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

Scott sent us some photos of his Arizona predator hunting double down day last week, we asked him to share his story with us and he agreed, read Scott’s story here.

Scott Francom - GameTraks field rep.

Josh Ebert and I go calling together about once a month and when we get together,  we generally always have the same results – bobcats and gray foxes.  It’s not hard to understand why our take always includes these two species of predators.  We both have grown to enjoy the terrain these two species share and the unique way in which they both come to the call rivals nothing else in the Arizona desert.

Our most recent excursion had us knee deep in Junipers and crawling up and down large boulders.  Josh had scouted the area previously on a deer hunt and knew there were gray foxes in the area and where there are grays there most certainly are bobcats.  We quaded in on a rough forest road to an overlook with a vast collection of tan boulders and smaller rock formations.

Josh and I separated ourselves on the downward slope and I positioned the GameTraks caller between us on the flat ground.  I sat on the ground,  slipped my shooting sticks over my Savage .17hrm, and pressed the button that began the Johnny Stewart Gray Fox Distress soundbyte on the GameTraks caller down below.  The valley lit-up with the squeaking and raspy growling of a hurt fox.  Five minutes of this and I heard Josh lip squeak to my far right.

Squeaks are used between us for two purposes- one, to alert the other hunter that there is a shootable predator in the area and two, to call the animal in closer to the shooter or from behind an obstacle that impedes a good shot.   In this case Josh was trying to get me on the beautiful bobcat that had perched to his right on a boulder.   Bobcats are worth a good deal of money so there is no sense in destroying the pelt with a large caliber rifle.  If I could find the cat in the vast jumble of boulders below, it would guarantee a small entry and no exit on the pelt.  I scanned for 4 minutes and finally heard the report of Josh’s .223 and the cat was down.  I was unable to find the cat as it sat there unmoving, and Josh was forced to drop it at 150 yards as the bobcat was starting to fidget on its perch on the boulder.

He was lucky as the bullet passed through cleanly leaving minimal damage.

3 stands later and we called in 2 beautifully furred up gray foxes and a desert drifter coyote who was passing some time up at 3500′.  Only one of the grays presented a suitable shot which Josh promptly took with his 12 GA shotgun shooting #4 buck.

We moved on and set up shop at the opening of a canyon. We had changed callers to Josh’s small Minaska Bandit and by this time of the morning,  I was tired of “not seeing” grays and bobcats and was eager to get some shooting in.  As Josh began playing a high pitched mouse coaxer sound, I saw 2 foxes tearing across the countryside making their way to the caller hung in a tree.

This presented a problem as the caller was at the closest edge of some thick bushes that extended out 15 yards into the stand.  The first fox on his present path would plunge into the bushes and shooting it in the thick cover would prove tough for either of us.  I followed the more aggressive fox in my scope and as it weaved in, around, and over rocks my finger began depressing the Accu-trigger on my .17hmr.

STOP-STOP-STOP-STOP, I repeated  in my mind, trying to will the fox to halt, as it drew closer to the thick foliage.  In a last ditch effort I made a loud hissing noise,  the fox instantly froze and swung its triangular-shaped white and gray head in my direction and locked on me as I sat motionless 35 yards away. I touched off a shot that hit the fox in his vitals and he came to rest in a small ravine 2 feet from where the bullet had hit him.  The 2nd fox had doubled back and out of harms way.

Scott and Josh's gray fox and bobcat

At the end of 9 stands we’d called in 5 gray foxes, 1 bobcat and the coyote.

That we hadn’t shot everything didn’t bother us as we knew where they were and we’d be back together next month to give it another go.

Scott Francom

Wildlife Callers wants to thank Scott for sharing his hunt with us, our readers are welcome to share their own predator calling stories with us as well.  If you have a great story and photos you want to share, let us know. Contact us at info@wildlifecallers.com

Thanks for visiting and good hunting!

Marc Reindell

marc@wildlifecallers.com

Long time predator caller Matt Avey of Glendale, AZ and I headed out Sunday the 8th for a day with the new Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom MA-15 predator call (Click Here for More Info).  The new predator caller performed flawlessly and we had fun with a large group of javelina on our third set and a few gray fox the rest of the day. 

We were calling in a spot that was completely new to Matt and one that I hadn’t been in for the last 21 years.  On the last stand of the day we called in a pair of beautiful Arizona gray fox.  The one pictured below was the second to arrive at the eighteen minute mark.  Without a tail and the length of time it took to come to the stand, I thought it was a young bobcat.  Matt wasted no time shooting it, and whispered he’d gotten a better look through his scope and it was actually a gray fox. 

Arizona Gray Fox w/ Bobtail

Arizona Gray Fox w/ Bobtail

I haven’t seen anything like this before.  The tail didn’t look like it had ever been injured, and appeared to be a genetic flaw. 

We had varied success throughout the day and called another pair of fox in a sandy wash with brushy/rocky canyon walls surrounding it.

This gray fox pictured here with the WT Mighty Atom 15 came in charging hard at the 5 minute mark.  Matt shot it, and a second fox began barking loudly at us from the brush about 40-50 yards to our west.  The second fox very wisely stayed in the brush and didn’t present a shot opportunity.   The canyon was so tight, Matt’s gun sounded like a Howitzer going off, and even though I was expecting the shot I still jumped.  The canyon shook so hard, it’s no wonder why the other fox fled the scene. 

Arizona Gray Fox and Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom

It was another fun predator calling day in the Arizona outdoors.  The mountain lions didn’t cooperate, but calling the javelina and gray fox kept the day lively and had two seasoned predator callers looking forward to the next stand.  The Mighty Atom-15 performed well and the sounds were crisp and clear.  We’re headed back out in the next few days to kick the tires on an new Wildlife Tech Mighty Atom MA-21 – stay tuned for a report. 

Click Here to See the Wildlife Technologies Sound Library (gray fox, javelina, cougars, & more)

Thank you again for reading and subscribing to the Wildlfie Callers Blog.

Questions or Comments?  info@wildlifecallers.com

Good calling!

Mark Healy

Mark@WildlifeCallers.com

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While in the field recently, I was working my way along a decomposed granite road looking for lion tracks and other lion sign, when I came across the tracks in the photo below:

Fox Tracks on Tire Marks

When I found these fox tracks I noticed right away that they were right on top of a tire track, indicating that they were at least more recent than that tire track. I took some time to evaluate the tire track the fox had walked on and found the tire track was on top of all the other tracks on the road, thus it was from the last vehicle to drive through.  The area is fairly well travelled and my best guess was that the vehicle had passed through the prior evening. 

Realizing that the fox tracks were just a few hours old, I set up my Wildlife Technologies electronic caller in a rocky canyon running adjacent to the roadway.  I sat about 20-25 yards from the caller and used a Cannon GL video camera to get the following footage of the fox coming in and hanging out. 

I used different sounds to manipulate the fox and get it to stay near the speaker for more than a minute.  It’s worth mentioning that this fox saw me turning the camera to my right, and was very aware of my presence.  Keeping the sound playing without pauses and making the changes that I did to the sound is key in keeping the fox focused.  This fox could have easily been photographed or taken by a hunter.

Far too many callers miss these field clues and end up calling what looks good to them, rather than calling an area that is obviously target rich.  Scout carefully and call where the critters are!  This fox started his approach in just a few seconds of the caller being turned on – I was in his living room. 

I am editing another video that shows more grey fox behavior and how a predator caller can manipulate the animal being called for better shots with a camera, bow, or gun.  Stay tuned for that. 

As always, we welcome your comments. 

I’ll see you in the field,

Mark Healy

Send your questions to mark@wildlifecallers.com

Dave Martens of Wildlife Callers AZ Bobcat & Fox Double!

Dave set out for a day of calling mountain lion in his scouted areas.  It turned out to be an amazing day in the field, despite not seeing any lions.  Dave called six grey fox on one stand and several more throughout the day.  On one of his stands, he called this bobcat and grey fox combo and decided to take them.  Because the target animal was mountain lion, Dave let several foxes walk away throughout the day.

The terrain that Dave was hunting is similar to and not far from the terrain I wrote about and provided photos of in this earlier post:  http://www.wildlifecallers.com/blog/2009/08/24/western-grey-fox-calling-habitat-and-sign-wphotos/

The electronic game caller pictured is a Wildlife Technologies KAS-2030-ML.  The sounds Dave used to call this dynamic duo was Pileated Woodpecker Distress, Partridge Distress, Baby Cottontail Distress, and other mixed bird and mouse noises.  Both arrived in under fifteen minutes, in just a few seconds of each other. 

Good calling, hunting, and photography to everyone!!

Mark Healy

mark@wildlifecallers.com