June 20, 2017
By David Draper
Electronic predator callers are the answer to fooling ever-more-educated furbearers. To give you the edge on the rest of the pack, we put the leading electronic predator callers to the test.
Here are three of the best.
Editor's Choice - PRIMOS ALPHA DOGG
About the only thing this Transformer-like caller doesn't include is a recording of Megan Fox's sultry siren's song. The unit does come with 75 other calls preprogrammed into it, along with six full-hunt sequences designed by famed fur-taker Randy Anderson. Two gigabytes of memory allow for up 1,000 sounds total, all powered by two 25-watt digital amplifiers. Twin cone speakers fold out and articulate 180 degrees, and a single horn speaker blasts out high-frequency screams and howls. The hefty, hand-filling remote is easy to read and use. $392; primos.com
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FOXPRO FUSION
Though the casual caller might be intimidated by the price, professional predator hunters know with cost comes one of the highest-quality, best-sounding callers on the market. From the full-featured remote, hunters can dial in 100 preprogrammed sounds, while controlling volume, pitch, and the ability to mix and match two sounds at once or fade between speakers to mimic moving prey. For the real geek gunner, the Fusion can record real-time information about weather and hunt data to highlight best times for calling in critters of all types. The unit does require a bit of an education to get the most bang for your buck. $500; gofoxpro.com
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JOHNNY STEWART GRIMM SPEAKER GS2
Budget hunters who like to stick and move will appreciate this handy little e-caller. Inside the compact housing is a four-inch cone speaker that blasts up to 110 decibels of clear, lifelike sounds. Though the unit comes with just 10 of Johnny Stewart's authentic sounds, hunters can download more into the 256 megabytes of memory. The remote, with a 100-yard range, is easy to use, but my aging eyes had trouble reading the small display in bright sunlight. Still, the Grimm Speaker's affordable price and utilitarian performance earned it a place in my truck. $120 ; hunterspec.com
David Draper
Editor-in-Chief
An avid hunter and accomplished writer, David Draper has traveled the globe in search of good stories and good food, yet his roots remain firmly planted in the soil of his family's farm on the High Plains of Nebraska. As a young man, his dreams were fueled by daily trips to the original Cabela's retail store, which stood a short four blocks from his childhood home. The ensuing years spent chasing his passions for adventure and the outdoors have taken him from the shores of Africa's Gambia River to Alaska's Brooks Range. He has hunted birds and big-game on five of the seven continents.
A 20-year industry veteran, Draper has worked in communications, writing and editing roles for the biggest names in the industry. In addition to bylines in scores of publications, he also served as the editor for the hunting journals of Dick and Mary Cabela and contributed to several books on the outdoors. Draper is Editor-in-Chief of Petersen's Hunting magazine, where he also writes the Fare Game column covering all aspects of processing and cooking wild game.
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