Finally I get to say it...WOLF DOWN!!!!!

300magman

New member
Let me start this story by saying, for those of you who don't know me, I have been trying to get a wolf for several years (for those that do know me, you know what I am talking about). I have had several missed opportunities (botched stalks, missed shots, etc), and was starting to think that the wolves would elude me forever. Finally, today I connected!

For the past couple weeks, I have been devoting almost all my hunting time to wolves. I decided that I would hunt strictly for wolves, and would either get one, or end the season having tried every chance I could (that is the reason I have not been posting any coyote success recently). My last three outings have provided alot of tracks, and given me the opportunity to really start learning my chosen wolf area, but I had yet to see one. I had been trying a mixture of spot and stalk (but with no sightings, never got the chance to actually try a stalk), calling, and tracking when the the tracks looked fresh.

It started snowing here on Friday night, and didn't stop until late last night, so I knew that I needed to be out looking for wolves today. I called my dad late last night to see if he would join me, and he agreed to come, so it was looking like it would be a good day no matter what, as I haven't hunted with my dad as much as I would have liked this year (partly his fault though, retired and spending a good chunk of every winter golfing in Palm Springs, haha). At 3am, we were on the road, making the 3.5hr drive to my wolf hunting grounds.

After a morning coffee waiting for it to get light, we started slowly driving and checking every set of tracks we saw. At 8:30, my dad was out checking a set of tracks, and put his bino's up and started glassing the cut block the tracks led into....after about a minute of glassing, i hear him say holy s**t, wolf! There was a lone wolf about 1000yds up the cut block working its way back and forth. We parked the truck, grabbed the guns and the stalk was on (at this point we realized that we had forgotten our snowshoes and snowpants in his garage when we were loading the truck in the morning...it was going to be cold, wet and tiring, but no time to think about that, we had a wolf in front of us)! About 45minutes later (and alot of knee deep snow and steep hills...fortunately, it was cold, so the snow wasn't sticking to us which helped keep our pants dry, that was a definite blessing), we were closing in on the spot we had last seen the wolf. We came to the edge of the trees, and started glassing the cut block...my dad was ready on his gun, and I was searching for the wolf, but it had dissapeared into the bush. We did a calling stand (howling for the most part) for about an hour, but nothing showed itself, so it was back to the truck and on the road looking for more.

At 2:30pm, after seeing several tracks and trying 2 more stands, we came on another group of several wolf tracks. I was searching the cutblocks in the area for any sign, and then, at the farthest one block I could see, I picked out a lone black spot moving around. A quick look through the spotting scope confirmed we were looking at our second wolf of the day! This one was about 1.5 miles away, with 2 deep creek bottoms and a fairly steep climb in between....again, guns and what gear we had, and stalk #2 was underway!

It took us close to 1.5hrs to cover the distance, but tired and cold, we peeked out into the cut block we had spotted the wolf in. Unbelievably, it was standing almost exactly where we had last seen it 1.5hrs ago, facing away from us! I got set up on a tree (didn't have the composure to bother setting up my shooting sticks), and my dad got on the range finder. I lined the wolf up, and waited for my dad to tell me the range...209yds, but facing straight away. After what seemed like an eternity, it slowly started walking straight away from us, but at 221yds, it turned and began walking broadside. As soon as it paused, I let the shot go...smack, down went the wolf! As fast as it dropped, it was back on its feet again trying to run away...even though I could tell it was hit good, I put another one in it right away and my first wolf down for good!!!!

Walking over too it, we were both ecstatic! My dad has only shot one wolf before, and that was about 15yrs ago, so he was just as excited as I was. On the way to the wolf, we saw where it had bedded down beside a tangle of broken trees, so it must have stayed dozing there while we were coming in. Once we got to it and looked it over, I couldn't have been happier...it was a large, pure black male! I'm not sure of the weight, but I will get that at the taxidermist when I drop him off tommorow, but we figure in the ballpark of 120-130lbs. Both exit holes are only slightly larger than a quarter, so the taxidermist should be happy. It was a long walk and drag back to the truck, but one we did with smiles on our face the whole way (and fortunately, there was more down than up on the way back to the truck). Needless to say, I bought us dinner when we got back to town, and then we were on our way home.

I don't think I have been this excited to harvest an animal since I was just a little kid and shot my first forkhorn (which was a booner to me back then), and who better to share it with than the man who got me into this crazy sport, my dad!

Now, for the pictures:

Here he is....

Wolf6.jpg


The typical "bear hug" pose!

Wolf7.jpg


And this is a wide view showing the terrain we were hunting in and our starting point...we started out stalk at the far left side of the large clearing in the background, just in front of the base of the small, tree covered mountain. The truck was parked just inside the far treeline of this clearing, and that is where we originally spotted the wolf from....as you can see, it was a fairly long stalk given the conditions.

WidePanWolf-1.jpg


I was using a mossberg 4x4 in .25-06 with 100gr bullets. This ranks as my #1 most memorable hunt, and to have shared it with my dad was the icing on top. Now, I cant wait to get out again and try to get him one!!!

Thanks for reading and happy hunting!

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Originally Posted By: Colorado CoyotesWOW, that's a beautiful black. Being able to share it with your dad is perfect. Congratulations.
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Envious does not convey my feelings when I read your story and see the terrific pics. Best of all with your father.

Beautiful trophy and great story, congrats!
 
Congratulations on a really good story and result...He's got a really fantastic head and coat on him...It'll make a good mount..
 
That is outstanding!!! Nice job! I'll bet you're glad now that you didn't get one earlier since you got to share this one with your Dad! Makes it all that much sweeter! A very pretty wolf as well. Congratulations!
 
Incredible, it is my dream to call in and kill a wolf, mt. lion, lynx, and grizzly before I expire.


Did you think of stopping a little shorter and trying to call?

Seemed like the perfect set up, you knew where he was, at least a general area as it took a while to get out there. You could get close, but avoid trying to do what you did, which was get into easy ear/eye/smell range.

Or are you finding them just absolutely non responsive to calls, I'm having this problem with coyotes right now, and it's killing me.
 
Congratulations! That would truly be the dream of a lifetime for me. Great job and thanks so much for the sharing story and pics. Let us know how much it weighed.
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