Predator Call

If you asked ten different predator callers of little experience how many sounds do you use when calling critters, chances are you would get 10 different answers that might range from two to thirty.  But if you asked this same question to ten different highly experienced hunters who have been calling critters for many years, most will reply, “two or three”.  The reason for this response is very simple.  An experienced caller knows that while it is important to produce a quality distress sound,  more importance needs to be placed on how you set up to call and where.  While  most of the electronic game calls on the market today offer more than a dozen sounds, chances are you will choose two or three “pet” sounds and use them in most situations. 

“Don’t make a marginal call” is easier to preach than to practice.  It is my experience that it is difficult to kill a coyote on a marginal stand.  “Okay so the sun is going to be in my eyes a little” or ”I do not see any sign but that sure is a pretty place to make a call” are some of the statements I have made before wasting my time on a marginal stand.  Experience has taught me that it is not the number of stands that you make in a day that will determine how many critters you kill rather the number of good stands you make.  I would rather make only five good calls in one day than to make 15 marginal stands a day.

The characteristics of a good stand or call are to call where predators are present.  This is determined by sign, tracks or scat.  You should never call from a stand where visibility is poor or the wind is questionable.  Many times I have attempted to make calls where I had everything in place except a little cover to hide the hunter.  In most every situation the approaching predator detected my presence and escaped.  By using an electronic caller with remote capabilities and a rabbit decoy or Stick Tease I have managed to get away with less cover.   

It’s not smart to head out possum hunting without the right equipment. Each year hundreds of hunters are lost or die during expeditions. Bringing the right hunting supplies with you can make the difference between life and death. For many people hunting is a passion—a way of life. Be safe while you hunt that way you will be able to look forward to more hunting trips in the future.

Carefully consider what clothing you will bring with you. Think about the climate you are hunting in and pack accordingly. The main thing is to stay warm and dry. Dressing in layers is ideal for changing weather.

Make sure to bring the proper firearm. The type of gun you bring will depend on the type of game you are hunting. You should also bring a knife to dress your game.

A waterproof first-aid kit is also a necessity. Any injury sustained in the wilderness can be potentially deadly if not treated quickly.

And, when you get lost you’ll need a compass. A GPS device is another good option.

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!   

In the ’90s, calling deer became very popular.  Grunt calls, bleat calls and rattling articles could be found in most outdoor publications.  While Burnham Brothers may not have been the first folks to call deer with calls, there is little doubt that they are the ones who popularized it. 

I have a copy of an OUTDOOR LIFE magazine article written by Byron Dalrymple in 1957 featuring Winston and Murry Burnham.  They were hunting mule deer in Colorado and in those days, the bag limit was three bucks per license.  They were making a bleating sound on predator calls to attract deer and it was really working.  The Burnhams limited out on mature bucks and all of them were called into close range.

Since those days, Burnham Brothers has made a deer call that is very effective for calling deer of several species.  While I have called many whitetail does and a few whitetail bucks with this call, I feel that this bleat call is most effective on mule deer.  It seems that muley bucks respond equally as well as does.

I feel the reason the bleat calls are so effective on mule deer is that they vocalize more than the whitetails that are so numerous around Menard.  I did not realize how much they communicated until I was sitting at a windmill in Brewster County many years ago.  A herd of approximately 20 muleys, small bucks, does and fawns were coming to the mill to water in a trough that was in the middle of a water lot.  In other words, there was a fence around the water which made it easier to trap or hold livestock at the water.  As the deer neared the enclosure, they became more nervous and began to bleat back and forth.  They continued to communicate until they had watered and escaped the net wire enclosure.  If this had been whitetails, one, they would not have been running in such a large group and two, they would not have vocalized nearly so much.

If you want to greatly improve your chances of finding a mule deer this hunting season, I suggest that you use a deer call.  A friend of mine told me, ”If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying”.  While using bleat calls is legal in all states, it works so well that it makes me feel like I am cheating.  

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.