Wildlife Callers

Pays Dividends in Idaho’s Boise National Forest

Dense forest vegetation makes for some up-close & personal calls with coyotes on this cougar scouting & calling trip.

When my brother Mike called and asked if I wanted to meet him near his home in Boise Idaho for two days of July mountain lion scouting, I accepted. Actually, I couldn’t wait. Having seen photos of successful hound hunters holding cougars in 190+ pound class, I thought this might be just one of many trips to the rugged Sawtooth Mountains in search of these big cats.

In two days I found four promising calling locations that showed signs of more than one lion travelling through what I call a “cat intersection”—a place where male and female cougar territories meet and slightly overlap. All of these areas around Cascade Idaho were heavily forested and very dense with trees and other thick forest vegetation. These four spots were the only locations we’d end up calling.

I was armed with a Cannon GL-1 video camera (mountain lion hunting was not in season) and my brother carried his .243 in the event something went horribly wrong or I gave him a green light to shoot a coyote. As I set up to call, I recalled several articles that I’d read about Eastern US predator hunting and what Bill Martz from Wildlife Technologies electronic wildlife callers had told me about calling predators in the dense forests of the Northeastern US. I’m used to hunting in Arizona where open areas abound, and in most places you can see coyotes responding for a few hundred yards. Now I was surrounded by a forest that didn’t allow me to see more than 30 to 40 yards in any direction and my views were all down narrow “shooting lanes”. Any predator coming to the call in this mess of plants would be tough to see, harder to shoot (with a camera or a rifle), and next to impossible to get on video. Seeing a sneaky cougar in this cover would be a miracle.

Cooperative coyotes!

We didn’t call any mountain lions on our stands (at least that we saw). However, had I been armed with a still photo camera, I could have taken some outstanding photos of two coyotes. On stand number two, I had a coyote come in directly behind me and stop at about fifteen yards. This coyote was very curious and stayed for nearly a minute trying to figure out what I was as I tried to turn the video camera around for a shot (no luck). On the fourth stand, I called a coyote (photo below) out of some very dense vegetation to about 45 yards from my brother’s new Wildlife Technologies caller. With the video camera on my Bogen Wilderness tripod I was not able to film around several obstructions. I could have, however, maneuvered for several good shots with a still camera.

When I realized the coyote was going to eventually leave without me getting any useful video, I gave my brother the green light. His .243 cracked and the coyote dropped where he stood.

If this trip was any indication of how calling coyotes to hunt or photograph will be in the fall, I’m all in for another trip. There are millions of US National Forest acres getting little or no hunting pressure. The coyote tracks we saw on the roads were endless, and the mountain lion sign was promising.

See you in the field!!

Mark Healy
Email: info@wildlifecallers.com