Fellas, I love coyote hunting. I especially love it when a wolf joins the party.
Here are my wolf calling experiences.
First one, big black male called in, but no shot. We were setup high on a river back water in some thick timber. We were using primos hot dogg howler and tally-ho distress call. We howled 3 times, waited about 3 minutes and howled 3 times again. Waited about 3-4 minutes again and blew for about 45 seconds on the tally-ho. Lots of birds came in, more than usual. Then upwind about 140 yards, 3 coyotes come [beeep] bent for leather tearing down the frozen creek. No shot, and couldn't get em to stop. We blew the tally-ho again for about 30 seconds. I was setup sorta watching the 6 with the 12 gauge, but with the all the action out front, I turned. Suddenly, 40 yards to my right, there is a lot of bird commotion, mainly ravens but magpies as well. Well, standing there looking at me was a very large black timber wolf. Dang it. If I hadn't turned, I would did some damage with the Triple-odd buck. Too bad.
Second encounter. We were calling coyotes all morning and right around lunch time, we noticed what looked like a deer out on this 50 acre lake. We snuck closer and glassed and found it was a wolf! While we made our plan of attack, 4 more came out. Man, that gets the blood flowing. So we, parked ourselves in some cattails and called using the primos little dog and a custom rabbit distress. They did not move a hair. They got up, they layed down, they got up, just enjoying the day I guess. So we knew there was a small creek bottom that came off the lake. We made a sneak to creek and we called again. As we were watching the pack on the lake, I seen movement to my right again and down the creek was female wolf heading to her buddies on the lake! I waited till she got broadside and I smoked her at 12 yards, using a 243 with 100 grain sierras!! She was 70" inches from nose to tail, and 21" at the shoulder. Very nice wolf.
3rd encounter: Again we were hunting coyotes all day to not much luck. We ventured into some new land we got permission on. As we were driving along, we cut some fresh tracks. So we decided to walk in along this swampy creek bottom fairly open with lots of open area in front of us with about 150 yards across to some pine trees and heavy bush. We called again, using the hot dog howler and the tally-ho. nothing came in after a 20 minute sequence. I did notice the ravens acting weird, kinda flying sideways and swooping. My partner actually stood up and said let's go. I motioned to him to howl once more. Sure enough, not 30 seconds after that howl, I was squeaking my lips off to let him know something was coming in. A pair of timberwolves!! They circled down wind, to my left, with the male out front. I waited as long as I could and let fly with my VTR 223, using 55 grain ballistic silver tips. I hit him in the boiler room and down he went. But the bugger got up. At my shot, the female ran towards us! My partner dusted her at about 50 yards with 85 barnes TSX out of his 243. I unloaded the gun at the male and he did make the bush line. however, after some tracking in that jungle, we found him. He weighted 140 lbs, the female weighed 120.
So these are my experiences with wolf hunting. Used some simple calls with simple setups. I don't shoot a 223 anymore, I've recently purchased a sako 85 stainless in 243 with a zeiss scope.
Here are my wolf calling experiences.
First one, big black male called in, but no shot. We were setup high on a river back water in some thick timber. We were using primos hot dogg howler and tally-ho distress call. We howled 3 times, waited about 3 minutes and howled 3 times again. Waited about 3-4 minutes again and blew for about 45 seconds on the tally-ho. Lots of birds came in, more than usual. Then upwind about 140 yards, 3 coyotes come [beeep] bent for leather tearing down the frozen creek. No shot, and couldn't get em to stop. We blew the tally-ho again for about 30 seconds. I was setup sorta watching the 6 with the 12 gauge, but with the all the action out front, I turned. Suddenly, 40 yards to my right, there is a lot of bird commotion, mainly ravens but magpies as well. Well, standing there looking at me was a very large black timber wolf. Dang it. If I hadn't turned, I would did some damage with the Triple-odd buck. Too bad.
Second encounter. We were calling coyotes all morning and right around lunch time, we noticed what looked like a deer out on this 50 acre lake. We snuck closer and glassed and found it was a wolf! While we made our plan of attack, 4 more came out. Man, that gets the blood flowing. So we, parked ourselves in some cattails and called using the primos little dog and a custom rabbit distress. They did not move a hair. They got up, they layed down, they got up, just enjoying the day I guess. So we knew there was a small creek bottom that came off the lake. We made a sneak to creek and we called again. As we were watching the pack on the lake, I seen movement to my right again and down the creek was female wolf heading to her buddies on the lake! I waited till she got broadside and I smoked her at 12 yards, using a 243 with 100 grain sierras!! She was 70" inches from nose to tail, and 21" at the shoulder. Very nice wolf.
3rd encounter: Again we were hunting coyotes all day to not much luck. We ventured into some new land we got permission on. As we were driving along, we cut some fresh tracks. So we decided to walk in along this swampy creek bottom fairly open with lots of open area in front of us with about 150 yards across to some pine trees and heavy bush. We called again, using the hot dog howler and the tally-ho. nothing came in after a 20 minute sequence. I did notice the ravens acting weird, kinda flying sideways and swooping. My partner actually stood up and said let's go. I motioned to him to howl once more. Sure enough, not 30 seconds after that howl, I was squeaking my lips off to let him know something was coming in. A pair of timberwolves!! They circled down wind, to my left, with the male out front. I waited as long as I could and let fly with my VTR 223, using 55 grain ballistic silver tips. I hit him in the boiler room and down he went. But the bugger got up. At my shot, the female ran towards us! My partner dusted her at about 50 yards with 85 barnes TSX out of his 243. I unloaded the gun at the male and he did make the bush line. however, after some tracking in that jungle, we found him. He weighted 140 lbs, the female weighed 120.
So these are my experiences with wolf hunting. Used some simple calls with simple setups. I don't shoot a 223 anymore, I've recently purchased a sako 85 stainless in 243 with a zeiss scope.
