Predator Call

Last weekend, Miss Deb, Steve, Dustin and Jeana Whitacre and I exhibited at the Texas Trophy Hunter Extravaganza show in San Antonio.  We were there with Burnham Brothers and Mossy Oak camo and for the first time on 20 years, I heard excuses on why they could not make a purchase.  Until now, it seems that the Texas economy was somewhat immune to the economic problems facing most of the nation. 

I was in the banking business in the ’80s when the Texas economy was in bad shape.  At that time, we were the last state to feel the downturn and the last state to recover from it.  The saying “Last in…last out” comes to mind.  I hope and pray that this recession or depression does not last as long as the one I experienced in the ’80s as I saw our real estate prices plunge almost 50%.  I must admit that I don’t have a lot of confidence in this administration to turn things around and I feel that much of the stimulus money that we have spent has made matters worse in the long term.

With the downturn of the economy, I guess that means that I will have to hunt harder…that’s not a bad thing.

See you outdoors,

Gary Roberson

Steve, Dustin (aka-Shed) and I drove to Dryden, Texas Friday afternoon to try to call up a bobcat for CARNIVORE.  We made one call that evening that produced 6 deer but no predators.  Saturday morning, the first stand yielded a gray fox that could not resist the sound of Cottontail Duet.  I had been playing the distress cries of a grown cottontail which I am sure had lured him into the area.  As soon as I switched the Compucaller III to the “duet”, the fox dashed from a thicket with a mockingbird pecking at his back.  Shed missed his first shot as the trigger pull on his Savage Model 10 is a little lighter than he is accustomed to.  The fox did not spook and his second shot was true.

The third stand produced another fox that pranced up to the caller with his tail arched.  He was trying to make himself appear to be about twice his size.  After nosing up to the caller, he trotted back toward cover.  Shed “gave him a barrel” but the bullet appeared to to hit under the little critter. 

Believe it or not, it was difficult sleeping in our old cabin for the recent rains have produced quite the mosquito population.  We ended up having to shut the doors which made it awfully hot; too hot for this old man.  We decided to drive back to civilization and air conditioning.

See you outdoors,

Gary Roberson

Trying to get the hounds on a fresh bobcat track had proven to be more of a task than what we expected.  I decided to increase our odds by calling one up.  I told Brian Hawkins and my son, Steve to go in one direction and I would go another.  Two callers would double our odds which I felt were pretty slim in the 93 degree heat. 

We were shooting an episode for CARNIVORE TV and needed a bobcat in a tree so that young Colter Kaspar could have an opportunity to take it with his bow.  We had traveled many miles of ranch roads that morning without crossing bobcat scent that was strong enough for the hounds to trail.

My GPS set on the hunt/fish mode indicated that the critters should be feeding from approximately 4:45 p.m. til 6:45 p.m. as “Best Times”.  I told J. Martin Bassinger that I would leave a radio with him and should I get a cat to respond, give him a call.  It was so hot that I waited until about a quarter of six before leaving the house.  I decided to leave the Compucaller III for Steve and Brian while I would do a little squealling on the Mini Blaster.

Of late, I had been calling exclusively with the Compucaller III and must admit that it felt good to go back to my “pet” hand call of all time.  On the second series, I peered around the deer blind that I was using for a shade and saw a big tom bobcat loping in to the call as if he was a coyote.  Immediately, I got on the radio to J. Martin as I was trying to inform him of my success without alarming the cat.  The wind was in my face and helped to cover my radio transmission.  After hearing J. Martin verify my call and say “I am headed your way,” I turned the radio off.

I called to the cat, covering the bell of the call in an attempt of lowering the volume and turning up the pitch.  I had been successful as I could see the sunlight shining off what had to be the back of the cat, it was the only thing horizontal in a vertical world.  When the shine disappeared, the cat’s head appeared on the ground near the root of a purple sage. 

I continued to squeak to the cat, hoping to keep him around as long as I could.  The longer he was there, the fresher the scent would be when the cavalry arrived.  The cat seemed to relax a little and boldly walked into the open, cutting the distance between us.  When approximately 40 feet, he walked under the deep shade of a thick bush on dthe edge of the sendero and lay down, facing me. 

From time to time, the tom would look up at me standing only partially concealed by the blind.  He seemed not to be alarmed or concerned about catching supper.  When Dennis Kaspar and Ty Greene arrived, I was pointing to the cat.  Dennis saw the cat stand and trot away. 

While we did not catch this tom, the dogs did a great job for over two hours.  I must admit that blowing blasts on the Mini Blaster felt pretty good and I know it sounded good, at least to me and Old Tom.

See you outdoors,

Gary Roberson  

Just returned from a hunt with an old buddy, J. Martin Bassinger from Polar, Texas.  While J. Martin is a cat hunter with great hounds, he is nice enough to carry me around coyote calling.  We hunted near Gail last Friday and the success we had helped me forget about the tough time we had in New Mexico. 

Shortly after setting down to make the first call, I heard coyotes barking (socially)about a half mile downwind.  I knew that these dogs had me but was hoping something would approach from the west or north.  I know that these coyotes got around behind me and later made a visual on one walking back to the truck.  That is the bad news, the good news is that this was about the last call I made that day that did not have a coyote or more on it.

I was calling with the COMPUCALLER III and they were loving the Grown Cottontail.  I had two different pairs show up on the last call of the day and I killed two of them.  The last shot is one that I will replay many times as I killed the dog running at approximately 150 yards.  I think that I counted three somersaults before he quit rolling. 

We were shooting a pilot for our new TV show, CARNIVORE.  It will air on the PURSUIT CHANNEL beginning July, 2011.  PURSUIT will be part of all standard packages on Dish and Direct TV which will make it the largest channel carrying hunting and fishing programming.

See you outdoors,

Gary

Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet Jon LaCorte with Nikon Sport Optics, Joe Betar with Texas Trophy Hunters and my best buddy Brian Hawkins for an Audad/predator hunt.  I drove to Marfa and visited with my friend Mike Livingston and then turned south in the direction of Presidio.  About 33 miles south of town, I turned west onto the Cibolo Creek Ranch.  After driving a couple of miles of dirt roads that fell into a creek bottom, I could see what appeared to be a huge fort.  After walking through a gateway, I found a beautiful 5 star resort in the middle of a desert.

Jon and Joe were there to hunt Audads and I was there to call coyotes when we weren’t chasing sheep.  I met Robert Cavness, Ranch Manager, who was kind enough to turn me loose to look for predator sign while they pursued audads.  Jon killed a really nice ram at 330 yards while using the Nikon BDC reticle that first afternoon.  We decided to hunt coyotes the next morning before switching back to the sheep in the afternoon.

The first call produced a coyote from the north that I watched for over half a mile.  Sitting on a low gravelly hill, I shifted my shooting sticks to my left.  The motion caused a tiny rock to roll that was not detected by anyone other than the coyote standing at 100 yards.  He trotted back in the direction from where he came and stopped to have one last look.  That is when Jon got in the race.  Four shots later, the coyote was growing smaller as he headed to points north.  Rumor has it that he was seen running through Marfa around noon that day.

A couple of minutes later, Joe whispered that there were two more dogs farther east but it appeared that they did not want to test our shooting ability.  We made three more calls and called three more coyotes, killing two.  The next day, we awoke to a light rain that limited us to three calls.  The last set produced a gray fox that Jon shot within a minute of the time we sat down.

That afternoon I witnessed Joe Betar killing a Audad at 460 yards.  The sheep was shot through both shoulders and fell in his tracks.  This shot was made possible by Nikon’s Spot On Accuracy program and the Nikon BDC riflescope that was mounted on his 300 Winchester Magnum. 

See You Outdoors!

Gary 

For many years, I have considered carrying a camo net to throw over my truck when calling open, flat country.  A camo net would help hide my pickup and would reduce the distance that I would have to walk away from it when setting up to make a call.  In country where hunters or ranch hands shoot at coyotes from vehicles, coyotes become very shy of them. 

In stead of wresting with a huge camo netting, I have decided to camo my pickup in Mossy Oak Brush.  Mossy Oak Brush is the perfect camo pattern when calling open prairie country.  While reflection off of window glass may remain a problem, it is my hope the camo will be adequate to fool most critters, coyote calling will be the ultimate test.