Saturday, December 29, 2007

Predator Calling DVD Reviews

I purchased three Predator DVDs over the Christmas holidays and just finished viewing them. I was given no discounts nor do I get paid by anyone to do these reviews. I tried to give you an accurate and unbiased review of these DVDS. I get tired of reading reviews by magazines and other people that depend on payment from the companies making the products, so hopefully my reviews will not sound like infomercials. The following reviews are my personal opinion based on my own experience and forty years of predator calling. Good calling, Wild Ed




*** “Catastrophic” starts out with some sit on the edge of your chair bobcat hunts. It is more a watch the hunt of me and my guests than an educational DVD. However, for the observant or experienced hunter it does have lessons. It brings home how important a decoy can be in holding the attention of predators and keeping eyes off of the hunter. Gary Roberson takes us on some great hunts and shows that he is truly a professional. I very much enjoyed some of the hunts he presented. The professionalism goes downhill as guest hunters take the scene and I lost interest in hearing some of their opinions. Much of this part is just to showcase the Compucaller II that Burnham Brothers has on the market. Many of the South Texas hunts take place out of high dollar deer blinds which is not how most of us varmint call. The more I watched of this DVD I came to realize that this is about bobcat hunting not necessarily bobcat calling. In one scene a bobcat is arrowed off a dead deer after defending the deer carcass from a coyote. This DVD is worth the money but like me you may want to keep the remote handy to fast forward through some of the scenes. There are some excellent scenes of bobcat calling and responding to different sounds. Most of the filming in this DVD is done very well. I would love to see Gary come out with a Volume II that goes into the calling aspects and setups that would be of more use to those that want to improve on their own cat calling abilities. Wild Ed


***** “Hunting the Night Shift” Like the song says “It aint easy that’s the way you do it”. If you want to know how to set up and go out predator calling at night this is the DVD you want to purchase. These guys have taken night hunting for predators to the extreme and worked out about all the kinks that can be controlled. Anytime you are hunting the unexpected can happen but it will be the exception with the gear and rigging these guys have developed. I want one of those back of the pickup 360 degree chairs so bad I can taste it. I have been night hunting for predators for over 40 years and night shooting is not easy. These guys don’t hit them all but have as high a percentage of kills as I have seen. Randy Watson and Randy Buker do any excellent job of explaining what they are doing and how you can do it. I always like a DVD a lot more if people teach me how to effectively do what they are able to do. Randy Watson does an excellent job of explaining the equipment they use and how to use it. They do an excellent job of explaining how eyes look in the light. He also goes over safety and the importance of identifying your target or do not shoot. Randy and Randy will take you through the calls they each prefer and how they use them to bring critters into gun range. They cover both mouth blown calls and electronic calls. Watson covers nighttime calling site selection and the speed with which one should use lights at night extremely well. These guys even tell their secrets and tricks. A few of the night scenes are hard to see and hear but over all the filming is done well. In some shots you can actually see the bullet trail to the animal in the light. These guys need to produce another Volume soon as I could not get enough. I would also be interested in seeing their methods on daytime calling in that part of Texas. This DVD is a must have for anyone that hunts predators at night. It will have a permanent home in my collection. Wild Ed



**** “Texas Predator Pursuit”
Jeff Thomason and Todd Woodall present a lot of hunts over different terrains both in daytime and nighttime venues. The style is more like a come along and watch us hunt. The narration is pretty much non educational but they do have talking sessions where they try to explain in a how to manner. Their section on game calls is very educational and should be of help to beginners and even the more experienced will gain from the information. The night hunting part of the DVD was also very exciting with some good hunts. There are some good scenes with coyotes, grey fox and bobcats called from the truck out in West Texas. I thought that their nighttime hunting tips were right on track. The filming to me is just not quite in focus some of the time and much of the panning of the camera is to fast to watch. Jeff and Todd are very skilled predator hunters that hopefully will become better at filming. I understand there are four DVDs out by them and I plan on purchasing some more of their hunting DVDs. By the way I never missed a coyote seven times, I never had the opportunity for seven shots. Wild Ed

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