Coming from a time when there were no such thing as e-callers you had to learn how to call using mouth calls or you weren't hunting! About 35 years ago I got connected with Ed Sceery and he sent some of his experimental stuff up my way. No one up here ever used howlers and the thought wasn't even in our minds. I tried them but didn't know the different call sequences to get any response other than to howl with a few barks so it didn't get used much.
Fast forward when e-callers became available and guys were having success I still resisted their use feeling like I was cheating. I took pride knowing I called it in with my own wit. A great example (one I still recall) was one morning quietly slipping into an open pocket by a creek. I worked the wind, set up in a little open crouch between two bush lots and set my decoy (one I made from an old servo and a RC car controller) gave a tiny squeak and bang! a coyote popped up 60 yards from me from behind a log. Looking right through me I couldn't move or he'd bust me. So I flicked the switch on the remote and he turned his ear toward the noise of the servo motor in the rabbit decoy. Once he looked at it he lost all guard and bolted for it. My gun, trained on the decoy was ready for the blur of fur to come into view. Fooling a coyote with mouth calls gave me a great sense of achievement.
After almost a 15 year break from the game I finally bought an e-caller this winter. I still ran my mouth calls for rabbit distress and so on but that e-caller can outperform me in the coyote sounds hands down! When you hit "play" you get a perfect call every time, and not just howls but fights, female calls vrs male call and pups too. These sounds alone opened up my eyes this year as I was able to call coyotes that would never have normally come in with my rabbit distress calls. so for me, it's just another tool in the bag but I'll never leave the mouth calls at home.
