Mighty Atom » Wildlife Callers

Dave’s Got Just One Day to Predator Hunt — A Bobcat and Coyote Go Down

Posted March 11, 2011 By Mark Healy and has no comments yet.

Dave Martens of Wildlife Callers has a single Sunday to hunt and heads out with a bobcat/coyote/gray fox “AZ Predator Slam” on his mind. By his fourth stand two are down.

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

Categories: bobcat, coyote, fox, Predator calling

Tags: Arizona predator hunting, bobcat, bobcat calling, electronic predator calling, fox calling, gray fox, grey fox, Mighty Atom, Predator calling, predator hunting, wildlife technologies

Cat Calling Weekend — Dave Martens and Dan Tone Find Success in Northern AZ

Posted January 28, 2011 By Mark Healy and has 4 comments.

Dave and Dan head north in Arizona looking for cats and bag two big tom bobcats on Saturday, then finish the weekend off by calling in a juvenile lion late Sunday afternoon.

It wasn’t a run-and-gun weekend Dave told me. He said he and Dan were taking it easy, looking for prime areas, and calling into spots that had the terrain, vegetation, and sign they thought would be the most productive. Their approach paid off. Early Saturday morning this big tom came to the call in less than 5 minutes and Dave dropped it with a single shot from his 12ga.

Dave Martens and Deuce pose with a Big Northern AZ Bobcat

Dave’s calling technique was pretty simple. Get in tight to the best available cat cover and introduce the sound low and easy. A mix of mice and cottontail rabbit distress from his WT Mighty Atom 21 brought this bobcat into shotgun range. Dave said he would have gotten louder and more aggressive and utilized bobcat vocalizations and/or bobcats & foxes fighting as the stand progressed but never needed to.

Later in the day Dan spotted another pocket of tight brushy cover several miles from where Dave took his bobcat. After surveying the sign, terrain and the most probable foot access routes predators would take into the heavy cover Dan and Dave set up covering as much open ground as possible. Using the same calling technique of low & easy Dave mixed up a combo of bird distress and cottontail rabbit distress to bring this big bobcat into Dan’s shooting lane in about 4 minutes. Dan fired one shot from his 12ga to close the deal.

Dan Tone and Deuce the Jack Russell with a Big AZ Tom Bobcat

With two cats in the truck Dan and Dave took a few minutes and skinned them. A little closer inspection showed one had been eating jackrabbit and the other was full of Merriam’s turkey meat & feathers. The fact that the cats were both operating on full stomachs didn’t slow them down. It seems that curiosity (or a little greed) does kill cats.

Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom 21 and N. Arizona Tom Bobcat

The remaining few stands on Saturday and Sunday morning were unproductive so Dave & Dan headed for lower elevations and into an area both of them have hunted and scouted for years. They set up a stand with bobcats and mountain lions in mind and Dave started the Mighty Atom playing with a mix of mice, birds and cottontail distress. Dave got no early takers and began to get more aggressive, turning up the volume and introducing gray fox & bobcat vocalizations into the mix. After 30 minutes there was still nothing moving in and Dave started dropping in some young cougar vocalizations (whistle sound) in the mix of calls. About 10 minutes later Dan gave Dave the signal that they had an approaching predator.

Hoping to get whatever Dan was seeing closer to the speaker, Dave dropped the volume and kept playing various young cougar/fox/bobcat/prey distress sounds and heard nothing more from Dan. A few minutes later Dave decided to turn up the heat on the stand even more and introduced adult female cougar communicative vocalizations into the sound picture. There was an immediate reaction from Dan that something was now leaving. Night was now approaching and Dave wrapped up the stand. He discovered from Dan that a rather small lion had worked it’s way up a cattle/deer path and veered off the trail into some heavier cover and held up about 60 yards from the caller. The lion was hesitant to cover the final distance down to the area where Dave had the caller hidden. Once Dave introduced the adult lion vocals, the small lion turned back and left quickly on the same trail it had come in on. Due to the size of the lion Dan never fired a shot.

This was Dave’s second trip back into the field since rolling his quad and tearing his Achilles tendon last year in March. It seems he still has the Midas touch. He told me it was all about the basics of good predator calling–let the terrain, sign, cover, and a working knowledge of your intended target’s behaviors be your guide. I say congrats on a memorable weekend–nice work Dave and Dan.

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Please post your comments or questions below in the comments section.

Good hunting,

Mark Healy

Info@wildlifecallers.com

Office: 480-882-1210

Categories: bobcat, mountain lion, Predator calling

Tags: Arizona predator hunting, bobcat calling, bobcat hunting, bobcat scouting, calling mountain lion, cougar calling, cougar hunting, Dave Martens, e-caller, Mighty Atom, mountain lion hunting, Predator calling, Predator Scouting, wildlife technologies

Federal Judge Donald W. Molloy Stops Wolf Hunting in Idaho and Montana

Posted August 7, 2010 By Mark Healy and has 4 comments.

Judge Donald Molloy, a Clinton appointee, said Thursday that he ruled specifically on the law, stating:

“The Endangered Species Act does not allow the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to list only part of a ‘species’ as endangered, or to protect a listed distinct population segment only in part as the Final Rule here does”

Grey Wolf - US Fish and Wildlife Service

The Idaho Fish and Game Deputy Director reacted quickly to the action by the Federal Government, stating “We’re frustrated; we’re angry; we’re disappointed.” “We’ve played by the rules, but his decision allows procedural technicalities to overcome sound science and common sense.” Governor Butch Otter and his Democratic opponent, Keith Allred, both echoed that sentiment, saying the State of Idaho should have the right to manage it’s wolf population.

With the current Obama administration seeking a much larger footprint for the federal government, that might be asking a lot.

Read more here: Idaho Statesman Article

There were quick calls for an appeal by Gov. Butch Otter who sees the originally assumed numbers of wolves needed for “population sustainability” being conveniently increaseed by radical environmental groups. In our last blog post on Idaho wolf hunting we feared that continuous efforts with lawsuits could achieve this setback. However, we at Wildlife Callers, remain confident that the need for Idaho, Montana, and other states, to manage wolves on locally based field science and declining populations of elk, deer, moose, and other prey mammals will eventually win out in the court system. We’ll keep you informed of this court case as it proceeds.

We are also keenly aware of the millions of private and taxpayer dollars being spent to keep the wolves from being de-listed and keep them completely untouchable. But, how small must the ungulate herds get before special interest groups claiming to care about the environment actually allow hunters to balance the wolf population against the deer, elk, and moose populations?

A Shiras Moose tag in Idaho is already a “once in a lifetime” tag–on par with hunting a Bighorn Sheep in Arizona (currently being eaten to extinction by cougars with the help of “environmentalists”). The “environmentalists” keep telling us that the gray wolf is a national treasure–we contend the Shiras moose population in the US is too. Why must one be completely decimated so the other’s population numbers can satisfy an unscientific good feeling about wolves grounded in raw emotion and anti-hunting sentiment?

For a good article about large wolf populations in the US and Canada (wolves ignore borders), wolf control efforts in Canada, funding for the wolf introduction program, impact to the Yellowstone elk herd, and more click here: Has The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Become A Rogue Agency?

Anti-Hunting Ideology… (more…)

Categories: News & Media, Predator calling, wolf

Tags: digital wildlife calling, electronic game callers, electronic predator calling, electronic wildlife caller, Hunting, Idaho hunting, Mighty Atom, Predator calling, predator hunting, wildlife callers, wildlife technologies, wolf calling, wolf hunting, wolf hunts

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