lvmike ,
Do you shoot coyotes while wolf hunting ?
Have you called in any wolves ?
I definitely shoot coyotes if they come in while calling. I have been told that wolves and coyotes don't share territory but I have seen their tracks in the same area. Last week I saw a Wolf in the Pacific Creek riverbed and called it w/ a cottontail in distress call. It showed interest but didn't come in and may have already seen me. I couldn't have shot him anyway as you need a special tag for this close to Yellowstone. In this region I only call where I have good visibility due to seeing grizzly tracks almost daily.
mike r
You may have perked his curiosity with that distress call, but I'll bet unless he was a hungry, lone animal that's all you were doing. I have not had much luck at all using prey distress sounds with wolves. I have called wolves in with non distress cow elk calls, but when specifically targeting wolves I leave all the food source calls at home.
Wolves hunt in packs and seem to prefer perfectly healthy animals, other than those that have been weakened by winter. I use nothing but wolf vocals anymore and have had found more success. Use their extremely territorial and pack nature to your advantage. Don't overlook a pup in distress call though.
Thanks Tinman, do you use an E-caller or just howl. I am looking to update a very old Foxpro and want to get some new sounds including stuff for Lions and wolves. Do you have concerns w/ bears when calling before hard winter? I will probably spend some time in Salmon, Id. this winter and will have Mt. tags as well. Do you have any good info for a guy w/out a snowmachine? Yet, this may be the year I get one.
mike r
I do have a foxpro, but stopped using it for wolf. It just doesn't give me confidence. I use either a mouth blown coyote howler, or better yet, I just howl real deeply with no call at all. That's what I have had the most success with.
I try to have someone sit a few hundred yards away from me where they can see well, preferably downwind. That's how we got a big male last year that I howled in.
As far as cats, I have incidentally called a few in over the years and found they seem to prefer bird distress calls. That's just my initial guess though as I don't have much experience with them.
For either dogs or cats, try to find the wintering herds of deer or elk. That's where the predators will be. A guy can normally hike close to them without a snow machine.
