Predator Call

I just returned from the 2009 Shot Show held in Orlando, Florida, though attendance appeared to be down, the enthusiasm of the crowd was not.  I spent most of my time with Savage Arms, Nikon Sport Optics and Mossy Oak, as you would expect, traffic was heavy at these booths.

There was interest in Savage’s newly introduced Accustock which will be standard on most of their bolt action models in a short time.  The Accustock is simply defined as a 3D aluminum block/rail that is molded into the synthetic stock creating an extra stiff foundation.  This system should really benefit the shooter who is using shooting sticks or a bipod.

The Coyote Special riflescope was the hot item in the Nikon Sport Optic booth according to the folks at Nikon.  I had a hand in the development of this scope, as I wanted a product that would help reduce target acquisition time.  After fifty years of shooting with crosshairs, this new aiming system will require a period of adjustment.

It seems that the interest in predator calling continues to grow.  I am sure that there are many reasons for this growth and another is a weak economy; predator and varmint hunting are inexpensive.

Paula, who had just purchased a COMPUCALLER III for her husband’s Christmas present, caught me after church yesterday morning.  “That caller I purchased is the best machine ever built or we have the dumbest foxes in the country.  Two nights ago, nine hunters loaded up in a pickup and drove down in the pasture.  We called twice and killed two foxes!” I responded, “Chances are it was a little of both, that is a really good electronic game caller and perhaps those were young foxes.”  It seems that when a young predator “locks on” to a sound that he/she thinks is an easy meal nothing else seems to bother them. 

Across most of the country, it is time to pull out the predator calls and begin calling critters.  While there are a few hunters who call predators year round where legal, most of us wait until it cools off and the brush and trees loose some foliage.  Most of the country that I hunt is covered with a very good turf of knee high grass, making it almost impossible to see a critter responding to a call.  As a rule, I like to wait until the first of January because the cattle graze the grass short enough to increase my visibility.Good luck and have a safe and productive hunting season,

Make your hunting trip more interesting by bringing along patented predator calls. The sport will seem so much easier if you use the calls, but they actually make the hunt more challenging too. Using the calls means you have to keep a watchful eye on what animal comes along.

You will need to be alert for any response to your call. And since these are small callers, they easily fit in the palm of your hand. Then you can easily slip them into your pocket as you await for any action.

Springtime is the favorite season for most folks as it signals a new beginning.  Trees grow new foliage, flowers are blooming and critters are giving birth to little ones.  While I will admit that I love the spring with it’s greenery and gobbling  turkeys, my favorite season is the fall.  Fall is when I begin predator calling and I will not stop until early March when it warms up and new growth vegetation limits my visibility.As a rule, I begin hunting the first of October in New Mexico.  This year my starting date was delayed as the vegetation was too tall to effectively call coyotes.  I respect the coyote enough that I do not want to call to him until I have most of the advantages in my favor.  I would rather not call a coyote up and educate him than to call him up and let him get away.

Since I missed most of the month of October, I guess that I will just have to make up for it by hunting more in November, December, January and February.  The popularity of predator calling is undeniable.  For this reason, I have been contacted by many companies in the hunting industry to introduce hunters to this great game.  While we have been the leaders in this area for many years, it looks as though the months of January and February will be extremely busy.

I want to wish each of you a successful, safe and happy hunting season.  Hunts are not always remembered by the kills, rather the camaraderie and sights along the way.  Fall is here and it is time to get it started.

See you outdoors!   

It is rare that a day goes by that someone does not call or come by wanting to know how to call critters that have become “call shy” from too many folks calling to them.  Let me be the first to say that I don’t make a living calling up and killing critters, especially coyotes that are “call shy”.  If possible, I avoid those areas that receive excessive calling pressure.  I must admit that from time to time, I do enjoy the challenge of trying to call a coyote that “has heard everything in my sound library”.  Here are a few tricks that I employ when trying to call a coyote that is probably going to make a fool of me.

Do something different.  Try to find what sounds or calls have been used in the area and avoid them.  As a rule, most callers are using the cottontail distress and yellowhammer woodpecker sounds.  I would suggest that you try deer distress, canine distress, fox distress or another unusual distress sound.  If electronic predator calls have been overused in the area, I would recommend using hand calls.

Less is more.  Use less sound and less volume.  Shorten your calling sequences to 10-15 seconds and spend more time between series.  I would suggest that you call for 10-15 seconds at medium to low volume and then shut up for at least five minutes.  On the second series, I would call at medium volume for 10 seconds and again be silent for approximately five minutes.  For the third series, call for 15 seconds at low volume and then do not make another sound while staying on the stand for at least another fifteen minutes.  Many times a coyote will sneak in to investigate the situation when he feels that all is clear.

Move your eyes, not your head.  A coyote or other predator that is call shy rarely runs into the distress sound.  They will sneak to where they can study the situation before moving closer.  A predator that is standing still is very difficult to see.  However, it will have no problem seeing any movement that you make.  You are in his living room, he/she knows what belongs and what is foreign.

Don’t be lazy.  Walk farther to stands to insure that the first sound that the wily predator hears is your call.  Pressured critters have learned to associate vehicles with danger and may not respond to a call that is being delivered from the area where they last heard a pickup or ATV.

Pick the best spots.  Be very selective when choosing a stand to make a call.  Do not make a marginal call.  If everything is not right as far as visibility, wind, sun and concealment do not waste your time as you may further “educate” the critter you are trying to kill.

Calling up and killing a “call shy” critter, especially a coyote is a trophy of the highest degree.  Be patient, persistent and good luck.

See you outdoors.

I have the opportunity to take quite a few folks on their first predator calling hunts and experience has taught me to take nothing for granted.  Just because someone has hunted for many years, does not mean that they know how to properly set up in a calling situation.  Here are the basics on how to set up without the luxury of a blind and not knowing exactly where your target will appear.

Rule #1.  You can’t cover everything.  I feel that I can cover approximately 100 degrees in fairly open country without moving too much.  Move your eyes and not your head.

Rule #2.  Trust your partner if you have one.  I am a daytime caller and almost always call with a partner.  I shoot left-handed and most of my partners shoot from the right.  Set up the left-handed shooter on the right and the right-handed shooter on the left.  Between the two of you, you should be able to cover approximately 200 degrees.  You can not cover it all so give up what is behind you, after all, you just walked through this area when going to the stand.  Don’t worry about your partner’s area of responsibility, trust him or her to see an approaching critter.  If he or she has multiple critters responding to the call, have a system where you lip squeak or lightly whistle for backup. 

Rule #3.  Set down with your off shoulder pointed to the middle of your area of responsibility.  This will allow you to cover your ground without any major shift or drastic movement.  Shooting with your firearm across your body is natural and much easier to steady. 

Rule #4.  Sit in the shadows.  I know that the camo patterns of today are much improved over what was available just five years ago.  Sitting in the shadows when possible helps to break up outlines and helps to cover motion.

Rule #5.  Hunt with the sun at your back.  This is extremely important in open country.  Having the sun in a critter’s eyes impairs it’s ability to see you while improving your ability to see it.

Rule #6.  Hunt with the wind in your face or call into a crosswind.  You might trick a coyote with what he hears or sees but you cannot trick his nose.  You can wear all of the charcoal lined clothing that you own and/or soak yourself with scent eliminating products and still get busted by a coyote.  When asked what I use for a cover scent, my response is simply watch the wind and use the money you saved by not purchasing products that won’t work, to purchase more ammo.  Get back to the basics and don’t worry about finding a gimmick that is suddenly going to make you a better hunter, it does not exist.   

I guess the longer you do something the greater the odds of something rare happening while you are doing it.  I have been trying to call critters for a long time and approximately 10 years ago while hunting with J. D. Beeson, an event occurred that I will almost certainly never duplicate.  We were calling on a very large south Texas ranch where there was a very good coyote and bobcat population.The thick thorn brush that is typical to this area offers very few natural openings.  Many of the calling stands that we make in this country are at the intersection of two senderos (roads).  On this morning, J. D. and I chose one of these intersections to make the third call of the morning.  Being left-handed, I took the sendero to the right  and walked down to the first bush that offered me a little more concealment.  J. D. sat down at the left side of the intersection so that he could watch the sendero to the right and the one running away from him.   I estimate that there were thirty steps between us when I began to work the Black Magic predator call.

Approximately 3 minutes into the call, a coyote broke from the brush across the sendero from me.  As soon as the coyote hits the sendero, he is looking directly into my eyes.  I know that making a move was almost impossible but my rifle was resting across my lap pointing down the sendero where the dog was headed.  If I could just shoulder my rifle, I would have a chance to kill the dog. 

The motion of shouldering the rifle caused the dog to grab another gear as he attempted to gain the safety of the cover on the other side of the road.  When I saw motion in my scope, the coyote was less than twenty steps…I pulled the trigger.  As bad luck would have it, my bullet had cut several small branches on the brush that stuck out in the edge of the sendero.  Though I felt I must have gotten at least bullet fragments in the dog, I could find no is sign of it.   

I walked up the road where J. D. was sitting and before I could say anything, he said, “I missed him”.  My response was “You shot?”  “Yeah, I shot at a coyote that trotted across that sendero about 80 yards up there”, gesturing to the sendero that ran north.  “Did you hear me shoot?” I asked rather confused.  He responded that he had not heard my shot. 

Two different hunters shot at two different coyotes in two different directions at exactly the same time.  Evidently, the rifles had discharged so close to the same time that neither of the shooters knew that the other had shot.  I have been calling critters for over 45 years and I will be willing to bet that I never see this scenario play out again.   

To my recollection, there has not been a development in bullet technology that has had the impact on predator calling that the ballistic tip has.  My introduction to the ballistic bullet was the first year that Winchester Olin produced the Ballistic Silver-tip ammo through a joint venture with Nosler.  I am not sure of the year, but would guess that it was in the late 90’s. 

Until this time, I had become a fan of the 52 grain hollow point that Winchester was loading and was hording all that I could get my hands on for Kevin Howard had told me that this particular ammo was going to be discontinued.  After hearing the bad news, it was the next year that Kevin showed up at our annual South Texas predator hunt with the 50 grain Ballistic Silver-tip ammo.

The silver cases with the black, silver tipped bullets were the sexiest looking ammo I had ever seen and continue to be to this day.  I joked that shooting this ammo would make me feel like the Lone Ranger.  After carrying it to the range, I was not joking about the ammo anymore as it produced less than a half inch group in my .223.  Sure it was accurate but the true test would be to see how it would perform on coyotes and bobcats.

If memory serves me correctly, we killed 42 coyotes and three bobcats in two days.  In most every situation, the bullet stayed in the coyote, the same was true on one of the cats.  Having the bullet expend all of it’s energy in the critter makes for clean kills and minimal pelt damage.  Several companies are loading the ballistic tip bullets in several different weights including 40’s and 55’s but my experience proves that nothing performs quite like the 50 grain’s. 

Good luck and happy hunting.

If you ask ten predator callers what is their weapon of choice for hunting, chances are you will get ten different answers.  Since this is my blog, I am going to tell you what I shoot and why.  To properly understand why I choose the weapon that I shoot, I think that it is important to know what I am generally shooting at and the average distance that I am shooting.

While I call a few fox and bobcats, my love is daytime coyote hunting.  In my opinion, coyotes are one of the toughest critters to kill as they have a tremendous will to live.  My average shot at a “called up” coyote is 50 to 75 yards, no poke for a rifle but a little too far for a shotgun.  I know there a lot of young pups out there that pack both shotgun and rifle to every stand but I have enough gear without carrying another firearm.  I like to travel light and don’t like the additional pressure to have to choose between weapons as a coyote is bearing down on me.  I guess what I am saying is, keep it simple. 

Years ago the minimum caliber that I would shoot was the .22-.250 as I felt that I needed the extra energy for clean kills.  After the ballistic tip ammo became popular, I found that I was able to kill critters cleanly with some of the smaller calibers.  Today, my caliber of choice is the Remington .223 loaded with Winchester Ballistic Silvertip ammo in the 50 grainers.  I have found this to be an extremely reliable round for clean kills, tiny entrance and rarely an exit.  If there is no exit, this means that the bullet expended all of it’s energy in the critter.  I am very comfortable shooting the .223 Remington out to 250 yards, however a shot at this distance is rare for me in calling situations.

I am old fashioned and prefer a bolt gun, don’t need or understand the need for the firepower of a semi-auto, more importantly, neither do most of the ranchers that grant me the permission to hunt their country.  Experience has taught me that it is not the number of bullets that you put in the air that counts, it is where you put them.  There is no doubt that firearm manufacturers have made tremendous advances in the accuracy of the auto-loaders and if someone wants to carry them in the field, I certainly respect your right to do so.

Two years ago, I was able to convince Ron Coburn, Chairman, Savage Arms that predator calling had grown to point that someone should build a rifle specifically dedicated to this sport.  In my opinion, the Model 10 Predator Hunter is the closest thing to a perfect walking predator rifle on the market.  It weighs 7.25 pounds, naked and has a 22″ medium heavy barrel that balances effortlessly.  It is equipped with an over-sized bolt for quicker cycling and a straight line feed detachable box magazine for smoother feeding and safety.  Savage dipped the rifle in Mossy Oak Brush to make it invisible even to a predator’s eye.  Like most of the rifles in Savage’s great line of products, the Model 10 is equipped with the amazing Accutrigger that will adjust down to two pounds.  It’s accuracy is uncanny.  I have shot 10 different Model 10’s in .223 caliber, all shooting 3 shot groups less than .6 at 100 yards.

Well, there is my pick.  A flat shooting, low recoiling rifle that is light enough for an old man to carry all day and yet has the backbone to hold like a bench rest rifle when it is sitting on shooting sticks.  I may not have won you over to my thinking and that is okay, to each his own.  I will tell you that someone out there agrees with me for sales of the Model 10 far exceed projections.

Good luck and Happy Hunting!