Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints Howler

Okay so I have been playing with some different howlers for hunting. So I was wondering what is your favorite howler and why? Any and all opinions are welcome.

Well I have a Cronk horn howler that works, and a RR game calls horn howler that does too. Even a real nice one from Tony Tebbe but they tend to stay home and I either use my ELK power howler or my Citr Call Song Dog.

The horn howlers are nice but the song dog takes up less room and sounds good enough to work.

But my favorite is my Foxpro CS24;)

http://www.critrcall.com/page/1r8a6/Products/Predator_Calls.html

See if this comes thru, but far and away the Critr call is my fav. You name it and I've called it in via this call.

I also have a Cronk Howler for wolves and it's nice but was expensive.

Dober

Yup, My favoritely toned howler is cowhorn, made by Herb's Howlers young(at the time)daughter. It was her first attempt, and kinda crude. But I rarely bother to haul it around, as my homemade copies of a PVC tube one hides in a pocket easier....

My fav is a Dan Thompson (Red Desert IIRC) that I bought back in the late 70's.
Not sure if it's the "best" but it's the only one I own or have ever owned and Coyotes respond to it so that's all I care about. An added feature is that the mouth-piece is removable and makes a perfect fawn bleet.
Dan passed away a couple years ago but you can still find some of his stuff here and there.
Luck

BTW,, mine's old enough that Dan was still making em in his shop and signing every one so it's NOT for sale.

ELK Power Howler. I have several custom howlers, but his one is my favorite. You go through the bands occasionally, but they are cheap.

I like Carver howlers probably the best.

Primos Lil' Dog is a very versatile call also IMO.

The lil' dog does do a lot for me, just doesn't always have enough volume. I do like all the answers so far I am just starting to use howls and I am relying on yalls experience to help point me in the right direction.

How about a picture and some manufacturing hints?

How, why, when do you use a "howler"? I'm new to coyote calling.

To see if there are any in your area. Back in the dark ages, before all this electronic stuff, a friend had a small hand crank siren that worked very well. Just like dogs will howl at the sound of a siren, coyotes will to. But usually a howler won't bring them to you.

That's my take anyhow.

Howling will call in coyotes.

I've killed dogs coming in to greeting howls and challenge howls.

It's a good thing to have in your repertoire

You are right! A bunch of years ago I actually called one in close enough to whack him and all I was doing was rare back and do my best to sound like a coyote. I was more surprised than the coyote.

I doubt that using a siren to locate them would bring them in but I could be wrong.

dan thompaon, red desert howler, works for me, almost all of primos calls are copys of dan tompsons calls, ask randy anderson hes is the one who copyed them and sold them to primos. rio7

I had a pair of Bill Austin howlers and love 'em. I lost one just before Bill died, so I ordered one to replace it. Glad I did, because he died the next year and his calls were impossible to find. Since I seem to lose a buncha calls, I took a look-see at them, to see how involved it would be to copy them and make some spares, and seen they was so simple even a caveman could do it....

Get ya a scrap of 3/4" and 1/2" cpvc water pipe. His short range call is 1/2, longrange is 3/4. I cut the pieces to 3 1/2 inches long and cut the toneboard/mouthpiece at 2 1/4". The depth is half the diameter and slightly curves to the tip. easy to cut with a bandsaw or coping saw and true-up with a file or sanding block. I got a plastic 'for-sale' sign at the hdwe store for reeds.(the thicker, the better) Cut the reeds to fit the mouthpiece and attach with a couple castration bands....lanyard can be kept from sliding with a band or two, on either side. As ol' Chef Tell would say, "so beddy, beddy ee-see. so beddy, beddy seem-pole".....

about this much 'curve'....



Band attachments. Over cut your mouthpiece cut about an eigth into the barrel to let the reed go into.





Spares.....the shortrange 1/2" call is on the right, and a spare reed is stuck in each....The 2 shorties have the same length mouthpiece, but a shorter barrel. These can also be epoxied into a cowhorn or plastic funnel to enhance range or tone.

You'd be surprised........
In an area where everybody and their brothers toot the 'dieing rabbit blues', a howler may be be the ONLY thing they'll come to.....

I know a couple basic howls, and by no means am I good nor great at it, practice makes perfect. With that being said what or where is the best place/resource for learning the different howls. I really want to use more howls, esp. for our river bottoms here where everybody and their brother uses the distress calls. Thanks again for the advice.

imitate the doggies you hear....

But I will add that howling is the easiest way to screw up an area if you don't know what you're doing. The biggest mistake is leaving too quick. I try to stay on stand about 15 minutes after I howl. Usually they come in just as they do with distress but depending on the comfort level of the coyote, they may be sneaking in and going downwind.

Never use an aggressive howl, at least until you need to. Coyotes are social animals most of the year but right now they've become territorial. A strange coyote in their territory isn't put up with but if you sound like the tuffest coyote out there, they may not respond.

www.allpredatorcalls.com has the best selection of calls out there as well as reed material. I used delrin for some calls as well as antler and horn, never thought about plastic pipe.

the beauty of cpvc is cost, along with cheapo signs for reeds. I made a whole 5 gallon bucketful of these howlers for about $40 buckos...