Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game wolf hunting tactics?

I found a couple of wolf killed mule deer yearlings a few days back while afield and was wondering if anyone has any tactics to share for hunting wolves this time of year.

there was a thread on this a couple weeks back. You might dig it out.

If they are anything like coyotes, cats will make great bait...

I've not had the opportunity to hunt wolves yet, but if I lived in your area I think I would try a coyote howler. Coyotes, and I imagine wolves, as well, will be mating soon and a howler works well this time of year for 'yotes. According to a popular story, when the first wolves were released from containment into Yellowstone Park one promptly ran out and killed a curious coyote. Supposedly this was caught on film by a national news service but not aired.

Hi FNG,

I'm as green as the grass when it comes to hunting & tactics, so I don't have anything personal to offer.

But, if you're interested, check out this link to a thread by Randy Newberg of On Your Own Adventures -- the show & website.

If you're not familiar, in my opinion it's one of the best if not the best shows on TV. Randy & crew recently did a MT wolf hunt and did daily, "live" updates to his website; so, you can see what they went through, and what did & did not work for them.

It's a long thread, but as great as he is on TV, he's an equally excellent writer & storyteller. It's worth the read, in my opinion. He posts some great pictures along the way as well.

On Your Own Adventures -- MT Wolf Hunt

-Jonathan

Time is something that is well needed to hunt them (generally).

Dober

So, why do you say that? Obviously, you are poorly informed. There are lots of video of wolves killing coyotes aired on television since the Yellowstone re-introduction

Here is just one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAoszVLRP6U

I think an OH-58 Loach with a mini-gun would be just about ideal....

Wolves are a worthy opponent,maybe to much so..As far as I can see,there a target of opportunity more than anything..I know guys that hunt them religiously using calls etc in an area where wolves are..Not much luck.

Trapping is starting to add up here in Idaho but the Wolves are very wary of humans anymore..I think someone told them there season is on.

Jayco

Want to borrow my Lab? He seems to attract 'em....

You'd have to promise to save the bait.

Seriously, FNG, if there's some eating left, I'd set up as far away downwind of those deer kills as I could with a decent(it doesn't have to be perfect) view and still able make a good shot.
The farther away you can be, given the above, the better.Be prepared to sit and wait.....can see to can't see if possible.

No experience doing this, but that's the way I'd do it.

Brent D, the incident I was referring to was the initial release. I didn't say there weren't videos of wolves killing coyotes.

I have a Lab and a Australian Shepard..The wife won't let me use them as bait.

This is pretty sick but this is what was left from Scott's dog about 7 miles from my house....I worry about my dogs out there,especially the Lab..



Jayco

You were implying, somehow that the media was avoiding such ugly things as wolves killing yotes. Clearly, they don't. Might be a good thing to have some yotes getting knocked back. They so way way more livestock damage than wolves do.

I certainly would have sat on the kills had anything worth eating been left. As much as I love mulies, I'm glad that the elk are giving the wolves enough of a run with our low snowpack that the wolves are resorting to deer. I hope the bastards starve. I'm really hoping that we end up with a spring and fall season, as I see more wolves in the spring.

Last spring they were still protected by the ESA. Not this spring...

another non-convetnional method is to look for FWP planes circling low and hoof it over there...this worked for a guy near here. the plane was watching a wolf on a bear carcass and the hunter got there in time to kill the wolf.

i had a big lab that was pretty good at getting coyotes close enough. i don't know if i'd do it with wolves unless the dog was trained to stay within range and visible.

If you could hunt them in Michigan. In my area in the U.P. the DNR flies around radio tracking wolves every Monday if there are clear skies. It's easy to know where a pack is, just wait until the plane starts circling under 1000 ft. the wolves are below.

A couple times over the past 5 years I have had the plane circling over me while calling coyote's. Even had a pack of 5 wolves that I called in and the DNR plane started to circle over head, the wolves took off in to the swamp.

Three years ago I called in a coyote made a bad shot to far back but kept on calling. About 5 minutes later I hear 2 wolves howl about 100 yards in the swamp the way the coyote went. I waited about 20 minutes and went tracking the coyote. About 100 yards in the swamp I found what was left of the coyote tore apart. The only thing missing was the heart, liver and lungs.

Not to mention hunting them with dogs is illegal.

Great guy there in that picture btw

We spent eleven days hunting them, and finally, my buddy shot one. We hunt elk a lot in those areas, so we know the place pretty well, which I think gave us more advantage than if we were green to that area.

Notes from our eleven days of hunting. It is probably worth what you paid for it, so take it with a heavy dose of salt.

Some things that didn't work for us. - Deer distress calls and rabbit calls. I was sure they would work, but I left half a lung up on the mountains, trying my best to sound like a dying critter. Never worked, nor did it work when we watched others do it.

I think they would work in the right situation. If you were really close and in thick cover. We watched a wolf from about a mile away, as some other hunters made a stalk on him. They set up to call him in with a rabbit squeal. He turned and ran to the timber pretty fast.

The only thing that stopped him was when my buddy did some howling. The wolf stopped and looked back at us twice. We could not cut the distance in time. The more rabbit squealing, the more he ran.

I suspect some of them have already been educated in the first year of a Montana season where guys have been hunting them hard.

Howling got the best response. You can locate them pretty well if they are in the vicinity. We had them howling at all times of the day, if they were nearby.

Getting a response and getting a shot are two different things. Every time we had responses, we would run as fast as we could to close the distance. Every time, they would shut up after about five minutes. We would get there, find tracks and beds, and find where they just walked off. We would follow the fresh tracks through some of the worst terrain in SW MT, never to catch a glimpse of them.

In eleven days, we spotted wolves on three of those days. First, running away from us at 460 yards+.

Second, five were bedded in the sage about 1,200 yards away. They had been there all morning and we did not see them until one got up to pee. They moved to another bedding spot and we made a stalk. By the time we got there, they had moved into the timber and we followed them for miles and miles of terrible terrain. Never saw them again.

Third time, we saw four different wolves, all about a mile apart. I think they may have been part of the same group. One was the wolf I mentioned that ran from the rabbit squeals.

Two others responded to howling, but with so many hunters out on that Saturday, they headed to the timber in a hurry.

The fourth, and the one we killed was a spot and stalk, or should say "Spot and Sprint." She was moving away from some other hunters. She looked to be following a similar path that taken by the one that hated the rabbit squeals. We ran as fast as we could to get in front of her.

It worked. She stopped to look at our chaos and listen to our whistling, just long enough for my buddy to shoot her at 510 yards.

Things I learned, and might be fluke, given it is only two guys out for eleven days, would be:

Plan on working your butt off. I would have killed a bull elk in two or three days of working that hard. This is way more work and way more difficult than elk hunting. Yeah, some guys will get lucky and one will walk by, but to target wolves as your specific animal will require a ton of work or a lot of luck.

Make sure you can make long shots. In the areas of SW MT, these wolves are in the broken cover and sometimes crossing open areas or opposite hillsides. We never had a shot that was any closer than around 500 yards. Successful wolf hunters are going to be above average marksman. I am lucky and can spend tons of time shooting all summer, at longer ranges. In our TV show, they send me a ton of good stuff to use. When it costs me nothing to burn powder, I burn a lot of it. Some casual shooters might get the 100 yard shot and say I am all wrong. But, if I am going to work that hard to get a chance, I am going to be a practiced up as possible. The better shooters, who best know their loads and equipment, will fare better than those who do not practice.

Be in good shape. I am not a marathon kind of guy, but spend a lot of time in the mountains each fall. When you see the wolves, they are usually not standing around for long. You have to cover a lot of ground, FAST, if you are to get a chance. The ground you have to cover is usually rough country, often with lots of snow, scree, and other obstacles that make it very hard. Imagine running as fast as you can, up a sage slope of knee-deep snow, for a half mile, carrying your pack and rifle. It is good for the legs and lungs.

Hunt all day. Most of our howling was early in the morning, before daylight. All three times we saw wolves, it was between 10:30am and 3:00pm. Maybe that was just coincidence, but our notes show that hunting all day is probably a good thing.

If you have horses, you will kill a lot more wolves in SW MT than guys without horses. Horses get you through country way easier. I don't own horses, as they would die of neglect while in my care, due to my ignorance of horses. Wolf hunting is the one time I so badly wished for horses. Not for packing out, the main benefit while elk hunting, but for staying with the wolves when they are moving.

Follow the elk, and to some degree, the moose. I am sure there are always some that are traveling, looking for the lone elk or moose, but the number of tracks we saw and the amount of howling we heard, always increased when as the number of elk increased.

I suspect these observations are too small of a sample size to draw much in the way of conclusions. What we observed may not be the case in thicker cover of NW MT or northern ID. May be different in back country wilderness areas as compared to these places where hunters could get to them with a couple hour hike. Probably will be a different observation as they get even more educated by hunters. Might always be the young ones who get booted from the pack that might be easier targets.

Guess what I am saying, is that your mileage may vary.

It is a ton of fun. A great reason to be out in the hills in December and January, after our big game seasons are over. And, filling these quotas is important.

Best of luck to all of you. Will be interested to compare notes with others who have been hunting them hard. Still got a month left in our season, but seems like travel obligations will keep me from filling my tag.

We have had pretty good luck with the wolves in Ont. while we are lake trout fishing in the winter.
The wolves seem to have a curiosity with drilled holes & fish blood on the ice. Before dusk we leave the holes & go on shore. We hide on shore & do a bit of hard calling. If there are wolves in the area they will investigate.
It is a hit or miss method. You have to play the numbers & eventually they will show up.
The shots are long range (200-400 yds.)
Dusk seems to be the "magic" time. Very exciting!!!!

I've never hunted wolves but I was recently in British Columbia and my guide and one of the local ranchers told me the following:

1) Rent a small plane and look for big (deer and larger) carcasses and, if there is snow, you can see the trails they are using. If you set foot on those trails, they will quit using them but you should be able to get set up for a shot near one of the trails or the carcasses.

2) Wolves generally won't come to a predator call such as a rabbit squealer. They hunt in packs and need "big" meat, and a rabbit just isn't enough for them to bother with it.

Another of the local ranchers stated that he had lost 30 calves and 20 cows to wolves the previous winter. A fifty-head loss is a pretty hard hit to the wallet when you're a small operator.