Outdoorsmen Adventures.com

There’s nothing more exciting than calling predators as you never know what might come calling, as there are all types of predators out there.

That’s what we found out a couple of weeks ago when we called predators in the Sandhills near Mullen, NE.

The word predator is defined as: a carnivore, an animal that lives by capturing and eating other animals.

According to that definition, a predator can be any number of things.

When it gets right down to it, we humans are predators as are mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, fox, badgers as well as lions and tigers and bears “OH My”.

Depending on the location you’re doing the calling from, you might be surprised by what comes to the call.

Of course these aren’t the only critters that, once hearing the sound of distressed rabbit, fawn or other animal, will come running to investigate, taking advantage of another animals unfortunate situation.

It’s not unusual for deer, which are curious critters to come into a predator call as it has happened to us numerous times, especially when you’re in Mule Deer territory.

There are numerous other animals/birds out there that are opportunists and will eat what ever happens to be available.

Raccoons and skunks are a couple of the furry critters that will come in if they’re within hearing distance as well as hawks, eagles and owls, so you need to be ready for almost anything.… Continue reading

Reprinted from the Sioux City Journal

MULLEN, Neb. — Gary Howey spotted the coyote first. It was so far away it looked like a black spot moving across the snow.

Andy Glidden stopped the truck and we watched the dog cross the flat and disappear into the hills.

“We have permission to hunt that ranch,” Andy said.

We drove on, found a gate and entered the property.

We drove in about a quarter mile then parked the truck in a depression and began walking.

We were looking for a good place to set up, but that wasn’t happening.

We walked on.

Suddenly two doe mulies popped up on a hillside one hundred yards away.

We froze. If those deer spooked, our chances at the coyote would diminish. After looking us over for several minutes, the does trotted off, unalarmed.

Then we found the spot. The hillside dropped away onto a flatland and we set up the Fox Pro electronic caller and went to work.

“Coyote at 11 o’clock,” Andy said a few moments later. “200 yards.”

He had come in from our left side and managed to almost get downwind before we saw him.… Continue reading

It was well after noon when we arrived at the Sandhills Motel in Mullen, NE. www.gliddencanoerental.com which would be our headquarters for our first Midwinter predator hunt of 2010.

After unloading our extra gear and changing into our snow camo, we pointed the pickup south out into the Sandhills where we’d look for areas the cattle were using as cattle always attract coyotes.

As we turned off the blacktop, proceeding through the Sandhills, I spotted something working its way across the alfalfa field to our left.

Through our binoculars, we spotted the first coyote of the trip hunting his way through the meadow.

He headed west into the hills, so we tried to figure out how far ahead of it we’d have to be in order to set up and call.

A gate ½ mile down the road was the only entry into the field, so we drove in, parked the pickup and proceeded to hike off across the hills looking for a spot suitable for calling.

Calling coyotes is not all that difficult; it all depends on the terrain you’re hunting and the number of individuals you need to hide.… Continue reading

With the winter weather that we’ve gotten this year, hunters know that this is the ideal time to start calling predator.

I remember my first Nebraska predator-calling trip like it was yesterday.  A friend of mine from Omaha who works as a manufacturer’s representative for a call company was on his way north one afternoon and asked if I’d like to try calling coyotes.

I’m game for anything, so I told him why not. I figured we had a couple of hours of daylight left and with the new snow on the ground; we could easily spot the coyotes.

As the sun had just set he pulled into the driveway and I figured our hunting opportunity had just disappeared along with the sun.

Well, I was mistaken as he planned on hunting after “dark”, with the two of us sitting back to back on a snow covered hillside, calling and howling at the coyotes, using the light of the full moon to spot them as they came in.

Since I hadn’t gotten back from the military  all that long ago, I wasn’t too happy about sitting on a hillside in the dark, waiting for some outraged coyote to jump me.

Too make a long story short, on one of our first set ups, he howled in a “Pack” of coyotes, intent on kicking the heck out of whomever or whatever was making all that racket.… Continue reading

I noticed them while scanning the horizon with my binoculars.  They were coming out of the west, a good dozen Snow Geese in the lead flock with several others filling in behind them.

They were nosebleed high and didn’t look interested in setting down, but I had to try them as it had been a slow day and this was the closest birds that I’d seen.

I fired up the electronic call, a Fox Pro Fury and cranked the volume up as the wind was really churning things up.

As they approached, it appeared as if they were loosing altitude, getting closer with every wing beat.

I kept the call going, changing back and forth between several different Snow Goose calls.

As they neared our spread, I cut back on the volume as the racket the geese were making was deafening and they wouldn’t be able to hear the call above all the racket they were making.

With each wide swing they made, they dropped a few more yards and then the lead geese folded its wings, dropped twenty yards and then made the final approach into the spread.

The lead geese gilded over our pit blind, just clearing the top of the blind landing directly behind us as the remainder of the flock set their wings sliding into position to land in our decoy spread that laid out in front of us.… Continue reading

Anyone who’s spent much time in the woods, setting and waiting for that big Tom or buck to appear knows the key to filling your permit is your ability to set still for long period of times.

Setting in one spot can be awfully hard on your posterior as well as being cold and damp.

On a recent turkey hunting trip, I had the opportunity to use the Air Saddle, a compact inflatable hunter’s seat that packs in and out easily. Since it doesn’t need to be inflated

until you reach your hunting spot, you aren’t lugging any extra weight.

Shaped like a saddle, this camouflaged seat, allows you to set for extended period of times… Continue reading

Andy’s remote control caller had just completed its first rabbit squeal, when a lone coyote appeared over the rise, slowed to a trot and then cautiously moved up to within a hundred yards of us to look the situation over.

Our Mini-Supreme-Extreme decoy had caught his attention and since he wasn’t quite sure about this little fuzzy creature was; he paused to take a better look.

Andy Glidden, Ainsworth, NE was manning our right flank with his shotgun ready for any coyote that charged the decoy and our caller while Larry Myhre; Sioux City, IA covered the left flank with the 243 rifle.

I was perched in the blowout just slightly above them manning the camera.

The coyote was cautiously checking things out and about the time the coyote looked as if he was ready to bolt; Andy called the shot letting Larry know it was time to take the coyote out.

The crack of our Howa 243 echoed through the valley as the coyote dropped down, then shot straight up and then spun around in the air making tracks in the direction from which he’d first appeared

The shot had caught the coyote a bit low, but enough to put it out of commission.

Our headquarters on this trip would be Mullen, Nebraska, which is located in the central part of the state in Nebraska’s Sandhills.

This is cattle country and we were hunting during the calving season which meant that the majority of the coyotes found in the area would be hanging around the cattle, hoping for an easy meal.

It was late winter, coyote mating season, so our chances of calling in multiple coyotes at each set were pretty good.

Andy was a seasoned predator caller with numerous coyotes and bobcats to his credit.

His preferred method of calling and taking predators was to use his remote controlled Fox Pro digital caller (www.gofoxpro.com) to entice the critters into either shotgun or rifle range.

We’d arrived at Mitch & Patty Glidden’s Sandhills Motel (www.sandhillsmotel.com) in Mullen, around lunchtime, changed into our camo; grabbed a quick sandwich and then headed south into the hills.… Continue reading