Predator Call

As a youngster, I can remember cussing to myself at the cries of a red-tailed hawk that responded to the distress cries generated by my predator call.  I was sure that the hawk had seen me and was screaming out warning cries to every critter within earshot.  It was not for several years later that I finally realized that the hawk was not hurting my chances of calling a critter, he was indeed helping me.

I began to change my thinking about how the hawk squealing was affecting my calling success after having a hawk squeal while watching coyotes that had responded to my distress cries.  The coyotes appeared to ignore the hawk for the most part.  A couple of years later, when calling on a large South Texas ranch, I was fortunate to observe a pair of coyotes racing to me across an open prickly pear flat.  Just ten feet over the coyotes was a red-shouldered hawk shadowing their every move and screaming his brains out.  Since that day, I have come to realize that the only time the hawk squeals or cries is when he sees a predator.  If the hawk perches close to the distress sound and does not make a sound, it is because there is no predator present. 

I feel the reason that the hawk vocalizes is simply because he is excited and knows that there is a good chance that there will be some tidbits left over from the meal that the predator is about to partake.  Not only is the hawk another set of “super eyes” from an elevated position, I feel that when the responding predator hears the hawk, he is somewhat reassured by the hawk’s presence.

When calling bobcats, I have found that wrens are very vocal when cats slink through their territory.  You will hear the little wren following just above the cat and scolding him until the cat moves out of the area.  Crows and ravens tend to follow predators just as the hawk and have tipped the critters on many occasions.

Perhaps the most aggressive and helpful of all birds is the magpie.  Though we do not have any in Texas that I am aware of, I have really enjoyed their assistance in the northern states such as, Wyoming.  Not only will the magpie vocalize when they see the coyote, they will dive bomb him.  This dive bombing practice will help you to pinpoint the exact location of the predator.

The more time I spend in the outdoors, the more I realize that creatures of different types communicate with each other.  There is a whole lot more going on out there than what meets the ear. 

My favorite method of hunting a mature whitetail buck is by rattling two deer antlers together.  When I do this, I am trying to mimic the sound that two bucks that are fighting would make.  If a mature buck hears this battle, he will go to the ruckus in an attempt to take the doe away from the combatants or drive them from his territory.

I use antlers from bucks that I have killed or shed antlers that I have found.  Synthetic antlers can be very effective as well.  I have found that a deer call known as a grunt call is very effective for luring bucks even closer to the hunter. 

My favorite time to rattle a mature buck is the week to ten days in advance of the rut.  It is at this time when the bucks are searching for receptive does and have the most vigor.  It seems that it is more difficult to rattle a mature buck during the peak of the rut for most will be with a doe.  It is almost impossible to rattle a buck away from a receptive doe. 

The closer the buck to doe ratio, the greater your chance of rattling a buck as they must compete for breeding rights.  On two different occasions, I have rattled eight bucks to one stand.

One of the easiest critters to call after dark is the raccoon.  A raccoon is bold, afraid of almost nothing and therefore responds aggressively to prey distress cries.  I feel that the raccoon’s senses are not as keen as some other predators simply because they are primarily herbivorous, in other words, they don’t have to catch other critters to make a living.  Having less defined senses and an aggressive behavior is the recipe for close encounters with the caller, man or electronic.  I have literally had to fight coons off of me when I was using hand calls before they realized that they had been duped.

When calling coons, use less volume and shorten the distance between calls.  Raccoons are built for climbing, not running long distances.  Some of my favorite distress sounds for calling coons are many of the bird distress sounds, baby cottontail cries and baby coon distress cries.  They tend to favor the game calls that produce higher pitched sounds. 

Last March I had the opportunity to hunt with a most interesting and delightful lady, Jackie Gragg.  Miss Jackie is fairly new at the hunting game for she took it up only three years ago after the death of her husband.  It seems that hunting had helped to fill a void left with his passing.I met Miss Jackie at her camp house near Palestine, Texas where she showed me the 9 bucks that she had killed over the last three years.  Then, she showed me the spot just right of the fireplace where she wanted to put the full body mounted bobcat that she knew I was going to call up for her.

After trying several different bobcat calls, I did manage to call a bobcat to Miss Jackie and she made an excellent shot on it.  There was a cold wind blowing and the predators were not moving.  While we were walking to the stands and sitting in the cold wind without  any success, Miss Jackie never complained and remained optimistic.  By the way, did I mention that she is 75 years young.  It’s never too late.