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Anyone doing any predator hunting?

3K views 5 replies 6 participants last post by  huntswithdogs 
#1 ·
A couple buddies, 9 hounds, and I took off for 5 days over New Year's to do a bit of predator hunting. We used calling and hounds at various times. Hunting was tough, it started snowing the day before we left and ended up with 8"-10" of the white stuff. This kept the varmints in hiding much of the time but they would respond fairly well to the calls. Our take with this method was 14 coyotes, 9 fox, and 1 bobcat over 5 days for 3 of us. It isn't our best but it is much better than our worst. The first two days were tough for the hounds, with animals not moving much there wasn't much scent to cut. The hounds got on only three tracks with one ending in a dead coyote. The weather broke and things got a little too good as every critter around was out and about. We put 4 dogs down on a coyote track and 15 minutes later they were on three different animals. My buddies and I split up and lit out after different hounds. The dog I caught up to treed a young bobcat so I left it to get bigger. One buddy eventually caught up to a coyote and the other had the remaining hounds return with a slightly mangled fox. Driving around we spotted a coyote sitting in a field watching us. Getting down wind the hounds caught the scent and were released from the crates. An hour later we caught up to two coyotes crossing a field and added them to our bag. While rounding up the dogs to bring them home, one struck scent and the chase was on again. A short 20 minute run lead us to a grown bobcat which was my first taken for the year. After dinner and a nap we went out at night to try our hand at night hunting. A fox and a coyote later and we called it quits. The second day was much like the first except we took two bobcats and one coyote while the dogs got two fox. The deepish snow made travel a bit tough for the fox and cats which was unfortunate for the fox and caused the cats to tree fairly quickly. Day 3 started off with another fox but then things got exciting. The dogs struck a scent and took off at a run. Nearly an hour later the quarry crossed a road and the tracks showed it was a wolf! Oh, fiddlesticks!! Experience has shown hounds and wolves do not get along and it was a real race to catch up to the dogs before the wolf tired of playing. Another hour later the dogs finally caught up to the wold (or maybe he caught them) and a non-typical fight broke out. These hounds either got smart or aren't as brave as some others as they all returned with only minor cuts and bites. Usually we lose a dog when this occurs. The remainder of the trip was spent hunting 20 miles away as we did not want to push our luck again with the wolf. Hunting was still pretty good despite the dogs getting rather tired from constant running. Our take with the hounds was 9 coyotes, 5 fox, and 2 bobcats for a 5 day total of 23 coyotes, 14 fox, and 3 bobcats. The weather leading up to this was nearly perfect, a couple weeks of cold followed by snow and a near thaw. The cold and snow limited animal movements until the thaw when the critters started moving at all times of the day. The snow depth also helped in that the animals were either caught or treed quickly (in the case of fox and bobcats) or for coyotes pushed into the open where the snow was not as deep but opened them up to rifle fire. Fresh snow also meant fresh tracks so there weren't any cold trails for the dogs to figure out. It also helped that all 3 of us are fairly decent callers so we could split up and call different areas. this allowed us to about double our normal take by calling. My only disappointment was not calling in a bobcat as I want to have my next one tqaken this way mounted.
 
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#3 ·
Been calling 'yotes and bobcats this year for the first time. Usually I am a die hard waterfowler and only take a break for deer hunting, but with the weather, the season really sucked. My buddy and I had been talking about it for a while, so decided to jump in and do it. It's very addicting and a bunch of fun. Got my rig all set up for 'em now...22-250 with 6x20 scope.
 
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