Called a wolf in WMU326
Was out in 326 yesterday looking for a doe to put in the freezer. Didn't see anything most of the morning, then found one on a trail around noon. She spooked and moved down the trail but not very fast and I could hear her stop and turn, probably trying to figure out what was on the trail behind her. So I decided to make use of my grunt tube and see if she would come back to have a look. Give three good grunts and wait about 5 minutes. Move about 20 yards down the trail and give another three grunts and repeat again.
Well after the third set of calls I take a couple steps and see something big and gray/tan moving through the trees. Big wolf was slowly circling probably trying to get down wind I think. So I kneel down and take aim at an opening in the trees and wait for him to step into my cross hairs. Wait a for a few seconds and he doesn't show. So I move a couple of steps to my left to see if I can spot him and he's looking at my buddy who is back behind me about 30 yards. Well I start to bring the rifle to my shoulder and he sees me and starts to move back the way he came. Now he didn't run flat out away from us and I'm following him through the trees with my scope as he trots in a wide circle. He comes to a stop about 40 yards away, but I can't see his head. I aimed for the center of his mass and squeezed the trigger. My friend was watching from a better angle and saw the wolf take off down the hill after the shot. Looked at where I had fired the shot and there was no blood to be found, no hair either.
Followed his tracks in the moss for about 45 minutes covering about 400-500 yards without a single drop of blood to be found and the tracks were long like he had been running the whole way. I'm still not convinced I missed the shot but certainly doesn't seem like I connected. Maybe just a little to excited, I don't know. Anyways as we are deciding if we should keep following the tracks, the howling from a pack starts up from the direction of a nearby stream. The pack starts moving and in about 10 minutes it has made it almost 2km around us as we hear it howling from a little valley we had walked along the top of in the morning. Figure the wolf probably made it back to its pack and they decided to move along.
On the way out we found a couple of trails where the wolves have been traveling fairly regularly with LOTS of hair rubbed off on fallen trees and branches. Certainly thinking about going back there with a predator call and seeing what happens. Maybe somebody who's a better predator hunter than myself might have some suggestions or even be up for a day hunt in the area. I'm a bit curious at what I might have been able to do to get a better opportunity as well?
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