The 2016 Predator Masters Convention is upon us, once again being held in the southern Arizona city of Tucson. I'm excited about returning to Arizona, where a variety of predators/furbearers are available for sportsmen and women. I'm looking forward to chatting with hardcore predator hunters as well as representatives of some of the best companies in the industry, many of which are dedicated sponsors of this site and have donated generously of their wares to support us.

Though not officially underway until later this week, the Convention presents a good opportunity to use up some vacation doing what we all love - hunting predators - so I came over early to do just that. Today is travel day, plus a few hours in front of the boob tube watching the big game. I hit the road about noon or so and made pretty good time. Like last year, I passed what must be the vacation home of the Fraggles, cousins of Henson's Muppets.


I made it to Tucson by about 4:00. There was just enough cloud cover to keep the sun from completely blinding me to this view of Sentinel Peak.


I checked into the hotel just about kickoff time. A few other PMers were loitering, so we made a quick walk for some dinner. Now it's back to the room to finish the game and get a decent night's rest before hitting it hard tomorrow. I'm looking forward to a day of calling with matt1953 and Toro2269, then some afternoon/evening/night sets with AzDiamondHeat. Probably won't check back in here until Tuesday night, when I hope to share photos of Arizona's beautiful desert country, and with some luck, resident predators.

Good luck

Thanks Dave, your well wishing paid off.

Monday morning I met up with matt1953 and Toro2269. After a quick bite, we hit the road and headed east. Roadside trees swayed with a stiff breeze, which luckily laid down to rest about the time the sun came up. We made our way into some rugged state trust land for our first Arizona predator hunt of 2016.

Here's a sampling of the terrain we started out in. Beautiful but rugged country.


Our first stand was a bust, but on the second stand, bird sounds from the Shockwave brought in a pair, one of which got close enough to meet a cloud of 00 buck after getting a close up look at the spinning decoy.

See the call on the right and the coyote on the left?



It wasn't long before the wind returned in force. We toughed it out for a few more stands, but called it a day after lunch since we had to return to town for some other commitments. One of those was my planned meeting with AzDiamondHeat. We had arranged to meet up in the afternoon for some evening and night stands. Neither of us is well-versed in night calling (it's not really legal in NM from whence I come and has just recently become legal for coyotes in a few hunting units in AZ), so I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise that a half-dozen stands turned up nothing but a red haze in the air.


We were disappointed to miss our chance at getting a nighttime coyote, but vowed to hit it hard the next day after a few hours of sleep. Morning came, and once again the wind was howling before daybreak, but calmed in time to start hunting. We began our first stand before the sun came up in a large creosote-filled flat with plenty of sign. That evidence of coyotes wasn't enough though - we turned up a blank. And then we turned up some more blanks. By mid-morning, we were out of the lower flat country and deeper in the rugged foothills.

It was my turn to call when we peaked over a hill and down a steep embankment into a wide, brush-filled draw that called out to our inner predator hunters. I stumbled my way down the steep hill to place the Shockwave on a flat rock in the middle of the sandy draw where it would be easily seen by us and hopefully by something furry. After clambering back up to the top of the rise, I started off with bird sounds, then played some bunny blues, then back to the birds. I'd been calling for about 20 minutes or so and was about to give up, again, when a stealthy shape seemed to appear out of nowhere. I had to look twice to confirm that it was a bobcat and not my imagination! I have never called in a cat, so I my heart immediately started to beat faster with a shot of adrenaline. AzDH, being the consummate host, let me take the shot when the cat stopped just feet from the call. The 2010 Egg Shoot gun broke the silence and the bobcat jumped straight up in the air, took about three steps, and stopped to look back at the caller, which was now playing annoying coyote kiyis. Silently cussing myself for apparently missing what should have been a simple 50-yard chip shot, I lined up the crosshairs on the cat's shoulder and fired shot number two. This time he did as he was supposed to and collapsed in a heap. I was so stoked that I negleted to get the "view from here" photograph. In fact, I nearly ran off the hill without my gear, but AzDH reined me in and we made our way down with a bit more care than I started out with. Within minutes, I was able to lay hands on my first bobcat. What a beautiful animal, and a true treat to have taken him with a good friend.





We strung him up on the critter toter for the recovery and headed back out to the truck.



After tending to the cat and having a bite of lunch, we got back to calling. Despite working some great looking stands, we failed to turn up another critter. We called it a day at about 4:30 so we could get back to base, load up our gear in separate trucks, and part ways.

I must thank AzDiamondHeat for sharing his base of operations and showing this out-of-stater his stomping grounds and the hows and whys of calling in this cactus-rich environment. I enjoyed the day and look forward to our next outing.

But now I need to get some sleep to prepare for more tomorrow. There's more fur out in them there hills!

Great reading Troy. Rick

Thanks for sharing your story-Enjoyed your hunt-Grats on your Cat--

Great story Troy thanks for sharing, and congrats on a gorgeous kitty, Keep us posted.

It is ALWAYS good times hunting with Troy.

And now, for the REST of the story....lol

Weather predicted HOT and windy. I told troy we would be hard pressed to see anything after early morning, but if the weather was as predicted we COULD see a cat. The area we were calling was very catty so I thought we had a chance. Ironically, the stand where the cat came in was just about the LEAST catty of all the stands we did. GO figure.

Funny enough, when we set up Troy trudged his way down to the bottom of this big wash to set the call up in the middle. As he climbed back up he actually said, and I quote: "I am NOT climbing back up that hill without a bobcat!". NOT kidding. Troy called his shot.

For the record, I wasn't being THAT great of a host by "letting" Troy shoot. The fact is I was over-gunned and would have blown it up. Had I the proper rifle I would have shot it in an instant(I DID see it first!) just to rub it in his face and watch him cry. lol. Actually I barely even lifted my rifle after I asked if he was on it and he replied in the affirmative. Troy never misses.

Last year Troy said he had never shot a grey fox. So we went out and called all day and called A grey fox that he subsequently put down. This year, as we were heading out he mentioned that he had never shot a bobcat. So we called ALL DAY(and the night before) and called in A bobcat which he subsequently put down.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Troy, NEXT YEAR tell me that you have yet to shoot a pair of big tom lions!!!

Nice cat!

Great cat and write up Troy!! Get them hand calls out and call in another one!!

Will do!

That blue antler call I got from you hangs from the same lanyard as my Shockwave remote and gets used in conjunction pretty often; just not on this particular stand.

I will definitely try to arrange that. You find a hill that I won't climb back up without one, or two, and we'll go give 'em he!!.

Awesome! Nice going guys.

Arizona predator trifecta? Check.

Mastery of Photobucket. Err, not. I'm really starting to not like Photobuck and it's orientation edit feature. If any of these pictures show up 90 degrees off, please rotate your head or skip those that offend.

A couple weeks ago I reached out to SnowmanMo from Predator Technology Group in an attempt to take him up on last year's offer of a day hunt. (Aside - if you need a great AR or replacement trigger for your current evil black rifle, look no further than PTG. Mo and crew will definitely take care of you.) Mo was able to adjust his schedule to free up some time for a hunt this morning. We met at the hotel, loaded up my gear in his truck, and headed out for some calling.

Less than an hour later we parked the truck, moved gear to Mo's butt-kickin' Kawasaki Mule, and roared off into the desert in search of furry critters. A few miles later, we left suburbia behind and found a place to park the Mule for our first stand. I thought it was a good sign when I saw this gal right off the bat. At least some game was out and about.


We sneaked up a small draw into the rocks and found a good place to set up. Mo sent me a bit further up the hill, with instructions to hang his little FoxPro from a branch half way between him and me. He told me to watch the adjacent hillside and the narrow canyon before us because a fox would come from one of those two places. Not one to argue with past successes (check Mo's posts!), I did just that. With shotgun in hand, I hung the call then found a nice prickly bush to snuggle up against. About seven minutes into the stand, I spied a grey fox moving down the very canyon Mo pointed out. As the fox disappeared behind some other prickly bush, I quickly calculated his approach to the caller and readied my Mossberg. When he reappeared, I was ready and sent a charge of #4 buck his way. At less than 20 yards, he didn't stand a chance. My second grey fox was in the bag.


Mo called for a while longer, but no more fur was to be had on this stand. I collected my fox...


...and met Mo for our walk back to the Mule, where we posed for the obligatory Snowman hero shot (see the little snowman on the Mule skid plate?).


We stowed the fox aboard the Mule to be skinned later and puttered on up the trail looking for another likely looking spot. We found one a little higher in the foothills and stashed the buggy before a short hike out into the desert. Once again we split up, with the call between us. Mo bushed up watching uphill, while I tucked into the shade of a large boulder looking down in a canyon from which we hoped a cat or fox would come. Mo fired up the Scorpion and within five minutes I spotted something grey moving in the brush about 50 yards out. I couldn't clearly identify it right away, but about a minute later a cottontail rabbit hopped on his merry way. Disappointed that it wasn't a furbearer of some type, I went back to scanning, switching my attention between the vista ahead and the call behind. After one such glance back, I turned around to find a fox perched upon a rock just 25 yards away. I froze and we had a short stare-down before he hopped of the rock. While he was in the brush, I moved slightly to reposition my rifle in his direction. I peered through my scope and was able to spot the fox concealed in some brush. With some fine tuning, I found a small gap in the brush through which I could see the fox. Fearing that the 53 grain Vmaxes would be less than fur-friendly, I waited until I was sure he was facing me straight on, then I centered the crosshairs on his chest and pulled the last of the slack from my PTG trigger. I didn't see the fox fall in the brush, but I was confident of a good hit as I went back to scanning for additional animals. A few more minutes of calling brought nothing else in, so I collected and admired another beautiful Arizona grey fox.


After this sunny stand, we had to ditch some clothes before loading up and looking for another stand location. Unfortunately, we encountered impassable terrain (even for the billy goat-like Mule) and had to turn back. We boogied out of this area, loaded the Mule on the trailer, and traveled a short distance to another area Mo wanted to check out.


After a short Mule ride in, we found a nice place to set up and eased into the brush. While placing the call, a somewhat disruptive hiker passed by, hollering "Don't kill anything" and "Leave the animals alone." We waited for things to settle down, but in the end, disruptive hiker lady got her way - we didn't call anything in at this location. By this time it was getting hot and windy, so we called it a day and headed back to the truck. Though we made only three stands, we called in a couple nice foxes and scouted some new country, hopefully laying the groundwork for successful future stands.

At the trailhead, we took a few minutes to get a picture of both foxes before skinning them out.


I had a couple spare hours in the afternoon, so I hit Sportsman's Warehouse for some camo wrap (to tone down my clanking Critter Sitter). Lo and behold, I also scored a five-pound keg of Reloader 19, which I haven't seen on the shelf for a long time. Getting a good supply of one of my favorite powders was nearly as exciting as getting a bobcat or fox! Well, okay, not really, but you get the picture.

Back at the hotel, I listened in as an Arizona Game Warden briefed us on the ins and outs of predator hunting in Arizona. From there, I wandered across the street for dinner, where I bumped into JB from EOTech, who's in town to speak at the Convention and show off some of his company's goodies. I can't wait to hear and see what JB has to offer later in the week. We can always count on EOTech to regale us with some fun hunting tales and showcase some wonderful gadgetry.

That's it. Day three is over. Tomorrow the search for Arizona furbearers continues...

Troy, you're having entirely too much fun LOL

Good to see you've had a couple of great day in the field.

Congrats on getting all three! Now go get some bonus critters!