Good Morning Calling - Dave Martens with a Bobcat and Coyote in Central Arizona

With just a single day to hunt and gas prices climbing, Dave heads to a location not too far from his East Valley home for a day of mixed-bag calling.  Dave’s mission was simple–get an “AZ Predator Slam” (gray fox, coyote, and bobcat) in one day–if he called and bagged a cougar too and made it a Predator Grand Slam, that would be big icing on the cake.  The weather had prevented a multi-day hunt and he met sloppy & frozen road conditions almost immediately as he headed north.

Snow Covered Roads and AZ DPS Officers Dealing with Wrecks

Dave figured once he got to where he was headed he’d be able to get a gray fox right away and then work some other areas to find a coyote and bobcat.  As it turns out, he started his first stand with about a minute of Adult Cottontail Distress, a minute of Ravens Fighting, and then back to about 20 seconds of Adult Cottontail Distress and a medium-sized female coyote ran in and stopped just a couple yards from his Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom 21 and about 12 steps from his 12ga.  Bang!  Dave’s got a coyote on the quad.

His next two stands–both of which are rock-solid gray fox locations–immediately draw blanks.  Dave was undeterred and headed a little higher up the hill to a location he’s seen fox and bobcat sign in previously.  Dave got into a promising looking location and within a minute or two had located a set of bobcat tracks that had a light dusting of snow covering them.  Figuring they’re as fresh as he was going to find, he dropped into the canyon the ‘cat track headed into and set his Mighty Atom near a bush and sat down about 15 yards away under a juniper tree.  Just as he was sitting down a hard snow flurry starts blowing and Dave can’t see more than just a few yards.

Dave considers waiting until the snow stops blowing or possibly just leaving, but goes ahead with stand number 4 anyway.  Dave said the snow continued for about 3-minutes while he was calling and then stopped all at once, just as quickly as it had began.  About 30 seconds later a nice AZ tom bobcat walked to less than 24 inches from his Mighty Atom E-caller.  A single shot from his 12ga dropped the bobcat right next to the speaker.  Dave’s Wildlife Tech sound combo was exactly the same as his first stand–Adult Cottontail Distress/Ravens Fighting/Adult Cottontail Distress/Bang!

Nice Bobcat Dropped Right Next to Dave's Wildlife Tech Mighty Atom 21

Dave Martens and a Late February Bobcat in Central Arizona

It’s now mid-morning and Dave is feeling confident that a Predator Slam is darn good possibility–he’s got a bobcat and coyote strapped to his quad and several more hours to hunt for a gray fox to add to his predator collection.  Dave’s thinking that he might even be able to put a fox in the bag early and ride down into some of his better mountain lion setups and try to achieve a Predator Grand Slam.  But, in the end, as often happens with our sport, his hunting luck turned around and he called 7 or 8 additional stands (into outstanding gray fox habitat) and came up empty.

After a long ride on his quad in the dark back to his truck, Dave took inventory of his day out and couldn’t complain.  Any day you take the time to load up all your gear, make the trip out to the field in miserable weather, and call in/take a bobcat and a coyote is a great day.

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Thank you again for reading — and good calling,

Mark Healy

480-882-1210

info@wildlifecallers.com

Justin shot us an e-mail to let us know and we thought we’d share their story with you. Justin writes: “Finally success! Tyler drilled this fox at 11 yards away (33 feet for you math impaired).  Double lung shot.  Don’t know if I’ll sleep tonight, but it was worth it!”

“After Tyler killed the fox last night we set it out about 300 yards from our camper. This morning we checked it and no fox!  Whatever grabbed it didn’t drag it and didn’t eat it there because there was no fur on surrounding areas. My guess is a coyote, large bobcat or mountain lion. 

Speaking of bobcat, Tyler and I called one on our second stand of today!  It came in FAST. I spotted it about 20 yards away, at a nice quick trot. My eyes lit up like a Christmas tree, Tyler sees my face, swings his head around and the bobcat spots us! The bobcat is a little too close in the line of fire to Tyler, so I couldn’t get a clear shot. The bobcat stays locked on us for about 20-30 seconds, crouches and takes off like a shot. I quickly stand up and move to my left, but he was making excellent use of cover and I couldn’t get a clear shot with my shotgun. CRAAAAP. 

Next stand we call a fox in immediately but I don’t see him until he’s cracking twigs on the way outta dodge. 2 shots from the old 12 gauge at a rapidly fleeing fox and I couldn’t close the deal. Double CRAAAP, but oh what a morning!!!!   3 stands and 2 called animals. It’s like an animal zoo up here. I love it!  Highly addictive, this hunting is. Have a great weekend brothers!

Justin”

Thanks for the story Justin, We really appreciate our readers sharing their predator calling stories with us. Now that the season is starting to get under way, we hope that you have fun out there and we encourage everyone to shoot us an e-mail with YOUR predator calling stories, we’re happy to write up the story in your own words!

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Good calling to everyone!

Marc Reindell

marc@wildlifecallers.com

 Dave Martens and I have placed trail cameras in dozens of locations that have rendered great photos & videos of mountain lions.  It wasn’t always as easy as it is today for Dave to locate a lion hot spot to place a camera.  Dave’s many hours in the field and the experience that’s come with it, allow him to quickly size up a long ridge or hardpan wash bottom and hang a camera that will produce lions nearly 100% of the time. 

Some guys will say, “hey, I’ve taken lots of pictures of lions on my deer cameras on such & such waterhole”.  That’s great and we love to get pictures of lions anywhere, but keep in mind we rarely put cameras on waterholes.  We’ve had much of our success calling lions well away from waterholes and we’re more interested in how lions travel in their territories and where they go to lay-up after they’ve been to water. 

There is, however, a feature that we always look for when scouting for lions.  When we find it, our success in finding lions travelling through the area has been 100%.  That feature is scent marking areas, or as well call them, scent stations.  There are times when we locate a small area that is literally covered in a wide variety predator poo — and poo from many other critters as well.  The spot that you’ll see in the video is one such place.  Since finding this location we have taken still photos and videos of several lions, fox, bears, and other predators.  This location, which unfortunately is well off the beaten path, if called frequently will eventually produce a lion. 

Have a look at the first video of a fox, bear, and coati, using the scent station:

Then, have a look at this female lion (we’ve taken many pictures of her) and the way she behaves on the scent station:

Just like humans, where there are ladies the guys seem to just show up.   We’ve taken a few photos of lions much larger than this female that we hope to someday call.  We have worked diligently in the area to find the best places to call from and be able to see lots of open areas and tight cover.  Now it’s a matter of getting the stars to align and be there calling when one or more of the mountain lions are home. 

As always – you can subscribe to this blog for FREE by adding your email in the SUBSCRIBE box on the upper right side of this page.  Or:   

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Thank you all for reading and good hunting,

Mark Healy

Mark@WildlifeCallers.com

Dave and Dan figured they’d find some hungry & willing predators after five-days of hard rain and snow throughout the state.  They headed into Arizona’s Unit 23 and in four wet & muddy stands, called in two coyotes and one gray fox.  The coyotes pictured below both came right to the speaker in under five minutes.  The gray fox came in super-quick too, stayed in tight cover, and ran out just as quick as he’d arrived.  

Dan Tone - AKA "The Shotgun Sniper" and Two Excellent AZ Coyotes

The project for the day was to set up in good locations, keep the volume down, and see what some quiet calling would do.  Dave kept the volume on his Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom at 1, 2, and 3 all of these stands. 

Here is his calling sequence in more detail:

Dave said both of these coyotes were working their way directly to the call (two separate stands).  Dan rolled the first one at 20 yards from the speaker with his shotgun and a 3.5 inch load of #4 buckshot.  On the second stand, Dan saw the coyote at about 100 yards, and thought it might be having second thoughts about coming over, so he whacked it with his rifle (he carries both). 

Arizona Unit 23 - The Storm Breaks

The Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom & Two AZ Winter Coyotes

We get questioned all the time – “Am I calling too loudly?”  “Am I not calling loud enough?”  Ask a hundred callers and you’ll get a hundred answers.  I prefer to call constantly with mid to high volume.  However, Dave demonstrates here that some circumstances call for a finesse approach.  Dave’s lengthy experience in the field and understanding of terrain put him in the right place with the right approach to calling.  Nothing speaks for good tactics like success and two coyotes on the ground.

Thank you again for reading.  If you have any questions or comments, we’d love to hear from you.   Please put your comments below. 

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Good hunting to everyone,

Mark Healy

mark@wildlifcallers.com

1-877-734-1010

A big thank you to Doug U. of Illinois and Jason S. of Missouri for sharing their photos, calling tactics, and stories. 

Doug from IL says:

I was driving down the highway when I noticed two red fox bedding down in the middle of a snow-covered cornfield.  I pulled off the highway and made some phone calls until I figured out who owned the property.  A few phone calls later I had permission to go and call for the reds. 

I chose a downwind location to enter the field and walked to a pile of snow about 100 yards from the bedding location.  The foxes must have been asleep, because they didn’t jump and run.  I placed my Mighty Atom 15 behind the snow pile and took up a position about 80 yards away, lying down.  I started the stand with cottontail distress, nice and low.  It took the male fox just a few seconds to commit to coming in and, bang! he was running hard toward the snow pile.  The fox came ’round the snow pile full speed and wasn’t able to stop before colliding with the call and knocking it over.  While it was wondering what the heck was going on, I shot it with my .17 HMR and dropped it right to the ground. 

Doug U. of Central Illinois and his January Red Fox & Brand New Mighty Atom

I noticed the other red was standing down the field watching what was happening and I was setting up to shoot that fox too. However, the way the second fox travelled, I would be shooting toward the highway and decided to pass.  That fox eventually ran off. 

This was my very first setup with my new Mighty Atom and it worked very well.  The .17 HMR did very little damage to the fox, and it will make an outstanding mount!

Jason S. of Trenton MO told me:

He got his new Mighty Atom 21 and called his cousin, Mark, for a few quick morning coyote calling stands.  While driving down the road they spotted a coyote standing on a snowy dirt mound near a snow covered field.  They had permission to hunt the property the coyote was standing on, so they circled around and used a row of trees to get about 200 yards from the last location they saw the coyote. 

Rather than break cover and potentially being seen by the coyote, they wisely chose to stay in the trees and set the caller just a few yards in from of them.  Jason started the coyote stand with about 2 minutes of cottontail distress on low & medium volume.  He then switched the called to Fleming Hare distress and about 30 seconds later he heard Mark take the safety off on his rifle.  Jason saw the coyote coming hard from the open field toward the tree line.  The coyote came bustin’ into the timber and ran right up to the speaker.

Jason said the coyote stood about 3 to 4 steps from the speaker and didn’t know what to do next.  Jason had his crosshairs on the shoulder of the nicely furred winter dog, but waited several seconds for his cousin to take the shot first.  He waited…and waited…and waited…and finally touched off a round from his 22-250 and the coyote dropped straight down to the snow.   Jason asked Mark what the hold up was and Mark told him he was just waitin’ to see how close the coyote would actually get to the speaker.   Apparently Jason thinks 4 yards is close enough – Boom!!

Jason S. of Trenton Missouri and his January '10 Coyote & Brand New Mighty Atom Caller

We appreciate both of these gentlemen sharing their hunt stories & photos with us, but moreover their tactics and sounds they used to create successful stands. 

We wish every one of our readers much success in the field, and will continue to support your wildlife and predator calling pursuits with stories like these. 

Questions and comments are always appreciated – and don’t forget that subscriptions to this blog are always FREE. 

Good hunting!

Mark Healy

mark@wildlifecallers.com