There really is no substitute for a properly made call. It’s the thing that gets the hunt started in the first place so you want a call that is going to make you happy and produce results.
I have always found wood (hardwood to be exact) to be the best for giving an authentic sound. There are plenty of plastic calls out there on the market but you just can’t get the natural sound and tone out of them that you can with a wood call.
The call is the only thing you have to get the coyotes coming to you. And if you can’t do that then what are you out there for after all?
Real Wood Natural Game Calls
Wood calls (and again I mean hardwood) just can’t be beat. There is something about using a part of nature in the in the call that gives it a truer and more natural sound.
You are trying to fool a very clever animal. We all know just how easy it is for these guys to get the slightest hint of the presence of a human and turn tail and run. So the closer you get to nature the better it’s going to be.
Wood is the essence of the outdoors. After all, they call it The Woods don’t they? A wood call has grain and depth that you just can’t mimic with man-made plastics.
Buying the call is the main expense, after that you are just replacing the reeds. I have never understood why people try to save money on something that is so integral to the whole process. And, I have never been able to get what I consider a true natural sound with a plastic call. Remember, these guys can pretty well hear you think. We’ve all had the experience of one small slip or extra movement tipping off the coyote and sending him bolting. So why give him one more thing to get nervous about?
Tuning Your Call
The next important point is tuning the call. All of the calls I sell are personally hand tuned before they’re sent out but it helps to know a bit about changing the internal reed when it gets worn out or blown out and you can easily do that in the field and not waste any quality hunting time. You can find reed replacement kits on my website and you should always carry one with you “just in case”.
In many cases mass produced plastic calls are sent out with reeds that have been installed by machine and no one hand tunes them. This can result in a cottontail call sounding like a jackrabbit and vice versa or the call just clamps down when you try to blow it and you don’t get any volume out of it so unless you have a reed replacement kit with you, or another call, that one just isn’t going to work for what you purchased it for.
Replacing Reeds
Replacing a reed is fast and relatively easy with the reed replacement kit and if you want to try to tune the reed to get a deeper sound it is possible but tricky and that is why I supply both the cottontail and jackrabbit replacement reeds in the kit. That way you won’t make a mistake trying to tune the reed yourself and ruin it.
Calls Tuned By a Professional
There are real hard and fast rules about how to do this, and this is where you can have fun with it and really make it your own – if you know how. You can get your own sound just the way you want it. Adjust the reed to get the sound perfect.
Trust me, at the end of the day if you did it correctly your kill count will tell you if you did it right. But again if you don’t want to wonder if you got it right just purchase quality hardwood calls hand tuned by a professional.
Happy Hunting!
Dan
