Editor's Note: Fifty-two year-old Gerald Stewart of Texas, grew up in the game call business. His dad, Johnny Stewart, started Johnny Stewart Game Calls in 1961. "The only time I didn't call game was while I was in college, and when I went to work in other business industries," Stewart says. "I can remember packing game callers, cameras and tape recorders for a predator-hunting trip, when I was only 10-years old." This week, Stewart will tell us when to use mouth-blown game calls and when to use electronic game calls for predators.

Question: Gerald, your dad started his game-call business, Johnny Stewart Game Calls, which is now part of Hunter's Specialties, by recording animal sounds and using tape recorders. When did your Dad start manufacturing mouth-blown calls?
Stewart: Dad started building mouth-blown calls in 1968, but he really didn't get into the full production of them until 1970. Remember, electronic calls have been around since the late 1950s.

Question: Why would hunters choose a mouth caller instead of an electronic caller?
Stewart: Mouth-blown calls are inexpensive, lightweight and easy to carry. Some hunters like the challenge of blowing a mouth caller. I'm an advocate of always carrying a mouth call, even if I'm using an electronic caller. I prefer a mouth-blown call when the conditions are just right for it. Because they're small, there's really no reason not to carry a mouth call when hunting predators.

Question: When should a hunter use an electronic call, a mouth call or both?
Stewart: A mouth caller can be used any time during the day or at night, just like an electronic caller. However, a mouth-blown call doesn't offer the same variety of calls as an electronic caller. Wind noise and the type of terrain being hunted also can limit the use of the mouth call. Also, hunting in wide-open areas and places with a high density of coyotes results in the hunter blowing their lungs out and not getting many coyotes to come into the call. When using an electronic caller, a hunter can turn up the volume, overpower the wind and reach coyotes with the caller that will never have been reached with a mouth-blown caller. An electronic caller often will pull coyotes from a much-wider distance, especially on a windy day.

We're getting into the great debate in predator calling. Do you remember the beer ads where one group stood up and said, "Tastes great," and the other stood up and said, "Less filling?" In the debate of mouth calls versus electronic calls, the bottom line is personal preference. Some predator callers will never call with anything but mouth-blown calls. Other predator hunters never will use anything but electronic calls. Each hunter chooses the type of predator call they like the best. Both calls are deadly effective in the hands of a hunter who knows how to use them.

Question: You said some mouth calls are versatile, and some aren't. Give me an example of a versatile call and a non-versatile call.
Stewart: There are some Johnny Stewart Hunter's Specialties open-reed coyote calls that can do barks, yelps, whines, squeaks and squeals by manipulating the reed on the call. The open-reed call allows a hunter to make more different types of predator sounds than the semi-open reed or the closed-reed call will. However, the open-reed call requires more practice to learn to use for making a wide variety of calls than the semi-closed reed or the closed-reed call does.

A semi-closed-reed call, like Hunter's Specialties' Johnny Stewart PC-1, has a button that can be pressed down with the tooth, the lip or the finger to manipulate the reed to get different sounds. With the Hunter's Specialties' Johnny Stewart PC-7, a closed-reed call, the only way to change the sound is to add additional pressure to the call because you can't actually touch the reed. The Hunter's Specialties' Johnny Stewart PC-3 is a semi-closed reed call with a reed holder/voice system you bite down on to get high-pitched close-end squeals like a bird, a rabbit or a rodent. The reed also can be left more open, blown into harder or have hands cupped over the front of the caller to create an echo-chamber, resulting in a raspy, long-range, louder and more coarse rabbit sounds.

Not all hand-blown calls are created equal. All calls have specific purposes and are used for certain types of predator calls. The open-reed call requires the same amount of effort to learn to use as a diaphragm turkey call. The semi-closed reed call is much like learning to use a friction turkey call and requires about as much learning time. The enclosed-reed call is much like learning to use a push-button turkey call because it requires the least amount of time to learn to use.

The simplest and the easiest of all the callers to learn to use is the electronic caller. But don't think that being an effective electronic caller doesn't require learning some tactics. Knowing where and how to set-up, where to put the speaker, when to call and what calls to use will still require an investment in time.

Question: Have the electronic calls grown in popularity in recent years?
Stewart: Yes, they have tremendously. Digital and remote technology have allowed the user a more dynamic way to call predators. By being able to get the sound away from the hunter, this call can help the hunter be more successful in taking predators. Mouth callers are still very popular, but electronic callers are really coming to the forefront of predator calling.

Over the last 40 years, because of digital technology, there's been a tremendous increase in this type of caller being used. Hunters now can pick sounds they want to use by pushing a button, and they have more flexibility and variety than ever before. Also, with the electronic caller, we're seeing more hunters who want to manipulate the animal so they can take 200-yard shots with their rifles as opposed to 40-yard shots with their shotguns.

Question: What's your favorite gun to use when predator hunting?
Stewart: I prefer to hunt with a shotgun and get the predator in as close as I can. For me, I'd rather call an animal to within shotgun range than take that animal at 500 yards, which will require me to be a super-accurate shooter. In my opinion, the ultimate range to take coyotes is 100 yards or less. Getting an animal in closer before you shoot enables hunters to be more accurate and make a better shot at close range than at long range. Also, you're able to put the animal down much quicker than if you take him at several hundred yards. I enjoy seeing how close I can get animals to me before I take them.

Question: What are some other advantages of the electronic caller?
Stewart: With the electronic caller, you have to move much less than with a mouth-blown caller. You also can direct the animals' attention away from you toward the location where you've set up the caller. With a mouth-blown call, the animal will come in and look right in the direction from where you're calling. With an electronic caller, you can set the caller out and move away from it. So, when the animal comes in, he's focused on the caller and not on the hunter.

If you're using a mouth-blown caller, you have to move the caller from wherever you have it to your mouth. Then more than likely, you'll have to cup your hand over the barrel of the caller. When using an electronic caller, all you have to do is push a button, which requires far less motion for the animal to detect than with a mouth-blown caller.