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 wolfs favour. In addition to Gunner410, My72Jeep and his wife (who is hooked more than he is on predator hunting), 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......
I spent yesterday processing a deer I shot on Thursday so when M72J texted me last night and asked if I was going out this morning I replied I doubted it as I was bagged out from a couple of weeks of deer hunting. However, a dog whining this AM to go out for a pee woke me up before legal time so I decided since I was up I may as well head out as it was only -8C and no wind. I had no predator hunting gear available so I grabbed my .22-250, deer hunting camo and boots and a brand new rabbit in distress call I had bought on a clearance table a few weeks ago but never tried. As usual, Gunner 410 had to work so he wasnt available to go out...
When I got out to the hydro line, I met M72J and his wife driving in. We parked and she and I walked to the road going to the hydro line. While we were standing there talking she saw a wolf walking down the hydro line and crossing the road. It wasnt very big and crossed the road onto the side of the line where M72J has a bait. The 3 of us walked up the road and when we got to the power line, M72J stepped off the road and onto the hydro line. |I was behind him when his wife said "Its right there". About 75 yards away was a straw coloured wolf pup standing by their bait. M72J went down on one knee, took aim and fired. There was an eruption of snow about 25 yards in front of him and the wolf stood there. Pretty sure he hit a branch on some brush in front of him and his 243 bullet evaporated. M72J bolted another round into the chamber and brought the gun up but the wolf stepped into the treeline.
I stepped up behind him and pulled out the call and his wife moved over into the centre of the power line. I started calling and it was awful - high pitched (for what was supposed to be a raspy call), but kept at it hoping the pup would come back onto the line to check it out. After calling on and off for about 5 minutes and M72J said he wondered if it came out and crossed the road behind us. I said I would check, so I walked over to his wife to tell her what I was doing. I turned to walk up the road and there was a large straw coloured wolf standing in the middle of the road behind us about 50 yards away. It ran up the road and then cut into the bush on the far side. I ran across the road and up onto the skidoo trail that runs parallel to the road to see if I could get it crossing the trail. It beat me across the trail (I am old and have bad knees
).
M72J's wife went behind me and climbed a ridge on the hydro line on the sat looking east which was the direction that the large wolf ran into the timber. I walked up and told her to watch the left side of the line as M72J and I had a similar experience a couple of years ago with a wolf coming out of a trail about 250 yards down from where she was sitting. I walked over to the hydro poles across from her and sat down. I hadnt even got my bipod set when a black wolf walked out into the middle of the line right about where I said to watch. I pulled the call out and at least it started to sound better as I called and stopped the wolf. I kept waiting for the shot but she didnt shoot. I kept calling and then spit the call out by accident into the snow, effectively freezing the reed in it. At that point a straw coloured wolf came out about 400 yards on the left side of the hydro line and crossed over to the right side at the base of the next ridge. The black wolf walked up the centre of the line and then crossed into the brush on the right side about 350 yards down the line.
By that time, M72J had his Primos Turbo Dogg set up and crawled over and gave me the controller. I tried a "lonesome wolf howl" with no response. I waited a couple of minutes and then played a "wolf confrontational howl" and immediately had two response howls out of the treeline on our right side in the vicinity of where the straw coloured wolf had gone into the timber.
I figure that the wolf I saw on the road was one of the pups parents and had been come to the high pitched calls looking for the pup. As we still hadnt seen the pup since M72J fired at it, I played pup in distress sequences to see if a wolf would come back out onto the line looking for it, but nothing showed.
We saw at least 3 if not 4 wolves in about 10 minutes elapsed time. M72J's wife didnt shoot as she wasnt comfortable with the distance (fair enough) and I only have one tag left for this calendar year (I shot one in February and we can only get 2 tags a year).
There is logging equipment in the area and apparently their are operations starting up shortly in this spot, so going to charge up the callers tonight and head back tomorrow AM with another hunting partner to see if we an fill a tag.
I spent yesterday processing a deer I shot on Thursday so when M72J texted me last night and asked if I was going out this morning I replied I doubted it as I was bagged out from a couple of weeks of deer hunting. However, a dog whining this AM to go out for a pee woke me up before legal time so I decided since I was up I may as well head out as it was only -8C and no wind. I had no predator hunting gear available so I grabbed my .22-250, deer hunting camo and boots and a brand new rabbit in distress call I had bought on a clearance table a few weeks ago but never tried. As usual, Gunner 410 had to work so he wasnt available to go out...
When I got out to the hydro line, I met M72J and his wife driving in. We parked and she and I walked to the road going to the hydro line. While we were standing there talking she saw a wolf walking down the hydro line and crossing the road. It wasnt very big and crossed the road onto the side of the line where M72J has a bait. The 3 of us walked up the road and when we got to the power line, M72J stepped off the road and onto the hydro line. |I was behind him when his wife said "Its right there". About 75 yards away was a straw coloured wolf pup standing by their bait. M72J went down on one knee, took aim and fired. There was an eruption of snow about 25 yards in front of him and the wolf stood there. Pretty sure he hit a branch on some brush in front of him and his 243 bullet evaporated. M72J bolted another round into the chamber and brought the gun up but the wolf stepped into the treeline.
I stepped up behind him and pulled out the call and his wife moved over into the centre of the power line. I started calling and it was awful - high pitched (for what was supposed to be a raspy call), but kept at it hoping the pup would come back onto the line to check it out. After calling on and off for about 5 minutes and M72J said he wondered if it came out and crossed the road behind us. I said I would check, so I walked over to his wife to tell her what I was doing. I turned to walk up the road and there was a large straw coloured wolf standing in the middle of the road behind us about 50 yards away. It ran up the road and then cut into the bush on the far side. I ran across the road and up onto the skidoo trail that runs parallel to the road to see if I could get it crossing the trail. It beat me across the trail (I am old and have bad knees
). M72J's wife went behind me and climbed a ridge on the hydro line on the sat looking east which was the direction that the large wolf ran into the timber. I walked up and told her to watch the left side of the line as M72J and I had a similar experience a couple of years ago with a wolf coming out of a trail about 250 yards down from where she was sitting. I walked over to the hydro poles across from her and sat down. I hadnt even got my bipod set when a black wolf walked out into the middle of the line right about where I said to watch. I pulled the call out and at least it started to sound better as I called and stopped the wolf. I kept waiting for the shot but she didnt shoot. I kept calling and then spit the call out by accident into the snow, effectively freezing the reed in it. At that point a straw coloured wolf came out about 400 yards on the left side of the hydro line and crossed over to the right side at the base of the next ridge. The black wolf walked up the centre of the line and then crossed into the brush on the right side about 350 yards down the line.
By that time, M72J had his Primos Turbo Dogg set up and crawled over and gave me the controller. I tried a "lonesome wolf howl" with no response. I waited a couple of minutes and then played a "wolf confrontational howl" and immediately had two response howls out of the treeline on our right side in the vicinity of where the straw coloured wolf had gone into the timber.
I figure that the wolf I saw on the road was one of the pups parents and had been come to the high pitched calls looking for the pup. As we still hadnt seen the pup since M72J fired at it, I played pup in distress sequences to see if a wolf would come back out onto the line looking for it, but nothing showed.
We saw at least 3 if not 4 wolves in about 10 minutes elapsed time. M72J's wife didnt shoot as she wasnt comfortable with the distance (fair enough) and I only have one tag left for this calendar year (I shot one in February and we can only get 2 tags a year).
There is logging equipment in the area and apparently their are operations starting up shortly in this spot, so going to charge up the callers tonight and head back tomorrow AM with another hunting partner to see if we an fill a tag.
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