Calling on the hunt is a bit of a gray area. More often than not, we’re mentored into our roles as provided by others around us. Whether they’re our parents, friends, guides or other hunters, we listened, watched and learned the ropes, including “don’t move around” and “keep quiet.” Calling cuts across that grain in pretty dramatic fashion, but doing so can mean the difference between not seeing anything and filling a freezer.
Even armed with this simple truth, calling can be a bit uncomfortable, and learning is generally through observing and emulating, trial and effort, mentoring or some combination thereof. For novice hunters, breaking the silence can be difficult to overcome, and keeping quiet is downright deafening.
That said, comfort levels related to calling can benefit retailers and hunters alike. More often than not, customers are uncomfortable asking questions about calling and other basic hunting processes like field dressing. As retailers, building relationships with customers and helping them navigate through these issues, and others, not only helps them improve their skillsets, but it also bolsters our hunting ranks and increases your business, especially when it comes to repeat traffic and referrals.
Put simply, people go where they are comfortable. You need to create a level of comfort in your store where customers know they can get useful, encouraging answers and advice, including game call suggestions. To such an end, consider this roundup of great deer and elk calls when restocking or expanding your product offerings and how such a variety can help you convert customers with questions into long-term loyalists.
Flextone Buck Collector Plus
A great example of a high quality and great value, the Flextone Buck Collector Plus Deer Call delivers the all-in-one goods at a price point sure to catch your customers’ wandering eyes. Simply use the Tru-Touch buttons to transition through realistic doe bleats, fawn bawls, buck grunts and, yes, even growls. The call body and mouthpiece are soft and flexible, making it easy to introduce inflection for more natural sounds. From early season clear through the rut, the Buck Collector Plus handles virtually every call a deer hunter at any experience level is likely to use.
Woodhaven Classic Deer Grunt
Whether we’re talking rifle stocks or calls, some of us are suckers for pretty wood, and the Woodhaven Classic Deer Grunt fits the bill with a hand-turned, laminated, weatherproof barrel. While the richly contrasted wood grain is sure to catch the eyes of your customers, the call’s design and functionality are even more appealing. Inside the barrel, an adjustable tone band makes calls at varying pitches, from young deer bleats to the raspy grunts of bruiser bucks. The Woodhaven Classic Deer Grunt Call also features a patent-pending Inflexor Tube, making sound control and realistic inflection ultra-easy for new hunters and seasoned veterans alike.
Hunter’s Specialties Nemesis
Merriam-Webster defines “nemesis” as “an archenemy.” That might be the case for an unsuspecting buck of a lifetime, but the Hunter’s Specialties Nemesis 4-in-1 Deer Call just might be a hunter’s best friend. The Nemesis was my go-to call last fall, and I’m looking forward to putting it to work again. True to its 4-in-1 name, the Nemesis produces remarkably natural young, rutting and mature buck grunts, as well as doe bleats, simply by rotating the mouthpiece to each call type’s marked position on the barrel. The Nemesis also features an expandable bellow for improved tone control and realistic inflection.
FoxPro BuckPro
Digital game calls have been incredibly popular among predator hunters, but did you know FoxPro offers a similar system for deer hunting? The BuckPro is essentially the same as those digital predator calls many of us already know and love; in fact, while the BuckPro includes 25 deer calls, the additional 10 predator calls make it a perfect system for double-duty. Of course, while the BuckPro comes pre-loaded with 35 sounds, it is capable of holding up to 300. The BuckPro includes a TX433 transmitter, remote with oversized elastomeric keys for gloved operation and a Mylar cone speaker. True to FoxPro innovation, the remote is capable of running three BuckPro calls simultaneously. Check your local laws about using electronic calls for deer.
Illusion Black Rack Rattling System
When it comes to deer calls, rattling is also an exceptionally popular strategy, especially during the pre-rut and rut; of course, even the differences in these times of the season call for different rattling strategies — from short stints of playful sparring to full-on out-for-blood clashes. Like mouth calls, rattling must sound natural to be effective. This is the greatest challenge synthetic antler/non-traditional rattling device manufacturers face, and by many accounts, Illusion appears to have mastered the art. Illusion credits its Bone Core technology and two-full-racks design for truly realistic-sounding antlers. As the technology name implies, Illusion’s design mimics two complete racks for fuller, richer-sounding collisions and raking. The most noticeable feature, however, may be color. These synthetic antlers are black for improved concealment.
Knight & Hale Pack Rack
Knight & Hale’s Pack Rack Rattling System is not new by any stretch of the imagination, but in my personal experience, it has been key in drawing in scores of bucks — in fact, six bucks on a single morning, including a 170-inch 11-pointer. Unfortunately, he hit a hot doe trail on the way in and headed off after her. The Pack Rack still occupies space in my fall hunting gear. The system is compact, stores together for quiet transportation and, although it’s a bit peculiar looking, sounds incredibly realistic. The Pack Rack design also facilitates easy rattling, whether light pre-rut sparring or heavy hitting. The Pack Rack’s volume also carries, yet is still full and natural sounding. Like the Black Rack, the Pack Rack is colored, this time in olive drab, for improved concealment.
Primos Ivory Plate Single Diaphragm Mouth Call
Mouth, or diaphragm, calls are wildly popular among hunters looking for a little extra challenge. In the up-close-and-personal world of bowhunting, mouth calls are used extensively to keep hands free and movement to a minimum. The Primos Ivory Plate isn’t flashy at all, but it’s a favorite among elk hunters, especially during the rut. The call’s single latex reed and sound plate, set at 30 degrees, positions the call perfectly in your mouth for easy, consistent calling. Some of the Ivory Plate’s popularity comes from the ability to mimic several sounds out of a single diaphragm call, including cow, calf and even young bull bugles.
Rocky Mountain Hunting Calls Bully Bull Extreme Grunt Tube
The Bully Bull Grunt Tube from Rocky Mountain Hunting Calls is a perfect way to amplify and add more realism to your mouth-calling. The Bully Bull features a larger 1.5-inch mouth opening for better fit, more flexibility in inflection and proper seal to maximize air flow through the tube. Internally, the mouthpiece is tapered to optimized back pressure against your diaphragm call for more consistent calling, especially during that all-too-familiar bugling high note. Elk grunt tubes are notoriously large and occasionally on the heavy side. The Bully Bull Extreme tackles both problems by coming in at just 12 ounces and an overall length of just over 21 inches.
ELK Reel Hardwood Call
ELK Reel raced to elk-hunting popularity with a one-of-these-is-not-like-the-others approach. Their Hardwood ELK Reel call is not a diaphragm call, nor a mouth; in fact, it’s a call unlike any I’ve ever owned, but it sounds great! As a baffle-style call, the ELK Reel offers simple function and use, and the realistic, consistent-sounding calf, cow and bull sounds are surprisingly easy, to say the least. While the ELK Reel Hardwood Call may come in the higher end of appealing price points for your customers, the calls are constructed of quality materials, assembled by hand and individually tuned. Of course, great sound aside, these calls are different, too — different enough to make customers talk, buy and show their friends.
E.L.K. Inc. Cow Talk Call
The E.L.K. Inc. Cow Talk is quite a stretch from traditional diaphragm or tube calls but has proven to be effective over decades of elk hunting. Stating the obvious, the Cow Talk Elk Call is pocket-size for easy carry; however, it also boasts dual call functionality and is constructed of a durable plastic body. The Cow Talk was designed for both single-handed and hands-free use. Call through one end to produce realistic calf sounds and through the other for adult elk. The Cow Talk is easy to tune and made where folks know a thing or two about elk hunting, in Gardiner, Montana.
Phelps E-Z-Estrus Wildfire Call
Founded in 2009, Phelps became a must-have cow call brand for serious hunters, right out of the gate. Phelps calls can be found in the packs and on the lanyards of die-hard elk chasers with discriminant tastes for premium calls throughout the Northwest. Among the most popular, Phelps’ E-Z-Estrus Wildfire Cow Call is an open-reed call with a perfectly rich, full, yet nasally estrus tone that bring in the big boys. Of course, Phelps doesn’t end the E-Z-Estrus line with the Wildfire. This particular call is available in a wide array of premium wood and acrylic finishes and dresses up your call inventory quite nicely. The big retailer win for E-Z-Estrus calls? At roughly the same cost as many other mass-produced calls on retailer shelves, hunters can garner premium, eye-catching calls that sound as good as they look.
Carlton’s Mac Daddy by Hunter’s Specialties
Carlton’s Mac Daddy with Mini Grunt Tube provides the best of both elk calling worlds — bugles and cow calls. The Mac Daddy is comprised of a mouthpiece with Infinity latex, removable baffle and small grunt tube with a Realtree Max-1 camouflage cover. Using the grunt tube amplifies nasally cow calls and bugles while employing the baffle only results in quieter, up-close calling. Like traditional grunt tubes, the Mac Daddy’s tube can also be used independently with any standard diaphragm call. Offering your customers a multi-purpose call like the Carlton’s Mac Daddy is always a safe bet. And, as a call for hunters at all experience levels, the Mac Daddy also comes with an instructional DVD.
