Didn't get one

Whitetail hunted all Friday then at dark the wolves started howling. Saturday a.m. I took the blind and the predator call and headed south closer to where they were howling from. Set up the blind and the call and worked it for 3 hours before getting the message they were not coming in to calling.

Gonna get one of these buggers soon. In the past I have just voice howled at them not calls. They do not seem to respond to any calls. But when I get them howling I get one of two things, they wait until dark then come in, or they split up and go the opposite way. I have found that pursuing them is a waste the swamp land is frozen and or too wet and way to noisy.

Any help, Ideas, or advice would be welcome. I will typically wait until I hear them howl and know they are in the country before I pursue them. My experience tells me they are back in the same area about every 8 or so days. I don't know where they go when they leave the area. Last winter they kept up the 8 day cycle until about new years then they disappeared until April.

I have howled them in during the daylight but only had my bow when they broke into the meadow 250 yards off. I opted not to keep calling due to the fact that 2 went east of me 2 went west of me and 2 were coming straight at me and I didn't have that many arrows.

Taking all input and advice, Will keep you updated on the learning experiences.

oz

I've tried calling for a few years, trapping with a motion camera on the trap sets as well. 2 years ago I watched a wolf step on the jaw of the trap when he committed to investigating it. He worked the set for 10 minutes but never came in that last few inches to catch. They are definitely more cautious than I anticipated. Note to self set them further back. When calling I've used howls with similar results to your's. When I've used coyote howls they just ran up to a ridge and started looking around. Perhaps they need a visual to come in to that as well. I talked to a coworker the other day and he stated the wolves he was pursuing had a 7-8 day cycle to return. He started studying their routes and times more than trying to attract them. He found a meadow with a natural funnel and that's where he waited until they came back. He missed a black one by inches at 400 yards. I'm not going to lie, the one I shot was 50% hunting skill and 50% LUCK! I just happened to have topography and being in the right place at the right time.

I drew a tag when MN had their first wolf hunt in 2012. I had them howling around me and called with a fawn-in-distress call followed by coyote yips. A 120 pound male came running in and I shot him at 5 yards. Something like that may be worth a shot. It's too bad the courts shut down our season. The population is so dense here that it made for a fun hunt.

Firedude I have not taken the required trapping class, but will be doing so. I'm sure I will have a bunch more questions at that time for I have never trapped. I am very much looking forward to learning to trap though. I have a great place to do that.

Studying their routes? I think I will just wait for snow and start following them with the intent that next year I will know where they go when they leave my place. That way I could hang out on my place until they are there and then set up an ambush for them when they leave. I like that Idea but it is going to be a big time investment, following and mapping out where they go, Also it seems like they do everything at night.

NoWiser I feel like an idiot, I didn't think of mixing the calls I spent 3 hours with the fawn in distress, and I totally missed the boat because Friday night when I was on the deck listening to them howl, it wasn't but half hour later there was a coyote yipping not 100 yards off the deck. Infact I was hopeful that the coyote would be the reason they were still there in the morning. but no luck.


I have had no luck with electronic howls, or a howler tube, they don't even respond. Howling with my voice is the only thing that works, has anyone else had that experience? I do not know where travels take them and if maybe they are hearing electronic howls somewhere else and therefore not interested or they just have more important things to do.

thanks guys.
oz

Scott spent the better part of a summer and into hunting season getting their pattern down. He said trail cameras help a ton. He just started tracking how many days it took them to return to a kill or an area. Then planned his hunt around that. He set up the day before he expected them to return to a meadow on a kill site. Then waited and waited All day for 2 days.

No wolves to be found this weekend. I was sneaking back to where I know they frequent, ground was frozen with hoar frost therefore real noisy. I was taking a couple of steps and standing etc. etc. When a doe busted across the road, she had that can't catch me look in her eye so I waited for the buck that should be chasing her. There were two, noses to the ground hustling along through the thick lodgepole. Never bothered to look at the antlers, the scene looked like Chris Rock chasing Justin Bieber through the woods, the second one was a huge deer. The first buck stepped up onto the logging road and the doe shot back across the road going the other way and both bucks turned and went back down hill, not providing me a shot. Hate that when I already had him in the freezer and the antlers at the taxi. Oh well I have some time off this week I need to go into kill mode, been hunting since first of Sept. and not shooting at anything, So here we go time to ignore the wolves and fill the freezer.

oz