Wildlife Callers

Steve Craig – The “Mountain Lion King” from Cottonwood Arizona shares a great wildlife calling memory.

Steve Craig is one of the most recognized names in predator calling in North America, and is one of the foremost authorities on calling mountain lions using their own vocalizations. Steve is also an expert in the use of Wildlife Technologies electronic predator calls and game callers and the Wildlife Technologies library of digitally recorded animal sounds. We are very pleased to post Steve Craig’s work on the Wildlife Callers’ Blog.

Steve Craig the "Mountain Lion King" and a Maine Black Bear

Most expect me to answer with a mountain lion or a bobcat story, and then are quite surprised at my answer.

It happened on a Saturday in 1967, in Indiana. It was a very quiet, windless day. It had snowed all night and had stopped about 4 AM or so and I was really itching to get out to hunt. I got up early, did my chores, and grabbed my gun and an old Pied Piper predator call.

It was beautiful that morning–a winter wonderland to say the least. I headed for a pasture east of my house. Picked a good sized walnut tree to sit in front of at the edge of the pasture, and let go a series of wails on the old Pied Piper.

Back then we did not have any coyotes in Indiana so red fox was what I was gunning for. Within a couple of minutes I see a huge old dog red fox heading my way on a dead run. I had stopped calling as soon as I saw him. He stopped at about 100 yards out and sat down in the snow, seemingly unable to locate where the sound had come from.

I already had the gun pointed at him and so I just gave a little toot on the call and that was all he needed to hear. He took a load of #2 shot from my 20 gauge at 10 yards! I was so excited, I didnt see the she fox starting to leave to my left. Instinct took over and I swung and rolled her at 25 yards. To this day, I still don’t remember kicking another shell into that old Mossberg bolt action shotgun.

I spent the rest of the morning skinning those fox, and waiting for the County to plow the roads.

That evening, just before dark I headed out in my vehicle with my shotgun, my call, and an old Carbide miners light that I used for coon hunting.

I pulled close to an old hay field, set up along the edge, and started calling. A pair of eyes came bouncing across the field and right up to me. It was a comical thing watching me adjust that old light I had wired to my cap, trying to get it and the shotgun pointed in the direction of the fox.

Finally I managed to get everything lined up and shot him at about 15 yards. I loaded him in a basket I had on my vehicle, and headed down the road to my next stand. It was starting to snow lightly by now, so I wanted to get a couple more stands in before it got too bad out.

I stopped next to an old, over grown briar patch, and almost immediately another red fox shows up, and he went down at 20 yards! He went into the basket as well and down the road I went.

As I was heading for home, great big silver dollar sized snowflakes were falling, and it was starting to build up. I pulled into another pasture that was next to some woods and started calling again. It only took 30 seconds or so for a huge grey fox to show up and I gave him a load of # 2′s as well. I loaded him in the basket and barely made it home slipping and sliding all the way.

What makes this one of my most memorable days?

5 foxes shot with a 20 gauge shotgun with 5 shots, 4 of them reds, all called with a hand call that I still have to this day. And, I was all of 14 years old, riding a bicycle on snow-covered slick country gravel roads!

So there you have it. Things sure have changed since that day. But it is a day I will remember forever.

Hope you enjoyed it too!

Steve Craig

Note: Steve is no longer booking guided hunts. We are providing a link to his site so our readers can look at his photos and read his content. http://azpredatorhunts.homestead.com

Your questions and comments are always appreciated. info@wildlifecallers.com