Predator Call

My Great Grandfather, Erskine Outlaw was one of founders of the South Texas Wolf Hunters Association back in 1920.  The association was a group of hunters that ran coyotes down with hounds rather than call them with predator calls as we do today.  The association would host an annual hunt or meet on a large ranch.  Men, women and children would camp, cast their hounds and fellowship for most of a week, casting their hounds three different mornings.

This event had grown so large that in 1936, LIFE and TIME magazines sent reporters to cover the event.  I recently purchased a copy of the LIFE magazine covering the event.  It is reported that there were 150 men horseback and over 1,000 in vehicles trying to keep up with the 257 hounds that were cast that first morning.

Too much grass is a problem that I rarely encounter when coyote hunting in Texas and New Mexico but this year is the exception.  While 2008 was not above average for precipitation, we did receive most all of our rain in August.  This late rain created a great situation for growing much needed grass going into the winter.  Since I was born and raised on a ranch, I am going to be the last person to complain about rain and especially too much grass.  Thought not complaining, I must say that the abundant tall grass greatly affected my animal calling this winter. 

The tall grass kept me from making a call in New Mexico when I was there in October and November.  It was not until I returned to the big ranch country in January that I was able to see a coyote in some areas.  I just returned from a ranch in North Texas where grass greatly impaired my ability to make a call where coyote sign was everywhere.  There were many occasions when we would stop the truck and walk into an area that from a distance looked fairly open, only to walk back to the truck without making a call.  When calling coyotes, it is better not to make a marginal call than make a call where the coyote has most of the advantages.  It is difficult enough to get a coyote up and kill him when the odds are stacked in your favor.

Two weeks ago, I met up with a couple of buddies for a New Mexico coyote hunt.  We hunted three days and in spite of  30 plus per hour winds one afternoon, called in 30 coyotes.  The moon was full but did not seem to slow down the responses; if they heard the call, I think they came.  The bright nights did make the dogs very active at noon and early afternoon.  On two occasions, I had coyotes run over the caller and on three occasions, had them within 5 yards of me or the hunter. The COMPUCALLER III electronic game caller worked flawlessly.  Temperatures from 15 to 78 degrees did not seem to affect it’s ability to deliver a high quality sound that the coyotes could not resist.  We made an average of eleven stands per day, I never recharged the battery on the caller for the entire hunt.

When I was trying to decide which sounds to program on the Compucaller III, I realized that many hunters who call predators also shoot crows.  For this reason, I chose two productive sounds for crows to go with the fourteen standard predator sounds. 

On many occasions, playing crow sounds will help to lure a wary predator to your calling stand by reassuring the predator that the crows are already feeding on the prey animal.  The opposite can also be true, as I have had crows and ravens respond to prey distress sounds. 

If you asked ten different predator callers of little experience how many sounds do you use when calling critters, chances are you would get 10 different answers that might range from two to thirty.  But if you asked this same question to ten different highly experienced hunters who have been calling critters for many years, most will reply, “two or three”.  The reason for this response is very simple.  An experienced caller knows that while it is important to produce a quality distress sound,  more importance needs to be placed on how you set up to call and where.  While  most of the electronic game calls on the market today offer more than a dozen sounds, chances are you will choose two or three “pet” sounds and use them in most situations. 

If you’re going to be a successful hunter, you’re going to have to think like an animal. That means using certain specialized techniques to attract animals. Aside from animal-specific calls, you can also use animal scents. These high potency liquids work to attract animals in two ways.

One, they mask the scent of humans, and this is extremely important in hunting. Animals are highly attuned to the smell of humans and know to steer clear. The use of animal scents can help with this problem.

These products also replicate the actual scents emitted by the animal. The scents can entice animals by playing on their territorial or sexual instincts.

Another common scent option is merely introducing a new scent into the animal’s territory. Something like vanilla can bring an animal out simply because it’s new, and it wants to investigate. Since animals will run for cover once the scent has been assessed, you must be armed and ready shortly after spreading the foreign scent.

Depending on what you’re trying to catch, you can purchase scents specific to that animal. The most common forms of the product are deer, rabbit, bobcat, coyote, and others.

Hunting has been a part of human activities for a long period of time.  Even before there were Homo sapiens, there were hunters.  The reason for the shift from primary gathering to a varied diet consisting of meat is still a topic of debate.  One theory is that environmental factors changed the landscape and necessitated the development of hunting.  Another theory is that our growing brains needed added nutrients to sustain, which correlated with our increased intelligence and the ability to hunt.  No matter what the real root, it is accepted that hunting has been an integral part of our species. 
 
Even with the advent of animal domestication and agriculture, hunting still remained a contributing factor to the human food supply.  The materials gathered from hunting animals (fur, leather, sinew, bone, protein) were valuable commodities, even among early farmers.  The hunting tools man used at the first hunts were rock and crude spears.  They soon learned various techniques that made hunting an easier task, such as using animal calls to lure animals.  Outsmarting animals has been an essential part of human development.