Knight & Hale’s Total E-Call features remote control activation from up to 100 yards, single and multi-play modes with the ability to play up to four different sounds sequentially, external speaker jack, pivoting mylar speaker and comes in three versions, one for turkey, one deer and one predator. The unit is loud enough to reach out and touch distant animals but has the ability to be cranked down for quiet calls as well.

The unit changes from turkey to deer to predator with the simple changing of a cartridge. The turkey card features normal hen yelps, excited cutting, clucks and purrs, mature tom gobbles, fighting purrs and more. The Deer Cartridge includes normal grunts, aggressive grunts, rattling sequence, snort/wheeze and more. The Predator Cartridge features several versions of prey-in-distress sounds including cottontail, jackrabbit and rodent in distress, various coyote vocalizations such as invitational howls, barks and a “Hunt dog” call that features both prey in distress and coyote sounds.

I tested the Total E-Call on an archery hunt with two of my kids near the Buffalo River in Arkansas. We set up in a blind to better hide the movements and whispers of a nine-year-old girl and an excited four-year-old boy. In addition to the main use of the E-Call, it also gave them something to do when things got too boring.

After setting up we let the woods settle back down. It was a pleasant afternoon and we set up near a food plot. After about 15 minutes I set the call to “snort wheeze” and handed it to my daughter to activate, then passed it to my son. To my surprise, two bucks appeared behind us not a minute later. One buck as a basket six-point and his running partner smaller, but the effect of the call was obvious. The bucks closed the distance to 30 yards and searched for the offending buck. Both kids whispered with wide eyes after the pair of bucks sauntered back into the woods.

The morning we were back at it in a nearby patch of woods. As the morning wore on we heard a coyote bark from about 200 yards away. I quickly grabbed the E-Call and replaced the deer cartridge with the predator cartridge and slipped out of the blind. I placed the unit about 40 yards in front of the blind and hurried back.

When I got settled in I handed my boy the remote and he activated a prey in distress sound. With the unit set on repeat it continuously broadcast the realistic sounds of a trapped prey animal and we sat in anticipation. Then, I saw movement out the back of the blind. The coyote was standing at about 70 yards looking toward the sound. Both kids got to see the coyote before he caught our scent and high-tailed it out of there.

My testing of the Total E-Call was a complete success. I had hoped the unit would help the kids see some animals, and it certainly did. In fact, just after the coyote left a doe approached, lured in by the sound of the prey-in-distress sounds, which are somewhere between a jackrabbit and a fawn.