A Regular Joe

SnowmanMo

Administrator
Staff member
Gentlemen, let me introduce Joe.

Picture3 by SnowmanMo56, on Flickr


Bushman and I work with Joe. After listening to Bushman and I reliving our weekend hunts around the water cooler Joe began to show some interest in predator calling by asking some great questions. After many sessions of predator Q&A and several offers to take him out with us Joe asked to go out this weekend.

Sadly Bushman came down with a work related illness that prevented him from joining us. So Sunday morning Joe and I headed into the hills to get into a little cooler weather. Now Joe's inquisitive nature makes him a sponge when it comes to information. As we made our way into the hills I went over what we were going to be doing and how we would be setting up our stands.

We got into an area that has some great looking canyons, prime country for foxes and bobcats. I told Joe that we would be starting with bobcats and foxes just to get his feet wet, that coyotes took a little practice since they are so smart. We drop into the canyon and I set the stand. With Joe watching the hillside and the canyon ahead I ran through a call sequence. Surprised at a lack of fox and bobcat, I soon foud out the reason when a coyote started howling right over the top of us. I switched into a puppy distress call and got Joe pointed in the right direction. The coyote spent several minutes howling at us and moving back and forth but not committing to coming down to play. Knowing that the coyote would bolt if I stopped the call I whispered to Joe to creep up the hill to try and get a shot while I continued to hold the coyotes attention with the calls. I didn't like the idea of sending Joe out on a spot and stalk on his stand out, but I didn't see that we had much choice. Joe slipped out of our stand and crept up the hillside. 5 minutes later I hear the shot from Joe's shotgun. I broke down the stand and headed back to the truck then proceeded up the road to pick up Joe. Sadly, Joe had missed his first coyote. The coyote had perched itself on top of a rock and in an attempt to approach unseen Joe had to take a less than ideal shot at it. In true Joe fashion though, he was pumped at getting the chance to see a coyote and to get a shot at it and he was ready to go and do some more stands.

We spent the next several hours pulling dry stands, well mostly dry. We did manage to call in 2 hawks, a couple of squirrels, a deer and on one stand our calls apparently spelled the doom for a tree as it fell not more than 20 yards from joe as soon as I started the call. FYI, trees make a lot of noise when they try to come to the call. We broke for lunch and planned our strategy. We opted to reposition into a more heavily wooded area for some late afternoon stands. Now the cool weather always brings out the campers and their noisemakers (the scourge of AZBushman), but Sunday marks the return to civilization. So I decided to hit some campsites in the hopes that the possibility of leftovers would prove attractive to predators. We set up on the edge of a recently vacated camp and after postioning Joe started the music. Two minutes in I see a fox come sliding in from my 4 o'clock position. I am going to let it close the distance when it stops, and turns tail. I then hear the noisemaker coming down the trail (easy Bushman). I switch up to fox distress in the hopes of turning him back when I see a flash of grey ahead of me. I see the fox sliding down between the trees. It is not the same fox as this one is a female. I bring my shotgun up and hold. The fox rises up on a small rock and I squeeze the round off. At that same moment Joe also fired on the fox. The fox never so much as twitched (two loads of 12 gauge #4 buckshot has that effect). The two shots were so close together that we couldn't tell them apart, in fact Joe didn't even realize that I had fired. We had to go to the predator hunter rule book and instant replay: Tie goes to the new guy!

Joe handled himself like a grizzled veteran predator hunter yesterday. He now has the fur and the stories to prove it.


Picture3 by SnowmanMo56, on Flickr

 
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Way to break in the new guy Jason! Well done.
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It was such a great day. This is one of the best parts of our sport, getting to share it with others. I was lucky to be introduced to Predator Masters and have met so many great people. Thanks guys.
 
Thats great! Always happy to hear those stories of newly interested hunters getting into the game.
Cheers.
 
Mo does a great job introducing predator hunting to many folks, he has the knack for it like no other. I'm proud to have him on our team. Keep it up big boy!
 
Thanks Scott. Just trying to pass along what a lot of great people like Jeff Mock here on PM did for me in my early days.

Such a great sport and such a great community needs to be shared.
 
Stories like this is what is making my dry spell a little better, knowing that somewhere in America, some one has a predator in their sights...

It was a Great read....
 
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