. It worked!
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We have a cheapo primos one of some sort out there and we've killed a couple dogs off of it, but I'm always fighting the remote plus the sound quality isn't really great. Reminds me of the old Johnny Stewart I had as a kid
 
knighttime22 said:
We have a cheapo primos one of some sort out there and we've killed a couple dogs off of it, but I'm always fighting the remote plus the sound quality isn't really great. Reminds me of the old Johnny Stewart I had as a kid
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Gotcha, I have a cheaper fox pro model I use now, I think it is the predator model. It works for me, but I am in the thick rolling hills in PA and I find myself more often using hand calls. I don't set it out far anyway so I just figured I might as well just use them on most stands.
 
Luther Calvin said:
Gotcha, I have a cheaper fox pro model I use now, I think it is the predator model. It works for me, but I am in the thick rolling hills in PA and I find myself more often using hand calls. I don't set it out far anyway so I just figured I might as well just use them on most stands.
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Yeah I went ahead and bought a cottontail distress mouth call to give a whirl, might end up being better than an E-Caller.
 
i use a foxpro patriot, works good. for starting off its all you need or something like it.

my next call will be the hellcat pro, it comes with a motion decoy and has foxbang which starts playing a different sound when it hears the gunshot. you can set it to play coyote distress, whimpers, anything you think will stop a coyote as its running away after the shot. works good when more than one coyote comes to the call.

the purpose of the foxbang feature is to try and stop the other one thats running away so you can bag a double.

stop shooting dogs...shoot coyotes instead ;)
 
bohunr said:
i use a foxpro patriot, works good. for starting off its all you need or something like it.

my next call will be the hellcat pro, it comes with a motion decoy and has foxbang which starts playing a different sound when it hears the gunshot. you can set it to play coyote distress, whimpers, anything you think will stop a coyote as its running away after the shot. works good when more than one coyote comes to the call.

the purpose of the foxbang feature is to try and stop the other one thats running away so you can bag a double.

stop shooting dogs...shoot coyotes instead ;)
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Yeah I was looking at the different features the higher end fox pros come with and it seemed a little more than I needed but heck you never know!

Around here they're yotes or dogs...just second nature to type how we talk
 
After owning 3 FPs I went to Icotec Nightstalker+ and am not looking back. As far as Foxbang-learn to use a mouth call (don't need to anyways near perfect) and you can kiyi, bark, howl, or just yell to sometimes get them to stop without fidgeting with the remote.
 
Which ever one you pick get the largest display you can if your using it at night. I have an older FP and I cannot read the display at night,
 
jmeddy said:
After owning 3 FPs I went to Icotec Nightstalker+ and am not looking back. As far as Foxbang-learn to use a mouth call (don't need to anyways near perfect) and you can kiyi, bark, howl, or just yell to sometimes get them to stop without fidgeting with the remote.
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Kwarw1 said:
Which ever one you pick get the largest display you can if your using it at night. I have an older FP and I cannot read the display at night,
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Thanks for the advice/knowledge!
 
They all call predators, I just started hunting for this season and the first stand called a double with a Foxpro Patriot, it's light and handy. I also have a FP CS-24, Wildlife Tech, Minaska M-1 Bandit and a JS Grim Reaper. Hunting a small patch occasionally I wouldn't spend a lot on a caller. Pick a caller by features you can actually use. The first thing I did was turn off fox bang, it is a pain, even with the sensitivity set high there are time it would come unexpectedly. I do not like the idea of an attached decoy as it really limits your caller placement. Remember a predators eyes are only at your knee level or below so any ground cover will obscure a decoy.

How I like to set up with a decoy.
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Good luck ànd have fun
 
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