Blackbacked Jackal & Foxpro

Walter Enslin

New member
Hello All

I am a virgin predator hunter, has messed around with shooting jackals for some time, but only decided this year too spend some money on a Foxpro and a shooting chair etc.

I am using a 25-05 with 75 gr V Max, doing about 3700,

So now , I need some advice, regards too calling times, call lenghts, basically everything

Would appreciate all info

Walter
 
60 views and not one person willing to help? I'm ashamed of you guys. Where’s the love? LOL! I'll bite.

Welcome Walter, these people here are great, even though we have more lurkers than active posters. It's a great place to learn and make friends.

Never hunted jackals but if you wanna try to call them during the day, here's how I hunt coyotes. For me, most coyotes show up within the first 8 minutes. Probably 80 percent anyway with 20 percent of them showing after the 8 minute mark. I usually won't stay longer than 20 minutes on stand for coyotes. Sometimes it just feels right or there's not enough sunlight to squeeze in another so I might stay longer than 20 but not regularly. Scouting is key to being successful. Find tracks and scat and formulate plan. Ideal stand for me is sun at my back, wind in one ear, keeping an eye on the downwind side. Put your shooting chair in front of something bigger than you, bush, rock, tree, or something like that. Call quietly for 3-5 minutes. Volume 13-17 on the FoxPro. Then turn it up another 10 or so until about 8 minutes. After that take it up to full volume for 20-30 seconds then back down again over the remainder of the stand. Mess around with it and see what works for you. This should give you a starting point at least. Good Hunting! Tom Austin
 
Hmmm..... I would....ammmmmm....ya... I think that.......... oh never mind.




At the most basic levels predators are very similar. I'm not sure if a jackel would be closer to a coyote or a wolf, but it's still a canine. My best advise would be to watch the posts by the guys from west Texas, OK, and Kansas. My side of Texas is all thick pine woods, with all close range shots. I would also check out posts made by Kirby. His style of hunting would probably work for you and your terrain. Dunno might try it.
 
Walter,please excuse our bad manners....Welcome to PM!...please share ur exploits from the Dark Continent with us in the future...i'm sure we hav as many ques for you as you hav for us...like,do ya tote a 458 LOTT as a backup??...(grin)...

a lot of us use an e-caller in conjunction with mouth calls...in direct contrast with lawdog,most of my coyotes (90%) respond after 30min...lots of truck traffic from ranchers&oil workers who all poke shots at any coyote they spot...

with ur game rich environment i wud guess jackals&hyenas are plentiful & not used to being shot at on regular basis...a predator caller's wet dream...shooting from a chair is one aspect i would never consider ...(to lazy to carry one plus it wudn't feel right for me)...some fellas here use ladders...
 
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and please don't take it the wrong way if not a lot of guys respond...i believe most of us hav no idea what African predator call'n is like & we don't want giv ya bum gouge...i would suggest making contact Todd Woodall & gettin his experiences.
 
I've called jackals in SA with decent luck. They seemed to respond to similar sounds as their North American cousins. I think you could use many of the tactics employed here in the states and espoused at length on this board. There's a fella here that posts as Gerhard (that's his name too) from SA. I hunted with him a few years ago successfully. He's taken many called jackals and seems to have them pegged. You might shoot him a private message and see if he'll help point you in the right direction.

Oh, and welcome to PM. I'm looking forward to pictures of nice black-backed jackals you call in.
 
Welcome to PM, Walter.

Each of us has their own style of callin' predators. I, too, hunt from a chair in fairly heavy cover of S. Tx. Coyotes where I hunt are heavily pressured, too, and usually respond cautiously so my stands are a bit longer than some. I usually call for at least 30 minutes, sometimes a bit more if a bobcat is suspected to be in the area.

I doubt that the jackal is much different than a coyote but have no experience to base that on. I personally like to call continuously or at least pretty steady to keep them interested and coming as directly to the call as I can. Some call a while and pause a while. Coyotes seem to try to circle and use their nose more often when I try that sequence and in high grass/heavy brush, they often get your scent before you can see them IMO. Coyotes will respond to snowshoe rabbit distress calls in S. Tx. so will probably respond to fawn or jackrabbit distress in Africa.

You will get many different opinions as to best approach, and none are wrong. What works best here may not work at all in desert country in Arizona or mountains of Colorado, so try it all and settle on what works best for you.

Good hunting! Looking forward to hearing about your hunts.

Regards,
hm
 
so since you guys hunt jackals over there like we hunt coyotes here do you treat the meercats like prairie dogs and hunt them too?
 
Walter Enslin, If you ever are in southern California, give me a PM I will take you on a great coyote hunt. About a fox pro I don't use electronic calls. I would in your neck of the woods Some thing bigger could eat you.
 
Greetings Walter. I've not been on the forums for a bit until today, so just now getting around to reading your post.

I'm no expert jackal hunter for sure, but I did have the good fortune to hunt them in Namibia in 2007. In three nights time, we took over 20 jackals. It was great fun and my first and only trip to Africa.

I hooked up with some guys there who really know about predator calling. They used Foxpros mainly with jackal sounds, though did use some prey sounds too. We began calling after dark and generally called about three hours or less each night, or until the moon came up.

They went to a lot of work in camoflauging the truck and keeping noise to a minimum.

The jackals moved continuously when coming to the call, and rarely stopped for very long, making it more difficult to get a crosshair on them. There was lots of low brush to deal with, so picking a shot opportunity took some practice. They responed to the call much like a coyote and would circle downwind, though in general I think they are not as cautious as a coyote.

We mainly used small caliber rifles such as 22 Hornet and 223. One guy did use a 308 with good success. The Hornet is a bit mild, in my opinion. The 223 worked much better.

I wish you good success. Keep us all posted on how things go, and we all enjoy photos.

David

223Jackal.jpg


DavidGaryJackal3.jpg


DavidFleckJackal1.jpg


I also had the opportunity to take a nice warthog and springbuck.

Warthog1.jpg


DavidSpringbuckFavourite1.jpg


A guy I know from Cape Town who hunts jackals regularly
Jackal1.jpg


Example of truck camo
TruckCamo2.jpg
 
Well, firstly thank you for the welcome from all too PM,

And for the advice, 6mm06, that picture of the truck has helped a lot, I was using shadecloth, and thought it was too dark,

Will go find some of that Milspec camo , and the whole seat eveyrting camoed ?

I know our jackal are sharpeyed, so donot want too make the ones on the ranches that I hunt too clever, so will go whoelhog on camo, and wind setup

I have had clients take the odd jackal on a call, but have not spent enought time on it, so will now after the purchase of aFoxpro attempt too get more " expert " at it

All advice and tips are greatly appreciated,

Am off too the ranch on Monday, so as soon as I have pictures will start posting them
 
Hey David (6mm06), good to see your post. I was going to suggest that Walter should contact you, as I know you've hunted Africa.

Judging from your pics, jackals look smaller then coyotes, but a bit bigger then foxes.

Did you just hunt at night, or did you do any daytime calling?
 
Walter,

I don't think that having a camo seat is that important, but it certainly doesn't hurt. The main thing is to break up the outline and shine of the vehicle. Use natural colors for camo and nothing too dark.

Use a red lens light and keep the direct beam off the jackal. Have the light either above or below the animal, mainly having the animal in the halo or fringe area of the light. Keep the light going all the time, scanning around the area, and try to keep the halo of the light off of the shooter or people in the truck.

Good luck on your hunt. Anxious to hear how it goes.

Pat,

Good to hear from you. How's things in Wyoming? Yea, jackal in general are smaller than coyotes, but larger than fox. They remind me of a gray fox in color.

We called at night but did see two jackals during the daytime on the way to a ranch. Here is a photo taken from my video. The black-backed jackal is a pretty animal, and the ones that have thick black hair on their back are the nicest of all. The black on their back feels like it's padded and is thick.

jackalinfield2.jpg


More Examples of truck camo
TruckCamo1.jpg


TruckCamo.jpg

 
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6MM06, what kind of cat is that in your first post, picture 6 on the far right?

I have been wanting to go to Africa to hunt for many years, and jackals were always on my agenda, but have not the slightest clue as to how to hunt them, which is why I haven't posted. I would feel real bad if I said "use this call" and someone ended up as lion droppings.
 
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Welcome future Jackal slayer!

We had a great time in Namibia, I see that my post was tagged here so you have already seen that. We actually changed nothing from what we do at home and had a great hunt IMO. Both "guides" that we hunted with had not predator hunted but one or two times in their lives, just a stand or two with eager clients.

We used Jackrabbit sounds and some bird sounds that are from America. FoxPro has some African sounds, but we wanted to find out for ourselves what we believe to be true at home. That is that it doesn’t matter what is dying, it is that something is dying and it sounds like something smaller than them. I don’t think they process all that info and know they are going to eat a certain species. They don’t care if its a rabbit or a Springhare, they just want to eat! We used zero Jackal sounds and slayed em, all our responses came from distress sounds.

One of the things that we had heard before going and experienced once we arrived, was that in general hunters abroad go out of their way to camo the truck and control noises. They even wait long time spans before calling to help increase odds. We hunted out of white trucks and started calling as soon as we got settled in. We killed several Jackals within 5 min, and none over 15 since we never called that long. We had success that would rival our best hunting lands here in the US, using simple tactics. Our mindset is that the more stands you make, the more animals you kill. You can have great success with slower hunting tactics, but I think you will kill more by "running and gunning" and making as many "short" stands as you can.

We also used white lights, but that is a whole other can of worms!

Take care and good luck,

Todd
 
Hello All

Well, now I have been thrown a lot of infor,

Looked at Gary's site and then went camo cloth shopping,

By Gawd, that stuff is like gold out here, would have cost me 850 dollars for milspec net too cover my truckm so had a heart attack, ant then turned creative

20 meter of hessian, and 3 litres of green brown and black acrylic paint.

One sprygun, and hour of labor, and I converted hessian too camo,

Tommorow morning will leave for the ranch, and will take pictures of setup etc, and post here

I think the jackals are going too hate me
 
Oh yeah'

Rifles are a 25-06 and 22 lONG Rifle,

Both with suppresors on,

Toyota Land Cruiser with swivel chair, and rifle rest with one 450 000 candle power Light Force, and 1 000000 Candle Pwer Light Force

Anyone interested
 
Walter,

I'd be interested, except there is a big pond between us and I'm not a good swimmer. Can't afford to fly, so I guess I'm stuck here. I do hope the jackal come to hate you, though.

Wolf'n,

The cat is an African Wildcat. Looks like an overgrown house cat, but it's not. It's the real thing - wild. They are not ferral cats. To my understanding, they were tame at one time, maybe a gazillion years ago, but now they are wild. We shot one on my trip to Namibia. Got the shot on video.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_Wildcat

Wildcat.jpg


AfricanWildcat2.jpg

 
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Wow, he is cool looking, 6mm06; looks like you tamed him pretty good.


Good luck Walter, I would love to come too, but I have the same problem as 6mm06.
 
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