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.

If you like what you’ve read here please - Sign up for our free newsletter!

Thanks again for reading – your comments are welcome below.

Mark Healy- Wildlife Callers

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

Rich Higgins, well known coyote behavior expert, and others will be conducting seminars and clinics on proper calling techniques for the beginning predator caller, but seasoned callers may be interested in attending as well.

Seminars will cover:

• Proper set up
• Firearm selection
• Stand selection
• Rules and Regs for predator hunting in AZ
• Sounds used for calling and why
• Use of ladders for calling in heavy brush

Directions to the bootcamp are as follows: Take 87 north through Payson and Strawberry. 6 or 7 miles past Clints Well, just past the Blue Ridge Ranger station, go east on FR 95. About a mile in take FR 513 to the left and follow it to the Boot Camp site. Signs will be posted as well to guide you to the site. Camping will be available for those that may want to head up Friday evening and stay for the weekend.

You may also want to attend: The AZ State Calling Contest that will be held at Cabela’s in Glendale, AZ on Saturday, August 28th at 3PM. Registration for the event begins at 10 AM and a seminar on Intro to Predator Calling will be held at 11 AM.

For more info on both events, contact Rich Higgins at 480-474-7581.

A good way to get out of the hot desert and get yourself geared up for the upcoming season!

Good hunting!

Marc Reindell

marc@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

These coyotes responded in about 7-8 minutes to a mixture of mouse and vole distress squeaks combined with sounds of crows mobbing food and excited crow calling from my Wildlife Technologies Mighty Atom 21 electronic wildlife caller.  I’ve used this technique successfully many other times.  I play the sounds continuously and vary the volume from medium to medium/loud.  Once the predator is spotted coming in,  I drop the volume to keep it/them moving toward the speaker. 

Unfortunately, the shooter hit the coyote too far back to be immediately effective. 

Thank you again for reading and sending us your success photos!  We enjoy hearing about the success you’re having in the field.  Please feel free to add your comments below.

Blog subscriptions are always FREE:

Good calling,

Mark Healy

mark@wildlifecallers.com