What are you going to do different?

DesertRam

Director
Staff member
Since the next calling season is a ways off, I've been daydreaming a little about how to put more fur down later this fall. That made me wonder what the rest of you guys have planned. What are going to do to up your game come calling season? How are you going to be more successful, harvest more fur, or just have more fun?

My hope is that, since I didn't do all the well in the big game lottery, I'll get to spend more time calling. That in itself should help. I've been thinking about multi-day outings to more remote areas. Usually I just day-hunt right from the house. I live near good calling areas, but with a growing population center nearby, pressure is increasing. I'm hoping to throw the tent in the truck and spend 2 or 3 days over a long weekend out several hours from town. Maybe I'll be more successful, maybe not. At least I'll get to see some new country.
 
Hunting consecutive days increases opportunity. Game does not move equally every day; some days are just better than others. How many times have we had several days the game just was not moving, then a really outstanding day. Sometimes we can explain this phenomenon as due to favorable weather, other times not so much.

Lately, I'm fortunate to get half day hunts, but when I hunted three days/week, almost always had at least one productive day.

Regards,
hm
 
This year I'm in a new area of the country with a number of large impoundments surrounded by public lands with great campgrounds. I hope to take a number of multiday cast and blast trips. Hunting ducks in the AM, coyotes after the first duck flight, maybe walk up some quail in the afternoon and a little fishing in the evening. All by boat.

I'm also hoping to add a TW-200 to the mix to explore a lot of the little washed out two tracks that are too bad for my truck.

I bought a small enclosed trailer to move to my new home and am now going to convert it to a a hunting trailer, it already has my Marshrat layout boat in it, I put roof racks on it for the canoe, tie downs for the motorcycle. It will double for a mobile fur shed with hangers for the stretchers and a warm place to flesh and stretch.

Looking forward to the PM Convention again this year, it pretty much kicks off hunting season for me. I'll be there for the whole week.
 
That is a great question Troy. For us, it seems that the weather was a determining factor this year. It was cooler, later around here so I am sure that threw them off a bit.

I am with hm and AWS, more consecutive days seemed to work better. This season I hunted both days of the weekend more often and it seemed to pay off. If it was quiet one day, the next it would be hopping.

I will be trying a few different calls, as it seemed like the pattern around here shifted a bit. I used more crow calls to great benefit this season.
 
I also day hunt from my house. But I have decided that this year instead of hiking into and out of a productive valley I will try and overnight at the far end and work my way back out the next day. This will also let me travel a little farther in since I don't have to worry about hiking out in the dark. Now I just have to figure out a way to hang my hammock safely 15' off the ground so I don't turn into Grizzly poop!

P.S. AWS that trailer setup is great. I had a TW200 and loved it but with my long legs it was just a little to short from the seat to pegs for more than about a 30min ride.
 
Originally Posted By: AWSI'm also hoping to add a TW-200 to the mix to explore a lot of the little washed out two tracks that are too bad for my truck.

I'm SERIOUSLY looking at the TW200 over a quad. So many more places you can get into with a motorcylcle over a quad. The TW200 has a ton of extra parts and mods that allow you to make it into virtually anything you need. from a Street bob to a hunting rig, the thing can be configured a 1000 different ways.
 
Get in better shape. Ride my mountain bike into area's closed to vehicles. Get a snowmobile to access areas with less pressure. Bait around the house more. Trap beavers for bobcat bait sites and buy a new thermal for my shotgun.
 
Getting a new e-caller and like several of you, trying some new areas farther outside of town; WAY out in the wilderness in the desert of southern AZ. Can’t wait!
 
The nice thing about the TW-200 it is street legal and I can run it down the highway to the next county if I want in any state. I'm 5'7" and wear a 29" inseam jeans and can cuff them so the TW-200 is perfect, it is about the only off road bike that fits me.
 
Now that contest are done in Nm and soon to be Az i won’t have to do as much scouting and be able to hunt more. Hunt my honey holes whenever I want and not save them for gigs. My partner and myself have talked about doing a mini coyote tour, 5-7 days hunting coyotes in tx, nm and az. Hoping we can kill 50-60 coyotes in that time frame would be a lot of fun. As far as equipment upgrades, only thing I’m adding this year is a new 22 creedmoor that is getting built as we speak. Gonna try and take the video camera more as well but I usually get tired of carrying it around after 5-6 stands but we will see.
 
Originally Posted By: azpredatorhunterI was thinking about throwing my FoxPro in the garbage can and using hand calls...

I'll give it a home and I'll even pay shipping.
 
1. My youngest daughter graduates high school this week and will be joining her older sister at GCU in Arizona.
I normally hunted every other weekend making it out only 2 times per month. Half the time the weather conditions are what they are! Windy mostly.
Now I will be able to hunt 3 weekends per month;-)

2. I have enough night hunting gear to hunt and plenty of land to use it on. Definitely going to put it to use this season!

My partner and I went to Nebraska last weekend to help a rancher with some Coyotes. Windy and 75+ degrees don’t make for a good time of calling. We ended up with 3 down, numbers 115,116 and 117 for the 2018-2019 season.
 
That is a great question. If you do everything the same way all the time you may not learn much.

I am going to learn how to use the FoxFusion feature on my Foxpro callers.

In the last 3 seasons I have had good results using 4 or 5 coyote vocal sounds back to back trying to make it sound like a coyote fight is happening.

Playing two different coyote, badger or fox sounds at the same time may help trigger some coyotes to come in.
 
Originally Posted By: SeebassOriginally Posted By: AWSI'm also hoping to add a TW-200 to the mix to explore a lot of the little washed out two tracks that are too bad for my truck.

I'm SERIOUSLY looking at the TW200 over a quad. So many more places you can get into with a motorcylcle over a quad. The TW200 has a ton of extra parts and mods that allow you to make it into virtually anything you need. from a Street bob to a hunting rig, the thing can be configured a 1000 different ways.

I thought the same thing. I bought one and tricked it out for hunting. I quickly discovered it wasn't for me. When riding a bike ya have to keep your eyes on the road or you will crash - and it requires a faster speed to travel - a wheeler allows a person to travel slow and scan the area for game/tracks. It is also harder and more dangerous to load/unload out of the back of a truck. The thing that really bothered me was finding a level spot to park the bike while opening gates whereas with a wheeler ya lock the brakes and leave it in the road. It sucked. I hunt/scout a lot by myself. I was much more likely to injure myself riding the TW than a wheeler. I'm sure it works for some people. It just didn't work for the rutted roads or sandy soil 2-tracks that I travel.
 
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Seems like they change up at least a little every year. I'm don't know what it will be this year but I'm looking forward to finding out.
 
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