Calling Wolves

IdCoyote

New member
I thought I knew a little bit about wolf calling since we've killed one and we've done a lot of reading up on it, but I've been served a slice of humble pie on my last attempt. Now I think that wolf we killed was more incidental than a direct result of our calling and realize I don't know jack squat so I need some advice on what works from people who know what they are doing. A little back ground of my situation is two weeks ago I was still hunting for elk through some dark timber with my bow on a ridge that was previously littered with elk sign. I wasn't seeing ANY sign and then I saw movement in the trees ahead of me and 15 yards away three wolves popped out. The lead wolf growled at me and split before I could draw my bow (I have a wolf tag) and I could hear them running around me. I put my bow down and dug my S&W Shield 9mm out of my pack and then the wolves began howling in all directions around me. There were at least three howls that came from the open sagebrush past the tree line which was 50 yards away. I booked it to the edge of the timber and had my shield on my knee and set up next to a dead fall and began doing some elk calf in distress sounds. Sure enough a wolf popped up about a 100 yards away in the sagebrush. It came to about 90 yards and stopped, then circled into the timber maintaining its distance disappearing into the dark timber. That was about twice the distance I could shoot with my pistol semi accurately and twenty yards father than I am accurate with my bow. The wolf pack worked its way down the draw and faded off into the distance.

Fast forward to the next week and we were about to get ready to work a bull when we heard the wolf pack light up about a 1/2 mile away in a big draw. This was the same draw I heard the pack disappear into the week before so we bailed on the bull and headed off towards the wolves. My brother had been successful the week before so he was packing a .270 due to my run in with the wolves the week before. We finally found the wolves and they were 694 yards away. My brother forgot his foxpro at the truck so we had a coyote howler and our elk calls and made do with those. We set up and started to do some coyote howls. Then we made some coyote ki yi's and those wolves didn't even look twice, in fact they bedded down and ignored us. I then threw out some distressed elk sounds and they ignored that. After about ten minutes of the wolves ignoring us (we knew they could hear us, the wind wasn't blowing and the sounds were echoing up and down the draw) we decided to hurry and close the gap. We went from tree to tree and closed the gap to 486 yards but light was fading fast because the sun had already set and a fog bank was rolling up the mountain. There was a large draw between us and we had no where enough time to drop down and climb back up the other side. We tried calling again with kiyi's but once again they ignored us. They didn't even look or try to stand up. We could see their heads but nothing else. I tried elk sounds again and nothing. With the last light fading my brother tried a shot but hit about 6"high and the wolves jumped up, darted this way and that and then faded into the fog.

Soooo...what did we do wrong? What should have we done? If we had either of our fox pros, what sounds work? We killed our first wolf with coyote death cries on the fox pro. Any suggestions are welcome as well as criticism. We just want to put some tags on these wolves that are in the middle of our elk hunting honey hole.
 
Oh, there were five wolves that we saw and it appeared three of them were pups. The week before when I ran into them at least one was a pup also. Do you guys think we were near their denning area or at this point are the pups traveling with the pack on hunts? Thanks again.
 
Never called in a wolf myself, but my brother in law called three in doing moose noises(in Alaska). He was actually moose hunting. Rattling antlers, and doing moose vocals...dude got all three wolves, too!
 
My friend and myself called in three in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. We weren't even hunting them. We were calling yotes using rabbit distress sounds. They came within 50 yards of us. Can't hunt them here so we had to let them pass but it was a cool experience.

Just wanted to share that and good luck to you!
 
Originally Posted By: wolftrapperNever called in a wolf myself, but my brother in law called three in doing moose noises(in Alaska). He was actually moose hunting. Rattling antlers, and doing moose vocals...dude got all three wolves, too!

That's pretty darn amazing! I can't quite seem to do better than a double with coyotes, I can't imagine pulling off a triple with wolves! Awesome! Maybe I'll stick to prey sounds with my foxpro. I wonder if those wolves I failed to call in had a kill under the trees they were bedded down in that made them so nonchalant about our calling. A full stomach and a who cares attitude about a little pissant coyote? Or maybe my mouth calling was too similar to the week before when they busted me? I thought they were territorial when they had a kill or had their pups with them? Thanks for the feedback everyone. Lodge pole, I don't have a thing to teach! I failed miserably at low hanging fruit with those wolves. I'm sure I just had a little luck with that first one! I hope you can knock one down. Dirty beasts. I'm sorry for you boys back east that can only stare when you call one in. Hopefully USFW pull their heads out and stand up to the treehuggers and open a season for you all. Happy trails and thanks again.
 
I have called in 1 wolf to 60 yds and am very proud of that in my shape. It actually sat down about 200 yds to look it over first.
I was calling coyotes that were coming in and instantly moved off just before the wolf appeared.
There is a successful wolf hunter here from MT who might pop in hopefully.
My first question from your paragraph is if they did nothing for kiyi you may have been busted and why do it again.
Can only guess but elk and wolves spend alot of time on the same ground.
 
I'm in Alberta and there's no shortage of wolves here or land to hunt them on.
Calling wolves takes skill and luck. If you are calling/hunting something else and call in a wolf, that's luck. If you set up and call target wolves and are successful enough to call them in repeatedly, that's skill.

There are some similarities between calling wolves and calling coyotes and at least as many differences.

In both cases the target must be in the area or you are wasting your time. In my area. most of the country I hunt is wide open. a coyote can hear me howl anywhere in a circle with a 2 mile radius. That is a lot of ground. I can do this anywhere close to home here. Not much pressure target rich environment and easy access.

With wolves I seldom cold call and this where it gets to be tough sledding for some hunters. The action can be slow until it's not, then it's real and it's western and it's real western. We cold call coyotes but we hunt for wolf sign before we try to call them.

When we call coyotes, it is not unusual to call 20 a day, so when we go for wolves and we look for sign all day , it's easy to think we should just set up and call. The problem lies with the way these animals differ. Wolves hunt in packs usually and travel from one kill to the next. They seldom wear watches or carry calendars and as result their 'circuit" is seldom one week long, in spite of what "
"experts" tell you. Why would a pack leave a kill site and continue on a 'circuit' It's not like they have anyplace else to be.

I look for sign, scat, tracks, etc. If it's fresh I'll set up and call. I do believe if they can hear me, they will come. They can hear me for miles, but they may also travel 10 or 15 miles in a night.Which means that even with fresh sign calling them and having them hear you is a challenge. This is when a guy could use a little of that luck I spoke of earlier.

I set up like I do for coyotes with attention to all the little details I can think of. Sun. wind direction, elevation., line of sight, shooting lanes etc. Be quiet of course and do not walk out where you plan to set up and then stand there pointing here and there discussing strategy. Get your strategy figured out and then get in and get sat down back to back.

I usually start with some coyote vocals. loud. loud loud. Wait a few minutes go to deer distress again loud as I can. Then a coyote pup distress while my partner is doing a Kiyi. We make noise. then we wait and glass. I use binos even in the cover.

When the wolf shows you will get on chance to seal the deal. Which means your gear better be tuned and you better be tuned as well. The first shot should be standing broadside. after that the luck needs to kick in cause everything else is that "western" I spoke of earlier.

I have had a pack of coyotes come in and kill one or two. and the rest run off. On many occasions I've called them back and killed a few more.
I've never been able to do that with wolves. Once they are gone, they are gone. I've had them howl for hours while we were skinning one of the pack but never been able to call them back in.

I use a wolf howler as well sometimes.I haven't found many good wolf howlers but Bearmanric of RR calls makes a very good horn wolf howler. He also has some awesome coyote horn howlers.

I've also been busted and never saw them at all, but they sure were vocal and would not come in.

Calling wolves means putting in lots of time scouting and lots of range time. You won't get a lot of chances to miss
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Oh yeah when I said they would be standing broadside. mostly they are and I've seen plenty of missed shots from 80 yards out to 400yds from a rest with time to set up. So go to the range. put the time in.
 
Thanks redfrog.. some good info there. Our rifle wolf season opened Friday... I just picked up an eberlystock gunslinger pack so I can carry my kimber along while archery elk hunting.

If I cross fresh wolf sign the bow gets put down....
Twice last year I encountered wolves and if I'd had a rifle. Well.....we'd have a few less of them...
 
Redfrog wrote what I think is one of the best short descriptions on wolves and wolf hunting that you are likely to read on the internet! A few people have "shot a wolf" but invariably they were hunting something else and got lucky. I ONLY hunt predators unless I draw a special tag like sheep, goat, moose. Our MT season opened on Friday and since then according to my odometer and my gps I have driven 129 miles (I live in wolf country) and I have walked just shy of 16 miles on gated roads or trails trying to get far enough into the woods to howl them up or find some sign. So far nothing and I can't wait to get back at it this week! I have taken more than a few wolves including one with a longbow and I can honestly say that specifically targeting wolves is the most challenging thing you will ever do, but man is it worth it when you finally put one on the ground!

P.S. My farthest was taken at 45yds, the closest at12!
 
Wow! Those were some great responses. There's nothing like learning from people who actually have been there and done that. It's a lot different than reading what some random article says. Redfrog, jcs271, and Tripod, and everyone else- thanks much for the replies and input. You guys gave me enough food for thought to get me through this work week until I can get boots on the ground up there again on Thursday! Redfrog, you're a wealth of knowledge. You have my respect and thank you much sir, your earned knowledge that you shared is valued greatly and will be put to use. I'll give an update when I get back next Sunday. Thanks again and happy trails.
 
Originally Posted By: jcs271Redfrog wrote what I think is one of the best short descriptions on wolves and wolf hunting that you are likely to read on the internet! A few people have "shot a wolf" but invariably they were hunting something else and got lucky. I ONLY hunt predators unless I draw a special tag like sheep, goat, moose. Our MT season opened on Friday and since then according to my odometer and my gps I have driven 129 miles (I live in wolf country) and I have walked just shy of 16 miles on gated roads or trails trying to get far enough into the woods to howl them up or find some sign. So far nothing and I can't wait to get back at it this week! I have taken more than a few wolves including one with a longbow and I can honestly say that specifically targeting wolves is the most challenging thing you will ever do, but man is it worth it when you finally put one on the ground!

P.S. My farthest was taken at 45yds, the closest at12!


I bet that was an experience taking one with your long bow! That would be pretty tough with traditional equipment, I'll stick to my 7mm! Congrats and I hope that you punch a hole in one soon. Good luck and happy trails.
 
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