Guest Blogger - David Tulloch from Insite Hunting
This weeks blog is written by a guest blogger - a Mr David Tulloch from Insite Hunting. We fired a FoxPro Wildfire Digital Caller David's way and the following is his experience using the Caller for the very first time. Enjoy!
Review Time - By David Tulloch
Bushwear have been very kind enough to supply us with this product for testing and review and as this is a prime foxing time of the year and us pest controllers are very very busy I requested the following to test…..
On opening the box my initial reaction is that this is looking promising , and that is before turning the unit on. The unit gives you the impression it has been built to a high standard unlike some of the cheaper ones I have used in the past. This is made with good quality hard plastic making it light and ergonomic in the process, this is not going to take up much weight in your kit and the remote control is easily attached to a lanyard so it is very portable.
The unit itself powers of either 4xAA batteries or a single 9v battery adapter is included but the batteries are not, and the remote is powered from a single 9v battery again this was not supplied. Now I am one of these guys who like to dive right in without reading the instructions, may I add I have never used one of these before, so I started playing with it in the kitchen and, I must say, it was sooooo easy to get started with. Everything you need to know is on the remote. Had a wee look around it looking at the various switches and ports which allow you to use auxiliary cable to attach an external speaker (but I don’t think you need it), the package also comes with a cable that can be used to transfer more sounds onto it (again I don’t think you need more sounds other than the pre-set ones). The unit comes with 35 pre-set sounds ranging from rabbit distress to pheasant and young fox distress and various crow calls, so can be used for calling most UK predators without adding more sounds.
So for your money so far you’ve got what you need add some batteries and your working straight out of the box. In the field the compact style of the unit and very light weight , literally lighter than your average binos, it is easy to carry. The light up display on the remote is bright enough to see what your doing but not so bright as to illuminate your face or blind you. The night I was out had light winds and it was a lovely quiet spring night nothing at all was stirring. I picked my distress choice, a distressed young rabbit, and set the volume to 15 and pressed the power button on the remote to play it, within about ten minutes I had attracted attention from Owls, badgers and a Pine Martin and after a couple of outings , wooohoo, finally a fox came to the young fox distress. The volume of the unit can go higher than 15 but on a night like it was it honestly would have been too loud, hence why I do not think it would need an external speaker. In conclusion I have used the unit now for a few outings and I am very impressed by it, I have been told by a keeper friend that he uses the same unit for crows without decoys and has very good results. I have not tried it on crows yet but I think that will be the next test this week. At just short of £200 I think this is a very good product and is robust enough to use year after year, this is definitely a unit you can use in a lifetime foxing and have results every time. I would definitely purchase this item for to help me with any predator problems in the future.
My name is David Tulloch , I am currently a stalker with a game management company in the Highlands of Scotland and a self employed pest controller for a number of farms in the Inverness area, When I am not doing pest control or deer management I am one of the admin of Insite Huntings Buy swap.