Blew it on a wolf - Season 14

Chas

CGN frequent flyer
GunNutz
Rating - 100%
389   0   0
And we're back.... Hard to believe I have been doing this for 14 years..

You may have seen my previous posts about our hunting experiences while wolf hunting since 2009 along the north shore of Lake Superior, and how it usually works out in the wolf's favour. We have 5 or 6 hunters that regularly get together to chase predators once the moose and deer seasons close. Well, here we go again for another season......

We have an agreement with the municipality designating 3 locations in town where a group of us can conduct a restricted hunt for coyotes and wolves after November 15 in order to effect some predator control. Coyotes are the primary species and are seen at all hours of the days wandering up and down the streets. I finished my deer hunt, Paddle2daC is still away on his, and My72Jeep is recovering in southern Ontario after having a complete liver transplant about 7 weeks ago ( https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/for...1241-My72Jeep-Hunting-Partner-in-Need-of-Help ).

Last year the three of us opened the season with 2 of us scoring coyotes, and one of us wounding a mature jackpine on the municipal golf course located directly behind and below the street I live on.

This morning, hunting partner Wayne and I arrived at the golf course at first legal light. I set Wayne up where we shot the 2 coyotes and I went to where the tree was shot. Calm morning, 2C, damp and snow melting. Start out with a couple of female coyote in heat calls, followed by a couple of raven calls, and then a rabbit in distress call over 40 minutes or so. I then switched to a rabbit in distress / raven attack call, which runs for approximately 1 minute. After it finishes, I am watching down the fairway directly in front of me when I catch movement in the periphery of my right eye. I turn my head and there is a coyote coming towards me 20 yards away in the adjacent fairway. It starts loping away heading for the trees on the other side of the fairway so I slid around the tree and started "woofing" at him. He stopped broadside in the trees about 80 yards away and I dumped him with a 55 gr. ballistic tip handload out of my.22-250. Dropped on the spot.

b6wfFcX.jpg


Foxbang goes off with pup in distress, and I replayed it when it finished to see if anything would show, which did not happen. After 20 minutes or so, played a rabbit in distress call, paused, then the rabbit in distress / raven fight call.

I was shifted more to the right and looking across the course when I spotted a tan streak running along the fairway at the base of the timbered ridge about 400 yards away. The wind was now gusting a bit from where I was sitting towards the ridges, so I figured it would swing into the wind and head towards the caller. I put on a jackrabbit in distress call and swung around the tree facing towards where I thought it would come out about 11:00 from where I was sitting. About a minute later I see movement at 2:00 and there is a coyote two fairways over. It was stopped in the middle of the fairway, and I could only see its back end as it was shielded by a tree in the fairway divider. I waited and it started trotting to the trees and stopped in the middle of them about 175 yards away. It was facing me and I dropped it right there. I love that rabbit distress / raven fight call, not the first time it has pulled a critter in for us.

xXFVurg.jpg


Best use for a golf course I have seen! As we are only allowed two wolf / coyote tags per calendar year, I am tagged out till January 1 now f:P:

HgN4Viq.jpg


First time I have shot a double in 1 set - the first one was a nicely furred adult and the 2nd was a juvenile. Both were well fed (probably on dog food and the odd cat) and heavy when we dragged them out.

My wife asked me what I am going to do for the next 36 days, and that we cant afford to pay for therapy :rolleyes:

EDIT - sorry for the big pictures, IMGUR is acting up again and even though I resized and saved the pictures, every time I go back to the picture it is still in the large format..
 
Last edited:
Thanks folks - nicely furred and very fat - they were well fed. I hate the two tag requirement.

It’s specific to that WMU
Where I am you can shoot all you want

This is incorrect that it is specific to the WMU I live in. If one looks at the hunting regs (page 84 of the 2022 regs) - the requirement for wolf / coyote tags applies to MOST WMUs from central Ontario and all of northern Ontario.

It sucks!
 
Should need a wolf tag to hunt coyotes incase a wolf shows up. When ya shoot a coyote on a wolf hunt, You shouldn't have to burn your tag, Especially when ya only get two.

Good shooting anyways! Glad to see you guys back for round 14 lol
 
Thanks folks - nicely furred and very fat - they were well fed. I hate the two tag requirement.



This is incorrect that it is specific to the WMU I live in. If one looks at the hunting regs (page 84 of the 2022 regs) - the requirement for wolf / coyote tags applies to MOST WMUs from central Ontario and all of northern Ontario.

It sucks!

I could have been more specific...it is specific to THAT WMU, along with some other WMU's, but NOT ALL WMU's
In 82 A or B you can shoot all you want
Same as most of the southern WMU's...
 
No worries ! WMU 45 in the middle of northern Ontario is exempt from the wolf / coyote tag requirements!

Go figure!

Boys are heading out this weekend, am tied up but hopefully be able to go out one morning with them I. case we call.in a fox.
 
Mild morning with some light snow, Paddle2DaC and I headed down to the golf course. I was team photographer as we cant shoot fox in the township predator control areas. I had gone through my notes and realized that almost every coyote shot on the golf course had come into the jackrabbit in distress / raven fight call. So I boned up on how to use the FoxFusion on my caller and set out 2 raven decoys along with a sit and spin decoy. PTDC set up watching in the direction I had shot the 2 coyotes which was down wind.

As soon as we started, had the ravens dive bombing and raising hell over the decoys. Played a couple of invitation howls, and then worked on and off with jackrabbit in distress calls, with the odd raven croak thrown in over top with the FoxFusion. We had some dogs start barking after a few minutes from houses on my street and I was sure that we had something coming, but after an hour plus, nothing showed.

Decoy and sit and spin

f5c99Qq.jpg


Paddle2DaC is tucked in front of the birch tree, and picking up decoys:

jFFTKPL.jpg


hNnnc0A.jpg


Headed out to the powerline, where I could at least hunt fox. A pack of wolves had gone through the area, I think this is the transient pack that go through every 9 - 14 days. I saw the tracks Wednesday when my wife and I went out to cut a Christmas tree. As soon as I got back from putting out the decoys, an immature bald eagle checked them out and I was worried for a couple of seconds it would land and check out the sit and spin. Nothing showed after we spent an hour there.

R0RMy8b.jpg


After I got home, the best Christmas gift walked in the front door - My72Jeep has been allowed to come home for a couple of weeks. Despite a liver transplant and then a heart attack - he looks really good and we hope to get him out for a hunt or two if he has the energy to walk through the snow.


Sorry for the big pictures, IMGUR is very inconsistent these days when resizing and saving pictures - sometimes it works and sometimes not despite multiple attempts to resize them
 
Last edited:
That is a nice gift, wishing you all the best as life has a way in interfering with our lives
God bless you all and hoping for a speedy recovery
 
Close encounter with a lynx..

So a new year and 2 more tags to fill...

I have been out a few times with not a lot of fresh sign or animals, and no results. I have admired the hand built calls that Yotarunner builds and has profiled in his posts - truly beautiful pieces of work https://www.canadiangunnutz.com/forum/showthread.php/2328805-Making-a-custom-coyote-call-with-pictures

I contacted him and ended up ordering a jackrabbit call made from cocobolo wood. It arrived today and what a beautiful call! As I was headed out to the hydro line to check a trail camera and baits, I brought the call along and thought I would work in a set or two. I snowshoed in and ended up sitting under one of my cameras.

After settling in for a couple minutes, I tried out the call - for its size it has great volume and a raspy tone. After the third set of calls and I saw a flicker of movement in the spruce trees to my right - and there was a round grey head about the size of a large saucer looking at me - a lynx about 30 feet away. Of course my cell phone was in a pocket inside my parka, so while I gave a couple more calls while I was digging it out of the parka. It walked out into the open in front of me, and then circled around behind me - my biggest worry was getting 20 pounds of claws and teeth in the back of my neck. Luckily, there was lots of thick brush behind me!

The lynx then came out on my left side and looked at me from 18 feet away. It continued to circle around me at a distance of about 20 feet before disappearing behind me. I had managed to get my phone out and snapped a couple of pictures before it was gone:

d6IgtkU.jpg


owPstNo.jpg


bhoGIci.jpg


So a big shout out to Yotarunner, if you are looking for a quality and great looking call, send him a PM or check out Trophy Country Calls on FaceBook.

Call next to one of the lynx tracks:

hdbyRI0.jpg



Sorry for the picture size - Imgur is acting up again....
 
Last edited:
Back
Top Bottom