Going to try hunting wolves, any suggestions?

flying pig

flying pig

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Hey guys, I'm up in 357 in Alberta, and man we've got wolves up here, no elk to be found (or heard/answering calls) even though the rut is definitely on. I've been up in the bush a week and very little sign of elk compared to normal, but we've had a few wolf sightings and seen tons of sign and heard them calling every other night. I think I'd really like to try hunting wolves, for obvious reasons! I've read the regs, but a few things are a bit uncertain. They are considered big game so my .223 is obviously out? Also I don't hunt bear, and couldn't find in the regs if baiting black bear is legal in my area so not sure if baiting wolves here is legal either?

After the technicalities, do those of you who have hunted wolves have any suggestions that may help to make a successful hunt? I have all kinds of gear at my disposal and know where they are, but understanding the animal and what others have used in the past so far as techniques etc would be a great help. I tried searching for 'hunting wolves' and came up with basically nothing.

Thanks in advance
 
Not Big Game, so the .223 is legal, but I'd be using your big game rifle. Predator call works if they're hungry. I'm trying to get into the Howling thing. Have a commercial call for that, but my trapper friend assures me just a Human made call works as well. ;)

Grizz
 
According to Alberta regs there is no license or tags req during their season. I'll post an excerpt tonight if I remember. Sounds like the area they are a problem in it is legal to bait black bear in too so that's a bonus. I'm fairly proficient with both of my longer ranged rifles, just more confident with the .223. Better get a move on the 6mmBR I want to build maybe! Other longer ranged rifle is a No4T replica, I'm pretty good with it to about 600m as well. It's still in .303Br.
 
Thanks for the replies guys. Norskie, tons of moose there this year. Haven't seen that in a while. Also found a few young bull kills with only the femurs and paddles remaining. They obviously must feed on elk too? There was a service rig in there the other day and the Elk flocked to it then left immediately when the rig moved out. Dad said the moose used to do this when he was hand falling. They would follow him around the block until his days off and then disappear, often only hair and a few large bones remaining. They are bedding down hard and will not move or call unless you are right on top of them. Elk I saw were within 50m but bush was too thick for a successful clean shot.
 
You bet they feed on Elk.

They (the wolves) follow the Elk herds around for sure.

Sounds like you are well on your way to success - just remember to work the bolt and keep shooting.
 
I read a report done on a wolf pack in alberta, 12 wolves would kill about 130-140 big game animals per year. What they hunted depended on the preference of the alpha wolf and could be anything from deer to bighorn sheep. The stories of them only taking the sick and injured animals are total BS....they will kill what ever, a bull elk or moose in his prime has no defence from a wolf pack and is just another meal to them!
 
I have shot 4 wolves by moose calling then walking down wind a hundred yards and waiting. The other method is to howl like a wolf or coyote and wait for them to come in.

Id use more than a 223 myself but I am sure it will be fine, one thing for sure is to use a gun that you can shoot and reload fast. Once you find yourself in a pack the shooting can be fast and furious.

If the wolf population is high take down every wolf you can get a shot at. I have seen them decimate entire herds of deer and wipe out all the moose in an area. They don't just kill for food either they will kill for fun and put the chase on anything they can. I have taken deer out of areas with lots of wolves and the deer don't have an ounce of fat on them, wolves can have an impact just by running game all year so bad they cant get enough fat to make the winter. They screw up the breeding season and make the game turn nocturnal and silent, makes for very hard hunting. Man has always been the great equalizer of wolf populations but now days no one hunts wolves anymore.
 
I had great success this year calling wolves in Ontario. A mouth call simulating a bawling rabbit brought in a gorgeous white and tan female that my buddy watched come for over a quarter mile right to my call. I shot her at 50 yards with a 2506. The next night I called in 4 younger wolves with the same call. On a side note they're tough. I put a 117gr interlock thru both her shoulders. She dropped out of sight. I got down 25 minutes later and she was still alive and watching me biting at the dirt. I finished her with my syperdco thru the lungs. That was a unique experience
 
flying pig said:
Hey guys, I'm up in 357 in Alberta, and man we've got wolves up here, no elk to be found (or heard/answering calls) even though the rut is definitely on. I've been up in the bush a week and very little sign of elk compared to normal, but we've had a few wolf sightings and seen tons of sign and heard them calling every other night. I think I'd really like to try hunting wolves, for obvious reasons! I've read the regs, but a few things are a bit uncertain. They are considered big game so my .223 is obviously out? Also I don't hunt bear, and couldn't find in the regs if baiting black bear is legal in my area so not sure if baiting wolves here is legal either?

After the technicalities, do those of you who have hunted wolves have any suggestions that may help to make a successful hunt? I have all kinds of gear at my disposal and know where they are, but understanding the animal and what others have used in the past so far as techniques etc would be a great help. I tried searching for 'hunting wolves' and came up with basically nothing.

Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

We just got done a moose hunt and had the same issues with wolves. In like 6 days of hunting, we heard wolves howling/hunting 4 times. That's crazy.

The thing to try, is if you can get into an area, where wolves are, is call like a cow or calf moose (or elk). Wolves will definitely target you, and as long as you can get in there undetected by the wolves, then you have a chance of them coming in to your calling site.

The other way to go about it is this: wolves are territorial. If you get into an area where wolves are calling, try howling back at them. Use a deeper call to try to sound like a male wolf. Believe me, you can hear the difference, when a pack is howling.
Where we were hunting moose, we had a pack setup a hunt, in the valley just south of out position. When the wolves began to howl, they were spread out, in a U. The calls would always start out on the outside of the horeshoe, and there was a distinctive tone, right in the middle. It was so much deeper tone, you could immediately identify that that was the alpha male.

The other suggestion is to bait them in the winter, if it's legal I dunno...? I've seen guys (hunting shows) setup a bait site on a lake in the winter, with a blind several hundred yards away. Takes enormous patience to wait them out, from what I gather.


If the wolves know you're in the area then forget it. Just BS luck to get one then. In our case, we had been in camp 2 days before we heard them the first time, and for sure they knew we were there.
 
Keep an eye out for the sneakers, where I moose hunt, after watching them for 10 years, they seem to send a few ahead of the pack. Those will get past whatever they think may be there and the rest will run and howl to spook it into running. They will run it into the wolves that went ahead.
I managed to pop one of those sneakers crossing the road heading in behind my buddy who was cow calling about 600 yds up wind from me.
It was a large white male. I don't have a .223 but the 300wsm seemed to work!
 
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