Never Skip a Rainy Day

I don't fear the weather, but with that said, I don't overly enjoy getting soaked to the bone, either. My experience in predator hunting, however, has taught me that animals aren't scared of a lite rain, and they are more inclined to be active before or after a good storm, seeing as how they are either anticipating not getting a good meal for awhile or they are trying to make up for not getting a good meal for awhile. They don't overly enjoy getting soaked, either, so when there's a good storm happening, and you head out to hunt, it's a roll of the dice. Here's how my roll played out earlier this month.

I woke up to a pounding rain, but seeing as how I was heading south for a couple of hours I figured it might lighten up. I figured wrong, and when I met Daniel, the guy I would be hunting with, in the parking lot of a strip mall, he had a look of concern on his face. I re-assured him that all would be well, and we headed down the highway in the darkness and the ever increasing sounds of the rain.

About an hour after sunrise, the rain finally quit, and we bailed out of the truck and headed for our first stand. Our setup was prime, and we had the whole area of a small canyon covered. I really wanted to get some more animals in front of Daniel, as our last trip out produced plenty of animals but only a few that ended up in the truck. Not 2 minutes into my first sequence of gray fox distress and a gray fox shows up - but he's acting a little cautious, which is odd for a fox. He's coming in where Daniel can't see him, and no joke, ends up standing on the top of the rock which Daniel is leaned against. Finally the fox decides he doesn't want to come in for whatever reason, and starts to casually walk away. I waited until he was safely away from Daniel and I took the shot. It started raining again shortly after that, and if you look closely at this picture you can see some big raindrops on my rifle.



We hiked back to the truck in the rain (1/4 mile - hooray!) and spent the next hour in the truck. Off and on the rain allowed us to try a few more stands, but we only got to finish one of them as the rain kept chasing us back to the truck. I don't mind getting wet, but getting soaked isn't best time, and we spent most of the day soaked. Luckily Daniel is a good hunting partner and we kept the mood light. What else can you do when you're hiking up a canyon in the pouring rain? At some point on the way to a stand, I found this very unlucky horseshoe - I left it there:



Around lunch we found an amazing canyon to call, and there was a lot of cat scat all over. It thundered and threatened us throughout the whole stand, but didn't do anything. Apparently the animals got the clue, but we didn't. Nothing showed on that stand, and as we debated hiking farther into the canyon we got hit with hail - lots and lots of pea-sized hail. We tried to take cover under a bush, but it wasn't doing much good. Finally we made a mad dash back to the truck, but still got drenched in the process. Here's us huddled under the bush, and that ground is supposed to be brown, but it's white with about 1/2 inch of hail:



After more sitting in the truck and getting chased off of stands by weather, the sun finally broke through the clouds and we hit a great looking stand. Our setup was prime and less than 3 minutes into the stand I caught a bobcat sneaking in. I was using a Foxpro, and it was setup right in front of Daniel - this bobcat was stalking straight towards it and I was excited to watch Daniel out this cat in the dirt. As the cat continued to creep in closer and closer, Daniel still wasn't shooting, and I got nervous about the cat disappearing into some brush by the caller, so I went ahead and took the shot. Once the stand was over and I had a chance to look at it, it was actually a fairly small cat, or at least much smaller than the northern cats I am used to shooting. When I questioned Daniel about the cat, he said he got to watch the entire thing, but was worried about the cat seeing his movement if he raised his shotgun - the cat got to within 15 yards of him. Oh well, live and learn. Here's the bobcat (possible housecat):



And wouldn't you know it - it started raining again after that! We were able to get a few more stands in before sundown, but between the rain and the threat of rain, I think the animals were just hunkered down. As the sunk sank low below the horizon, the rain finally broke again, this time for good, and we made one last desperate stand in the failing light. We ended up calling a blank, but one thing we certainly found that day was a good time. It was still a good day, and any day hunting beats the best day of working!

Need some shotgun rounds for predator hunting?

I do all of my firearms business with STG Firearms in Prescott Valley, and they are one of the equipment providers for my training organization. Last season I asked them to carry Remington 3" #4 lead buckshot, my predator shotgun round of choice. They obliged and now stock it regularly.

So if you're in Prescott Valley and need some 3" #4 buck, or just about any other ammo, firearm, or accessory, check out STG Firearms - and tell them I sent you in there.

Too Tight of a Choke?

I had the chance to take out one of my Coyote Clinic students, a great guy named Eric, for a morning hunt. The first few stands didn't put anything in front of us, but once we made our way into a canyon, the action got hot.

On the first stand a fox came in so fast that he was literally knocking rocks down the hillside as he ran - it was less than 40 seconds from the time I started the call to the time that Eric had that fox on the ground. It was about a 20 yard shot, and you could clearly see the pellet pattern impact marks on the fox. "Screamin' Gray" from the FoxPro is still one of my favorite fox calls, and it continued to prove itself as less than 2 minutes later another fox came charging in. This one got two close calls with some 3" #4 buck at about 20 feet, but got away seemingly unscathed. We did find some blood, but after about 30 minutes tracking and searching, the little blood that was left behind led us to nothing. Regretfully, we moved on, but Eric was excited to have bagged at least one of the foxes.



On the next stand, we had another hard charging fox come in, and Eric shot him at about 40 yards, though a second shot was required to put him down for good. I asked Eric what kind of choke he had, and when he replied "Dead Coyote" it got me thinking - perhaps it would be best to carry additional chokes in your pack or pocket, so that when you find yourself in such tight quarters you could maximize the benefit of the shotgun and put in a Modified or Improved Cylinder choke.

The next stand produced another rapidly approaching fox, and this one came in close - within about 25 feet - before it stopped to even take a look. Again, Eric thought he was right on when he fired, but again a fox escaped the stand to retreat back into the rock cliffs. Eric couldn't quite figure out what had happened, as he thought he was right on, but the issue was clear to me: too tight of choke.

Often I meet predator hunters who want to "reach out" with their shotguns, and this is certainly possible. I have personally witnessed DRT shots on coyotes past 70 yards, and have heard of farther shots, especially with 10 gauge shotgun - some of those even stretch past 100 yards. And with my own 26" Remington 870 with a Xtra Full choke and 3" #4 buck, I can drop animals at 60 yards with ease. But often we are so excited to get our shotguns to shoot farther that we overlook their main benefit - multiple hits at closer ranges with a large pattern.

When I first started predator hunting I used my rifle exclusively, and rarely found a time when I wished I had something else. Then I started hunting thick brush, and turned to my shotgun due to its ability to spread some shot in a large pattern at closer ranges. But as time went on I desired that pattern to be tighter at longer ranges, due to my inability to seal the deal on animals further out. So I turned my shotgun into a rifle - and that can be a problem at certain ranges. With such a tight pattern, Eric, with a setup similar to mine, was basically shooting a fist-sized mass of pellets at a small moving target, where a dinner plate sized pattern would have been much more effective.

What I learned from this is that predator hunters would be well-served to keep additional chokes in their packs or pockets when shotgun hunting, and be ready and willing to change those chokes out depending on the distances encountered on each stand. It only take a few seconds to change a choke, and could mean the difference between fur down and fur running away.

All in all, is was still a good day, and Eric was quite happy with his two foxes:



Another thing to note is that both of these foxes had pink around their paws and mouths, and their scat was also bright pink, indicating that they had been into the cactus fruit so readily available in the area. When you see this kind of thing in your predators (checking scat is often overlooked as an easy method to pinpoint predator location) then you know that they are predators who are eating fruit, meaning that they are most likely ready for a meal of meat, or at least a supposed meal of meat followed by a meal of lead. ;-)

A Good (if brief) Explanation of Fur Handling

Grand View Outdoors, publisher of Predator Xtreme magazine (who I occasionally write for), posted an article up about fur handling. After giving it a good read (which doesn't take long) I thought I'd share it with you since I feel the article gives a good explanation of the basics concerning what to do and what not to do.

Click Here to read it.

Happy Hunting!