Predator callin' in AK

[KYE-OAT]

I was just wondering if anyone had ever called a Timber Wolf ...
with a mouth-blown call, in Alaska??
I see on Alaska's fish&game site it is a whopping $85 and Wolves
don't require a "guide"/resident family..........plus in certain areas the limit is ten...........I could be wrong on this, but I coulda swore it said....Ten per day!!

[KYE-OAT]

With all these knowledgable gys running around, someone must
know about Wolves in AK.......

[Art Eatman]

You got any idea how far it is from Terlingua, Texas to "Wolfcountry", Alaska?

, Art

[Keith Rogan]

Wolves are the most challenging big game in Alaska. There are plenty of them out there but very few are taken by people who are actually hunting them. They either get taken by professional trappers or by people who just spot one while hunting other game - they get lucky.
I've hunted for years in country where you could hear wolves singing every evening, where the tracks are visible on every game trail and along every stream bed, but I've only SEEN one wolf in the wild.
You could try calling one in and you might get lucky with some juvenile animal or something, but normally a wolf will do a complete 360 around any source of food of like that before coming in. He'll wind you or cross your track and be long gone before you ever knew he was there.

I'll tell you a fact about wolves that sounds like something somebody made up but is in fact something that has been observed, recorded and verified by numerous independent biologists. If ONE wolf in a pack senses danger (or food), every single member of the pack (even if they are miles away) will respond appropriately and simultaneously to the threat or food source with no visual or auditory clue that the biologists can sense.
For example, there are dozens of cases where biologists in different blinds have been recording/observing wolves separated by many miles but members of the same pack. Typically, if one wolf runs across an old caribou or something the tapes will show EVERY wolf in the pack instantaneously changing direction and gait to head directly to the target animal! I find that amazing.

Now you want to ask how these biologists can record and observe such a smart animal - right? They do so in spring and early summer when packs are tied to a den site and can't leave the area. You rarely see them at other times of the year.

[KYE-OAT]

I was wondering if you would think wolves or coyotes were harder to call?
Or can you think of another interesting animal of Alaska that would come readily to Calls?
As you might have guessed I have called my share of coyotes......just looking for other interesting game......

[Keith Rogan]

I'm sure coyotes are easier to call. And I'm not saying it's impossible to call wolves, just very, very difficult.
I've met lots of people with record book moose, bears, caribou, etc. I don't know a single person who has ever taken a wolf by fair-chase means.

[KYE-OAT]

P.S...........I forgot to tell you, I am also planning to call Jackals in Africa........already called a guy and got the "hook-up"......just got to put my nose to the grindstone the next few months, so I can handle the fundage end of it.

[Al Thompson]

KYE-OAT - when I was in SA some years ago (too long ), I had a wounded rabbit call. My PH thought it was a good idea until I blew a couple of times.......... He got a serious look on his face and asked that I stop. He had no desire to have a leopard land in the blind with us....

Giz

[KYE-OAT]

That's great ! I can't wait !
Have you ever read about that fellow (in south america) that
Capstick wrote of that hunted leopards with a stout spear ?
He actually waited for the cat to spring towards him then he positioned the spear (with the butt end planted in the dirt) so the leopard would end up impaling itself on the spear !
Now that is pretty bold ,uh?

[Cosmoline]

You'll need it! Keith is right. Trapping is the only realistic way to get wolves unless you're really good and really lucky. The opening shot in "Enemy at the Gate" gives you some idea of how tricky those guys are, and they were using live bait. They move like you wouldn't believe, and they're just about the smartest thing out there. If you're after Alaska predators, you stand a much better chance of getting a black bear. The prices and regs for outsiders suck, which is a good reason to simply move here. Once you're a resident, licenses are very cheap and there are fewer restrictions.

[KYE-OAT]

I definitely would NOT be interested in calling black bear.....as the ones here in the Ozarks are real dumb and practically come to a whistle. Black bears are dime-a-dozen..........and too easy.

[Art Eatman]

Many people while thinking "coyote" have had other critters "fall into bed" with them.

One guy in New Mexico had a bear come downhill toward the call so fast that the bear lost its balance and rolled over our intrepid hunter.

A buddy of mine froze just real still, as a mountain lion ghosted by about ten feet in front of him, during a calling session.

There's a famous photo of Murray (or Winston?) Burnham calling, and a big owl landing on his hat!

IIRC, the book about the guy who killed jaguars in South America was called "Tigre!"; published originally in the 1940s or 1950s. He had a couple of up-close deals where he had to use his knife.

, Art

[Molon Labe!]

That tigre guy....... Crazy but love his way of hunting! I am going to start coyote hunting soon probably with a .22mag rifle and will have a .40 Glock to finish 'em off if they are still alive. What time of the day is best for calling predators in? Night seems easy to call them around here, All you need is a dead chicken inside a fence and at night you will here dogs barking their heads off, or, if there are no dogs you will hear them trying to get through or under the fence, all i need is a infra-red light and then it's target practice! I have heard people having good luck in early morning or late after-noon. I know where i go shooting there are probably alot, Also, very very very many rabbits, a wounded rabbit call would probably do the trick?

[KYE-OAT]

If it is within the law, the absolute best time to call is at night because they are so nocturnal.....I'm not saying you can't call 'em in the early morning before or as the sun is rising.........or in the evening as the sun is setting.
If you have plenty of rabbits, it would be an effective distress......unless other guys have been "educating" them .....then Woodpecker tape works well........also I am a huge fan of the Decoy Heart's Predator Supreme.....a motion decoy will increase the odds in your favor 100%........camo head to toe, altho' even More importantly.....REMAIN MOTIONLESS.........use skunk for cover scent, altho' i've had good results with rabbit piss as well..do NOT use a scope with too much power, it is worse than NO scope..your field of vision on a 'yote with the afterburners on will be way too small to pick 'em up......don't dawdle your opportunity for a shot away waiting for him to: get closer, get a better angle, etc........take the shot as soon as you have it.

[Keith Rogan]

I have a handmade fawn bleater made by an old native guy down in Wrangell. It's extremely effective on Blacktails and with a "distress" cry you can make a deer poke his head out of the brush from quite a distance away.
As Art relates, you have to be careful with such calls because you don't know what else it might bring in. One of the first times I used this call was on Amook Island, a smallish island densely covered with alder brush. I got up on a big hillside looking over a lot of brush and began bleating a distress cry to see if I could make a deer show itself. Next to me was a brushy ravine perhaps ten feet in depth running straight up and down the hill and I heard something picking itself down the ravine towards me from the top of the hill.
I was actually in a clearing but the ravine was so choked with growth I couldn't see up it, so I layed down my rifle and dug out a .45 expecting to get a shot from 6 or 8 feet away when the "deer" showed istelf.
And of course, it wasn't a deer, it was a brown bear sow looking at me from just a few feet away. I asked her to leave and she just turned around and walked away. It happened so fast and she behaved so well that I didn't even have time to get scared.
Just a minute or two later a forkhorn appeared below me and I shot him and was out of there. Later, when I was telling my friends what had happened they thought I was "stretching" how close the bear had been because I was so matter of fact about it. A weird deal, she just got right up to me, looked at me when I spoke and then just walked away without any reaction at all. I wish all bears were like that.

I'm more careful about where I use my fawn bleater now.

[KYE-OAT]

Man, that's great!
Are brown bears legal in AK?
If so, how much are guides for that?
That sounds like fun.......like I said black bears in the Ozarks are too easy to kill.

[Keith Rogan]

Oh yeah, brown/grizzly bears are quite legal. Check out the "How Big Do They Get" page on my website. There are some good pix and reference to a guide service.