Are e-calls killing mouth calls and hand calls?

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OKRattler

Well-known member
Talking to a buddy of mine that coyote hunts an hour from where I do and he was asking me about which calls I like. Got to talking hand calling and he said he's never even used one. Never owned one to learn to use. That kind of floored me. It just made me wonder how many people are the same way and how hard of a hit hand call manufacturers and even custom call makers are taking because of the latest and greatest e-calls. It just seems as though it's a form of predator calling that is dying out. I don't know anyone that runs a mouth call much. If so it's very seldom.

Personally I keep one on me every time I go out and I'll use them fairly often. Especially on long walks where an e-call is just one less thing I'll have to carry. I started out with a hand call and personally I think everyone should learn off of one before getting an e-call. Nobody is really doing themselves any favors by not knowing how to use a howler or anything else that doesn't have a remote and hundreds of sounds to choose from. They're a cool tool to learn to use and that e-call ain't always guaranteed to work. Batteries run out, wiring can mess up and accidents like shooting the call can happen. A number of things. You don't want to be dead in the water, hours away from home with a broken call or no batteries and no other means of calling anything in. That's just my thoughts on it.

What do y'all think on this subject?
 
When you can pull off a den raid or a food fight with mouth calls, get back to me.

They are great, I love them, but the e-caller gives you alot of advantages. Puts the sound away from you, directs them to where you want them, etc. So many benefits to an e-caller. I still carry and use hand calls, but e-calls are clearly a better mousetrap.
 
I always have a few hand calls around my neck. I’m an e-call guy, but ain’t afraid to rip howls or distress on hand calls. Mine get used mostly when I happen to stumble upon a coyote while I’m mobile. Before I’m setup on a stand situation. If I find one out mousing or milling around, I grab my hand calls and go at them. And then there’s the dead battery or technical issues.
 
Hecouldgoalltheway said:
When you can pull off a den raid or a food fight with mouth calls, get back to me.

They are great, I love them, but the e-caller gives you alot of advantages. Puts the sound away from you, directs them to where you want them, etc. So many benefits to an e-caller. I still carry and use hand calls, but e-calls are clearly a better mousetrap.
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Better for sure, way more sound selection. But I've had more than one e-call run out of battery power on a cold day. That's when the hand call comes out. I'm not gonna get up off of a stand to mess with a call that's out of commission. I'd rather keep calling. It just blows my mind that there are people that don't even own one as a backup option. With practice they'd be surprised that howls, rabbit in distress, woodpecker and pup in distress are achievable with something that cost $20 or less. Those 4 sounds are generally more than good enough to catch a coyotes attention.
 
hunt0168 said:
. Before I’m setup on a stand situation. If I find one out mousing or milling around, I grab my hand calls and go at them. And then there’s the dead battery or technical issues.
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OKRattler said:
I'm not gonna get up off of a stand to mess with a call that's out of commission.
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Wouldn't think of going out without mouth calls for above reasons. Saved a many a stand where batteries pooped out or set call up just beyond remote range. They are also handy when you find a spot you don't want to expose yourself placing an ecaller; just sit down and start calling.
 
I learned how to call with mouth calls and still use them. I also use an e-call but that has come to be only in the last 6 or 7 years. I had friends that used e calls but the sounds were terrible. Those sounds have come a long way and the quality of the sound is so much better than they used to be. When hunting by myself, I grab hand calls and on rare occasion the e call. Primarily, I use the e call when all of my kids are with me just so I can get the sound and attention away from us. Never fails, we'll be sitting on a stand and I hear a candy wrapper, look over and see the little one playing with rocks and sticks, another picking his nose lol. You get the idea, I don't need any more attention on us than the kids are already giving them. If it's just one of the boys with me I like to use the hand calls because I can sit them right with me and when you get a charger come into your lap, the wide eyes and smiles are great!
 
We live in a technology crazed/dependent world. I'd imagine there are lots of "hunters" that have never called in a critter without an ecaller.

By far the biggest advantage to an ecaller is getting the sound away from you. Period. For a solo hunter that alone is a huge advantage. The sounds themselves run a distant second. When I use an ecaller I use maybe three sounds...that's it. There are times a hand call is the better option. Sneaking over a rise to call a valley on the other side, you can just sit, let things settle and start calling. No walking out, setting up the call and walking back, spreading around your scent. Then when finished walking back out to retrieve. Most of the time when there's two of us we still use hand calls most of the time.
 
Like others have said there is advantages to both. I'm a call maker and even still I use an e call for the advantages stated but have no problem leaving it in the truck when it inevitably fails and continuing the day with only handcalls.
Lots and lots of guys who start out with E calls are getting into the sport with a foxpro and then realizing as they get into it that knowing how to use a handcall is a beneficial tool to have in the coyote killing arsenal.
Many folks who buy calls from me have never blown a call before but are looking to learn now that they are into coyote hunting.
 
I'll make a point to clear up some of the misconceptions.

There are coyote tournaments every year in Texas specifically that are hand call only. There are a fraction of the number of coyotes killed in those tournaments.

If hand calls were as good or better than e-calls, your tournament guys would be using them in every tournament. Imagine how much easier life would be if you didn't have to carry, set and retrieve the call, especially in a tournament where you are running between stands and making every step to be the most time efficient. Don't lie to yourself, the efficacy isn't comparable, and it's the sounds more than it's anything else. My most productive sounds most of the year are fights and den raids, and you aren't going to make a convincing version of either with hand calls, and if you could, you'd be hyperventilating after 20 seconds. To pretend hand calls are as effective is wistful bs. I love them, I used them effectively for decades before I ever saw an e-call, but they are not as effective. If they were, e-calls wouldn't be a multi-billion dollar industry.
 
Hecouldgoalltheway said:
I'll make a point to clear up some of the misconceptions.

There are coyote tournaments every year in Texas specifically that are hand call only. There are a fraction of the number of coyotes killed in those tournaments.

If hand calls were as good or better than e-calls, your tournament guys would be using them in every tournament. Imagine how much easier life would be if you didn't have to carry, set and retrieve the call, especially in a tournament where you are running between stands and making every step to be the most time efficient. Don't lie to yourself, the efficacy isn't comparable, and it's the sounds more than it's anything else. My most productive sounds most of the year are fights and den raids, and you aren't going to make a convincing version of either with hand calls, and if you could, you'd be hyperventilating after 20 seconds. To pretend hand calls are as effective is wistful bs. I love them, I used them effectively for decades before I ever saw an e-call, but they are not as effective. If they were, e-calls wouldn't be a multi-billion dollar industry.
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Lol...sounds like you've got it worked out. No further discussion needed.
 
I hand call 95-98% of the time, and they work well for me.

I did get my start using an e-call, a car AM/FM cassette player, Radio Shack speaker horn and a small 12v. This worked very well for me for a couple of years, and then I started to get fairly decent with hand calls, and that was that.

If I were hunting in more limited sight areas, instead of the wide open spaces of Colorado, I would probably run an e-caller most of the time.

The ability of coyotes to know exactly where I am sitting and calling from is quite amazing, and it should be the same in limited sight areas, so in those spots, an e-caller could make a big difference.
 
Hecouldgoalltheway said:
That's what people say when they don't have anything substantial to say.
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Now that's something I believe you have experience with!

This is a message board with guys like to talk about hunting Coyotes. You posted your opinion at the top. There's no need for you to come on here to "clear up some of the misconceptions" on something you don't agree with like you're an authority on the matter.
 
I started out with open reed mouth calls 13 years ago, Randy Anderson calls from Primos did okay but I sure did look forward to my first e-caller, I still use mouth calls at times, like to answer the e-call or like some said, something happens and e-call quits.
 
I don't think anyone would argue that they're better or really any worse. I've called and killed hundreds of animals with a hand call. I've called and killed more with an e-call at this point in my life but I also use an e-call way more. So it's not really comparing apples to apples there either. Who's to say those same sounds I was playing on the FoxPro wouldn't have worked if they had been made on a hand call? A howl, rabbit distress, woodpecker and pup distress is literally what I've seen work more than any other sound. Which can be replicated on a hand call. So other than saving breath I don't see much advantage of the FoxPro other than volume. Since we're on that topic. I've called up very few coyotes with the e-call that I couldn't have with a hand call.

I've read diaphragm calls and some mouth calls produce ultrasonic sound that most e-calls won't. I can't say that's true or that it's not. But I do like the challenge of calling with a hand call and I think that a lot of people feel the same way. And for me it's a little more fun even because it's a sound I'm producing, not something that's on a continuous loop. Which in my mind may be enough to catch an animals attention if it's sounding differently and hitting a different pitch every now and again. But that's just one persons opinion.

But no, you can't replicate den raid or a coyote fight on a hand call like you can on a FoxPro. Which to me ain't too big of a deal because I have used Tony Tebbe's sound Den Raid and also I've used coyote fight on several stands to see if they would bring a coyote in. I've called and shot exactly 1 coyote from each of those sounds. So to me as far as the coyote fight or Den Raid sounds go I can take them or leave them. For no more than I've seen results from them I don't really see it as a huge game changer. At least not in the area I'm at. Coyotes growling and fighting and yelping hasn't sold more coyotes on realism for me than just plain pup kiyi. As a matter of fact I'd venture to guess hearing a coyote getting destroyed has probably scared more coyotes off of the call than anything.
 
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