Blew It On A Wolf - Season 4.....

Chas

Chas

CGN frequent flyer
GunNutz
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Location
N.E. Ont - home of the Concrete Goose
You may have seen my previous posts about how Gunner410 and my hunting experiences while wolf hunting since 2009 along the north shore of Lake Superior, and how it usually works out in the wolfs favour. Well, here we go again ....... ;)

Well the wolf hunt season has started off like normal! On Friday, Gunner 41o, a friend of mine and I headed out for our first hunt. We set up on a power line and after about 20 minutes of calling with a distressed rabbit call, a nice fox walked out about 175 yards from where we were sitting. My friend took two shots and didn’t connect. |I was laughing real hard and then had to explain I wasn’t laughing at him, we always seem to have this happen to us.
We moved about a half mile away to another hydro line. I set the two of them on the downwind side of the line as they usually come in from that direction. I have already shot a wolf and they haven’t so I went on the upwind end to cover off a steep gully. My friend was running the caller and after a while I couldn’t hear it. What I didn’t know was a lynx had walked out across the line from him and he was watching it in his scope as they don’t have lynx where he lives, and this was the first one he had ever seen. I dug into my pack and gave a series of dying rabbit calls on my Primos double reed call. As soon as I did that, he said the lynx lowered itself close to the ground and starting stalking off in my direction, until he couldn’t see it anymore.

I was sitting up on a cut bank overlooking the hydro two track and watching down wind when I caught a flash out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head to the right and there was a wolf running from the upwind side of me and he was about 20 yards away. As soon as I saw him he wheeled 180 degrees and started booking it back up the two track. Unfortunately there was a bunch of brush in the way so I had to launch myself up (hard to do in old age and bad knees) and I brought my rifle up. All I could see through some overhanging jackpine branches was a flash of fur and I took a snap shot but didn’t connect. I could have used a shotgun with buckshot instead of my 22-250 for this one! In retrospect I probably could have jumped off the embankment and may have got a shot as he ran up the two track. So I walked back and told the boys what happened, this time I was laughing at myself. Gunner 410 had to go to work for the weekend, so my friend and I put some bait out on a beaver flood where Gunner410 and I blew it last Christmas on a pack of 6.

The next morning the two of us go back out. No joy at the first location. We set up at location two – now my friend was using something I had never seen – it was a Greenhead decoys flocked crow decoy. In size and shape, it really is a raven decoy and looks quite good. It comes with a stake that screws into it so he set it 15 yards in front of him near the caller speaker. After he got the caller going, he sees a flash of gray over the edge of the gully and here comes a (the?) lynx. It spots the raven decoy and slinks into a stalk and creeps over to the decoy. He watches this and the lynx actually stalks up to the decoy, and then pushed the decoy with its nose. The lynx never even noticed my buddy sitting right there – he then started a mouse squeak call and the lynx turned and stalked up to the speaker where he sniffed it. After a couple of minutes, he walked away and crossed into the bush. When I came from my stand and we were talking about these events, the lynx walked out of the bush about 30 yards from us and just stood there and looked at us.
We checked out another spot where a pack of four had walked up a bush road. It was very icy and slick and at one point I saw both my boot tips go by my eye level as I landed flat on my back in the middle of the road. Nothing came to the call, so we went for lunch, ibuprofen for my sore ass and then out to the beaver flood.

I was sitting against the creek which always had bad ice. After 20 minutes, I could hear ice cracking and I thought something was coming up the creek. I keep watching to my left when an otter breaks through the ice 8 feet in front of me in a patch of black ice. It pushed its head straight up and then came about 8 inches out of the ice looking in the direction of the caller which was playing a moose squeak after about 30 seconds, slides straight down the hole and disappears. Check out on last spot before end of shooting light, no luck and head home for dinner.

The two of us head out this morning and set up on the “lynx” hydro line – call for about 45 minutes, no action. We walk over to the “fox” hydro line, and set up. The wind was in the wrong direction so I set up so I could watch downwind where we couldn’t shoot due to a maintained road location. We are calling for about 10 minutes when I notice my chum lifting his 22-250 brifle up slowly. I turn slowly with the binoculars, and about 200 yards away is a wolf looking at the raven decoy which is set about 6 feet from the speaker. The wolf was sitting on its haunches staring at it and never noticed us. Bang, flop and he has his first wolf. Very light coloured with reddish tinges. Weighed 80 lbs according to the scale. It is interesting that both wolves came in from the upwind side. Of course we had to take it over top where Gunner410 was working and show him!

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I am definitely going to buy a couple of those raven decoys – they really caught the attention of the lynx and the wolf.

It’s a long winded story, but it was a very interesting weekend and a successful one.
 
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Thanks for posting, The smile in the bottom picture, complements the story.... Nothing like the first !
Keep at em boys, you'l get more with persistence, as ya's already know :)

WL
 
Try howling next time. I've stopped a few wolves long enough for a shot when they're taking off. Especially when they're upwind and haven't smelled you. Sometimes they'll come back in to the howl or another pack member might show up.
 
Back out on the weekend and called in another lynx. Used my new Primos Alpha Dogg caller - will write a review on it - so far i am impressed. Heading out in AM to try again - normally would have Gunner 410 with me but they switched his days off so he has to work again.
 
What? He shot it with a 22-250? No way, can't be!.......... Do you know how many guys have told me a 22-250 is too light for wolves?? Yes can you imagine a bullet weighing 55 grains travelling 3600+fps actually killing something that weighs 80 pounds?! :stirthepot2:

Way to go....Congratulations. That was a great story and sounds like you guys have figured out which calls work for you. That is awesome, I love the Lynx and Otter showing up to the party!! :D A buddy and I were calling with mouth calls one time and out of nowhere a Snowy Owl dove down on us missing our faces by inches!! What a rush!!

How long have you lived in Wawa? I had family there for many, many years until the past few when most of them moved away.
 
Looks good!!! Not too sure about hanging it out in the yard with the rest of the neighborhood to see, might cause some grief to come your way.
 
Yeah - the best part of the tree is its in my neighbors yard! I didnt have a branch big enough on my side to hang it from :cool: He was good with it as he is a retired biologist that used to do wildlife walkabouts with dead thingsthat were brought in for permits. He came out to inspect the wolf.

I heard about it hanging in the tree at work, Canadian Tire, Timmies - no one was sweating it. We have had a problem with them in town over the past couple of years killing dogs, hanging out at the Timmies drive through and scaring people - so no one is concerned about one less wolf.

No luck today, but found a road killed moose today that they are stripping - going to try that tomorrow AM. Thanks for the comments.
 
f:P: Well, the saga continues.....

I told my wife I would drive her down to Condowood to see her parents over the holidays. What I didnt tell her was my .22-250, hunting pack and Primos Alpha Dogg fell into the truck for the ride as well......

I got permission to hunt on a farm near Elmvale where I turkey hunt and where I have heard coyotes while I have been out there. The ladies that own the farm said they often heard the coyotes at dusk, so I made plans for an afternoon hunt. I got a hold of Hungry and asked if he wanted to go, he got the bosses blessing, so we headed out in the early afternoon.

I have never hunted coyotes specifically, only wolves, so I warned Hungry that this was an experiment for me. So we set up along a fence line on the edge of a field facing a tree line. The treeline is on the edge of a steep embankment, and a deep gully where deer funnel up and across the field to an adjacent large corn field to feed. I figured if there are deer crossing there, then there should be coyotes there as well.

I walked out in the snow and set the Alpha Dogg up and headed back to the fence line. Hungry was to my right and I started with a series of coyote interrogation howls. Immediately, there was a response to my left from the back of the farmers shed and fenced pasture. I checked it out with my binos but couldnt see an animal. I couldnt shoot in that direction because of the buildings, and at first I thought it was their dog, but the response was too high pitched.

I continued calling with a few more interrogation howls before switching into the dying snow shoe hare calls. After 20 minutes or so, I was glassing the tree line to my left when I saw that there was a furred head directly across the field looking at the caller. I slowly lifted the rifle and flicked of the safety, and put the crosshairs on the face of the coyote. All I could see was its face and part of the neck as he was looking directly at me, with its body below the embankment. It was a beautiful gray colour and well furred from what I could see. It didnt seem alarmed and I squeezed the trigger. The coyote disappeared from view and I hit the coyote in distress call in case there were more with it.

After nothing showed in 5 minutes, we got up to collect the coyote. What I didnt know was Hungry had seen the coyote come up the gully and was squeezing the trigger when I fired. Hungry said it was a large sized animal. When we got over to the embankment, there were tracks, but no blood, no fur and no coyote. Needless to say, wiffing a 75 yard shot across an open field at a pie plate sized head in front of of one of the province's most noted long range shooters was very embarrassing! I cant explain it, the shot felt good when I pulled the trigger.

We then moved down to another location and called, with no results. We slogged through the snow down the embankment and to the far end of the property overlooking a small over grown field. We were running out of hunting light so I ran a series of howls, rabbit screams and followed up with a coyote chorus calls. We had about 15 minutes of light left, and started up the steepest #*¤~+@*##;! hill to get back to the truck. Half way up, we stopped to catch our breath and listen to the chorus of coyote calls coming from where we had just left!

All in all, was a great afternoon to go out, and I am pretty sure Hungry is checking out the Cabela's catalogue for an electronic caller. My wife said "Great, another wife getting pissed off at you because her husband is out buying more hunting equipment..."

Heading home tomorrow with one last day to fill my 2012 wolf tag....
 
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I am in the process of looking at electronic calls, if you could please write a review or give more info on the caller that would definitely be appreciated!
 
Congratulations! I'm jealous. That's a trophy that I've always wanted to take...had a few close calls and always managed to mess something up at the last minute. Nice work.

Now this thread is about due for someone to ask if you are going to eat it, then for someone else to berate you because wolves are endangered and misunderstood...and finally, for a certain expert outdoorsman from B.C. to inform you that you did everything wrong, despite the trophy hanging in your tree.:)
 
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