I bought my dad a Primos Turbo Dogg caller for Christmas to me used mainly for crow hunting.
It comes with a few crow sounds, but Primos offers some others for sale on their website. I thought I might add more crow sounds and was wondering if anyone with first hand experience might could tell me which Primos crow sounds are the best.
Dad's birthday is in February so I'm going to probably get him a Johnny Stewart CD as well a one of Bob A's CD's if he likes the Turbo Dogg.
the ones that work! In a crow shoot you don't use different ones educating all the birds-stick with one from that shoot then try a different one the next time out if you must frequent that area repeatedly. Crow shooting is a science indeed-not at all like shooting at water fowl
I know someone who uses the same calls so much in an over worked area that they refused to come to any electronic calling at all!
Hint: if the crows are headed to your decoy set up there is no need to turn on your caller! why educate them when you don't have to?
I have an Alpha Dogg which comes loaded with more sounds than the Turbo. I have also purchased some additional sounds, although most of the calls I have on it are not actually Primos crow sounds. The Primos sounds that I do have that I like are Crow Mob, Crow & Baby Owl, Crow Young (they get pretty upset about the young crow!), and Crow Attack.
Not sure what MoDeke means, but I don't find that playing one call works. They will pick up on the repetition. I try to mix it up a little bit with the friendly set up first, but try to not over call. And, I would not recommend frequenting any area repeatedly regardless of the variety of sounds.
Welcome and good luck!
Jerry
-- Edited by Rook-ie on Tuesday 24th of December 2013 02:20:04 AM
I have an Alpha Dogg which comes loaded with more sounds than the Turbo. I have also purchased some additional sounds, although most of the calls I have on it are not actually Primos crow sounds. The Primos sounds that I do have that I like are Crow Mob, Crow & Baby Owl, Crow Young (they get pretty upset about the young crow!), and Crow Attack.
Not sure what MoDeke means, but I don't find that playing one call works. They will pick up on the repetition. I try to mix it up a little bit with the friendly set up first, but try to not over call. And, I would not recommend frequenting any area repeatedly regardless of the variety of sounds.
Welcome and good luck!
Jerry
Thanks for the info. The Turbo Dogg only came with Crow Attack and Crow 1 on it. I'll probably at least add the Crow Young and either Crow Mob or Crow Frenzy before I give it to him on Christmas morning.
Did you purchase your other sounds as CD's or just as downloadable mp3 files? If I could find a good spot to buy some Johnny Stewart or Bob A sounds, then I wouldn't mind doing that.
As for the crow hunting around here, we don't have roosts with large numbers of crows or any orchards or things of that nature where we might be able to set up blinds and shoot for several hours at a time. Here the crows are scattered around assorted farmland, clearcuts and the like. To hunt them, we have to run and gun. Making stops every few miles at likely spots and calling for a few minutes before heading on down the road. This is made more difficult by the fact that the area is made up primarily of private land and land leased to hunting clubs.
To cover much territory, you really need to have permission from at least a few leases and landowners. Fortunately, between myself, my dad and my uncle, we have access to 7 or 8 parcels of private land as well as 5 or 6 leases. Still, all of that can be covered in a morning if the crows aren't stirring well.
-- Edited by Rook-ie on Tuesday 24th of December 2013 02:20:04 AM
Same here as far as crow numbers. There are some big roosts forming up this winter, but I get a "D+" for obtaining permission and scouting relentlessly. If you run and gun mostly, I think most of the experts on here, like Bob, and Big Honkers, and NH12, and many others would say go with the "fighting" calls. That Young Crow might work well, too. Bob's CD is great. I don't think that Johnny Stewart calls are .mp3 format or convertible to .mp3.
Many of my calls I have "found" on the internet as general nature and bird sounds. Many of these I use software called "Converter Lite" to convert to .mp3 format if need be. I also have used my smartphone this year to capture my own field sounds on the voice recorder app. I made a "bell" of sorts that I attach to the microphone end of my smartphone and suck up nature sounds. As someone pointed out, you just don't want to be recording and playing danger calls! Hahaha. The best ones for me have been gathering calls at first light captured during bow season. Hell, I'm already sitting there waiting for deer -- might as well. It works so well that one morning I was recording crows and when I played it back all I could hear was the babbling brook next to me. Oops!
Also, I like to used "Audacity" software on my computer to edit sounds of all kinds. You can copy and paste a series, break up a series and build your own cadence, and then save it. It's a little complicated.
By the way, if you run and gun, try the other Primos predator sounds to attract crows, like the cottontail or squirrel in distress, or even fawn in distress. They seem pretty interested in a free meal!
Now, saving new homemade sounds to your e-caller is a little tricky. You need to go to the "summary" of the audio file and type in the name of the file in the right locations, or it will most likely show up as "[no name]" on the caller. If you look at the Primos brand sounds, you can see where they type in the file name.
Finally, on the Primos callers, you can create your own "expert" hunts called "my hunts." I built one for friendly and one for fighting set ups that will just run with silence built in and various sounds to simulate a "conversation." Still experimenting with that, but it's fun.