Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Alaska Wolf hunting

I'd love to kill a wolf this September. I know it's a tough proposition, but the desire is there. Seeking some proven wolf hunting tactics. Give me the long version please.

If you are on a caribou hunt, it is just by chance. What I did discover on my last caribou hunt was that when that herds were passing through the area we were in, we would hear the wolves at night. When the caribou were not in the area, we didn't hear the wolves. We only saw two wolves in 8 days of hunting. That being said, I just ordered my tags off of the ADF&G website and included a $30 wolf tag with them.

Interesting. You saw "only" two? I'd be happy to see half that many.

Yeah the $30 tag is a no brainer. In fact, it'd be nice to see all big game tags increased by $30, and come with the wolf tag automatically built in. DoW would FREAK.

This will be a moose hunt, btw.

Take a Foxpro FX3 or 5 with you and see if you can call one in. Make sure you always keep your eyes open in case one exposes himself.

I've heard them howling from great distances at night on caribou hunts, and voice-howled them in close. Maybe the Foxpro will bring 'em in during daylight.

Be prepared to spin turrets and reach out there....grin...

Good tips Dave. Also was hoping to hunt off gut piles, in addition.

They undoubtably are some crafty bastids.

Yeah, the gut pile idea isn't a bad one, though I've never seen a wolf on one of our piles.

We had a dozen gutpiles w/in a 100yd circle a couple miles from camp a few years ago and I never saw anything but birds come in.

Still, worth trying...

Where you going moose hunting at? Taking a Foxpro along is a great idea.

Same hunt? 12 gutpiles would have to be tempting for a woof, one would think. Then again, I could believe anything with these sly buggers.

Western Ak. Thats as close as I can post, here in public.

Western AK! You've gone and spilled the beans, now everyone will be there. (grin)

gotta agree with Dave, I've never seen wolves working a gutpile, have seen them run off of a moose kill they made, by a bear.

We'd sometimes have as many gutpiles or more as that laying around between the two camps we ran on Nishlik lake with good vis. it's just all rolling tundra with some alder tags.

Most of the wolves I ever saw in that area were solo, very few packs, but you could hear packs at night sometimes.

And yes they are slippery, watched one skirt around a knoll that other hunters were using ahead of us on the migration trail, the guys on the knoll never saw him.

I'm thinking the Foxpro is a great idea, something to do in the evening after you've feasted on moose steaks!

Gotcha on the gutpile qaundry. Will work those for bear though at least. Strongly suspect, in addition to any calling, that a heavy dose of luck will be needed in bagging a woof.

("Innoko")...grin

Thanks gents!

Stick and I once had a loong conversation with a wolf-pack via FX3. If they hadn't spotted us at the same time we spotted them, I think we'd have been able to call 'em right on top of us.

As it was, we worked 'em with different sounds for a long while...something more than a half hour, with them retreating to the trees on 3 sides of us.

Canine pup-in-distress seemed to really get them worked up.

The big black who lead them off would have looked good in the trophy room.

From what I know, wolves are pretty much a kill-their-own-meat proposition. I don't suspect they would visit a gutpile unless they were very very hungry. Which they are not going to be in the vicinity of a caribou herd.

Bro Dave -- you guys need to spend a few days behind the house with that Foxpro this winter. It's been three years since we thinned them down, and there are lots of loose dogs back running the neighborhood. I'm thinking the bait is there, and the bastards will be back. I actually hope they clean out some of the rat-pack my neighbors let run -- then we can work them over.

Maybe January/February... .

the long version-it is generally known you have to be in the right spot at the right time.In winter they will come to a moose kill and that could prove to be beneficial. If you know the area or talk with them that do then you can head in the direction of known packs. They do range in a large area, fall time they are with known caribou herds thru-out the state picking out there specific targets. I have had the opportunity to take out last yr a blue and a black-nice specimans.

Darn this is not easy as there is always another side of the coin to look at. But what has been mentioned of a caller sure can't hurt but then again it just might. They say nothing ventured is nothing gained.

I have used either a M1 Garand or a .300 win mag.-good shootin!

I have to disagree regarding woofs visiting gpiles. On my last three moose hunts they've come to the pile everytime. Got one the first year, only heard them close the second and missed one last year after waiting for 5 days. From my experience it usually takes three days where I hunt for the woofs and bears to show after a kill, actualy like clockwork for some reason. Good luck .

I shot one in area 20C last moose season. Called him in by howling to him as I floated down the river. I was actually trying to cow call for moose,a bit off pitch perhaps, and the whole damn drainage opened up with wolves howling all around me. I kept it up and realized that several were attempting to move in on me. I heard noise up on the bank and saw one poke his head up. He was in some thick brush and I wasn't able to shoot until after he figured out that I wasn't another wolf. He started running down the bank. I swung ahead of him and zeroed in on a small opening that he was headed towards. When he got there I shot him. He was a young male and weighed somewhere around 40-50lbs (no scales just a guess.) Never saw a moose in the 10 days I was on that river, but heard one heck of a lot of wolves.

Hope you get your wish this Sept!

warmutt now that is funny-abit off pitch:) maybe you were getting the hang of calling like a cow and they made contact with each other to swarm in for the "kill". I have had a pack follow me really close after my kill. I had my moose fat and all the organs ie.. kidney,heart,liver and parts of the stomach in my pack heading back to camp which was about 1/2 m. away and brought them right in. Man was I worried about my kill all night-twas nothing. Next day the moose was not bothered.

An old indian remedy for that and in this case that night I did was to burn a good piece of moose fat in the fire and it stopped the howling for a short-but that failed 10 minutes later-they started howling again.Guess it worked in the end. As mentioned before nothing ventured nothing gained.

good luck and shoot straight!

My black Lab worked well as bait last November, and the .260 reached out there well enough- all of 40 yards or so. Took the only wolf to show itself momentarily - a female pup of the year, at 56 lbs. Smallish, but an excellent pelt. Would have loved a crack at one or more of the remaining 5 or 6, especially an full adult, that had closed in on us, all within 30 yards or so, back in the heavy brush, but they took the hint.

Heck, I even saved my bait to use again....

The easiest wolf is one that has eaten and can't move quickly. Of course that usually means a good supply of recently live bait thereabouts. Wolves are not omnivorous scavengers like bears can be so are less likely to bother with guts unless they're really hungry. Even then, (winter usually), they only peel and eat the membranes containing the modified willow product and also the hide, head and other scraps, if any have been left behind.

There's nothing like lots of time spent - and a good measure of luck- to catch wolves in your sights. Contrary to what the wolf hunting "antis" think, wolves are not high percentage animals to hunt in most areas and by most methods - legal or not. I can tell you, though, that surprising a pack that has just finished gorging can produce a very high take, something you obviously can't take advantage of when hunting with a tag.

You probably also know that a September pelt will likely be pretty weak yet.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ALASKA-HUNTING-...491QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

This is a link to an Alaskan hunting video on dvd via ebay. I have this film and it's pretty good. Shows two wolves being shot over a moose gut pile.