Electronic calls come in assorted flavors, but as far as we are concerned, like the Highlander, there can be only one: The Johnny Stewart with the optional remote.**

We've tried the Hunter's Buddy (unmitigated trash with a remote that would not work past 15 feet, although it comes in a way cool injection-molded case with a valve to open if you fly it on an airplane so it doesn't implode), the Burnham Bros. Compu-call (Small, light, but a repetitive atonal sound as though the tape were stuck), and several others, but the Stewart is King.

The remote works well past the advertised range, the size and weight of the call is reasonable, the batteries hold a charge forever, and the thing has enough volume to call up-wind in a typhoon.

There is only one overwhelming advantage that an electronic call has over a mouth call, especially for the lone caller; the caller can be in one place while the call, and the sound, is somewhere else.

Simply put, an electronic call allows you to vector the coyote past you at an angle, and while he is closing hot-foot on the sound, you are lifting your rifle behind him. I've called hundreds of coyotes this way, and most of them never knew that anything was amiss until the bullet hit them.

Electronic calls are one more heavy thing to carry to and from the stand, they require a battery charge every once in a while, they are mechanical, therefore prone to all sorts of malfunctions that will make you swear (eating tapes, slipping drive belts, breaking soldered connections, etc), and they give you somewhat less leeway to work a stubborn coyote that wants to hang up out of range.

That said, though, if you use one correctly the vast majority of the coyotes that respond will come hard and hot and end up dead on the ground. Vic and I are believers, and we think that you will become one too if you try it.

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**I've talked to Gerald Stewart several times in the last six months, and this is the story on the remote for the 512: Johnny Stewart had a sub-contractor building the remotes for them, and the quality control was not up to par, resulting in a fair number of remotes that either would not work at all, or would not function to spec. Vic and I apparently got lucky with ours; it works like mad, and has for the past several years, but that was not true for every unit.

As of this writing (April 13, 1999) the Johnny Stewart company is testing a new prototype remote from a new subcontractor. Depending on the test results, they expect to release it as quickly as possible, although they do not wish to publish or advertise a firm date. I just hunted with Bruce Kennedy this past weekend, and he has one of the new units, and it appeared to work just fine. It's also a little slicker than the previous version; it has a stubby fixed antenna instead of the older flexible style, and a provision for controlling an electronic decoy as well.