Thank You, Mr. Postman

You just never know what arrive in the mail. Today, out of the blue, a new friend sent me a Tally-Ho predator call.

Although I have read about Tally-Ho calls in magazine articles I’ve edited – mostly by Gerry Blair – I had never held one in my hands or blown one. Well, now I have. It didn’t take me long for my house to be filled with sounds of a wailing rabbit, and I even belted out a few yips and howls with the little black open-reed call.

Of course, my 6-year-old daughter was on my hip quickly begging for her turn to make it squeal. She likes to blast my crow call and has succeeded in summoning a cloud of black crows to circle our house, so she always comes running whenever I’m testing a call. I must say, she sounded OK on the Tally-Ho, too.

A quick search on the Web gave me a little history lesson about Tal Lockwood, the South Dakota man who invented this call. The information card that came with the call gives basic instruction of how to use it, and ends with the following statement: “Once you call in your first animal, you will be hooked on the sport for life.”

Nailed it.

Coyotes Were Thick

On a recent waterfowl hunting trip in Arkansas, I noticed numerous piles of scat on many of the levees that surrounded rice fields.

The dung was undoubtedly that of coyotes. In most cases, the hair-laden feces was left as territorial markers. I found it especially interesting just how prevalent the markers were, so I asked one of the duck guides about coyotes.

“We have tons of them,” he said. “We see them all of the time.”

The next morning, as we motored in the dark through flooded trees on the way to our duck blind, a pack of coyotes shattered the solitude, wailing and howling to announce their presence to all within earshot.

On the return trip to the lodge, I spied a coyote taking a final nap on the shoulder of the highway. A return trip to Northeast Arkansas might just be in order very soon.

Guns: The Obama Factor

Obviously, people are expecting changes to gun laws in the United States once Barack Obama takes office in January. Stories of record sales of handguns, ammunition and AR-style weapons have been widely reported.

I’m hopeful the fears of hunters, shooters and people who buy munitions turn out to be nothing more substantial than the Y2K computer crisis. But I’m savvy enough to know there’s legitimate cause for concern.

Given the country’s current economic woes, it sure seems like legislating tighter gun laws so people like us who hunt predators have fewer options would be about the 10,486th priority on the list. However, I know that when people in charge of a department, a company or a country don’t have solutions to the real problems, they often bite off a battle in another area, just so they are doing something.

Let’s hope all-out war on the second amendment and law-abiding gun owners doesn’t become the focal point because the new leadership has no idea how to fix the economy, bolster health care or get our soldiers home.

So, I ask you: How concerned are you about the new president’s impact on your rights to own guns?

Bobcat Study Could Expand Hunt

A population and distribution study about bobcats in Wisconsin could lead to more opportunity to hunt and trap the highly regulated furbearer.

As it stands now, Wisconsin predator hunters can only take a bobcat north of Highway 64, which means only the northern third or so of the state is open to bobcat hunting and trapping. In addition, bobcats are a special tag species, so hunters must pay $3 every year to apply for a tag. Tags are issued in a lottery based on preference points. In general, it has been taking four to five years to draw a tag. This year, 12,684 people applied for 540 permits.

Leslie Adams, a University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point graduate researcher, is investigating population distribution and abundance by using hair collected at snaring stations. More than half of her hair snare locations were south of Highway 64.

The bobcat population is thought to be increasing in Wisconsin. Road-killed animals and incidentally trapped bobcats are becoming far more common in the southern half of the state.

Adams’s study might provide the Wisconsin DNR with the data necessary to not only expand the area open to bobcat harvest, it could also lead to more tags being issued.

I have written an extensive feature article about the bobcat situation for Wisconsin Outdoor News. It appears on Page 1 of the Oct. 31 issue. The full article is also posted online at wisconsinoutdoornews.com - it is article No. 2 in the rotating news cue on the home page.

I will also be attending a special management meeting about bobcats on Nov. 14, and will have a full report in an upcoming issue of WON. I’ll also share some of the highlights here.

Photo courtesy of Leslie Adams

Poll: Response Rates

In my travels, I’ve met predator hunters who expect to call coyotes at every stand they make. If nothing responds, they feel like something went wrong with the stand. I’ve also hunted with guys who think getting a predator to come in on every third of fourth stand is excellent.

Where you hunt, time of the year, amount of hunting pressure, weather, terrain and other factors certainly influence calling response rates. Just for fun, let’s see how your response rates compare to other predator callers from around the country.

Take the poll to the left. To be clear about what constitutes a response, it’s a coyote, bobcat, fox, raccoon or other predator that is approaching your position as a result of your calling, whether you get a shot or not. Also, if three coyotes come in at one stand, that counts as one successful stand.

Please tell the truth. No one will know who you are anyway, so there’s no shame or bragging either way.

We've Become an AR Bunch

I can understand the trend toward hunting with AR-style rifles for predators given the leaps forward in accuracy and the number of new choices for this type of weapon.

But 77 percent of you use them as your primary predator gun? Shocking. Of course, my poll is a small sample size, but still, I’d have bet my open-reed cottontail tube that bolt-action rifles would win this particular vote. Bolt guns received 15 percent of the vote, and shotguns tallied 8 percent.

Single-shot rifles did not register a single vote. As an aside, I killed a Missouri coyote with a T/C .223 a couple winters ago. Nice rifle. The footage from that hunt was captured for Drury’s Predator Madness 3. First time I dropped a coyote on film.

Anyway, thanks for your votes and continued interest in this site. Soon, our season will be on and I’ll be out there screamin’.

Tad Brown on Decoy Placement

Technique of the Week: Today, I interviewed Tad Brown of Flambeau, which also markets predator hunting products under the Lohman Game Calls and Circe brands. Specifically, Tad talked to me about using decoys for predator hunting.

Tad covered many aspects of decoys, but I found his advice about placement especially valuable. Hunting with the wind in his face, Tad said he usually places the decoy about 30 yards away off to his right side, because he shoots right-handed. But that’s not all. He tends to put the decoy behind him and to the right of the area he expects the animals to approach from.

Why?

The coyote will generally circle, and when it does, even if it’s a wide, cautious loop, the coyote will be within easy shooting distance.

Tad puts it to the right so that if a coyote comes straight to the decoy, it will pass in front of him.

“When the predator is looking at the decoy, I don’t want to be right in their line of sight,” he said. “You want that coyote to be looking past you.”

One more tip about decoy placement. “The higher up it is, the better it is,” Tad said. “If the coyote can’t see it, it isn’t helping you.”

Fur Market Forecast

As fur market analyst Parker Dozhier has told me more times than I can count over the years, it’s all just a guess. However, I can’t remember a year heading into the season when fur buyers and those in the know had as much uncertainty as they do right now.

Of course, when the stock markets tank, then drop again and the global economy is as shaky as it is right now, we’re all in uncharted waters. Still, commodities often hold their own when the economy gets rough and the markets falter.

So, the best guess: coyotes – not so good; bobcats – should be as good; gray foxes – down a bit, but still solid; red fox – still poor; raccoons – could be very good, could drop dramatically.

Coyotes: A lot of unsold lower-grade pelts exist right now, so that will hold the price of new goods coming onto the market down. Dozhier says the best coyotes – pales with wide, white bellies from the Rocky Mountains might bring $40 to $45, but most will fetch far less. He put Wisconsin skins at $25 and down for the best large, heavy coyotes. A representative of North American Fur Auctions also indicated the coyote market was not expected to have much depth and generally be poor. Might be a good year to tan some coyotes and sell them to alternative markets.

Bobcats: Dozhier said he thinks the high-end bobcat market will hold up for another season, although the best skins might not hit $1,100 as a few did last year. Bobcats are being used to make luxury goods, and the demand continues for spotted fur.

Gray foxes: After doing exceptionally well last winter, gray foxes did not do as well at the spring auctions. Dozhier termed it as a hiccup, and said he thought the market would still be good for grays. He suggests hanging onto grays until later in the season.

Red foxes: Ranch production of foxes continues to keep the market for wild red foxes depressed. Expect a replay of last season, Dozhier said. The best might bring $35, but most will be $20 or thereabouts.

Raccoons: Every year, it seems one furbearer receives extra attention as the species to target. In 2008-2009, it’s raccoons. Many trappers and hunters are expecting to average $40 or more this season. Dozhier and the NAFA rep agree that the raccoon market holds great promise, but caution that the weather – both in the United States and Russia – will play a major role in determining the size of the harvest and the demand for the fur. If it snows and freezes early in the United States, and Russia has a frigid winter, fur harvesters who have a bunch of raccoons to sell will benefit nicely. If it’s warm here and there, disappointment is likely.

It’s all a crap shoot. Just like the stock market.

Another Reason to Visit Sturgis, S.D.

The land of wild motorcycle rallies and presidents carved in stone might have another claim to fame.

Specifically, the Black Hills of South Dakota is becoming a prime place to call a mountain lion. The 2008 season, which actually begins on Jan. 1, 2009 and runs through March 31, is the fourth season in recent times in South Dakota.

An estimated 220 to 280 mountain lions inhabit the Black Hills, according to the state’s game and fish Department. Lion hunters cannot use dogs, bait or traps, but they can use electronic game callers.

The harvest is limited to 35 animals total, or 15 female lions. In 2005, hunters killed 13 mountain lions. That jumped to 16 in 2006, followed by 18 during the 2007 season.

The license fee is $15. Unfortunately, only residents of South Dakota are allowed to participate in the hunt.