Predator Call

Using common sense and keeping something simple is generally the best approach to most situations.  Experience has taught me that this is especially true when choosing a decoy for calling predators.  A turkey tail feather is extremely lightweight, therefore easy to carry, does not require batteries, does not make noise and does not produce an obnoxious odor.  A tail feather is a flat feather, therefore any air movement will cause it move. 

I tie the feather to a 30 inch 1/8th” fiberglass rod using 4 to 6 lb. mono-filament line.  In order to keep the feather from tangling, use a swivel on the rod and another swivel on the feather.  I love this simple, highly portable decoy for a couple of reasons.  One, is the predator knows where the sound is coming from and expects to see some motion.  Stick the fiberglass rod in the ground next to the electronic game call and mate the sound with a visual aid.  Two, if the wind should change while sitting on a stand, the feather will show you the direction.  This is extremely important when calling coyotes as they will most always go to the downwind of the distress sound. 

I started calling critters on the family ranch in 1963.  Ironically, the first call that I ever purchased was not a Burnham Brothers rather one made by Herter’s.  Even though the call was not made by Burnham Brothers, it would still call a fox, raccoon, bobcat or coyote.  Since that original purchase, the only call that I have ever used was made by Burnham Brothers though other brands might work as well.

Since that time, I have hunted with other folks that used electronic callers from record players to eight track players, four track players, cassette players and CD players.  I was never convinced that I could call more critters with electronics than I could with a mouth call.  When Burnham Brothers built the Compucaller II with remote capabilities, I started using it because there were no speaker wires.  I always hated the hassle of unrolling and rolling up the wires going to the speaker.

To this day, I am not going to promise you that you will call more critters with an electronic caller than you can with a hand call as this is difficult to measure.  I will tell you that over the years, we typically killed an average of 50% of the coyotes we saw respond to our calling.  The first year I used the Compucaller II, we killed 70% of the coyotes we saw come to the call.  I have been shooting over the Compucaller II and Compucaller III for five years and my killing percentage has ranged from 68% to 71%. 

I feel the reason for this improved killing percentage is for two reasons.  One is obvious, the responding critter’s attention is directed to something other than the person working the hand call.  Two, set the caller where the critter will have to expose himself when it responds to the sound.      

While the coyote may not have the great vision of a wild turkey or the ability to hear any better than a bobcat, it’s olfactory senses more than make up for it.  A coyote depends on his sense of smell more than any other sense that it possesses.  I have watched coyotes approach food such as a dead rabbit or bird lying in an open area.  While his vision tells him that the dead critter is obviously food, he will not pick it up until he moves downwind and verifies it with his nose. 

When calling predators, I will on occasion use animal scents in an attempt to temporarily confuse the coyote that gets my wind.  This short period of time might be the difference in getting off a shot and just watching a coyote speed away at a high rate of speed.