Predator Call

I drove to Trinidad, Colorado to shoot a TV show with Fred Eichler, host of PREDATOR NATION.  I was there to represent Savage Arms as I guess I am their “predator expert”.On the first day of hunting, Jake took me to where he had seen coyotes the day before.  They were ganged up where a hunter had taken a mule deer.  The dogs were no doubt enjoying a large gut pile.  We move in about daylight and were greeted by a coyote that was sitting across a draw and looking longingly down into the area where the buffet was served.  She had no doubt observed two rednecks approaching from the east as she appeared to be watching a tennis match, going from us to the gut pile. 

I turned on the COMPUCALLER III and she wanted to go to the distress sound.  She came up the draw and studied the situation from every possible angle but her feet would not carry her across it.  Later that morning after moving to another ranch with the wind picking up tumbleweeds, we had a coyote approach about 250 yards downwind.  Had it not been for Jake this gyp would have escaped but his warning gave me just enough time to turn almost 90 degrees.  I had my Nikon Coyote Special set at 6 power and wished I had time to increase the magnification but simply did not.  I got lucky and ran the 50 grain Winchester Ballistic Silvertip through her chest.

We made a couple of calls in the 80 degree heat and wind that afternoon.   The Compucaller III produced a beautifully furred gray fox at about 20 steps.  Furbearer’s season does not open until Nov. 1, so Fred gave him a pass.  We made made a fruitless call that evening as the wind shifted from the north.

The next morning, it began to snow and did not stop until late that afternoon.  The high temperature was 31 and the low was 27 and there were 14 inches of snow before it stopped.  We were unable to make a call that day.  To make matter worse, the wet snow falling on warm ground was the recipe for sloppy roads.

The third morning, Fred, Jake and I made it to some beautiful rolling country where we found several coyote tracks in the snow.   We managed to kill three coyotes on five calls and Fred said that we had a TV show.  It was really beautiful, watching the coyotes come to the COMPUCALLER III in the snow.

See you outdoors!

Adios,

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. 

Last spring I was hunting bobcats with hounds near Dilley, Texas.  One of the gentlemen in attendance had a small flashlight (just over 4 inches long and an inch in diameter) that would shine down the sendero for at least 200 yards.  I wrote down the name of the light and when I got back to the office found that the company had several different models.  I looked through their catalog and found a tactical light powered by (3)AAA batteries and had a battery life of 136 hours.  They advertised the effective range to be over 700 feet which is perfect for a shooting light.In my opinion, a perfect shooting light is small, lightweight, should not have an external power source and can be easily attached or removed from a rifle.  If the tactical light was the perfect light, all that was needed was a means to attach it to your rifle or shotgun; a  sturdy mounting system that would allow the hunter to attach two round objects that are approximately 1″ in diameter to each other.  The finish of the mounting system should be such that it does not scratch any surfaces.  While we will continue to market the SL-18 Shooting Light for closer range shooting, we feel that the tactical light and bracket will be very popular with the night time predator caller.

See you outdoors,

Gary

“Are there common qualities that all good predator callers possess?”  I was asked this question  a couple of years ago and my first impulse was to answer “No” but after thinking about it, I must say that there are some things that all really good predator callers have in common.

They were all raised on farms and ranches and began hunting very early.   They continue to live in rural areas or where they can be hunting in a matter of minutes.

While they are proficient with handguns and shotguns, the weapon of choice is a bolt action rifle.  They are a little ”old fashioned” and have not joined the fad of semi-auto rifles.  They know it is patience and accuracy, not fire power that puts fur on the ground.

They are “hard headed” and most persistent.  They are confident that what they are doing will work.

When in the woods, they notice things that most hunters are not aware of.  They are good at tracking and reading sign. 

A good predator hunter avoid crowds if possible and enjoys hunting alone.

All really good predator hunters are good “dog” men.  They hunt predators or hogs with dogs.  I am not sure of the relationship other than “dog” men spend so many hours in the woods on a year round basis.

Predator hunting is a rapidly growing sport with many young hunters getting involved.  I am sure that the qualities of the hunter will change and that is a good thing for the hunter described above is a dying breed.   

See you outdoors, 

Gary

Matt Martinez of Dallas, Texas passed away on March 13, 2009 after a lengthy battle with cancer.  Matt had been one of my closest hunting partners over the last ten years.  While most will remember Matt for his culinary skills, I will remember him for his quick witt and love of the great outdoors.  To my knowledge, he is the only world class chef who hunted coyotes.  He understood that it took more hunting skill to trick a coyote on his turf than to kill a monster buck from a blind.  He was patient and understood that hunting did not necessarily mean killing.  No matter how slow the hunting or brutal the weather, Matt would not complain. I had the honor to visit with Matt a few weeks ago.  Walking with the aid of a walker, Matt never mentioned that we might have hunted our last hunt, rather talked about how good the hunting would be next fall.  He was eternally optomistic and had a special way of making everyone around him feel you were important to him.  While I cherish the time we spent in the woods, it is the time we spent in camp that was most special to me. 

I hunted the open plains in New Mexico 8 days in January.  On three of those days, it was the quietest that I have ever seen it there.  I was almost afraid to turn on the electronic game caller at low volume as the sound seemed excessively loud.  In the past, I would have considered these to be excellent days but with only one coyote responding in three mornings, I have changed my mind.I feel that the reason for the lack of productivity is due to a couple of reasons.  One, as quite as it was you could hear the sound of a pickup driving on the ranch roads from miles away.  Since the ranch hands shoot at the coyotes from the trucks from time to time, the dogs keep track of where they are.  Even though we are hiding our truck and walking several hundred yards from them to make a call.  The coyotes did not want to go near the area where they last heard the truck noise.

Another reason that I feel the coyotes were inactive is a coyote feeds with his nose.  While he will use his eyes to see prey, he will not bite it until he tests it with his nose.  There was so little wind that I could not tell where the pressure was coming from.  When I looked at the Stick Tease (a turkey feather attached to a fiberglass rod) near the caller, I saw it move 360 degrees.  When a coyote cannot decide where to go to wind his prey, he is very nervous. 

On all three days, the wind decided where it would blow from around noon.  It was then that the coyotes started coming to my calls and hunting improved.

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.

This last week, I received emails and text messages from some young hunters who had recently purchased Compucaller III’s.  One of the young fellows is from Mason and had just won a calling contest in Mason with 36 gray fox taken in 24 hours.  Another young gent from San Angelo won the Sonora hunt last weekend with 20 gray fox and a bobcat.  I met a couple of young hunters at Cleburne and sold them a Compucaller III.  They carried it to the field that evening and called up 5 coyotes, one cat and a fox on three stands.  The next night he hunted again and killed eight coyotes. 

It is great to see all of these young guys out there hunting instead of doing all of the things that get so many young folks in trouble.  Predator control costs taxpayers over $100 million annually and these young hunters kill predators at no expense to any one.  

Last spring, I had the opportunity to turkey hunt with Jon Allen, General Manager, Nikon Sport Optics.  We had a great time and a friendship developed almost immediately.  While hunting turkeys, Jon and I started talking about the virtues of the perfect predator calling riflescope.  A few months later at a Nikon Shoot in Kerrville, I met Jon LaCorte, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Nikon Sport Optics.  Over the next month or two, the two Jons and I visited on the specs of the predator calling scopes.  I was finally able to put my hands on one of three prototypes at the 2009 Shot Show in Orlando, Florida and brought the 3-9×40 Coyote Special in Mossy Oak home with me.

As soon as I returned to Texas, I mounted the scope on my Savage Model 10 Predator Hunter and went to the range.  The first shot impacted the target 2.5″ to the right and 1″ low.  Since the riflescope features precise hand-turn 1/4″ click adjustments, I moved it 10 clicks to the left and 8 clicks up.  The next shot cut the vertical line one inch above the bullseye.  I fired two more shots and that produced a .6″ group in spite of a 20 mile per hour crosswind.

The characteric that makes this scope different is the reticle.  Instead of the usual crosshairs, the vertical and horizontal lines are interrupted by a 3″ open circle.  With my .223 shooting one inch high at 100 yards, I simply put the target inside the circle and squeeze the trigger.  When we first began conversations about building a riflescope for calling predators, my primary concern was to develop a product that would reduce target acquisition time.  With this scope, you simply see the target area in the open circle and shoot, there is no need to find crosshairs or look for a dot.

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.