Leaderboard

We recently finished this lifesize Dall sheep. View the full article

I am not sure if I posted this in January or not but I took "the shot" with my camera instead of my bow because when I first saw this buck, he was directly in line with the setting sun and did not look very big. He went behind some trees and then popped out and I snapped these photos at 104 yards. I looked at the photo after I took it on the playback and realized he was a nice 4x4 and had a double main beam. He did not stand there long enough to knock an arrow, much less get a shot off. How wide do you think he is? I was guessing 25-26" possibly but my friends think he's wider. I don't see it but who knows. I will be going back to this area in January in hopes to find him with some ladies.

Lots of young bucks with does up here in 3c. Just nothing big at all. Yet...

The rut isn't going to happen for a while this guy just stripped yesterday.

Finally found a couple good bucks this morning. The first one was working a scrape line and the second one was following a couple does. Sequence 01_1.mp4 P1030134_2.mp4

Spotted her first at about 150 yards and watched her for close to an hour making her way to the call. She stopped at about 25 yards and sat there, got up and started to walk away, one more blow on the caller and she stopped and started back. Not wanting to take a chance that she would leave I shot her, Sako Vixen, 55gr Hornady V-Max, Vortex Scope.

I’m going to place about 500 small salt licks (the little brick ones) all over my favorite ridges to hunt. This will surely keep people out of them and if it doesn’t I’ll claim they are being unethical and I’ll come cry about it on CW. At least i know I’ll have a couple guys on my side, one of which is all about crying. The big problem with the bison is a couple people think they own the rights to every spot they frequent. It is absolute lunacy that people (at least one) think that RJ has rights to basically hunt any spot at any time because he kicks out salt blocks. Man, we really are living in strange times. I would love for someone to try to tell me where or how i have to hunt on my once in a lifetime tag.

Got 777 salt sites in 22. Keep on driving to 23. Seats taken

Truth. At least revoke his license

no distaste here. I've had good buddies pay him money for buffalo hunts, buddies not pay him to join the co-op and by all accounts he is a great guy. The fact that you can not see the 12a salt situation as a special situation, tells me that you have a bias. Everyone that hunts that hunt or has helped on that hunt see's what Russ has created. The fact that he has so many salts along a fairly small stretch of GC boundary does NOT entitle him and his clients to exclusive hunting rights. It's not like he is doing something revolutionary and everyone is piggy backing off of him. IMO putting a salt site in the middle of BFE and then walking up on hunters at your salt site is bullshit. However, I am sure it happens. The 2nd guy to get to such site has to leave without causing a scene. It is just the right thing to do. Russ has created a situation where the Buffalo literally leave the park for a short time and hit one of his numerous sites. To think that you are not allowed to hunt along his salt line is naive at best. He MIGHT have 2-5 clients each hunt and maybe 2-5 willing to be part of his CO-OP. IF he has all 10 at his sites, that still leaves 50-60 sites available to hunt. To think those sites are off limits is absurd. He has literally conditioned the cattle up there to hit his salts over the last 10 years. This hunt has turned into a real SHHIIITTTT show to say the least and issues like this will continue to arise if he tells his clients to try and make other hunters leave. Just a matter of time before one of them gets in a fist fight. Just because Russ feels like his personal ETHICS trump someone else's, does not mean he gets to rule the 12a/ GC boundary.

Self report. They will go easy on you.

You leave decoys out overnight? If you set decoys, you’re probably sitting there already. Just like the 3am guy was. Thanks for playing

Zac, since you were there last did you ask the first hunter politely if you could stay? The ethical thing would be ask if you can stay and give the other guy first shot opportunity. Sounds like you just showed up and decided to stay offering no courtesy. When i had my tag i went early knowing someone else would show up, when Russes guy showed up he was gonna leave, i told him to stay but i asked for first shot opportunity and it was a done deal, everyone wins.

Sounds like there wouldn’t have been any cursing if you did the right thing and left immediately when you saw someone was there before you

I’m confused. It’s pretty clear ethically it’s first come first serve at a hunting site in AZ. It’s not illegal to put a blind where one already exists. Someone beat you there and you started an argument rather than saying “good luck” and leaving. Are you actually blaming your guide? Why didn’t you just leave rather than argue with the first one there? To me, at least, you are equally culpable. You could have behaved very differently and changed the entire outcome. You are not taking any responsibility. Man up.

.280AI or 25-06AI would be my thoughts

We’ve had good luck with don in the past! Always come home with lots of fish. I highly recommend him.

Sold this little call to my best friend, wish I hadn't. Talking to him last week and asked if he had used it yet, he said he had not. So Sunday he and I went out for a few stands.

Decided to leave my caller at home and just use my squeaker and handmade howler. Big guy with his little girlfriend.

A few months ago I sorta teased about needing a taxidermist for a lion. and now the rest of the story..... My brother is relatively new to serious hunting. He does have a few deer under his belt but has not been "serious" about hunting until the last few years. In the last few years he has been fortunate enough to have some pretty good success on the predator trail though. To date he has several doubles both fox and coyotes and even a 1 day Az trifecta (coyote, fox and bobcat all in the same day). Considering he only goes out a couple times a year he is doing pretty well. In March we made a run up to Strawberry to do some work on our cabin. We were hoping to get a day of calling in but with a big weather front coming in and the cabin work taking longer than expected our plans got a little derailed. Regardless of not being done with the work, we set out early(not really) to try to get in a couple stands before the wind got ridiculous. Big winds of 15-25 mph were predicted for most of the day. First stand, big beautiful area that should have produced. Nothing. DRY DRY DRY everywhere so not too high of hopes on seeing critters. Second stand was right next to one of the few water holes that had water. on our approach we kicked out a couple ducks. Made a big racket. They dive-bombed us a couple times showing their displeasure as well. Coolest sound ever. I don;t remember what kind of ducks they were but I have never seen them before. So I get my brother set up and I head around to set up the call and get in position. I turn on the call and start to get.. BAM!!!! 5 friggin seconds in he shoots! I keep calling for another 15 minutes and nothing. I stand up and look over and he gives me the thumbs up. I walk over and dead coyote. I don;t know if that thing was heading to water and just had the worst timing in the world or if he was camped there and jumped up when the call started but whatever, dead coyote. So we gather him up and head for our next stand. Wind is howling by now. We head down into a canyon and set up by a dry waterhole. With the canyon set the way it was and the wind blowing we only had 1 approach for coyotes. They would have to come straight over a mt against the wind. Easy path to circle around us and wind us. Pretty much a dead stand but we tried anyway. about 12 minutes in I gave up and was about to call it when I saw a flash on the hillside. Sure enough a coyote was trotting across the hill and heading to my right to circle us. I quickly adjusted and tried to get a shot. No dice. I thought about jumping up to catch him circling but was really just too lazy to do so. I sat and watched for a few minutes just in case he was stupid enough to take a short cut. He didn't. My brother was to my left and saw me shift and get on the scope so he also shifted and was watching the hill. The call was about 50 yds in front of him in a bush. As we stared at the mt for about 3 minutes we heard a big crash. My first thought was "dang wind just blew the call out of the bush". I look to my left at the call and... WHAT THE HECK???????????? What is that? cat. ITS A CAT!!!! LION!!!!!!!!!!!! Dang lion was on its hind legs stretching up in the bush swatting at the caller! I start my swing left and BAM!!!! My brother shoots. Lion flops and is down. I am on it now. Lion starts to get back up so I shoot to anchor it. "click" Not kidding. I had nothing in the chamber. For those of you who know my history with lions this is REALLY funny. For those of you who don't know, this is pretty much status quo for me and lions. It is truly a comedy of errors so many times. Fortunately my brother is a better student than I am a teacher so he fires again. Dead lion. I started screaming like a little girl "LIOOOOOOOOON!!!!!! We got a Liooooooon"!!!! I really don't know why as it was far from my first. but probably because it was so unexpected. And it was really cool that my brother was threre The best part....we had TWO cameras running. The worst part...BOTH cameras failed. I HATE tacticam. With a violent passion I HAAAATE them. They have let me down more times than I can count. Turns out he didn't need the second shot. Both shots were double lung kill shots. I wish he hadn't taken the 2nd shot because skinning it was a drag. it was like skinning a bag of chunky pudding. So now he pretty much just needs a bear to finish of his Az predator list. Not bad for a "novice". G&F says 5-6yr old female. It was the last lion for the unit before it closed. Overall a good day. Thanks to Adam for help with prepping it for tanning.

I've been varmint calling for years and I get out there just about every weekend. I've had some days where I called in critters on just about every stand. I also had plenty of days where I couldnt even buy a critter.Here are some things that have worked for me. First what I like to do is check the weather.Cloudy,overcast days with no wind are the best days to call.If it's really windy then I just rather sleep in.(windy days are never really productive for me.)I like to take long dirt roads whenever I can,this lets you get in more stands and you can put more distance in between stands.Calling in flat desert is good for coyotes and canyons and mountains is good for foxes and bobcats.When you do get somethin comin in WAIT until that varmint is behind a bush or some cover before you pick up your weapon. once he pops out and you got him in your sights....SLAM HIS A**.I would also suggest calling with the sun at your back this lets you get away with a little more movement especially if youre calling with a couple of buddies.These are a few thins that work well for me. There are a lot of good hunters on this forum with really good advice, take a little from the guys who've posted on here and you'll slamming dogs in no time!

You have gotten some good advice. I started for me when i was 16, i went a few times w/ my dad before then. I learned the hard way, trial and error. Tonto shaved years off the learning curve. It took me awhile to notice the things that mattered. Ive never owned an eletronic caller. Everytime i get money saved up for a fox pro i need somethin more important. I would love to have a fox pro scorpion. I use dan thompson calls mostly, they work good for me. Patience is a virtue (that i rarely have). Be persistant, dont give up. If you are getting frustrated the next dog you call in will make you forget all the bad days.

First of all let me start by saying I’m no expert, but I have been PR hunting for about 12 years. I can tell you is there is a bunch of weapons that you can use. What I do is as far as what weapon to use goes something like this what ever big game permit I have for that season that’s my weapon Ill go predator hunting with. IF (big IF) I get drawn for a Bow elk hunt I use my bow its good practice. If I get a turkey tag or going on a bird or duck hunt I use my shot gun, I use my 308 before my Coues hunt comes up again its good practice. I will explain the set up of each weapon. (Since you’re able to PR hunt all year it’s a very good tool). do not start off on the cheap in the long run and we all do it you will end up spending more money. So what I recommend you and your pales do is chip in and get a good predator call electronic ( easier and helps you concentrate on the game not the sounds) I use fox pro. If your using a bow I recommend placing the call about ten yards closer to where you can shoot (bow) use a rangfinder and pick out spots and range up your not going to have time to range up when they come in fast. shotgun I usually place the call about 40 yards away. Just like turkey hunting you need to camo up and make a very good fast blind (trees, branches, bushes and what ever you can use that’s around). I say fast because you’re not going to stay in the same spot for more then 20 min at a time. Try to stay up wind from the call. ITS hard to do because with Predator calling (bow) most likely there going to come around to smell. So one way to help you with that is find an out cropping of boulders and sit under them counseled all the time. (Don’t move too much these guys see, hear and smell everything) With my rifle I place the call out about 100 yards if its open and field of view is good. Use your Binos sparingly because these guys move fast. Its all most better to pan the landscape with out them. If you call for about 20 min and no action Move most likely you have been busted good luck

Most people have started by getting a mouth call for a birthday present or christmas and going out and blowing it. My dad gave me a circe call for christmas way too many years ago. I kicked around and had many failures before I started to gain some confidence. In the years since I've called a lot of coyotes and quite a few foxes and bobcats. Here are a few things to consider- 1- Predators primary sence is scent followed by sight and hearing. Important!! Most critters will approach from downwind using some form of cover. From my expirence 70% of all responding coyotes will approach from downwind. Hence, when you call try to watch in that direction. Foxes are somewhat different, if heavily called they can be as stealthy as a coyote but most of the time they just bounce in. Bobcats will come from wherever they happen to be and are primarily sight hunters. 2- If calling bobcats movement will tip them off quicker than anything else. I think camo is essential for cats. Coyotes and foxes, not so much. Fancy camo is way down on my priority list. 3- Sounds and making sounds can be a delima for some. I called for years with closed and open reed calls and had huge success with both. If I was just starting out I'd still go buy a couple of calls, 1 good closed reed and a couple of open reed. I like the circe (green body) calls because they are comfortable and easy to blow. I love the Tweety and Psyco Tweety open reed calls for the same reason. I also use a Critter Call Pee Wee or standard to howl. These three calls will imitate all rabbit, some coyote and some bird sounds. 4-Pick a calling location where there's a lot of sign. Coyotes and foxes crap on the roads to mark their territory. Find a lot of little crap piles around and you've found critters. I hate wide open flat country so I don't call it. Some people do with a lot of success. I really like spotty cover to thick cover with good visibility where I can see downwind. Sneak into areas to call without a lot of noise and get comfortable. I hope this helps. I've taken a lot of people out and I'm sure if you ask around there are people willing to take you out as well. One of the better websites for calling is predatormasters.com. All of the guns you list will take predators all be it with some fur damage. Your choice if you can live with big holes and flying fur.