San Carlos Indian Reservation Electronic Predator and Other Game Animal Calling
San Carlos is a spectacular place to hunt, both in terms of the scenic views and the variety of predators you can call there. But, is it legal to use your electronic caller on their reservation?
As of this Wildlife Callers blog post (May 2010) it is NOT legal to use an electronic call to call/attract any animals with an electronic call on the San Carlos Reservation.
San Carlos Indian Wildlife & Recreation Regulation 002-M
You can access the regualtion by CLICKING HERE and then choosing “Regulations” on the left margin.
Yes, some of the rules and regs on San Carlos have changed often and this one is no exception. However, better to know the current rules and either use hand calls, or go somewhere else. I’ve hunted on San Carlos for the past 24 years and I will be headed elsewhere until it changes back. Dave Martens and I have spent thousands of dollars in permit fees on San Carlos and we’re not sure what they’re trying to accomplish with this rule. Hopefully it will change soon, but until it does the hand calling crowd will have it all to themselves!!
San Carlos has also been a hot hunting spot for out of state hunters looking for lots of ground to hunt and reasonable daily rates for predator calling and small game hunting. If you know an out of stater that likes predator calling and hunting on San Carlos, please pass this blog post along. The San Carlos Game & Fish guys have always been great with us, but they absolutely will ticket violators and confiscate your caller.
Thank you again for your questions that give us these opportunities to do some research and blog about it. As always, subscriptions to the blog are FREE.
If you have any comments, please scroll down and add them below in the comments section.
Thanks for reading,
Mark Healy
I think using an electronic call is totally unfair to the animal and is not the way of a true hunter. Killing wildlife for sport is in my opinion ruthless. Unless you are using the complete animal and are hunting the animal on it’s own terms I feel that you are trying to play god. Long live Nature! But only WITHOUT the use of electronic devices will this now very delicate balance of the environment survive.
Anna,
I respectfully disagree with your position on predator calling and using electronic calls, however, I also respect the fact that you have the ability to disagree with us and actually make an intelligent, albeit contrary point. Many people – actually almost all of the people who disagree with us and comment cannot have thier opionion posted for the severe lack of decorum (death threats, profanity, etc.)
Thank you for taking the time to read and comment.
Enjoy your weekend,
Mark Healy
I guess they dont want any lions called and killed there. Few get called with handcalls compared to e-callers
Dumb law.
Steve
Smart Law… Wish it was everywhere!
Steve,
Good morning and thank you again for reading. The population density of mountain lions on the reservation is high and the number of cattle being consumed is very high. Also, the Coues whitetail deer hunting has been very impacted by the lions. One of our friends paid the big money for a January Coues tag and glassed up 9 – yes 9 – lions in 7 days in unit D. He never saw a buck worthy of harvest. Actually, I haven’t heard of a really great buck coming off of San Carlos in a long time. That January tag isn’t worth what they’re charging.
If you run dogs and you’re not a tribal member, you can’t run your dogs on the reservation. Some of the tribal guides have good dogs, but most don’t. You can’t use electronic calls. It seems that the lion population will continue to grow and the ranchers who have told us many times that they’d like more lion hunting, will continue to lose stock and money.
Not sure that precipitated this change, but we’re pretty confident it will reverse itself once the reality of unchecked lion populations surfaces.
Mark Healy
Hey Mark,
What precipitated the change in regs? Typically a tribal member complains or some such. What? Unfair to the critters? Or unfair to the tribal guides? Or unfair to tribal members who run lions with dogs? Or just something one of the game managers read from the 1970′s and the Commission just arbitrarily decided to re-instate?
Always curious when a change such as this occurs. What even brought it up in the first place?
The big Predator Master hunt has been there several years. Am certain they will not be back with that no-elect call change.
Like you, doubt if predator hunters will be flocking to the rez (especially with San Carlos trapping opportunities — unlike the state public lands!) to try out their hand calls. Will be interesting to see what kind of drop in license revenue they experience. Money always talks.
Thanks for the heads up. I would have never even known about the change. The SC Rec & Wildlife better get the word out on that one, or many will be unknowingly out of compliance.
Bob C.
Hi Bob,
We’re not sure why San Carlos has changed back to no electronic calls, but we believe that the original law enacted back in 1976 needs to be changed in order for them to be allowed. It’s likely that the law was never changed and the Dept. of Recreation and Wildlife allowing them in their regulations was running against the original tribal edict.
You also make a great point about foothold trapping that’s legal on San Carlos. Just this past year we noticed a HUGE drop in the number “extra” critters we were calling on a per stand basis. Then we ran into Roger the trapper in an area we were calling for lions. In a period of 6 – 7 weeks, he’d pulled over 150 gray fox, 28 bobcats (2 that we saw in his traps), and 2 mountain lions (yes, trappers can kill them with a dept. employee on hand), out of a fairly small area. Obviously we’re focused on calling mountain lions, and not inclined to shoot fox & bobcat, but the impact he and other trappers are having was VERY apparent. For a regular caller looking to have some fun calling a mixed bag of stuff, the reservation is not a good place to do it.
Money will eventually be the tipping point on this. Most callers will skip a trip to the reservation and go somewhere else that will, by our research, be more productive anyway. With an absolute exclusion on ATV’s and the crappiest roads on earth, no electronic callers, and a host of other pointless regulations, they’ve run us off. The lion population will continue to expand, the Coues deer hunting will continue to get worse, the coyote population (that effectively eliminated the antelope on the flats below Point of Pines), will continue to expand, and the revenues from permits will go down.
By the way – we called 2 lions this past season and both were off the reservation. And, when you look at the number of extra critters we called, the regular US Forest Service land produced a lot more – a heck of a lot more.
Everything happens for a reason – maybe we’re just supposed to concentrate elsewhere.
Good calling to you,
Mark Healy