Crow Busters Forum

Day Day · Member

Talk me into or out of a new caller

Chrisnick · Member

You obviously haven't researched Foxpro much. I haven't hunted with many of them and also belong to a lot of forums where there are tons of complaints.

You can also look at Minaska outdoors and if you wanna spend some coin on the best, look at Wildlife Technologies.

One thing I can tell you is Wildlife Tech uses 100% real animal vocalizations, never man made like all the other brands.

Good luck.

Big Honkers · Guru

There are complaints about every brand in every line of business.

Foxpro is quality and stands behind their product. I wouldn't second guess that.

I personally would spend the higher amount of cash on a quality unit. This assumes you are fairly serious about crow hunting and that you will continue to hunt them for many years to come. The economy level units will most likely leave you "wanting more" over time. Plus, as you stated, the resale on these units is pretty strong so if you sell it you would get a decent percentage of your money back.

Good Hunting,

BH

Butch · Guru

BH is spot on.

Butch

boba · Guru

I have heard that with the Wildlife Tech units that you can not download other calls such as Johnny Stewart they only have there calls in those units. I have also heard that there customer service is not that good whereas Fox Pro has outstanding customer service.

Gadget Bob · Guru

Hi Day,

In the interest of full disclosure, both BobA and I, along with Skip Woody, are on the Crow Division Field Staff of FOXPRO. Skip and I were recruited last year and Bob has been on their team for many years.

That being said, I have used FOXPRO callers, starting with an FX3 for over 10 years. Years back I bit the bullet and ordered a Snow Crow I, later buying a Snow Pro Crow II that I contracted with the FOXPRO Custom Shop (Thanks, Steve Dillon!!!) to mount speakers directly upon for improved portability. The extreme volume and clarity of these devices are simply awesome for crow calling. And as Bob stated, unlike Wildlife Technology units, they play any .FXP, .WAV and .MP3 files FOXPRO innovations, such as FOXMOTION and FOXBANG are excellent features to improve on your crow calling results, too. They simply get the job done and are proudly made in the USA.

I used a variety of other manufacturers ecalling units over a lifetime of this pursuit, and can say from personal experience nobody beats FOXPRO for product quality, reliability and customer support. My smaller callers, such as my Fury, has fallen from the roof of my Toyota Tacoma many times on night hunts and just keeps on ticking. Once a dropped by Prairie Blaster from a high fence post, and while the integrated decoy began to rattle, the calling still worked perfectly. I returned the device to FOXPRO and they fixed that decoy mounting, sending it back to me in a week. Superior service is a cornerstone of their operation.

I always travel with two ecallers, two shotguns, multiple decoys and full redundancy on all critical crow hunting gear. I have never had to resort to a back-up FOXPRO. And also note Big Honkers himself is a FOXPRO user. How can anyone argue with that endorsement!

Good Luck and Good Hunting,

-- Edited by Gadget Bob on Thursday 10th of November 2016 01:21:57 AM

ecuchief · Senior Member

Hey Jeff

I also had a Alpha Dogg, as you said, it was good, but not the best. I had one unit that locked up and I could reproduce the issue, however Primos could not and returned the unit. I persisted amd they sent me a new replacement unit without asking for the other one back. So, I can't complain much about their service, just reliability. I lost confidence in the product and gave my replacement unit to a friend that wanted to get into predator hunting. I didn't get a chance to really test the new unit as I didn't get to hunt much.

I wouldn't say the Primos was bad, i just lost confidence in the product. As I also frequent the snow goose conservation season, I wanted a better caller, so I splurged and got a Foxpro Snow Crow Pro. I love the sound quality vs the Alpha Dogg, and to be honest, you better get better sound from a unit with twin, 30w loud speakers vs the small cones that Primos has.

In conjunction with quality speakers, you must have quality sounds. Cranking up the volume on either unit will result in crackly, distorted sounds. The other options you need to consider is the type of hunting you wish to do. The Snow Crow Pro is not as easy to carry due to the larger size vs the Alpha Dogg or other similar compact designs.

I think Foxpro is one of the best. I also think Primos is good, I like Foxpro better. Either way, finding quality sounds is something to consider and the option to be able to update/upload to the unit you buy.

Hope this helps

John

-- Edited by ecuchief on Thursday 10th of November 2016 01:06:57 AM

Redditch · Guru

Save your money, and get an FF5 American Crow (Caller)

That an electronic flapper (speed comtrol and interval, both completely variable) and a caller included.
It's Britosh made by Nick Tait at flightlinedecoys.co.uk (just bang www. In front of the name to get the web site) and is the Eolls Royce of flapper machines.
He has many different sorts of the FF5, I use the FF5 Bluetooth with remote, as tjats best suited to me (and the American model wasn't made at that time)
He also has a powered "bouncer" model he's just put into production, which rises and falls, during which it will flap its wings too, imitating a bird landing.

On all the FF5 models, speed is infinitely variable from 0-400 flaps per minute, and interval time from continuously on, to upto 3 minutes interval. They use top quality components, and are sprayed so don't rust.
So long as you remember to break the wings before mounting a dead bird (or allowing a frozen bird to defrost thoroughly), or use a "pro flap" type crow decoy, there will never be a burnt out motor.
Mounting dead birds is so simple, and takes just a few seconds to do, for a very lifelike decoy.

Get one and you won't be disappointed. He's getting a lot of business from the USA lately

BAYMAN718 · Senior Member

some hate...but i LOVE fox pro's....i currently use a crossfire with bob a's crow pack installed....and LOVE the fox bang feature..where upon firing your gun..it switches to a preset call...i have the crow distress set...and it has proved valuable brining crows back in for another pass after i have tagged two of their buddies...all hands free...