To both of your points I certainly don't discount hand calling. To me they are all just tools in the bag, I use hand calls and diaphragms plenty. Situations dictate what I like to do, and I'm sure I'm not the only one that notices on certain days sometimes one thing just works better than others, whether that's a certain sound files or a certain hand call. Much like ecalls I'm sure we could all debate our favorite hand calls and diaphragms as well. I have a very preferred custom call maker for my diaphragms and a preferred production set of hand calls that come from a different custom call maker that I really really like.
What really kick started this whole thing for me is that i was looking for a different ecall. My current one is almost 5 years old and all but worn out. I have hunted over every major ecall out there. My opinion is that they all do 1 or 2 things very well but none of them really do everything above average or better. For instance Icotec has the best remote connectivity and reliability period. Stock factory sounds nobody comes close to Lucky Duck. Durability and supporting warranty and general customer support it's FoxPro by a mile. Pure sound quality to my ear it's Wildlife tech. I could also turn around and list 2 things that are trash about each one. Again that would all just be my opinion.
But what really struck me about current information out there is sooooooo much of it is purely opinion
much like my own already listed above. Just seems to me people, "reviewers", companies, "professionals" go to great lengths to show you why one product is different or better than another when it comes to every other piece of gear we buy. Still highly subjective but usually if you dig a little you can find helpful insight. In the ecall world it's like there's no effort. Pretty much they say "look it called this one coyote right here, it's the best!" what is out there is from their prostafs and that is...........useless, I have so many friends that run a company into the dirt until they end up on their prostaff.......I fully understand that dealing with a wild animal, one that is highly adaptive perhaps more so than any other animal in North America makes real world testing or "performance" is highly subjective anyways but man it seems like with what they want us to pay these days some degree of effort could go into it even if it's only on the labratory/scientific/engineering (not even sure what the word I'm looking for is) side of the equation.
I did end up buying a new ecall. After weighing my own opinions and the fact that so much of what I want to know we probably never will know I put my money as the top priority and bought the call with the best warranty and support even though I think it lacks elsewhere. It will go in to the arsenal with all my other calls and I'm sure it will do fine.
The point remains Some degree of real world scientific testing would be some of the most interesting information to come out of this pursuit in a long time. I'm sure if nothing else it would be enjoyable to watch the prostafs go to war over it
.
Also as a side note Cal Taylor's name came up. He was recently on the O'Neil Ops podcast which I suspect is why his name has been getting a lot of buzz on the web all of a sudden. In that podcast he talks about some of his earliest recordings which became FoxPro sounds years ago. Mind blowing to hear they were basically just recording the sounds with video camera's
. You think of a full movie setup with a giant microphone thing and it's just a couple ol boys with the wife's home video camera, good stuff!