Predator Call

Years ago, my brother, Russell and I were calling after dark.  We were sitting back to back with a large live oak tree between us.  It was fairly open around us for 5o yards.  I was playing some sweet notes on a C-3 Long Range  Call and Russell was working a Winchester .22 Semi-auto rifle.  Both of us had flashlights, mine was a Ray-O-Vac 6 volt in the plastic housing. A couple of minutes into the call, the rustling of leaves told me that we had a critter on the way.  I turned on my flashlight and aimed it in the direction of the racket to find a rather large boar coon running directly at me.  Now one would have thought that a light aimed directly into the eyes of a hard charging critter would get your partner’s attention.  But for one reason or another, no shot came but the critter did; he never broke stride and ended up in my lap!  To this day, I don’t enjoy wrestling with a full grown coon but I really didn’t like it at age 12.  I attempted to get to my feet while trying to KO the coon with the Ray-O-Vac flashlight.  While I did not get the later accomplished, I was successful in getting him to retreat in the direction that he came.  Maybe this is another reason I don’t call much after dark anymore.

A similar incident occurred last weekend.  Last Sunday morning, my buddy Larry Symes was coyote hunting in southern Oklahoma.  He was sitting on a fence-line with a steel post as a back rest.  He could see approximately 500 yards to the north and 180 degrees from right to left.  Ten minutes into the call, he heard a rustling sound in the tall grass behind him and to his left.  He was blowing the Mini Blaster and it was in his left hand, tucked under his face mask.  When the critter broke from the grass, it was within ten feet and Larry could see that it was a big boar coon.  As a rule, he would have ignored the predator but this one was coming much too aggressively.  The coon never broke stride, jumped and grabbed him by the arm and started to growl and shake his prey.  Luckily, it was cool enough that Larry had on a lightweight jacket which served to protect his arm.  The battled raged on for at least 15 seconds until Larry could not hold it any longer and let go with what he described as a battle cry…I am betting it sounded more like a small child screaming!  At any rate, the old boar decided to release his captor and fled back to the safety of the tall grass.

Pound for pound, there is not much anything tougher than a raccoon.  An old boar that is a veteran of many battles is not afraid of a fox, coyote or a bobcat for that matter.  So when calling, especially after dark, watch out for that coon! 

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!

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.

Deer, like many animals, communicate in a complicated manner, using a series of scents as well as vocal sounds. As a hunter, you can use both these elements to help in your success, but we’ll examine the latter here.

Before you purchase a tool to replicate deer calls, make sure you know what type of call you’re using and what that says to your prospective catch.

-Snort: The buck snort will most likely lure a male. Also, it is an aggressive call, so should the buck materialize, it will be ready to fight.

-Horn Rattle: Like the snort, this generally attracts a buck. In general, it will lure a buck that is not overtly aggressive.

-Grunt: Grunts can attract either male or female, but the male call is typically a deeper pitch. Grunts can be associated with mating, although they are not exclusively used in that way. They can also be a way for the doe to signal feeding time to the family.

With all replicated deer calls, listen to recordings of the actual calls whenever possible. This will give you a good idea how accurate your calls actually are.

In many Texas counties, there is an either sex fall season for the Rio Grande turkey.  Most of these counties are in South Texas, the Edwards Plateau and a few in the Panhandle.  In most of these counties, the bag limit is four birds.  They can be taken in the fall or the spring or a combination thereof.

If you are hunting in the fall season and decide to take a bird, please consider shooting the hens.  The reason that I request you make this choice is because the number of hens greatly outnumbers the gobblers.  Years of hunters shooting only gobblers that respond to their feeders along with the fact that only the males are legal in the spring has lead to this inbalance of the sexes.  A classic example of this inbalance is demonstrated within a couple of miles of where I am sitting.  Just east of Menard on the San Saba River is one of the largest fall/winter roosts that I have ever seen.  I would estimate that there are 1,500 to 2,500 birds on this roost.  The mature gobbler to hen ratio is twenty to thirty to one. 

Now, if you are not a turkey hunter, you probably don’t care about the ratio of gobblers to hens, but if you love to call turkeys in the spring, this imbalance of sexes will greatly affect your calling success.  Why would an old tom answer the yelps generated by your turkey calls when he has 10 hens standing in front of him?   So when turkeys show up at your feeder and you have an urge to take one or two home for Thanksgiving, take the Ole Henny Penny for this is the only time she is legal.   

Lately there have been reports of some almost unbelievable numbers of critters being called in one night.  Several folks have asked me if these numbers are possible.  Let me begin by saying, that I have never called more than 40 critters in one night.  Come to think of it, I can’t remember when I called up more than 20 critters in a night but if I did, it would be because I was counting raccoons, ring-tails, fox and every other fur-bearing critter that may have stumbled by when I was calling…I normally don’t keep records of anything but bobcats and coyotes.  

I have not called after dark for a number of years for I have found if I hunt all day, I want to sleep at night.  There are several other reasons that I concentrate on hunting during the daylight.  One is that we video most of our hunts and  since hunting after dark with the aid of an artificial light is illegal in most states, the majority of hunters want to see hunts that are shot in daylight.  Two, I feel that calling critters in the daylight is more challenging and is a greater test of the hunter’s skills.  Three, I have found that calling after dark educates predators, especially coyotes quicker than any other hunting method. 

Back to the best calling day or days of calling that I have ever experienced.  Three years ago, I met Richard Hurt at the ranch near Dilley, Texas just before noon.  I had looked at the so-lunar tables and they said that is was to be a major feeding period at noon.  I suggested that we grab a bite and go hunting to take advantage of the active time.  We called that day until dark, all day the next day and from daylight until noon on the third day.  We called 68 coyotes and two bobcats in that two and a half day period.  We did not have permission to shoot the cats, so they got a pass.  The coyotes were not so lucky as 43 will not be able to answer another predator call.

If you start at daylight, walk to every stand, make the call and walk back to the truck, you will find that you will generally average making 12 to 15 calls per day.  If memory serves me correctly, we made 32 calls over the two and a half day period.  This is an average of two and 1/8th coyotes on every stand…that 1/8th of a coyote is not much of a target!  I guess that calling can be better than this but I have not seen it before or since.

I am fortunate to be able to hunt fairly long stretches, everyday for two to three weeks.  It is during these marathon hunting trips that we see cyclical trends in calling success.  The weather seems to be almost perfect with little to no wind and you can’t buy a coyote.  Two days later, the wind is howling and the coyotes run over you on every stand.  As my hunting partner, Larry Symes says “You don’t learn anything about calling coyotes if you just hunt for two or three days.  If you stay after them everyday for two or three weeks to a month, you begin to understand active feeding times.”

I am a believer that predators feed by the moon and religiously watch the So-lunar Tables.  If you have the opportunity to hunt one of these marathons, I highly recommend that you obtain a copy of the so-lunar tables and see how the active times relate to calling success.  I am not saying don’t hunt simply because the moon says it will not be a good day.  What I am saying is if the tables say that there is going to be an active time at noon, then I don’t want to be sitting at the Dairy Queen.  I will schedule my lunch break early or even better, go without eating as I need to drop a few pounds anyway. 

My motto is “We don’t quit and we don’t whine”.  No matter how bad things are going, if you will keep the pressure on, things will turn around.   As I have matured, it is easier for me to handle the tough days.  Years ago, I would lay awake wondering what I did wrong or if I used the right predator calls.  Now I realize that I did nothing wrong, it was that some days are just not very good.  Good luck and happy hunting!  

Like many of you, my first weapon was a BB gun.  I don’t remember asking Santa Claus for one but on my fifth Christmas, I found a Daisy air rifle under the tree.  My favorite targets were the big yellow breasts of the Meadowlarks that fed on the leftover cow and hog feed behind our house.  Now I find that shooting meadowlarks and a few of my earlier targets was illegal.

Living on a ranch and being able to walk out the back door and begin hunting helped me learn basic hunting and shooting skills.  I think one of the most important things I learned while trying to kill a cowbird or other small critter was how to position my body in order to improve accuracy.  

Through the years, I have had the opportunity to introduce a number of people to predator calling.  When we walk in to make a call, I will generally point to a bush where I want my hunter to sit and by using hand signals, point to the area I want him/her to cover.  Almost without exception, the hunter will sit with his/her shoulders square to his area of responsibility.  Years of shooting offhand will tell you that you need to point your off shoulder to the area you are prepared to shoot.  In other words, if you are right handed, you should point your left shoulder to the shooting zone, if you are left handed, then you would point your right shoulder to that area.  Not only will this position make it easier to hold your firearm steady, it will allow you to shoot at least 100 degrees without a shift of your seat.

Another thing that I have noticed is when I ask a hunter to go sit by the bush or tree, they will almost always sit with the cover behind them.  This is fine if the sun is at their back; however, if the sun is striking this area, you should sit in the shade of that bush.  I sit in the shadows even if it means that I have to sit off to one side, being careful to stay against the cover so that I am not just a black blob with nothing to break my outline.  

With the recent growth of predator calling, all of us are finding it more difficult to find land that no one else is calling.  If there are more folks out there “screaming” at the critters then it stands to reason that there are more educated or pressured coyotes.  It is rare that a day goes by that someone does not call and say, “I know I have coyotes because I see their sign but I can’t call them.  What am I doing wrong?”  My standard response to them is, (and I don’t mean to sound like a wise guy) “I have not hunted with you so therefore, how can I tell you what you are doing wrong?”  This reply is generally followed by a brief period of silence and then I will begin to question them about the area they are hunting.

One of my first questions is “How many other hunters are calling the same property or property adjacent to where you are hunting?”  If they do not know, my second question is, “How do coyotes react when responding to your calls?”  If the response to either of these questions suggest that the coyotes are indeed pressured then one will have to drastically change tactics or find some fresh real estate.  To be honest with you, I would prefer to look for “new ground”.

If I did not have the luxury of moving to another area, here are a few tips that might make you successful in-spite of calling pressure.  If there are other callers working the area, find out if they are using electronic game calls or hand calls and use the opposite.  If possible find out what calls or sounds they have been using and use something else. 

Walk further to stands.  Make sure that the first sound that the predator hears is your call, not the pickup or ATV that you are driving.  Coyotes, more than most critters associate man with vehicles and will avoid them if he has had a bad experience with them in the past.

Give them less sound.  Reduce the time of your calling sequences to 10-15 seconds and use less volume.  Lengthen the time between calling sequences, three to five minutes.  If calling coyotes, use some canine whimpering and whining sounds.

Stay longer on a stand.  Typically, if I am hunting an area that has not been pressured, I will stay approximately 15 minutes on a stand.  If I am calling an area that has been called, I may stay over 30 minutes on a stand.  After I have called for say, 20 minutes with no response, I will remain on the stand without making another call or sound.  On many occasions, I have had a critter show himself in this quiet period. 

Try to situate yourself so that it is very difficult for the coyote to get your wind without exposing himself.  If possible, make it impossible for the critter to get your wind.  You can do this by putting a natural barrier behind you such as a bluff, body of water or a net-wire fence.

Do not move.  A call shy critter is likely to sneak in to the call, stopping frequently to survey the situation.  A nervous critter does not miss something that moves or is out of place.

And last but not least, don’t invite me to hunt with you.  Good luck, you are going to need it. 

For years, I have preached that at least 80 percent of calling success is going to be dictated by where you put your butt down to make a call.  While there are many factors that need to be considered on where and how to set up to make a call, possibly the most important is to call where predators are within hearing.  You simply cannot call what is not there.

If I am calling the predator rich brush country of South Texas, I never worry that there is a coyote or bobcat within hearing of my electronic calls.  I merely try to find those stands that offer visibility where I can take advantage of the wind.  If I am hunting an area where predator populations are not as high, I must be much more selective picking my stands.  I drive the roads until I see fresh tracks or scat before I worry too much about finding a place to sit down. 

Old coyote sign can be deceiving as experience has taught me that coyotes tend to feed in a particular area until the food source is diminished.  When the food runs short, the coyotes will move to another another area perhaps a couple of miles away.  Old sign does not tell you where coyotes are, it tells you where they have been.