Blew it on a wolf - Season 6

Chas

Chas

CGN frequent flyer
GunNutz
Rating - 100%
390   0   0
Location
N.E. Ont - home of the Concrete Goose
You may have seen my previous posts about 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 for another season......

I havent been on the site for an extended period, and it has been a very active season so far, with lots of opportunities. I will post these in order from the fall to date and try and upload some pictures as soon as I can.

In early December, my wife and I were driving down to the Sault and in Lake Superior Provincial Park, we saw a wolf walking down the highway. Not surprisingly, there were moose tracks on the right of way where we located the wolf.

As we got down to the Agawa river, I commented that the tracks in the snow looked more like deer tracks than moose tracks. I have often seen moose in the winter in the flats south of the river, but never a deer. About a mile further on – I saw another small wolf (I know believe it was a coyote) on the west side of the highway, trotting into the trees separating the highway from the park's parking lot. A bit further, I noticed something standing on the east side of the highway further down a straight stretch. As we got closer, I realized that it was a deer. It was standing on the edge of the ditch, facing the tree line (rear was pointing towards the highway). Just as we got up to it, I realized that it was facing nose to nose with another coyote (literally no more than 3 feet separating the coyote and the deer). As we were coming to a stop, the deer looked up at us and then turned and ran across the highway into the campground. The coyote didn’t know what to do and then ran across in front of us after the deer.

I believe that the coyote was driving the deer towards the other coyote (and maybe there were more coyotes in the campground).

The following week, I had a had a friend from Michigan up hunting and was the first time I went out. First morning, we were hunting a hydro line and a fox came out 15 yards from me on my right hand side. I didn’t see him in my peripheral vision but my friend saw him and motioned me, but it was too late and he jumped into the treeline (he was wearing video sunglasses so I got to see it afterwards). Fox reappeared 450 yards down the line and we didn’t shoot.

He, Gunner 410, our hunting partner Wayne went out two days later to the same spot. Wind was coming from their back and directly down the power line. He started with his foxpro call and less than 15 seconds, a big wolf came out of the timber and started up the line towards them. He immediately shut off his call and the wolf stopped. Wayne cranked his scope up to 20x and said he could see the wolf sniffing the wind (I am not 100% convinced that wolves care about human sent). The wolf was 325 yards out and only a head on shot, and my friend did not feel he could make an ethical killing shot, so didn’t take it. The wolf then turned and ran into the bush.

So in the first week of actually hunting, we saw one wolf and one fox.

 
Last edited:
Whats that noise???

The following weekend, Gunner410, Wayne and I walked into the hydro line at first light and we had a wolf howling over our shoulders about 300 - 400 yards away. Tried howling with my Rocky Mountain wolf call and then with the Primos Alpha Dogg electronic call, but no responses back to the calls. Pulled the trail cam pics and saw that there had been a wolf there at 7:15 AM (pictures still set on daylight saving time) with lots of activity there from 4:30 AM until this picture. We were there at 7:50.

Put out a couple of buckets of beaver scraps at the site, and then went further up the road and set out a big block of meat scraps where the hydro company has cut a new roadway into the hydro line. We then drove up the highway to the beaver flood where I had put out two blocks of beaver scraps and two big frozen blocks of meat scraps the previous Wednesday. Not a scrap left, both buckets empty, and 500+ pictures of very fat and happy ravens. No wolf activity, and we found activity within 5 miles to the west of this spot where they have been working another hunters bait and feasting on a freshly road killed bull moose.

Headed out the next morning and we were walking in to the hydro line along the road again about 7:50. Quite an unusual morning in that it was above freezing, foggy but dead still with absolutely no wind. Just as we were approaching the hydro line, a wolf started howling from our right side from the same area where we heard one the previous morning (coincidentally the location where I shot my first wolf). The other guys were in front of me and I heard Gunner410 swear and say "theres one right there" as he was chambering a round in the rifle. I didnt see it as it wheeled around and booked it back down the road (and not allowing us to shoot at it). The wolf that was howling continued to do so so we moved up to the hydro line but we couldnt see it. I pulled out my wolf howl call and positioned Gunner410 a bit up the line where he could see the area where the howling was coming from.

I gave two howls and the wolf answered right back, but did not come out to the line. I waited a bit and tried a couple more howls and the wolf howled again, but was now moving away from us. I set up the electronic caller and tried a couple with that, but the wolf continued to howl back, but was circling to the left of its original position quite a ways in front of us. I tried some pup in distress calls, but received no responses. We waited a bit and started packing up when the wolf howled again, this time it was to our left (it had done a complete 180 degree arc in front of us) and was now howling not far from where we usually set up. So I jammed everything into my pack and we headed up to our usual spot, where I set up the electronic call.

When everyone was set, I did a couple of howls on my Rocky Mountain wolf call and got an immediate challenge back. Then a couple of more wolves started into a group howling from further behind the wolf that had howled. We have trail camera picts of three in a pack so I figured thats what we were dealing with. I started having problems with my wolf call and was sitting there in the snow with the reeds pulled out of it trying to get it back together and working. Probably took 10 - 12 minutes before I got it fixed and all was quiet. Good thing it wasnt -30 or I would have never got it back together :d

I let out two howls and the second one was a dandy. I looked over at Wayne and said "that was a good one" (this is a new call for me and I am still learning how to use it). Wayne was just nodding his head when we heard the weirdest noise. It was low and rumbling and sounded like a cow as they start to bellow. Only thing is it was getting louder and a second one started as well, and sounded like it was coming from 50 yards down the hydro line in front of us and from just inside the treeline. Wayne looked at me and whispered "they're growling at us" as they both started to howl. I hit a pack call on the electronic caller and all hell broke loose inside the treeline. We dont know how many wolves were in the trees but they were close and raising hell. I remember thinking (and turns out Gunner410 was thinking the same thing) that if they all came out of the tree line charging at us that I only had four rounds in the rifle. This went on for maybe 90 seconds and I figured that we were now dealing with 7 or 8 wolves. I shut the electronic caller down and tried another howl with my mouth call. All went quiet, and we never heard another thing. A couple of minutes later we heard something in the treeline immediately behind Wayne and me so we looked over our shoulders to make sure we weren't going to get a set of fangs in the neck.

We waited for a while before trying more calls and we heard nothing. Finished up with some dying rabbit calls with my mouth call, but nothing came out. By that time it was 9:30 and we had been playing with them for 1 1/2 hours.

In all of the wolf hunting I have ever done, I have never had wolves howl like they did that day. Although we never pulled a trigger, it was the most exciting predator hunt I have ever been on. When we had the two of them growling and howling at us inside the treeline, I thought for sure they were going to run over us on the hydro line. I honestly dont know how many others were pack howling behind the two that were growling, and I thought we would fill three tags.
I cant help but wonder if I scared the pack when I hit the pack call on the electronic caller. Wayne and I discussed afterwards and if I ever have that growl challenge again, I will hit a pup in distress call, to see if they will come out to an animal that is feigning submissiveness.

We learn / experience something new every time we go out.

wolf7a_zps7ecc8baa.jpg


3 wolves on the prowl
 
Last edited:
Christmas Holidays Adventure

It was an interesting Christmas holiday with the wolf hunting.

The weekend before Christmas, Wayne and I went out to the hydro line and set up where we had heard the wolf howl last weekend. There wasnt too much activity at the beaver flood so we concentrated on the hydro line. We have had wolves, fox and a coyote at the bait buckets on the hydro line.

No response to the calls so we headed up the road to where another hunter has a bait in a gravel pit. As we pulled up we could see a lot of blood and rumens, and a hoof sticking out of the snow. The other hunter was coming out on a snowmobile and we got talking. He had scored a half of a road killed moose the previous evening and had skidded it into the pit with his sled. I asked what the hoof sticking out of the snow was and he said he didnt know - it was not there the night before. We tied a rope to the hoof and to my truck and we pulled a bull calf moose out of the snowbank. It turns out, the highway contractor came across another road kill on the night shift, and dumped it there for the other hunter.

He didnt want it and it was mushed up real bad. Turns out they used the snowplow to push it of the road so not a lot of bone structure left in it! He agreed to skid it down the hydro line so we hitched it up to the truck. I was blocking the road and a municipal snow plow was coming up the road, so I yelled at Wayne to hop in and got the truck turned around and took off with the moose tied by a hoof to the bumper. Skidded real well for the mile and a half back to the hydro line except for one curve I took too fast and the moose almost went over the bank. Got to the hydro line and tied it to the snowmachine, and he skidded it over the hill and about 200 yards down the hydro line. We walked in and untied it and headed home.

I was home for about 20 minutes when the doorbell rang. My daughter (who just came home from university)went to the door, looked out and turned to me and said " I have only been home one night, it wasnt me". I opened the door and there was an OPP officer standing there. I was standing there in my long johns and shirt and he asks me "Did you shoot a moose this morning?" Turns out the plow driver thought we poached a moose and called 911 with my plate #. The officer drove out, saw all the blood and rumens, and then drove to the house after running the plate. I started laughing and told him what had happened and we had a good chuckle.

Later that afternoon, Wayne, my wife and I drove out to where the moose was to put a trail camera. There already was a wolf track on top of the snow mobile track and something had started to open up the paunch of the moose. There were a bunch of ravens on the moose but no wolf. We set up the camera and drove back to town. The OPP had a ride check set up at the airport, and the officer that was at the house waved me through. As we drove by the other two officers, one of them started calling "POACHER" at me. The joys of having your details being broadcast over the radio network....

Gunner410, Wayne and I went out the following morning and set up where we could see the moose, and called but nothing showed up. When we went to check the trail camera pictures. We found where four or five wolves had bedded down in the snow about 20 yards downwind of the moose carcass. They didnt touch the moose at all. You could see where one of them had bedded down and melted the snow down to the duff layer under the trees. There were 8 - 12 piles of wolf crap all around where they bedded. It appeared like they they were too full to eat. We found where they got out on the road, checked out the bait site in the gravel pit and headed east along the road.





On Christmas eve, Gunner410, Wayne and Paddle2DaC went out at first light to the hydro line location where we had the wolves howling and growling at us. The other guys went up on a ridge on the hydro line and I went across the road and sat on the hydro line facing the other direction towards where the wolf was howling the previous weekend. They placed the caller on the ridge between us and I started with a couple of raven calls, and after a few minutes, a wolf confrontation howl series.

Just as the howls finished, I heard a gunshot from the ridge. I immediately launched into a pup in distress call series. After it finished, I waited 30 seconds and started another series. I could hear the guys talking and looked over and could see them standing on the ridge. I shut the caller off and started walking over to where they were. When I crested the ridge, they were standing about 175 yards down the line with a wolf lying in the centre of the hydro line. They were looking about 300 yards further down the line and there was a large wolf standing broadside in the middle of the line. It then started walking across the line into the left hand side timber.

I hustled down to see what had been shot and just as I got up to them, the wolf that was 300 yards away had walked back out and now was standing in the middle of the line heading towards the timber on the right hand side of the line. I got up to the guys and woofed a couple of times at the standing wolf. I managed to get two shots at it but never touched it (I was puffing a bit after chugging my way through about 250 yards of snow).

Checked out the wolf shot by Paddle2DaC – it was a straw coloured male with grey colouring on the back. During the wolf confrontation howl, it came out of the timber and started trotting towards them. The wolf stopped and he anchored it with one shot with a 55 grain Vmax hand load from his .223. The wolf went down, lifted its head once, and then never moved. I am convinced that if everyone had stayed in place and we had played a number of pup in distress series, that the bigger wolf would have come down the hydro line to them. He tagged and dragged his wolf out and we weighed him at the truck – it was 60 lbs on the big game scale. After 5 years of wolf hunting, he had scored his first wolf and was pretty excited - that was great Christmas present!

Wolf14_zpsf439e35f.jpg


On Christmas day, my wife, daughter and I went out for an afternoon hike along Lake Superior. I wanted to download my trail camera pictures as well, and we ran into Wayne on the way out to the lake. So we drove to the hydro line with him and walked over the ridge and down to the cameras. While waiting for the pictures to download, I tried a couple of calls on my Primos double reed jackrabbit call. Nothing came out and we walked back over the ridge to the truck.

My wife was in the truck, and I asked her if she could hear the call from the truck and she said she could. She then said she wasn’t the only one that could hear it and showed us a picture she took on her i-phone of a wolf standing about 150 yards down the line in the other direction (exactly where I had been watching the previous morning). She said it came out a few seconds after she heard me blowing the rabbit call, and stood there long enough for her to get out of the truck and take the picture on her phone. Unfortunately, you have to zoom in on it quite a bit to see the wolf standing behind the second set double hydro poles.



On December 29, I went out by myself to the hydro line about 10:30 in the morning. It was cold (- 26 C) and calm, and once again, I started with a couple of raven calls, and after a few minutes, a wolf confrontation howl series. After a few minutes of silence, a wolf came out and started towards me. I got the gun up and about 300 yards out, it stopped and then turned towards the right hand side timber. I could see a raven flying about 15 feet above the wolf and it kept swooping down towards the wolf. I woofed and it stopped, and I fired one shot. The wolf wheeled around and started running for the left hand tree line. I managed to get another shot at it and had a third chambered when it hit the tree line. I walked down and checked – no fur and no blood. I couldn’t find a bullet strike in the snow for the first shot, and walked over to where I took the second shot. About 10 yards behind the wolf tracks was a bullet strike in a hummock, indicating that the shot went high. I went to the range that afternoon and found that my .22-250 was hitting 8 inches high and 4 inches right at 100 yards (it was sighted in when I started hunting with it in November). No wonder I missed the shots at the two wolves….

On December 30, Wayne and I went back to the hydro line at first light – it was – 30 C with no wind – perfect for calling. After 30 minutes, a wolf crossed from the left tree line to the right tree line at 450 yards. We looked at it through the scopes but did not shoot. A couple of minutes later, another wolf crossed the line in the same direction on a ridge about 50 yards past where the first wolf had crossed. I hit a snow shoe hare scream on the electronic caller and the wolf stopped and looked in our direction. This wolf was quite a bit larger than the first one and I thought we had him as he started in our direction. Then he turned and went into the right tree line. We stayed for another 45 minutes, but nothing came out.

That afternoon, went to the gun club with my daughter, a couple of her friends and one other father. We shot outdoors for a bit with rifles and shotguns and then we moved into the indoor range and were shooting 9mm and 22 handguns. At 5:00, the other father went to put his guns in his truck and came right back into the indoor range and said "there's a wolf out there". I went out and there was a black wolf standing in the parking lot. My 22-250 was locked in my truck so I ran over and was getting it out and it started to walk away. I woofed at it and it stopped and looked back at me. I got the rifle out but it walked over a snow bank and into the trees before I could get a shot. When my friend walked out of the club house door and turned the corner, the wolf was within 10 feet of him. It wasn't concerned at all.

That capped us seeing 7 wolves in 6 days…….
 
Last edited:
New Year, new tags...

Well, seeing as I didnt get to use my 2014 wolf tag, had to buy a 2015 tag and keep at it :d. Started hunting again on January 2, but things quieted down at all of our baits and the wolves seemed to disappear on us. We have seen that happen before, and usually they reappear 7-9 days later.

This past Thursday, we had a squall line come in off Lake Superior from 4:30 – 7:30 PM that dropped 14 inches of snow on us. Highway 17 has been closed almost every day between here and the Sault based on on-shore winds dropping large amounts of snow in Lake Superior Provincial Park.

On Saturday, Gunner410 and I set up on the hydro line. It was -28C, nop wind and perfect for calling. There were 3 sets of wolf tracks coming out on the hydro line trail, but they never came out to the road. The snow was quite deep on the trail, and whenever you stepped off of any packed trail under the recent snow fall, you sank out of sight. There are spots where the snow was well past my knees in depth.

The wolves had found the moose carcass and it looked like four or five had been on it. Based on the snow depths, the wolves are dragging their belly’s in the snow and are travelling in single lines. Not as bad as last years snow depths where we saw “tunnels” in the deep unsettled snow, but it is obvious that they were staying localized and not moving any distance.

We set up and started with raven calls, followed with some rabbit calls with no response. I then tried a wolf chorus call and we had a response from within the treeline on our left side. This is where we saw the three tracks go into the timber. Was a quiet howl followed by a couple of barks. I tried a howl in return but we had no further response, and nothing came out. After another ½ hour, we went and checked the two trail cameras, but the cold temperatures all week had killed the batteries. We checked the road systems and other than a lynx walking in the road, we didnt see any wolf tracks anywhere.

We drove up to our bait at the beaver flood and there was no activity at all (nothing since late December). Checked the trail camera, it was dead as well, and put out four beaver carcasses. The ravens are well fed there…….

On Sunday, Wayne, Gunner410and me went back to the hydro line. It was a balmy -24C with a light swirling breeze. There were wolf tracks all over the road. We walked onto the trail and it was obvious that the wolves had been very active all over the moose carcass. Would have had some great trail camera pictures, but I forgot to put the SD card in it when I changed the batteries. It looked like a barnyard all down the trail, with many new deep trails going into the treelines on both sides of the hydro line.

I walked down to the bait site and set out the caller and the raven decoy. Gunner410 has a chair on the left side of the line and dug it out yesterday. After I set the call out, I looked where he was sitting and could only see his shoulders and head above the snow – kinda looked like a snow camo Kilroy!

I walked back up to the hydro poles and was getting my gear out and coat buttoned up, and talking to Wayne who was set on the pole to my right. I happened to look over to Gunner410 and he was pointing frantically down the hydro line. I told Wayne that he must have seen something and grabbed my rifle – a wolf had walked out from a trail on the left side of the hydro line about 50 yards past where I had set the caller up. Gunner410 had seen it walk out but then couldn’t see it behind a small ridge. The wolf had seen Wayne and me, and turned back to the treeline. I spotted it just as it was getting to the trees and woofed at it, stopping it for a second, and then it disappeared into the trees. Gunner410 couldn’t get a clear shot at it, it was about 175 yards down from us (same location where Paddle2theC shot his).

We sat down quickly and didn’t make any calls top see if it would come out. After 5 minutes or so, it (or another one) came out of the treeline about 450 yards down. I tried one howl from the electronic caller, it looked at us and proceeded across the line and into the trees on the right side of the line. Tried a variety of calls over the next hour, but no responses.

If we had another 5 minutes, we would have been set up when the wolf came out……
 
Love reading your posts!!! Keep em coming!!


Ever tried a coyote decoy? I would bet any pack of wolves that seen a coyote on their kill site they wouldn't be long coming in to take it back....
 
this past deer season one of our gang was on watch when all of a sudden wolves started howling close to him. There was a hell of a ruckus, then a coyote shot out into the open about fifty yards away. He shot it and nothing else showed but the howling and fighting continued for some time.
It appears a pack of greys had come out of the park and had run into a few unfortunate coyotes and all hell broke loose.
A few days later I had taken the canoe down the lake and up a bit of a swale close to his watch and I thought I would sit there for a bit. It had rained and the bush was quiet. I came over a slight rise and not 30 yards away was the biggest wolf I have ever seen crossing a beaver dam. He was almost silver in colour and moving along at a full lope and I doubt if he ever seen me. Never had time to get a shot.
 
Quiet weekend, although there has been some wolf activity at our sites. Starting to get deep snow depths and there is no sign of wolf moving or travelling, like we have seen in previous years.

Saturday, Wayne and I went out and it was very mild (-4 C) with no wind. Appeared to be lots of wolf activity feeing on moose carcass on the hydro line. When I pulled the trail camera, I had over 900 pictures of only two wolves feeding on it, including a black wolf that has not shown up on the trail cameras for that location. No response to calls, moved out to the beaver flood. All of the beavers I put out last weekend were pretty well gone (lots of well-fed ravens), but finally have one wolf showing up on the trail camera. This is the first wolf we have seen out there on camera since we started, here he is chowing on a beaver carcass



Sunday was more of the same, mild, -2 C with a south east wind and a couple of inches of fresh snow. Wayne and I went back out to the hydro line but had no response to any of our calls. The black wolf had come back out and fed on the moose carcass during the night, but that was the only activity. We saw no fresh tracks there or anywhere else that we checked out.



 
Last edited:
Went out Saturday with Garth and Wayne, was +1 C and foggy when set up on hydro line. I set the caller and decoys out and as I walked back up the ridge to where the guys were and as I looked down the line, I could see a snow squall line rapidly moving towards us (kinda like the sandstorm approaching in "American Sniper", only white). As it hit with snow pellets and high wind the temperature dropped dramatically. When we went to the truck 1.5 hours later the temperature had dropped to -9 C.

Wayne had seen a wolf feeding on the moose carcass the previous Wednesday morning, but couldn’t get set up for a shot before it walked into the bush. Nothing came out to my calls. Garth and I put out a beaver carcass for bait and broke another trail out to the main road from the hydro line. The trail had been crossed in a number of spots from the wolves feeding on the baits, so I went back in the afternoon and sat under a balsam tree and called with a handheld rabbit call, but had nothing come out.

We went up to the beaver flood and pulled the game camera pictures for the week – a couple of good shots of some fox and a fisher feasting on the beaver carcasses with the ravens.







On Sunday, Wayne and I went out to the hydro line and it had dropped to -32 C with a slight northeast breeze. The snow was really crunchy walking in and there were a bunch of fresh wolf tracks. We decided not to walk down the middle of the hydro line and set up at the top of the ridge where we usually set up. I put the caller and raven decoy out and walked back up to the ridge. The breeze was in our face, causing my eyes to water and my eye lashes to freeze together every time I blinked.

At 8:20, Wayne whispered that one had come out on the line and there was a nice tawny one that walked out to the middle of the line 450 yards away. I hit the wolf confrontation call and the wolf stopped and looked towards us. Through my scope, I could see the wolf open its mouth as it howled back at us. It sat down and howled 4 or 5 times at us, each time throwing its head back and opening its mouth wide. I tried a single lone wolf howl but it just sat there. Then it got up and started to cross over to the south side of the line.

Wayne whispered to try a new call I have of a distressed rabbit being harassed by ravens. As soon as I started it, the wolf stopped and walked back to the centre of the line and started towards us. It stopped and jumped into a bank of snow after a mouse or a vole. It walked a bit more towards us, stopped and sat down and looked towards us trying to figure out what the ruckus was. It sat there for another couple of minutes before it turned and slowly walked away from us. I tried a pup in distress call and it looked over its shoulder before it walked out of sight. All in all, we probably watched him for a good 6 minutes, it was just too long of a distance to take a shoot. We have been setting up ½ down the line in order to reduce the distance for shots, but didn’t this morning as it sounded like we were walking in corn flakes….

We didn’t stay very long after that as one of Waynes foot started to freeze. I went and pulled the trail camera cards and could see that the black and tawny wolf had been very active the previous night, including chewing up and removing the beaver I had put out the previous day.





Feasting on the moose carcass buried under the snow:



 
Last edited:
When baiting wolves is there really anything different to it compared to baiting coyotes? I have never had luck baiting wolves, I get the odd coyote in and other scavangers but no wolves.

Are your baits tied down or just loose?
 
Baits are more or less to keep them in the general area and to keep ravens close by. We have called wolves in with just raven calls. I should have secured the beaver with wire to the hydro pole in order for the wolves not to take it. In all of the years hunting, we have killed one wolf over bait and had three other chances. The rest of them we have called in.

I like beavers or moose scraps when we can get them, otherwise use frozen pails of meat scraps from the local grocery store. You put out white tailed deer scraps, hides, heads and they will step right over it and not touch it here. Put out a frozen moose hide and they will chew on it until it is all consumed!
 
I agree with dfarmer. I hope to see a hero shot with one of the pack. Sounds like you are in an area where you truly never know what you're going to see and that alone would be enough to keep me going. With that being said, sincerely hope one makes the mistake of responding to the call and you get the chance at a shot.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom