So I was lucky enough to snag a highly coveted wolf tag for Minnesota's first wolf hunt. When the tags were put on sale at noon that day I was lucky enough to be first inline at the local gas station, I couldn't believe there was a line. But when the tags sold out in about 30 seconds after being available, I understood.
A friend has property up north and said they have seen one or two over the years while out deer hunting, so I figured that would be my best chance at maybe seeing one. Little did I know what I was in for. For this trip I invited a good friend and fellow Hide member to come along.
Being neither of us knew the first thing about wolf hunting, we figured we go at them like coyotes to start, we had an understanding that if a wolf showed up I'd shoot as I had the tag, but if any other predator responded to the call they were all his. We had low expectations of the outcome of the hunt as muzzleloader season was in full swing still, and we were required by law to wear blaze orange.
Thursday night, the second week of the season we both arrived in camp. Armed with left over butchered carcasses and one roadkill we made two separate bait sites where the wolves had been spotted in the past. We decided to leave these sites alone for the first day to let the critters find them.
Friday morning came early, our first stand down by a frozen river come up empty, but hopes were high when we found very fresh wolf, coyote and fox tracks littering the river banks.
On the second set of the day we found a thicket edge, and a trail that we could get in and out of the area quietly. We setup about 80yrds apart with the Foxpro caller between us. With the call blasting a dieing cottontail in my usual routine, I glanced down at the timer, we had been on stand for about 25 minutes. Just as I was thinking about moving on, I noticed movement off to my right in the thicket. There before me, sneaking through, was the first wolf I had ever seen in the wild.
He was moving with speed and grace unlike any coyote I had ever seen, and I was a little taken back at the size of the animal. As the timber wolf crossed in front of me from right to left I struggled to find a hole in the thicket to get that bullet through, but to no avail, he was moving to fast. I helplessly watched as a mere 60yrds away this animal approached the call, in my hast of trying to get a shot off I made a rookie mistake and didn't shut off the caller, it didn't take him long to pin-point the caller's location and spot the blaze orange of my partner. The next thing I see is him leaving just as fast as he came, heading straight away.
Unfortunately my partner never got to even see the animal. After finding the tracks it was clear the wolf had snuck in within 50yards of my partner, but because of a brush pile and the extreme denseness of the thicket, he snuck back out unnoticed.
Through out the day we made several different stands, using a variety of cottontail, jack rabbit and deer bleat calls. But no other critters showed. We blamed it on the fact we both were wearing large amounts of blaze orange.
The next couple days we hunted and scouted hard. The bait piles never were hit by anything but eagles and ravens. fresh snow and trailcam pics concurred, not a single canine visited the bait piles.
During our scouting we found drainage ditches once used years ago to try and drain excess water from large tracks of public land in hopes of farming purposes. we found that these drainage ditches acted like a super-highway for the wolves. They could cover large amounts of ground without having to fight the thickness of the brush. In the fresh snow it was evident that the wolves were using them, as they were littered with tracks.
On the later part of Saturday we decided to focus on these areas. After our first stand produced nothing, we walked a few hundred yards down the trail, where we found an advantage point. Even with being so close to the first stand location we decided to try it. After 20 minutes of no luck we decided to start our hike back, as it was getting dark and we were a good distance from the truck in unfamiliar territory. As we walked past our first stand location, we noticed a disturbing discovery. In our short absence, three wolves had cut our tracks, and walked right past were my butt print was in the snow.
As we stood there staring at the tracks, no doubt wondering who was hunting who, howling broke out a short distance into the pine trees on the right side of the picture. From what we could gather there was three of them, the three that most likely crossed our trail. At this point it was well past legal shooting, and darkness only found in the depth of the forest was setting in. We wasted no time in hightailing back to the truck.
Sunday we were only able to hunt a short time, with no other sightings we broke camp with a wealth of knowledge gained and a plan to return the following weekend.
Shown in the pictures is a 30-06 cartridge.
Copyright © 2012 Melberg All Rights Reserved
A friend has property up north and said they have seen one or two over the years while out deer hunting, so I figured that would be my best chance at maybe seeing one. Little did I know what I was in for. For this trip I invited a good friend and fellow Hide member to come along.
Being neither of us knew the first thing about wolf hunting, we figured we go at them like coyotes to start, we had an understanding that if a wolf showed up I'd shoot as I had the tag, but if any other predator responded to the call they were all his. We had low expectations of the outcome of the hunt as muzzleloader season was in full swing still, and we were required by law to wear blaze orange.
Thursday night, the second week of the season we both arrived in camp. Armed with left over butchered carcasses and one roadkill we made two separate bait sites where the wolves had been spotted in the past. We decided to leave these sites alone for the first day to let the critters find them.
Friday morning came early, our first stand down by a frozen river come up empty, but hopes were high when we found very fresh wolf, coyote and fox tracks littering the river banks.
On the second set of the day we found a thicket edge, and a trail that we could get in and out of the area quietly. We setup about 80yrds apart with the Foxpro caller between us. With the call blasting a dieing cottontail in my usual routine, I glanced down at the timer, we had been on stand for about 25 minutes. Just as I was thinking about moving on, I noticed movement off to my right in the thicket. There before me, sneaking through, was the first wolf I had ever seen in the wild.
He was moving with speed and grace unlike any coyote I had ever seen, and I was a little taken back at the size of the animal. As the timber wolf crossed in front of me from right to left I struggled to find a hole in the thicket to get that bullet through, but to no avail, he was moving to fast. I helplessly watched as a mere 60yrds away this animal approached the call, in my hast of trying to get a shot off I made a rookie mistake and didn't shut off the caller, it didn't take him long to pin-point the caller's location and spot the blaze orange of my partner. The next thing I see is him leaving just as fast as he came, heading straight away.
Unfortunately my partner never got to even see the animal. After finding the tracks it was clear the wolf had snuck in within 50yards of my partner, but because of a brush pile and the extreme denseness of the thicket, he snuck back out unnoticed.
Through out the day we made several different stands, using a variety of cottontail, jack rabbit and deer bleat calls. But no other critters showed. We blamed it on the fact we both were wearing large amounts of blaze orange.
The next couple days we hunted and scouted hard. The bait piles never were hit by anything but eagles and ravens. fresh snow and trailcam pics concurred, not a single canine visited the bait piles.
During our scouting we found drainage ditches once used years ago to try and drain excess water from large tracks of public land in hopes of farming purposes. we found that these drainage ditches acted like a super-highway for the wolves. They could cover large amounts of ground without having to fight the thickness of the brush. In the fresh snow it was evident that the wolves were using them, as they were littered with tracks.
On the later part of Saturday we decided to focus on these areas. After our first stand produced nothing, we walked a few hundred yards down the trail, where we found an advantage point. Even with being so close to the first stand location we decided to try it. After 20 minutes of no luck we decided to start our hike back, as it was getting dark and we were a good distance from the truck in unfamiliar territory. As we walked past our first stand location, we noticed a disturbing discovery. In our short absence, three wolves had cut our tracks, and walked right past were my butt print was in the snow.
As we stood there staring at the tracks, no doubt wondering who was hunting who, howling broke out a short distance into the pine trees on the right side of the picture. From what we could gather there was three of them, the three that most likely crossed our trail. At this point it was well past legal shooting, and darkness only found in the depth of the forest was setting in. We wasted no time in hightailing back to the truck.
Sunday we were only able to hunt a short time, with no other sightings we broke camp with a wealth of knowledge gained and a plan to return the following weekend.
Shown in the pictures is a 30-06 cartridge.
Copyright © 2012 Melberg All Rights Reserved
