36 replies to this topic

[clampdaddy]

My old Lohmann tape player is still gettin the job done but I'm tired of tripping over the cord when getting in and out of my crow blind and it seems like the tape always needs to be flipped when there is a flock working overhead. By the start of the next season I want to go wireless but I don't want to spend a ton of cash. I want something that is as loud as my old call, I need at least six hours of battery life, and I want to be able to plug a charger to it instead of dealing with a bunch of rechargeable AA batteries every time I go out. I've been thinking about the Minaska M-1 because Midway has them on clearance but as small as it is it makes me wonder if there is enough room in there to fit a loud enough speaker and enough battery power to run it for very long. I was also thinking about one of the fox pros but most of them are pretty expensive. Any suggestions.

[OrneryOlMofo357]

On a few forums Guys are hurting for cash, or upgrading their callers I dont know what your $ limit is, but I see a few go at good prices on Predator masters. A Foxpro Scorpion has the same size amp as the FX5, and with an external speaker can get pretty loud. I have a Horn speaker for mine that I got from Radio Shack but rarely use it. Id think that for around $300 or less you could find something. Im thinking that Minaska was sold? I dont hear much about them like I did 2 years ago when they were competing with Foxpro. As far as the charging, at least on a Foxpro, you can plug it into the wall and recharge the aa batteries, and also with a Cig lighter plug. I saw a Minaska and a Scorpion on PM in the last week or so, may want to take a look. Also NPHA forums has them at times too. Good Luck.

[jawbreaker]

I really like my foxpro. My buddy bought a minaska at the same time that they were bought by PLANO(I think it was Plano, they were definately bought out), he waited a long time to get his caller and wasn''t thrilled with the service. It could have just been because they were making a transition but who knows. I do know that you can't go wrong with a foxpro.

[CoyoteHuntress]

FoxPro I have the Fx3 and love it...

[rabiddog]

Give the Fox Pro Spitfire a look. For 200 bucks you get 24 sounds of your choice and mine works great and has called in at least 20 Coyotes and 2 Bobcats and i have not had it a year yet.

[Rich Cronk]

I really like my foxpro. My buddy bought a minaska at the same time that they were bought by PLANO(I think it was Plano, they were definately bought out), he waited a long time to get his caller and wasn''t thrilled with the service. It could have just been because they were making a transition but who knows. I do know that you can't go wrong with a foxpro.

-------------------------------Minaska calls are now "MAD" calls, by the decoy maker Flambeau.

[jawbreaker]

I knew it was one of the companies that make fishing gear also, Thanks for clarifying Rich.

[clampdaddy]

Give the Fox Pro Spitfire a look. For 200 bucks you get 24 sounds of your choice and mine works great and has called in at least 20 Coyotes and 2 Bobcats and i have not had it a year yet.

I was thinking about that model but I read that it only takes four AA batteries. I can't imagine it lasting for six hours of non-stop crow calling. If it was going to be used just for predator hunting that is definitely the one I would get. Can you plug it to an external power source to make it play for longer periods of time?

[Shoot-it]

I have one come on by and check it if you want.Mine just has crow fight but you can get a sd card just for crow.It has a plug for an extra speaker to. The battery's will last all day.

[clampdaddy]

Which one do you have Johnny?

[clampdaddy]

I ordered a Fox Pro Firestorm today. They'll program the 50 sounds I asked for and ship on friday or monday. For the first time I'll have 12 different crow sounds at my finger tips and no cassette tapes to flip.

[JimT.]

Foxpro is the way to go with e-callers!

[HOG]

Foxpro is the way to go with e-callers!

DITTO

[Ken43]

I had a Spitfire, didn't like it. I upgraded to the Firestorm. That is a great piece of equipment.

[JimT.]

Call Tim Lewis. Foxpro rep in this area, and see if he can find one used someone's trying to sell cheap. I have the Foxpro 416b with 16 sounds and remote and it works just fine. You don't NEED 500 sounds to be successful. You probably only need a handful of sounds that are realistic to attract them. I'm sure the Indians did just fine without their e-callers. They are nice to have but you don't have to have the top-of-the-line model to be successful. I love all the whistles and bells not to mention decoys but it's not a necessity. Our bet our most successful callers keep it very simple. KISS. Keep It Simple, Seriously. You can go to Bass Pro and pick up "Coyote Rage" and Tim and Mike will walk you through what you need. It's simple. You can wear gray pants to match standing against a tree with an earth colored plaid shirt and blend in with your environment. Don't move. You don't have to have expensive camo and ghillie suits. I know two very successful predator hunters that rely almost exclusively on the shotgun. Also, my choice of comfort. I swear by the Benelli Super Black Eagle in 3.5 " with Carlson's Dead Coyote choke and Dead Coyote shot. It works out to near the 100 yard range. See the 95 yard shot taken in "Coyote Rage I." Go out there and do it. It's a learning experience every time you go out.

[ShooterJohn]

Jim he already ordered the caller and just so you know Tim Lewis moved back East. He moved several months ago.

[JimT.]

SJ, I did not hear that Tim moved back east. I heard that Heath Gilbert moved back to Missouri. Are you confusing the two or did Tim move? Sorry about that. I hadn't heard a word from Tim in months. Wow, I've been in the dark too long.

[Yodel Dog]

...and just so you know Tim Lewis moved back East. He moved several months ago.

Those eastern coyotes called Tim in.

[Rich Cronk]

Call Tim Lewis. Foxpro rep in this area, and see if he can find one used someone's trying to sell cheap. I have the Foxpro 416b with 16 sounds and remote and it works just fine. You don't NEED 500 sounds to be successful. You probably only need a handful of sounds that are realistic to attract them. I'm sure the Indians did just fine without their e-callers. They are nice to have but you don't have to have the top-of-the-line model to be successful. I love all the whistles and bells not to mention decoys but it's not a necessity. Our bet our most successful callers keep it very simple. KISS. Keep It Simple, Seriously. You can go to Bass Pro and pick up "Coyote Rage" and Tim and Mike will walk you through what you need. It's simple. You can wear gray pants to match standing against a tree with an earth colored plaid shirt and blend in with your environment. Don't move. You don't have to have expensive camo and ghillie suits. I know two very successful predator hunters that rely almost exclusively on the shotgun. Also, my choice of comfort. I swear by the Benelli Super Black Eagle in 3.5 " with Carlson's Dead Coyote choke and Dead Coyote shot. It works out to near the 100 yard range. See the 95 yard shot taken in "Coyote Rage I." Go out there and do it. It's a learning experience every time you go out.

-------------------------------------------Jim,I would love to see some photos of the patterns you are getting at 100 yards. I have never yet seen any choke/load combo that delivers anything even close to "sure kill" patterns on coyotes at 100 yards. Maybe yours will be the very first.

[NVWalt]

I would also like to see some patterns at that range. Might make me switch to a whole differant scattergun for my "long" shots. Seriously, I would be very interested in a scattergun that works at that range. And I don't mean just an unlucky day for the coyote shot. I have made just a few of those over the years but nothing past 50 or so yards..Walt

[Yodel Dog]

If I remember correctly, that 95 yard shot was an attempt to kill a wounded coyote and was a follow-up shot that contained the proverbial "Golden BB", and was not the primary shot.

[CA Desert Dog]

I like the Minaska callers. I think their sound is superior to the Foxpro. I have one and I am very happy with its performance.

[clampdaddy]

I have a bridge in Arizona that I'll sell to anybody that thinks a shotgun firing loose shot is good to almost 100 yards. Better hurry though, the guys that'll move it for you might not be in that state for much longer. Fox pro was waiting on a shipment of the LCD screens used in the remotes of the new Firestorms but it got shipped today and should be in my hands on the 30th.

[OrneryOlMofo357]

Good luck with your new caller.. let us know how it works...

[clampdaddy]

My new foxpro came in today and I've already used it to play a little joke on my wife. I hid it in the walk in closet and waited for her to go in there, then I played the field mouse call nice and low. Freaked her out! She thought that we already had mice in our fairly new house. The predator hunting sounds are great, the crow hunting sounds.....not so much. Two or three are very serviceable but most of the others sound really echo'y. I'm going to have someone convert my old sounds that are on CD to mp3 format and then download them onto the foxpro. That should solve the problem. I got an adapter so I can use the horn speaker from my old call as an auxiliary speaker on the new one. Now I just need to get an external battery pack to extend the run time.I set up the fox bang to switch to a dieing crow when a shot goes off. I think that'll be a neat feature to have in the field.

[Possumal]

clampdaddy: Here is a link to a good, free file converter: http://www.mediaconverter.org/. Just put your cd sounds on your computer and then convert them to mp3, and then put them on your ecaller.Good hunting at ya!

[wannakillacoyote]

This is the tool I use to rip my CD's to MP3's. Works pretty good and fast. I think it defaults to putting your files into your my music folder in a folder called mp3. Once the app is running you just hit F9 I believe to rip the sounds to mp3.http://download.cnet....html?tag=mncolHow much was the firestorm??

[clampdaddy]

How much was the firestorm??

The unit plus rechargeable batteries, charging cord, and shipping came out to just under $465. I had my friend put my old sounds on it and I made an external battery pack out of two six volt batteries hooked up in line with a 4 amp fuse. It works great. I couldn't take a gun with me but I ran it out at a buddys place just to test it and it brought the crows in no time. Here's a pic of the crow hunting set up. For predator hunting I'll just use the unit by itself without the extra speaker and battery pack.

[Heywood]

I called FoxPro today with some questions as I found a distributor with a good price. The Firestorm is basically the next gen FX3 and the GX7 is the next FX5. If you buy through a distributor you can't pick your sounds but it comes with a pretty good selection of 50 of their choice. See attached PDF. Additional sounds are bundled in 4, 8, 16 packs for $8, $15, $25 respectively. I forgot to ask but I assume they are their proprietary format. He did say that battery life and sound quality are pretty much the same exc. for the Fury can play 24-bit sounds whereas the Firestorm are 16. I doubt I could tell the difference or the critters.  soundlist.pdf   260.07K   37 downloads

[clampdaddy]

Allpredatorcalls.com sells them and they'll load the 50 sounds you want onto the unit.