Wildlife Callers

A Cool Getaway From The Desert Heat, PVCI Novice Bootcamp

Our friends at Phoenix Varmint Callers club are holding a novice callers bootcamp in the cool pines of Payson, AZ this upcoming weekend, Saturday, August 14th at 9 am.

Rich Higgins, well known coyote behavior expert, and others will be conducting seminars and clinics on proper calling techniques for the beginning predator caller, but seasoned callers may be interested in attending as well.

Seminars will cover:

  • Proper set up
  • Firearm selection
  • Stand selection
  • Rules and Regs for predator hunting in AZ
  • Sounds used for calling and why
  • Use of ladders for calling in heavy brush

Directions to the bootcamp are as follows: Take 87 north through Payson and Strawberry. 6 or 7 miles past Clints Well, just past the Blue Ridge Ranger station, go east on FR 95. About a mile in take FR 513 to the left and follow it to the Boot Camp site. Signs will be posted as well to guide you to the site. Camping will be available for those that may want to head up Friday evening and stay for the weekend.

You may also want to attend: The AZ State Calling Contest that will be held at Cabela’s in Glendale, AZ on Saturday, August 28th at 3PM. Registration for the event begins at 10 AM and a seminar on Intro to Predator Calling will be held at 11 AM.

For more info on both events, contact Rich Higgins at 480-474-7581.

A good way to get out of the hot desert and get yourself geared up for the upcoming season!

Good hunting!

Marc Reindell

marc@wildlifecallers.com

No Wolf Season This Year, Now What?

Since last week’s ruling on re-listing the Wolf to endangered species status, we’ve been asked what can be done going forward and to restore wolf hunting.

Based on a legal technicality regarding ESA (endangered species act) stating that de-listing of a species cannot be done on a state by state basis, the management of the species by Montana and Idaho were shot down.  Wyoming did not propose a wolf management plan based on the fact that Wyoming does not classify the wolf as a big game species. Wyoming lists the wolf as a predator and allows for the trapping and killing on sight of wolves throughout most of the state. As a result, wolves were not de-listed in Wyoming last year and Wyoming did not propose anything different for this year either. 

This is a very good article written by Keith McCafferty for Field and Stream magazine on what can be done to try to possibly reverse this ruling in the future:  Who’s to Blame for Wolf Reinstatement(and What You Can Do About It)

We encourage our readers to write to the appropriate people in Wyoming (and other states that have Wolf populations, however minor) mentioned in the article and encourage them to change their way of thinking.

We don’t want to see the SSS (shoot, shovel and shut up) mentality take over, our sport, and hunting in general is already being attacked.  This would only give the “anti-hunter” people even more fuel to attack our right to hunt and our ability to pass traditions along to our children.

We will continue to pass along any information about this subject as we get it.

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Good hunting!

Marc Reindell

marc@wildlifecallers.com

Federal Judge Donald W. Molloy Stops Wolf Hunting in Idaho and Montana

Judge Donald Molloy, a Clinton appointee, said Thursday that he ruled specifically on the law, stating: 

  

“The Endangered Species Act does not allow the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to list only part of a ‘species’ as endangered, or to protect a listed distinct population segment only in part as the Final Rule here does” 

Grey Wolf - US Fish and Wildlife Service

The Idaho Fish and Game Deputy Director reacted quickly to the action by the Federal Government, stating  “We’re frustrated; we’re angry; we’re disappointed.”  “We’ve played by the rules, but his decision allows procedural technicalities to overcome sound science and common sense.”  Governor Butch Otter and his Democratic opponent, Keith Allred, both echoed that sentiment, saying the State of Idaho should have the right to manage it’s wolf population.  

With the current administration seeking a much larger footprint for the federal government, that might be asking a lot. 

Read more here: Idaho Statesman Article  

There were quick calls for an appeal by Gov. Butch Otter who sees the assumed numbers of wolves needed for “population sustainability” being conveniently increaseed by radical environmental groups.  In our last blog post on Idaho wolf hunting we feared that continuous efforts with lawsuits could achieve this setback.  However, we at Wildlife Callers remain confident that the need for Idaho, Montana, and other states, to manage wolves on locally based field science and declining populations of elk, deer, moose, and other prey mammals will eventually win out in the court system.  We’ll keep you informed of this court case as it proceeds.  

We are also keenly aware of the millions of private and taxpayer dollars being spent to keep the wolves from being de-listed and completely untouchable.  How small must the ungulate herds get before the groups claiming to care about the environment allow hunters to balance the wolf population against the deer, elk, and moose populations? 

A Shiras Moose tag in Idaho is already a “once in a lifetime” tag–on par with hunting a Bighorn Sheep in Arizona (currently being eaten to extinction by cougars with the help of “environmentalists”).  The environmentalists keep telling us that the wolf is a national treasure–we contend the Shiras population in the US is too.  Why must one be completely decimated so the other’s population numbers can satisfy a good feeling about wolves grounded in raw emotion and anti-hunting sentiment? 

For a good article about large wolf populations in the US and Canada (wolves ignore borders), wolf control efforts in Canada, funding for the wolf introduction program, impact to the Yellowstone elk herd, and more click here:  Has The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Become A Rogue Agency? 

Anti-Hunting Ideology…  (more…)

Predator Calling Sound Pictures – What are You Telling Your Target Predators?

There was time when a single sound of a crying rabbit from your Johnny Stewart mouth call was all you needed to bring Wile Coyote running.  Today the calling pressure is on and times have changed.  Call more “un-callable” critters and get the most from your e-caller by using the whole sound library! 

  

Back in the day… 

Mark Healy and an Arizona Coyote & Gray Fox that Fell for Cottontail Distress - circa 1986-87

a tape recorder with a Johnny Stewart rabbit distress tape, or my Circe twist-top 3-sound mouth call would give a guy plenty of opportunities to call and shoot predators.  When I started predator calling in 1986, the sport was only somewhat popular and unless you called the same spots over and over, the chances of calling at critters that already heard that same ol’ song before was slim.  This was the same time in Arizona hunting history when guys got a December  “Any Antlered Deer” tag and would NOT even consider hunting for a Coues Whitetail!  My, my, how times have changed as thousands of hunters apply for what’s become just a handful of December Coues tags.  

These days it seems that just about everyone who likes hunting has added or wants to add an electronic predator call to his or her hunter’s gear bag.  Several years ago the predator hunting videos took off in popularity and people got excited about calling coyotes, bobcats, and other critters, to the business end of their rifle — especially in states where their chances of getting a deer and/or elk tag was fading every year.  With this sport’s new-found explosive popularity over the past decade, the chances of calling into country that hasn’t been called is slim.  

I just finished talking to a guy who called for a full 2-years with a mouth call before he ever called his first coyote.  Now, I will say that I appreciate this young man’s tenacity!  However, if he’d had some better techniques, better understanding of his quarry, and better calling equipment, I firmly believe he could have cut that figure down by 1 year and 11 months.   

But how?  (more…)

It’s Official! Electronic Calls Legal for Idaho Wolf Hunts.

Idaho wildlife officials announced this past Wednesday evening that electronic game calls and trapping will be legal methods of take during their 2010 wolf hunting season. 

 

Wolf - Courtesy of the US Fish & Wildlife Service/Tracy Brooks

With Idaho elk herds in a steady decline and no reasonable recovery in sight, the game commissioners found it a reasonable step to include electronic calls as a wolf hunting method to help reach 2010 wolf harvest objectives.  Remember that any action favoring wolf hunting or wolf hunters will face immediate opposition and legal challenges from well funded anti-hunting organizations.  We are, however, optimistic that Idaho’s wildlife managers will prevail in moving forward this need based, well documented, biologically sound, action plan for better wolf control in their state. 

For more details and commentary, see the article in the Idaho Statesman:  Electronic Calls Fair Game in Idaho Wolf Hunts 

After taking dozens of phone calls last season from hunters very interested in calling an Idaho wolf (that’s you California hunters!) we’re looking forward to actually being able to deliver them a Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom caller.  Last season we had to turn ‘em down — not so this wolf season! (more…)