Call Pee Wee and the Foxpro Lil Skyote test

[John Finch]

Comparison of the Crit’r · Call Pee Wee and the Foxpro Lil Skyote hand held predator callers
Dr. Major Lee Boddicker from Rocky Mountain Wildlife Products, USA developed the open read Crit'R•Call Standard, which was first patented in the USA in 1977.
Since then, a range of calls, which include the Pee Wee, Magnum and Song Dog have been introduced to the world of varmint hunting and in particular South Africa.

On Majors visit to South Africa in 1983 to participate in predator calling and trapping courses the Crit'R•Call Standard was introduced. Predator calling had just experienced a new dimension. We predator callers very soon discovered that the old wooden closed read typed with squeaky toy aluminium read inserts did not cut it any more.

With the Crit'R•Call and a bit of imagination and practice you could emulate the distress calls of a range of animals, which included mouse squeaks, rabbit, hare, fawn bleats, pig squeals and not forgetting a range of jackal vocalisation calls as well.

Although Majors Crit'R•Calls have been patented, Johnny Steward Game Calls were amongst the first to also market the Crit'R•Call under their own brand name.
Since then there has been a flux of copycat open reed predator calls flooding the market.

So how do they compare to the original Crit'R•Call?

Being somewhat of an expert in the calling scene I have always tried to find a call that to be frank is easier to use and can emulate the distress sounds of the prey species the local predators find most appealing to respond to.

This brings me to the above topic. Comparison of the Crit’r · Call Pee Wee and the Foxpro Lil Skyote hand held predator calls.

The green Pee Wee (also available in blaze orange) is more compact and does not have the trumpet type mouth feature of the blue Lil Skyote. Perhaps the Lil Skyote is easier to hold but bear in mind the importance of how you the user cup your hands over the end of either call to maximise the modulation control of the sound production.
On the business end the Pee Wee reed is tapered as opposed to the straight reed of the Lil Skyote.
The longer tongue and tapered reed of the Pee Wee gives more high pitch to low pitch variation and more modulation control over the longer length of the tongue and reed than the Lil Skyote does.

The Pee Wee mouse squeaks are crisper and higher pitched and when doing the hare distress sounds, I found them to be coarser in pitch than the Lil Skyote.

My final opinion: The original Crit’r · Call is still the best of the rest in the production of a range of distress calls and vocalisations the efficient predator hunter requires in the field.

John Finch

[Cobus(Cobb)]

Nou maar dankie vir jou insette, hoor

[cassie_calvinia]

ek kies die skyote ver bo die crit'r.
hy blaas net baie makliker. baie mense dink ook so.
maar, dit maar my persoonlike opienie.

[Geno]

Thanks John.

My go-to mouthcall is also the Pee Wee.

Loking forward to more posts like this!

[Jassie]

John

Welcome to the forum.

I also would like to use this opportunity to thank you for the huge contribution you made in the past. Thanks for each and every jackal that did not see the daylight after your "consultations".

We are looking forward to your stories.

Regards or should I rather say

" Groete ou grote"
JAS

[Louis102]

Hallo John, welcome! Hope to hear a lot more from you.

I agree with your analysis on the difference / variation of sounds between the two calls. I also agree that the mouse squeak-tipe sounds sounds better on the Crit'r to me. The Lil Skyote though, is one of my favourates, simply because it blows more easily, does't freeze up quite as much, volume adjustments (to me) are more easily managed without having to smother the sounds with your hands and the mouth piece just fits more nicely in my mouth.

But both are great mouth callers in my view and there is not a huge difference between the two.

Walk-pretty (Mooiloop)
Louis

[prohunt]

Welcome John, very glad you're here. i wondered for a long time what happened to you after you so suddenly disappeared from the plot outside Pretoria in the late 90's or was it the early 2000's?? Believe it or not I still have the Trappers(Problem Animal Control) Membership Certificate you issued at that stage.

Greetings
Johan