Minaska
Big Country All In One
By Richard Baxter
(CCP)
I received my Minaska (https://www.minaskaoutdoors.com/store/comersus_index.asp) Big Country All In One (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/unitbg%20.jpg) and my first impression out of the box was WOW. I had expected it to be much bigger than it was. I was also surprised it isn't made out of hard plastic but a more durable softer plastic. In the package was the Caller with built in decoy, remote control and CF card reader. Yes, C.F. Card Reader (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/cfreaderbig%20.jpg)- most companies want you to buy this type of thing separately.
I checked out the buttons and controls on the unit and found them easy to navigate around. On the Side (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/sidebig%20.jpg) of the unit it has power on, off, volume, charge, aux, audio in and external speaker jack. On Top of the unit (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/topbig%20.jpg%5B/url) it has individual speaker on/off switches, switches for decoy on, decoy with remote, decoy 180 and decoy 360. It also has a speed dial for the decoy and a small hole for inserting the decoy rod. The front of the unit (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/frontbg%20.jpg%5B/url) has a 10 watt TOA speaker and the Back (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/backbg.jpg)has a 15 watt cone speaker.
Opening the Unit you can see (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/insidebg%20.jpg) where the decoy rod goes in a clear tube. You will also see the CF card that holds all the sounds and gel cell battery. It has a good Rubber Seal (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/gasketbg%20.jpg) around the inside of the unit. I charged the battery as instructions recommended and began to play with the sounds on the sound card. I plugged the CF card in the computer and found it already has the software installed on it to move sounds around and print them out. I installed the software and began moving and adding sounds. It is a very straightforward program and very easy to navigate.
Now that I have my sounds loaded and battery charged it is time to see what the Remote (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/remotebg%20.jpg) does. There is a Toggle on/off (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/togglebg%20.jpg) switch on top of the remote and a Green L.E.D (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/ledbg%20.jpg) light confirming that the remote is on. There are 10 buttons 0 through 9, a pause, aux, volume up, volume down and bank button for a total of 15 buttons. Pushing the bank button and then a number button access the bank on the number button pushed. The thing that surprised me was how easy it is to push the buttons with an immediate response. With some callers I have there is a need to push the buttons several times to wake the remote up. This is not so with the Minaska; it is immediate. It also has a Loop (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/lanyardbg%20.jpg) on the end of the remote for tying to a lanyard.
Now it is time to take the unit outside and see what it sounds like. I started with the TOA speaker on and the cone speaker off and set the unit at 50 yards. I was amazed at how clear the sound was. I believe there are two main reasons for this. First, the recording of the sounds was done with professional equipment. Second, it has a metal speaker. The metal speaker is a big plus in my book because when I used other callers with plastic speakers I did not like the hollow sound that they made. I always plugged a metal speaker into my other units and turned their speaker off or turned it into the ground. Minaska solved this problem for me right out of the box by having a metal speaker already installed.
I then proceeded to try the cone speaker with good results-a very clear sound and very loud. With both speakers playing it is hard to describe how much volume was coming out in words. I will just say all the farms I hunt around here in the southeast would be covered by the sound and its loudness would help pull coyotes from other nearby farms. After going through all the sounds I found only one sound that had a crackle at full volume and it was one of the crow sounds. I guess one out of one hundred isn't bad, better than any other caller I have used. I continued playing with distance of the remote and found line of sight on flat ground I could easily get 500 yards out of it. When hiding the caller over a hill and behind brush I still got 250 to 300 yards, which exceeds their advertised range.
The Decoy (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/minaskadeoybg%20.jpg) being built into the call unit is a very big plus no extra battery for decoy no extra units to bring or wires to attach. You can have the decoy run continually or ran using the remote and all this can be done just with a push of a button. Another thing that puts this decoy above others I have used is the fact you can control the speed of the decoy. It's not just a fast or slow setting; it has a control knob for precise tuning of the speed. What makes this so valuable is when hunting in no wind you can turn it down. When hunting in more windy settings you can adjust the speed of the decoy to be moving a little faster than the surrounding brush, making it more visible to the predator but not so much that it makes the predator cautious.
There is only one thing I wasn't fond of and it is the Toggle Switch (http://www.easterncoyotes.com/images/stories/Reviews/Minaska/togglebg%20.jpg) on top of the remote- it's too easy to bump on in your call bag. Maybe a push button like the ones on the caller would not so easily get turned on.
I have owned J.S callers, Predation callers, W.T. callers and FoxPro callers so I have had plenty to compare this unit to. Over all I would recommend this caller to anyone looking for an electronic caller. It is by far the best caller I have owned.
I will continue this review as I get more field time.
Dad gummit Rich...........now I want one. :wink:
Yep, I feel your pain, Bop. Don't ya just HATE reading good reviews like this. Now I gotta have one too. Dammit....... :madd:
But on the bright side, look at all the money we saved by not buying all those other E callers Rich has already tried for us. :biggrin:
Rich,
Great review! :highclap:
So... I'm assuming you like it? :wo: :wink:
:biggrin:
Good review Rich :congrats:. After going with you to test this bad boy , I think its hard to describe how loud and clear it was. I guess you you gotta hear it to believe it !!!
Is my computer not working right or is there really not a picture of his Minaska? :wo:
Where's the pic at Ricardo?
Thanks for the review Rich. Well done. I've been curious about them & nothing much gets said. :shrug:
Aside the fact there's no pix; how much did you give for it?
Quote from: vvarmitr on April 19, 2007, 05:32:39 AM
Thanks for the review Rich. Well done. I've been curious about them & nothing much gets said. :shrug:
Aside the fact there's no pix; how much did you give for it?
I'm trying to start an e-caller store VV, so just send me $1500 and I'll get ya one right out......... :innocentwhistle:
QuoteAside the fact there's no pix
All the highlighted words are links to the pics
For the Big Country all in one it is 599.00 I believe. Maybe Steve or Todd will come on here and give an exact amount.
Thanks Rich.........ya just ruined my profit margin.......... :nono: :laf:
Hey, Bop... Maybe ol' Rich will send us his Big Country so we can field test it on our hearing impaired coyotes? :eyebrow: :wo:
Hey Rich,
That caller review made it sound like its the real deal. I can relate to what you were saying about the other callers because i have one and i know what you meant about the different functions not working when you punch them. Sounds like I may need to sell mine and get one like yours? :confused:
Bob
Quote from: coyotehunter_1 on April 19, 2007, 08:13:12 PM
Hey, Bop... Maybe ol' Rich will send us his Big Country so we can field test it on our hearing impaired coyotes? :eyebrow: :wo:
That's a fine idea Chet............so how 'bout it Rich...... :eyebrow: :innocentwhistle:
Rich,
The Big Country Bandit is $599.95 and the BCB All-in-One is $679.95. It is really nice to only have one thing to carry if you typically use a decoy. With all of our callers (except the baseline package) you will get our entire library of 100 sounds loaded for use right out of the box as well as a lifetime of free sounds.
minaskasteve,
Welcome to Fins and Fur. CCP did a nice evaluation of your caller.
Jerry
Welcome to the forum, minaskasteve.
Got any super special discounts going right now? :biggrin:
Semp
Good to see ya around Steve...dont be a stranger :wink:
Hello and Welcome Steve ! :congrats:
Jeb
Greetings and salutations Steve....... :biggrin:
Hi guys...
CCP thank you for the kind words.
We have been working on some big changes over the past 10 months and will make an announcement when it is ready to go.. We will begin testing the new design a week from this coming Monday.
Semp - No big discounts right now but it was worth a shot! :biggrin: You will be happy to know however with all of the advancements we are going to be rolling out we have no plans of raising the price of any of our callers. There will be a small price (around $50) for existing customers to upgrade to the new board simply because of the added cost and labor to change everything out.
We are also working extremely hard on our sound library and we will be adding quite a few new sounds very shortly. These will be available for free as with all of our sounds to all Bandit Series Game Call owners.
To All: As we have with all of our products and improvements we need your help. We want to know what sounds you would like to see added to our library. Remember that ANYONE can use our sounds. Bandit owners will receive them for free and everyone else can purchase them for only $1.75 each from our website.
Steve
Great news Steve.
Have you guys implemented the Minaska exclusive extension on your sounds? So that they only play in a Bandit.
:holdon: Ah crap now it sounds like I wanna Hijack some sounds. I assure you that is not my intention :wink:
Not so much on that one...
That is not in our plans to do. We strive to make our equipment from the remote to the unit as well as the use of our sounds to be as user friendly as possible... even if you don't own a Bandit!
Steve
I love my BCB just like it is, but after that review I caught myself thinking I need one like that too! Steve when you get time can you pm me with more info on the upgrades? (no hurry though, I don't know if I can live without it long enough to get it done!)
I just noticed the highlighted words in the article are not linking to the pics. :madd: I will get them fixed SORRY :sad2:
Hi Steve. I have an FX3 that I'm happy with but I don't mind tellin ya those little pocket sized Bandits sure peeked my interest the day I looked one over at Cabelas!! I'm gonna own one of them too!! :eyebrow: