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.

If you enjoyed the story and found the calling information valuable, please subscribe to receive blog updates.  We will NOT sell/rent/give your email to any third parties.

Guest comments are always welcome — please scroll down to the comments section at the bottom of the page.

Thank you again for reading — and good calling,

Mark Healy

480-882-1210

info@wildlifecallers.com

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? 

Let’s make the assumption that if a domestic dog can be conditioned, then a coyote can too.  I don’t believe that coyotes can “get smart”, but I’m certain that being called and shot at will have a lasting and negative effect on a coyote’s willingness to come running back to that sound.  In prior posts I’ve related it to behavior-conditioned dogs running for the sound of the kitchen can opener.  The only difference being, the hail of bullets outcome is very negative and repelling whereas the food reward from the Kitchen Aid very positive — conditioning nonetheless.  

Therefore, it stands to reason that a coyote that hears rabbit distress cries over and over that have nothing to do with a rabbit, dinner, or anything good, that coyote will become leary of that noise.  How then can it be changed? 

The electronic callers available today have many different sounds not only from the animal your hunting, but animal sounds like crows, hawks, and eagles that can be used to build a realistic “sound scene” that breaks from the traditional “waaa -waaa – waaa – waaa” rabbit cadence and provides the illusion of predator/prey/scavenger interaction that’s real and happening right now.  

So, what is a “sound scene”? 

Generally speaking, it is using a dozen or more sounds on a stand in an attempt to replicate a very busy and chaotic living scene surrounding a prey animal that has been brought down by a predator.  I always try to bring in the sounds of the prey distress and then mix in the sounds of coyotes fighting over food, foxes barking out warnings, or female cougars being aggressive and territorial.  Then to that I add the sounds of scavengers like crows, ravens, and even hawk screams.  In short, I make my scene come alive with animal activity and competition for calories. 

There are a few things that support this calling style. 

First – It’s successful.  I have called lots and lots of predators using this technique.   I have all of these sounds (and then some) on my Mighty Atom 21.  I may as well make use of them. 

Second – My time in nature has shown me firsthand this pattern of predator/prey/scavenger behavior.  For instance, on one of my hunts: 

After watching a cow stuck neck-deep in a soupy mud hole, yelling and raising heck for a half an hour (without stopping) I wandered over to see if there was something humane I could do. Just about 18 inches, or so, of her back was sticking up. She’d been struggling and getting deeper in the mud with her every attempt to get out.

Another Cow - Victim of Drought and Ravaged by Predators & Scavengers - Post Mortem

When I got down to the muddy pond, I noticed that coyotes had eaten a hole in the hide on the upper left hind area of the cow. They had eaten away at the muscles along the spine, the back flanks and had pulled guts up and out of the cows gut-sack leaving chewed-up intestines laying on the ground still connected to the screaming cow. To make matters worse, the crows had come in and pecked both eyes out and eaten the front two inches of it’s tongue.

This was a ghastly scene, and I learned a lot from it. While I wasn’t there, that scene was filled noises of scavenging & predatory critters competing for those calories and trying to survive. It was absolutely apparent they did not have the capacity to feel anything for the cow. Screaming dinner… Quiet dinner… They didn’t care, so long as it was dinner. 

Additionally, even though it couldn’t see me, the cow screamed the whole time I was next to her – never pausing.

Not wanting to be accused of a crime (the world we live in) I ended up finding a Game & Fish rep and sending them down to dispatch the cow.

Third – If you watch nature shows like the Nature special  Yellowstone: Battle for Life, you’ll see that the process of predators hunting and consuming prey is sometimes fairly quiet and fast (like a red fox finding a vole and quickly chewing it up) and sometimes it’s a very noisy process (like a wolf pack killing an elk, consuming it while surrounded by crows, hawks, eagles, and magpies, and then killing and consuming a coyote that ventured too close).

What happens in nature supports both calling more quietly and calling aggressively with several sounds.  So I have adopted an approach of starting out a bit more quiet with fewer sound changes, and then getting progressively more aggressive and loud as the “sound picture” I’m creating turns into predator/prey/scavenger scene that deserves investigation by the predators in the area.

This process is covered in more detail, with sound choices, in this blog: Gray Fox & Bobcat Calling – What Sounds? When? How Long? How Loud?

Truthfully, there aren’t a lot of guys that will outlast 24 months of blank stands and still head out for month number 25.  Most would have called it quits in 90-days!  What a shame that would be – this is a very rewarding pursuit.  Actually, once you get the hang of it, it’s completely addictive (in a positive and good way).  So use your e-caller and all of the natural sounds that it can bring to bear on every stand and set-up you make. 

If you enjoyed this blog, subscriptions to it are FREE!!If you have any questions on how we do this or the electronic predator calling equipment we use just click here or give us a call toll-free at 877-734-1010.  We’re happy to help.

Please put any article comments at the bottom of the page.

Thank you again for reading – have a great fall season!

Mark Healy

 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:   

Please add your thoughts or questions in the COMMENTS section at the bottom of this page. 

Thank you all for reading and good hunting,

Mark Healy

Mark@WildlifeCallers.com

We’d like to thank Danny for the open and candid way he shared his story and tactics.  We hope these tips work for you too. 

Danny was hunting near the Arizona/Mexico border (US side).  He was calling for a mixed bag of predators, and although he wanted to call up some bobcats or a lion, he was perfectly happy chasing coyotes.  About a half-hour before dark on a still & clear afternoon, this bobcat arrived on his stand.  Two shots from his .223 dropped the cat 12 steps from his Wildlife Technologies KAS-2030-ML. 

Danny Avey and His Southern Arizona Bobcat

 Side Note: It appears that Danny’s hair slipped off his head and got stuck on his chin.

Here is a full run-down of his set-up and the sounds, times, and volume settings:

Before setting up, Danny carefully selected his site by looking for a long & wide sandy wash that went for several miles in each direction.  The wash was very steep on both sides and had a generous amount of brush and desert trees along both sides.  In the bottom of the wash he found a medium sized bush with low-hanging limbs.  Danny turned his caller to the on position and hid the speaker inside the bush.  This is one of the techniques that we talk about often!  Make the predator (especially cats) approach the location to get a better look at what’s happening inside the bush. 

Danny took a position on the upper part of a wash bank overlooking the area he had hid the speaker.  The place he sat gave him the advantage of being able to see all potential approach locations (especially downwind) and it kept the sun at his back. 

Danny started his stand with between 2 and 3 minutes of Pileated Woodpecker Distress.  He kept the volume in the low and medium range hoping to get a quick taker that was laid-up nearby. 

His next sound was Adult Cottontail Distress.  He kept the volume at mid-range for about 3 minutes. 

At this point he was between 5 and 6 total minutes on the stand.  Danny seamlessly changed the sound to Crows Mobbing Food and turned the volume up a notch for about a minute and then back down to medium for 2 more minutes. 

At about 8.5 minutes he decides to switch back the Adult Cottontail Distress and let it run to the 15 minute mark.  While this cottontail sound is playing, Danny turns the volume all the way up for several seconds to reach out to critters that might be hanging up at a far distance, and then goes back to the middle of the scale.  He continues turning the volume up and down, hoping to create the illusion of movement and activity. 

At the fifteen minute mark there were still no takers, but Danny wasn’t done.  He changed to Ravens Fighting Over Food for 2.5 minutes and then Gray Foxes Fighting for 2.5 minutes.  The volume for both of these sounds was medium-loud and pretty aggressive. 

At the 20 minute mark, he switched back to Cottontail Adult Distress for 6 more minutes.  He was back up and down with the volume and being pretty aggressive with the upper limits.

At 26 minutes, Danny switched to the Young Cougar Whistles and let it run for about 3 minutes.  He then switched to the Adult Male Coyote Challenge Howls and and let it run for about 2 minutes.  He told me he wanted to create the illusion of predators in the area and in a dispute over rights to the still-screaming food. 

Toward the end of the coyote howls, Danny saw a bobcat casually approaching about 125 yards away.  The bobcat was in the wash bottom and was walking from bush to bush, slowly making its way to the speaker.  Danny immediately dropped the volume and went back to the Adult Cottontail Distress.  He said there were a couple of different times that he could have taken a shot at the bobcat, but chose to watch the bobcat and watch its behavior.  The bobcat used all available cover in the wash bottom and took several minutes to walk from 125 to just 12 yards from the speaker.  A caller who didn’t see the cat at 125 yards and stopped the stand at 31 minutes would have forever assumed nothing came in – patience is the key with cats. 

The bobcat stopped in the open staring at the bush the speaker was hidden in and Danny used his AR-15 .223 to shoot the bobcat just behind the front shoulder with a Nosler 55 grain Ballistic Tip.  The bobcat spun and acted as if it hadn’t been hit.  Danny took aim again and delivered another shot to the ribcage.  This time the bobcat dropped straight down.  An inspection of the bobcat showed that it had been hit both times through the lungs and heart.  The lesson here – always be ready to shoot a cat again – they are tough as nails. 

His choices of sounds and volume changes certainly adds to the argument that we, as humans, can way over-think what makes a predator come or not come to the call.  Lots of callers, me included, might assume that lion sounds and coyote challenges would scare a bobcat away.  As we see here, that’s just no so.  This says a lot about the chaos and challenges of nature that we’re disconnected from and don’t fully understand. 

Your questions and comments are always appreciated – please comment below.

Blog subscriptions are FREE – sign up at the top right of this page and please, tell a friend. 

Thank you again Danny – and good calling to everyone!

Mark Healy

mark@wildlifecallers.com

1-877-734-1010

Choosing gray fox and bobcats to write about was an easy choice.  The hard & fast way gray fox come to the call is a confidence booster for any predator caller, and I’ve never met anyone who didn’t want to call more bobcats – ever.  And, the truth is, bobcats aren’t terribly hard to call – they are terribly hard to see.  I absolutely believe that most bobcats called in go unseen by the caller. 

Dave Martens of Wildlife Callers AZ Bobcat & Fox Double!

Generally speaking, bobcats come slower to a call and use cover all the way in.  There are always exceptions to this rule, but more often than not they will be slow and methodical about their approach.  Also, if you’re serious about harvesting more bobcats, take binoculars on every stand.  Once a bobcat has gotten a visual on the speaker or the bush it’s in, they will often stop coming and sit down.  A motionless bobcat in a bush at 30 yards is nearly impossible to see without binos. 

Here is my fox & bobcat method and my typical sound list:

Note:  These sounds are on my Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom 15 and 21. 

From the start of my stand to minute three, I normally start with partridge distress or pileated woodpecker and keep the volume on levels 2 and 3. 

If there are no immediate takers, I will hit the adult cottontail distress and begin to increase the volume over 2 to 3 minute period.  My volume in this phase will be mostly at level 3 and I’ll increase it to level 5 and 6 for just a few seconds each to get the attention of any predators that might have been reluctant to get up and come on over. 

At about the six-minute mark I will start in on the birds of prey and scavenger bird sounds and “begin building my case” as to why a quick response would be in the best interest of the fox or bobcat that’s still not convinced.  I have very successfully turned my caller to redtail hawk screams following rodent, rabbit, and bird distress, and triggered a hard charge from coyotes, fox, and bobcats.  Crows & ravens fighting over food also works well. 

Side Note:  While I was in Mexico (Sonora) crows mobbing food played immediately follwing three-minutes of whitetail fawn distress was all that was necessary to bring a group of coyotes running.  I have only had this work as magically for me just a handful of times north of the border, but if you are in an area that’s full of crows and ravens I highly recommend it.  It was absolutely amazing on coyotes that lived in an area where crows were abundant and stiff competitors for the coyote’s food. 

For the next few minutes I will go back and forth from hawk screams to the groundhog adult distress, to the crows, and back to the cottontail rabbit, then to the ravens, and back to the partridge distress. 

At this point I will usually be at the ten to twelve minute mark.  If there are still no takers I will get more aggressive. 

For the next three or four minutes I will alternate between adult & juvenile gray fox distress, bobcat greeting calls, and female bobcat distress.  Normally if there is a gray fox hanging out in the brush in the area, he’ll be in front of the speaker in just a few seconds.  This is a great time to start scanning the brush with your binoculars for any cats hiding & watching.  This sequence of sounds might not get a bobcat to run in, but it might get them to sit up, move, change positions, or any other number of movements that will allow you to see them. 

Here is a post that illustrates the importance of binoculars and mountain lions:  http://www.wildlifecallers.com/blog/2009/08/don%e2%80%99t-leave-your-optics-in-the-truck/

At this point the stand is at or approaching the fifteen minute mark.  I usually make a decision at this time to stay for five more minutes, or fifteen to twenty-five more minutes.  If there is little or no bobcat sign in the area, I will usually pack it up at the twenty minute mark and move on.  If there is a decent chance of calling a bobcat, I will call to the thirty or forty minute mark. 

After fifteen minutes I tend to get pretty aggressive and use my bobcats fighting sound as well as the gray fox and bobcat fight to get any hold-outs more excited and agitated.  I normally change the sound of the caller every two or three minutes and mix distress sounds with sounds of predator fights and various birds clamoring to get to the food.   

My volume levels at this point go up and down too.  I normally stay at volume level 3 & 4 most of the time, but I’ll get louder and softer to create excitement and the illusion of movement and chaos in the area of the caller. 

There really are no “bad” distress or bird sounds on a stand.  I have been asked several times if playing lots of sounds “confuses” the predators.  I have never noticed anything that would lead me to believe this could be the case.  It would be mighty hard to confuse an animal that can only process a single thought at a time.  When the sound changes, they change to the new sound.  Fortunately there are times they will commit to coming over and getting a closer look – other times they just won’t, no matter what you play.  Sometimes they come for hunger, sometimes for territory, and sometimes just out of curiosity.  Starting out low and easy with prey distress sounds, and then getting progressively more aggressive and frantic covers all of the bases. 

Here is post about a stand that had more than a dozen sounds played on it:  http://www.wildlifecallers.com/blog/2009/11/big-tom-bobcat-called-and-taken-photos/  The best part is we called a coyote, six foxes, and a whopper bobcat.  This stand was noisy as heck – between me changing sounds, the blue jays & other birds flying in screaming, the gray foxes barking & arguing with each other, and the coyote chasing foxes up and down the wash, it was absolutely crazy and loud!!  This chaos added up to success – big time.  I try to replicate the chaos of nature every time I’m out.  Remember, nature only rewards the strong and the lucky – it’s every crazy critter for itself. 

Don’t be afraid to mix it up and get your bobcats and foxes whipped into a lather.  Lots of guys get stuck on 10% of their sound list.  You’ll be amazed at what will come in to some of the sounds you never use!  I had a pair of foxes come running in to some very loud adult javelina distress and male cougar vocalizations.  I thought, really??  What in the heck are you two 9 pound macho men gonna do with 40lbs of hurtin’ pig and the 120lb cougar that’s making it dinner?

Questions??  Don’t hesitate to comment below or send me an email.  Everything I have written here has produced for me many, many times and I will clarify anything that is not clear on this post.

Subscriptions to this blog are always free!

We wish everyone the best of the rest of this season,

Mark Healy

Mark@wildlifecallers.com