5 mistakes commonly made calling predators

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Predator Hunts

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The five mistakes commonly made calling at night.

1. Most callers will be calling and get a set of eyes at long distance and have the animal coming in and take the light off for seconds to look in other directions for additional eyes and the predator coming in will see them in the back of the truck or in the high rack and go off.

2. As the animal is located with the light you can make no noise, the sound of metal against metal, or whispering will give your location away and turn the animal back in the bush.

3. A lot of predator hunters keep the mechanical call going once the animal is located, it is my experience that as soon as the animal eyes are located, shut the call off and make the animal come on in and find where the thinks the sounds is coming from.

4. An animal will give away his intentions on coming in or hanging up by his body language and movements . Most hunters get an animal coming in and it hangs up and moves back and forth sideways, at this point he is done and has decided it is not his game. Your only shot will be then, and you have to take it.

5. I find one of the most important mistakes is using the light, I always move slowly in circles, if you move fast and the predator has any elevation coming in he can see you as you make the fast turns with you hand and light, and will hang up, or leave.

I have had the opportunity to observe all of this first hand through 3rd Generation Night Vision. In the last ten years I have called in at least 750 to 1000 predators each winter and watched the whole animal not just the eyes and the body language on every set. I have called in Javelina's, lions, fox, bobcats, coons, coyotes, wolves and been able to observe all there behavior coming in.
 
I imagine LOTS of critters back door you on your Number 1 and Number 5 mistakes. Either that or you call in areas of low densities.

Your number 4 mistake would appear to be a mistake at least some of the time in my locale.

My point is and I think the common theme with the responses I'm sure you'll be getting is that your methods of hunting and killing predators is really only applicable to your local situation.

Applying a broad brush with specific techniques is probably not the best approach with so many diverse predator populations and densities, varying types of country, and local laws.

YMMV...

Couple of questions if you don't mind as I'm curious.

Do you scan and identify then switch to night vision? Do you keep the light on during night vision or turn it off? If you turn it off then observe with night visions wouldn't you be making a few of your listed mistakes by potentially spooking the animal by taking the light off of it?

Thanks for your time...

 
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If I was to use some of those methods I think I would kill 1/4 of what I kill. Thats loosing alot of animles. Think you have to adapt to where you are hunting and what type of predator you are hunting. If you were hunting fox and cats you would never kill them with not calling once you pick up eyes.... Some places I call you can't see 30 yards others 400 hundred yards, so I call and shine differently to the situation. Take care


Bruce
 
i'd pretty much agree other than:
-turning the sound off. whenever i've done that the animal starts looking around and has a much better chance of seeing the vehicle and spooking. keeping the sound on keeps the animals attention on the ecaller.

-we whisper back and forth and they dont notice at all. i guess thats cause the ecaller is still on and they dont hear us over it.

i'd also add that you "should" use a red lense so you dont burn their eyes. you can go without a red lense but you need to make sure you keep the eyes in the halo of the beam and not directly in their eyes.

also you may want to clarify that you call in at least 750 animals a winter. quick math tells us that means you call in 6.25 animals everyday 7 days a week. unless we're counting crows, hawks and rez dogs that's a pretty high number. not calling B.S. just want a quick clarification.
 
PH....Once you learn what the eyes are telling you, you will not need night vision to understand body language.

Randy
 
Originally Posted By: Predator Hunts 4. An animal will give away his intentions on coming in or hanging up by his body language and movements . Most hunters get an animal coming in and it hangs up and moves back and forth sideways, at this point he is done and has decided it is not his game. Your only shot will be then, and you have to take it.

Well Im sure guilty of #4 for sure! But thats why I picked up a .22-250 to help out. And wish we could use spot lights here, that sure would be nice!
 
Originally Posted By: CAT DADDY COLDWOW. How many stands do you make, have to make, to call in a 1000 predators each winter?

At a minimum cost of approximately $1000/hunter/night for their "cheap" hunt, it can't be many.
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Let's see, I can coyote hunt or have an elk hunt for the same price. Hmmmmm
 
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1st. I only hunt with night vision, with a coon hunter light attached to the top of my helmet and night vision mounted on the scopes of the rifles. I never shine a conventional spot light. I exclusively hunt in sheep and goat country, and the cats are big, you can see them on my web site, I am 6ft. and weigh 230, That should give you and idea of the actual size of the cats.


2. My partner has called in and killed over 200 wolves, and killed another 600 or so on the push. I have killed way less, but have never seen one more than 130 lbs in eastern Canada, maybe they are larger in western, I have an area in BC that we will start hunting this winter, I will find out then.

3. I usually call 10 to 15 sets in eight to ten hours of hunting. I will wait longer if I can see a long way and less if it is tight.

4. I only use night vision with a very small light that I can shine directly on the animal and keep them in low light conditions, just enough light to blind them. If you have never used night vision, then you do not know that with even a small mag light I can make 100 yard shots through night vision scopes and I never turn the light off. I have made 200 yard shots with the coon hunter lights turned up high, but rarely turn them up half way.

5. You are comparing your hunting with a conventional spotlight to my methods of night vision, and there is no comparison. I wouldn't have changed to this method of hunting predators after hunting them 35 years the way you do if it wasn't giving me the results to believe that it's a better way of hunting. Special Forces guys use infra red lights and night vision instead of mag lights and spotlights ( this is a sophisticated method if it is used to protect the lives of our troops). I did not spend $15,000 dollars on the equipment without good reason. I am a professional predator hunter, and I make my living doing this. In areas where I used to call in 10 animals a night, I now call in 15 to 20. I never have an animal shy at the light or leave because of the brightness of the light, and if they come in we gernerally get a shot. I hunt whether I have a clients or not. I see virtually every animal that looks at the light, and I know now that without night vision you are seeing only 60% of what shows up to the call, simply because I have seen the dramatic difference first hand. Night vision will multiplys the reflection of the animals eyes 57,000 times, and you will see some animals coming in at 800 yards if they look straight at you. All in all, these are just my methods, take it or leave it. I am not out to say that I am better, but my pictures are proof that my methods have worked for me.


6. I never use a box call unless the wind is over 20 mph, I always use hand calls. I can manipulate the animal better by smooching or calling when it is needed. Since I do not use a conventional light, and keep the small coon hunter light on all the time, it does not matter on the calling part.

7. I average 10 to 20 animals a night calling in West Texas and have some 40 and 50 animal nights. I hunt for 5 months and hunt at least 13 nights a month. If you multiply an average of 15 animals a night for approximately 65 nights, you will come up with 975 animals, and I know that one year,2005, I kept count and called in 1300. In my life I have personally killed over 10,000 animals in a light. I hunt predators, it is my business, I love it and take it seriously.
 
Originally Posted By: Predator Hunts In my life I have personally killed over 10,000 animals in a light.

May I ask your age?
 
Not trying to be rude here ,but i dont think its a good idea to come here with a total of 8 post and start telling everyone whats right are wrong, you may very well have killed a pile of animals,
but with out us seeing pictures of them and knowing your back ground from being around for awhile on here, not to many people will believe you .

Like i said not wanting to be rude to you in any way just trying to give a little input ,and try and save this from becoming a big pissing match.
 
40-50 animal nights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! your fur check must be insane!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! do you even have to work! lol. full time calling could be your occupation bud
 
Welcome to PM and thanks for the tips.

I've been around long enough to know that I don't know it all and any thing that helps get my success up is useful to me.

I don't agree with everything I read on the net, but that doesn't mean much unless I am always right, and we know that ain't the case.

What works for you may or may not work for me. It would be a pretty boring site if we just had a check list of do's and don'ts and no discussion on new techniques.

Posting it doesn't make it work, trying it will tell the tale.

So when the guys are asking for clarification or more info, take the time to explain your tactics. We may all learn something.
 
Originally Posted By: R.ShawPH....Once you learn what the eyes are telling you, you will not need night vision to understand body language.

Randy
X2. All I look for are those two red orbs, and I learn all that I need to know from there.



Predatorhunts:
I'm curious about who you are? You showed up on two of the predator sites that I frequent about the same time. First post offering a guide service and then the second with the big claims of massive kills in Canada? How about? "Hi guys. I'm ?????. Love predator hunting." and after people have gotten to know ya you try to sell us something. It's kind of like an unwritten forum edicat, don't try to sell something in your first ten posts. It's generally poorly recived.
 
I see a couple things here. On one hand I do believe this guy has quite a bit of experience and has probably taken his personal night hunting to a higher level than many others that dabble in night hunting.

On the other hand, I see a guy that is an outfitter trying fish for clients on the sly, and is not a paying sponsor on this site. I have no problem with the first, but do have some issue with the ladder. I could be wrong but...
 
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