Let's hear your story...

[Ak_Predator]

Lately, been a little bored with the lack of posts coming through so I figured I'd start something up here. Let's hear about your favorite set on your line or stand while hunting.

Non-fiction please, so for those of you who whittle your own hand calls out of nature and hunker down inside frozen caribou carcasses, please refrain from sharing those crazy stories.

The story that comes to mind to me was my lynx last February. A met a dude through this forum and decided to take off on snowmachines after meeting for the first time at 430 that morning. Put in quite a few stands and came to our next spot.

"this place looks lynxy" i believe was the quote I remember right before we started that stand.

All our previous stands would start with some form of distress and end the stand with crows, indicating time to get up and move on. About half way through this stand I catch a lynx moving from my right to left about 200 yards out. I gave it another 5-10 minutes to appear. I kept scanning the area and eventually saw the cat about 40 yards directly in front of me but couldn't move to get on it with out it seeing me. Afraid that I'd spook it I kept still until it faded back into the brush. The crows sound off lettin me know my partner was about to stand up but not wanting him to stand up and bust this cat out of dodge, I quickly grab my hand call and start sounding off, hoping he'll clue in on what I was trying to do here. Never hunting with this guy before, I wasn't sure if he'd pick up on what's going on.

Luckily, I was successful in finding another avid hunter who knew EXACTLY what I was doing and he started in on his hand call, eventually firing back up on the E-caller. About 3-5 mins later, here comes the lynx, slinking back across from left to right about 180 yards now, where I dropped him in his tracks. Or so I thought. Right after the shot I look and didn't see anything, thinking he just simply collapsed in the snow.

My buddy comes up and asks if I got him and I tell him, "yeahs he's just out here a ways."

We go check it out and find right where he was standing when I shot. Sure enough there's no cat. Puzzled, we look around and I find some fur but no blood. After a few hundred yards of tracking his prints, we find him and take him out.

This story sticks out for a lot of reasons... A few...

1: two dudes who have a common interest of chasing fur, met for the first time and made it happen.

2: blindly, both of us were able to understand what we were doing in the middle of the stand without ever addressing the issue beforehand.

3: we didnt give up after not finding the cat initially.

lastly: that was the firs lynx I took while pred hunting...

 

[mod elan]

Once upon a time Dad was at work so Mom came out on the line to keep me company while checking traps. We came upon a missing long spring and it's drag. Hmmmm no trail from where it drug the log away. Uh oh, cats climb trees! About 25' up in a forked spruce was the lynx, trap and log. Don't go to the other side of the tree or it might jump and free the drag from the fork! Some maneuvering with the 22 took care of the situation. Turned out to be my biggest cat that year.

Fast forward toward the end of the line that day and find a wolverine. Whoa my first one and I wasn't getting anywhere near that thing! Everything in it's reach had been pulverized. I'm confident if I were to go back there today I could find that spot again. Dispatched it with the 22(or so we thought) and left it to pick up on our way back home. Came back through and it was rather irritated. Tried again and finally got it with a body shot. Later found out the safest place to be when an Italian made RG 22 is pointed at you is right in front of the barrel Also interesting find was how tough the wolverine skull is. 22's seem to glance off quite well.

This was one trip Dad sure wishes he was there for. My biggest cat and only wolverine. The wolverine is a full mount in the house

 

[seacowboy]

So I'm new to predator hunting in Alaska. Just decided to start trapping a little or trying at least. I got tired of hanging it up at the end of moose season and waiting all year for the opener.I went out with a friend to check my traps and do a little calling. We cut fresh coyote tracks and did some calling. We gave it about fourty minutes and moved up valley to find another spot. We cut FRESH wolf sign shortly after heading out, they were coming right to us and we moved too soon come to find out. We saw where they were coming in, then spotted us and paralleled us up the valley before getting flushed out by a skier coming down the valley. If we had just sat for a bit longer... It was fun though, lesson learned. Next time I'll give it a bit longer, AND go out on a weekday to hopefully avoid weekend outings by others. Wish me luck. If anyone has calling or lynx/ wolf trapping advice to share I'm all ears. Good luck out there!

 

[joefish00000]

well my story comes from my first predator hunt, and so far my best! it was early season, and i remember the exact date, nov 9th.. the day before lynx season.. my good freind kevin and i headed into the hills in his sprungover fj40 landcriuser on 39.5 18in boggers! I had just bought a foxpro spitfire unit and was eager to try it out! Kevin was more interested in finding a late season brown bear! so we made an agreement that if i was going to use the foxpro, he would have to gaurd me with his 338. So i set of my first stand ever on top of a little hill. I set the foxpro out about 10feet from me. I called using snowshoe2 for about 3 minutes to glance at the caller and see a beautiful red fox sitting about 5 fet from the caller just looking at it practicaly licking his lips! I slowly lifted my 22lr (that i had bought myself for christmas, my first gun) and aimed at the fox. I pulledthe trigger and hit him at the base of the neck. he started thrashing around and me being a little youngster ran up to him trying to figure out what to do next. Kevin can over and he helped me finish him off with a 22 to the head. I honestly couldnt believe what had happend! My first fox!

well the day gets better. after kevin showing and teaching me how to skin the fox, we sat down and enjoyed a delicious lunch of moose sticks from that fall. then we moved on and drove up over near another small knoll. I set up the caller and began to call. i called and called and called.. meanwhile my friend kevin was 150 yards awat trying to glass for bears. i kept calling.. then after being sure that nothing was comming in i stoped the caller.. Then i heard a whistle? I was like what the?.. It was kevin, trying to get my attention! I stood up and saw what he was trying to tell me! there was a gorgeous lynx sitting literaly 10ft behind me!! I was in shock! Instinctively i raised my gun and aimed! but then i realized it was the day before lynx season.. i lowered my gun as the lynx walked away. this is what is intersting to me, it didnt run, it somewhat "pranced" away. i was pretty bummed that i was unable to shoot that lynx. i had him dead to rights.. oh well i was estatic. my first two stands ever produced a lynx anda fox!!

 

[Smokey]

When I was about 15 yrs old I was running a m'rat line in a small creek. One day a friend offered to tag along and carry the furs in a woven back pack as I had hurt one of my hands the night before fooling around with a knife. So, I would take out the rats and remake the set and he followed picking them up. We had a mile of ditch to run and a good run would produce maybe 20 rats. Some were in stoploss legholds and had to be clunked on the head. So, I get a little ahead of my "bearer" and am looking back at him off of a small field bridge when he starts a new dance fashion we'll call the muskrat hop! It seems one of the "dead" rats I left for him wasn't so dead and came to trying to crawl over his shoulder!!! I found much more humor in the situation then he did!