Dan Tone and Arizona's First Nighttime Lion Since 2011 Rule Changes

Just 2.5 weeks after we reported the new Arizona nighttime hunting regulations for mountain lions on THIS POST, Dave Martens of Wildlife Callers and Dan Tone (who’s been featured on the WC Blog before) set out in one of the nighttime lion hunting areas and connected with a mature 7-9 year old female cougar – the actual age will be determined by the AZ Game & Fish.  The lion took about 30-32 minutes to arrive on the stand and came to a mixed bag of sounds.  Here are some of the details:

Arizona Mountain Lion and Deuce the Lion Calling Jack Russel

Locations:  When you think of nighttime lion hunting think of bighorn sheep.  Heavy lion predation has long been a issue for bighorn herd growth and sustainability around AZ.  Accordingly the locations in AZ for hunting lions at night have been chosen by the AZ Game & Fish biologists to provide the most relief to the Desert and Rocky Mountain Bighorn populations.  There isn’t a hunt unit listed in the Arizona Game and Fish lion hunting regulations that we haven’t scouted or hunted, and not found lion sign in.  Actually, we’ve called lions in many of the special units, so to answer the obvious question “where is the best place to go find lions” — all of the special bag units have lions — actually the whole state has lions.

Sounds:  Dave’s calling style is typically mix-it-up and throw out an active multi-critter sound scene for the predator to get interested in.  We’ve said it here before – you can’t confuse a lion by playing sounds that typically don’t go together – they’re not that smart.  Thus, when you create a completely unbelievable sound scene by playing ten minutes of mixed rabbit & small bird distress, followed by several minutes of deer fights and deer distress, followed by javelina sounds and distress, the lion never says ‘hey…I know that would NEVER happen in nature.”  It’s just sound stimulus – nothing more – there are no bad sounds. Mix it up.

Dan Tone, Deuce, and an AZ Mountain Lion

The Caller:  As is always the case, Dave was using his Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom 21.  If you haven’t heard one, do yourself a favor and give us a call — truly amazing.

The Hunt:  Dave & Dan chose the calling location based on past experience in the area.  Dave has called near the area before and seen plenty of sign along the long ridge lines and hardpan wash bottoms the area is known for.  They kept the caller less than 20 yards away from them when they set up along the side of a dry wash.  The moon was nearly full and visibility was pretty good.  The plan was to, if possible, leave their spotlights & high intensity flashlights off until a lion was spotted or something was heard nearby that needed lighted investigation.

Dave had been playing his varied & lengthy list of sounds for about 30 minutes when the form of a solitary lion was spotted walking toward the speaker.  The lion arrived on Dan’s side of the caller and was closing toward the speaker in a deliberate and unhurried fashion.  Dan raised his 12 gauge and waited patiently while the lion continued to close on the speaker.  The lone lion eventually cut the distance to the speaker down to just 6-yards and came to a stop.  Dan activated the high-intensity light mounted on his shotgun and looked at the lion for a few seconds.  He immediately confirmed what he already knew, the lion was a large, mature cougar.  Boom! Dan shot the lion with a load of #4 buckshot and at just 19-20 yards away it was killed immediately.

Good View of the Large Shoulders and Head on the Lion

Night Calling Logistics:  Dan said that hunting lions at night should continue to be more and more productive as they learn more about doing it and better ways to set up.  But, he cautioned, the logistics of calling after the sun goes down are more complex than in daylight.  He said that something as small as a poorly designed spotlight or a flashlight that’s not bright enough can ruin a stand.  Stand selection takes longer.  Walking to the stand takes longer.  Tripping hazards with guns, callers, and extra gear makes things interesting.  And oftentimes once you’ve set up and think you’re in a good spot, you turn on the light only to find you really have almost zero visibility and have to move.

Takeaways:  Scouting and field experience cannot be underestimated.  Dave has spent many hours in this area scouting for lion sign, using trail cameras to confirm hunches, and calling during the daytime when it wasn’t legal to call at night.  His expertise and knowledge really paid off.

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Thanks again for reading – your comments are welcome below.

Mark Healy- Wildlife Callers

Carl and I were on stand and had been calling for approximately 15 minutes with no results.  Suddenly, I spotted a single coyote cresting the low hill across from us. From 350 yards out, it proceeded to run straight into our setup.

My Wildlife Technologies electronic caller was situated well below us on the hillside and we had good cover against some large boulders.  The wind was also in our favor.

Glancing to my left, I could see Carl’s rifle leveled out and he was leaning into the scope.  Good — he had seen it also.

While easing my rifle into position for a shot at the incoming coyote, Carl fired his rifle.  Hearing the shot, the coyote I was watching pivoted and ran sideways at full speed.  Carl fired at it a couple of times and missed as it ran away.  I fired once and also missed.

When the dust settled, I stood up and said, “It got away.  Why didn’t you wait for it to come closer and stop moving before firing?”  Carl got a funny look on his face and calmly replied, “Dad, this stand was a double!  There’s a coyote on the ground out there.  My first shot took it out.  Didn’t you see it?”

Oops!  I hadn’t even seen the other coyote.  Better get my eyes checked.

We walked out and searched the brush for a few minutes.  Sure enough, a coyote was down.

I laser ranged back to the rock pile where we were sitting to be certain of the distance — 252 yards.  Nice shot Carl!

Idaho Coyote, September 2011, Remington R-15 VTR Carbine with AR Gold trigger

Thanks for reading.

Regards and good calling,

Mike Healy

My son, Carl, is thirteen and we enjoy coyote calling as often as we are able to make time to get into the field.

Carl didn’t have school on Friday so I took the day off and we went coyote calling.  The window of opportunity was excellent as it was a weekday and Idaho’s rifle season for deer hadn’t opened yet.

In the early afternoon we were calling on a small parcel of state land surrounded by private property and had a very energizing experience with several nearby coyotes.

Our truck was well concealed behind a small hill with a headwind in our favor.  Seated on a hillside with adequate cover and a good view, I placed my Wildlife Technologies electronic caller downhill about 30 paces in front of us.  Instead of hiding the caller in a bush, I placed it in the bottom of a waist-deep sinkhole.

I started the stand with two loud female coyote howls and then paused to listen for a response.  Within 30 seconds a couple of coyotes responded by howling back at us.  They were to our left and just beyond a low hill.  I waited another 30 seconds and played a few red tail hawk screams.  The coyotes to our left responded again.  I then paused for a few seconds of silence to let everything soak in and another coyote started howling directly in front of us.

Scanning the land directly in front of us, I couldn’t see the coyote that was howling.  Carl was seated to my right and I didn’t want to miss any movement on our left flank made by the coyotes that were howling over there.  I shifted my focus to the left and let Carl sort out what was likely unfolding in front of us.

Manipulating the remote control below the level of the sage brush to avoid detection, I lowered the volume and played a squeaky mouse vole distress sound.  The coyotes to the left continued to howl and were obviously upset by the intrusion that my original howl represented.  After a minute of the mouse vole, I silenced the caller.  The coyotes to our left were still howling sporadically.

Struggling to pick out any movement at all, I finally spotted a coyote running from center stage to our left at 500 yards out.  Carl then clicked his safety off.  I figured there was something else going on that I couldn’t see so I went back to watching our left flank.

As we sat motionless with Carl’s safety off, I ran through the following sound sequence two or three times:

1. red tail hawk screams
2. pause
3. crows mobbing a meat pile
4. pause
5. coyote pup distress
6. pause

Amazingly, the coyotes to our left continued to howl during the above sequence.

I then reverted to the mouse vole distress sound on low volume to wait it out and see what was going to happen.  We were in the range of 10 to 12 minutes into the stand when suddenly… BANG!  I shifted my eyes back to the center just in time to see a coyote fall to the ground.  Carl had been monitoring its approach and fired when it stopped at 121 yards from where we were sitting.  He first spotted the coyote at 450 yards and observed its deliberately slow advance for many minutes before taking the shot.

Idaho Coyote, October 2011

Having the caller in the sink hole probably helped us out on this stand.  Coyotes have that amazing ability to pinpoint the precise location on the surface of the earth where a sound is coming from.  In this case, I suspect the coyote felt compelled to get close enough to see into the bottom of the sink hole to conclusively determine the source of the sound.

Regards and thanks for reading,

Mike Healy

There is some controversy over these proposed resolutions as some of the so-called “wildlife advocate” groups have not signed off on the proposed deal. This still leaves the door open for future litigation from these groups that could still prove troublesome for the long term.

Wolf - Courtesy of the US Fish & Wildlife Service/Tracy Brooks

Two separate articles on this issue are here for you to read, the first is from the Idaho Statesman, sent to us by Mike Healy, one of our readers. This article deals with a plan that Montana and Idaho seemingly have come to an agreement, along with many of the “wildlife advocate” groups. This action was prompted by the fact that the Federal Govt. was apparently on the verge of de-listing the wolf nationwide. This would have been a big blow to the “wildlife advocate” groups, a crushing defeat really. Instead, this still leaves them wiggle room to press for keeping wolves listed as endangered in states where wolves are beginning to gain a foothold such as Oregon and Washington.

The second article is from the Billings Gazette. This article talks of a meeting that Interior Secretary Ken Salazar had with Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead regarding Wyoming’s plan to manage wolf populations within the state borders.  Wyoming has long listed the wolf as a predator, not a big game species. This has meant that Wyoming residents had the ability to “shoot on sight” any wolf, with the exception of those populating the northwest corner of the state, specifically in and around Yellowstone National Park.

We would like to see this issue come to resolution.  States manage wildlife populations within their borders much more efficiently than the Feds.  By this controversy continuing to go on, the states cannot manage populations properly in large part due to the fact that one apex predator is off limits, thus any balance that they try to establish is nullified.

Your comments on this issue are always welcome, we encourage our readers that live in the affected states to contact their legislators and make your voice heard. We also encourage readers that live in other areas that have interest in this issue to do so as well.

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Good hunting!

Marc Reindell

info@wildlifecallers.com

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