The Tenterfield Fox Whistle!

I had heard a lot about the Tenterfield Fox Whistle that’s designed, patented and manufactured by John Cooper and have always been eager to try one out to see if it lived up to its hype.

A couple of months ago I had called John up and asked him if he wanted to submit his product to us which he accepted and sent me down his whole fox whistling package. I had heard a lot about the Tenterfield Fox Whistle that’s designed, patented and manufactured by John Cooper and have always been eager to try one out to see if it lived up to its hype. A couple of months ago I had called John up and asked him if he wanted to submit his product to the Hunter’s Hut which he accepted and sent me down his whole fox whistling package.
John provides a package assuming you’re a complete beginner (which I was) consisting of; the whistle, documentation on how to get your whistle working and an audio cassette/CD explaining John’s story of how the whistle came about also some basic rules that we all should follow but more importantly he takes you on a “virtual” fox whistling session which for a bloke in front of a microphone and a tape recorder creates such a scene that you cannot help but to imagine you are there. This to me is very important from a beginner as we don’t all know experienced fox whistling and listening to the virtual fox whistle you pick up some hints that may take you years to learn.
In this part of the package (being the cassette/CD) an audio explanation on how to blow the whistle properly would have assisted in learning the art of using the fox whistle and may have saved a bit of time. I guess John felt that the documents provided were sufficient, which they are but an audio explanation would have been great to compliment the documentation.
If you are a beginner and you want to learn how to whistle the $40 it costs for the package (cassette/CD, 3 Tenterfield Fox Whistles and documentation including postage) is well worth it for the tape alone.

Now to the first and only hurdle, I’m not going to say it is hard to learn how to blow a tenterfield fox whistle properly as it is not but like all good things there are things you must be prepared to do and try to get the full benefit out of it. With John’s instructions on paper it took me about 2 hours of practice to get it right by myself and maybe I was slow but if you know someone who knows how to blow a whistle ask them it will take you half as long.
I have heard a lot of people say “I can’t get it to whistle” I think what they should be saying is “I didn’t have the patience to try getting it to work so I gave up after a minute” because if you are patient it will work and work well. So please those of you that have the whistles in with your shooting gear and could never be bothered to work it try again you will get it in time.
Once you have got a sound out of the whistle it’s like riding a bike you won’t forget how. And it seems so easy after you have learnt how to use it. I often asked myself during a recent hunt “why did this seem so hard” I guess even riding a bike or swimming or kicking a footy the right way was hard when you started out that’s just like the tenterfield fox whistle but I tell you after you whistle up your first fox with it, it will feel like you won the championship. There is no better feeling then seeing a fox come to your whistle and then shooting the bugger. The farmer will be happy too!

Please don’t be daunted by what I said about getting it to work. Eventually with practice it will work well for you and I highly recommend the whistle and the package it comes in. An example of how well it works was my last hunting trip when I saw those tell tail eyes in the spotlight a long, long way away. All I could see were those reflective eyes so I shut the truck off turned all the lights off and whistled with the Tenterfield. Turned the light back on and couldn’t see the eyes, whistled again and from over the top of the hill the vixen was on she came trotting down. She would trot down 100m then stop I’d whistled then she’d trot down 50m then stop and this game would go on for about 500m until I called her in within 30m of the truck for my mate to give her a 50gn pill through the chest and stop this menace for good. That is just one example and I’m sure there will be plenty more.

Overall I give this package and whistle top marks and highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to start whistling foxes or even someone seasoned to it using a predator call or button whistle, as to me this product though it is simple is superior to most others available. The other thing that impressed me was how much of a gentleman John Cooper of Tenterfield Fox Whistles is offering his help to his customers if ever they need it.

Related posts:

1. How To Use A Tenterfield Fox Whistle
2. Red Coat Down – Pics.
3. Almost But Not Quite – Night Time Fox Calling

Tags: hunting, predator, shooting, tenterfield fox whistle, varminting, whistling

Category: Reviews