 ALLEN
MORRIS AND PREDATOR HUNTING
Getting started Predator Hunting
EDITOR’S NOTE: What does it take to become a
professional hunter, and get to travel the country doing
TV shows, putting on seminars, making videos and spending
most of your life as a hunter? What gives a predator
pro the credentials to stand before a group and speak
as an expert? Allen Morris of Springville, Utah, a Hunter’s
Specialties’ pro, has hunted coyotes for 28 years.
He has placed in the top 10 in the last nine World Championships
of Predator Hunting and came out second place in 2002.
Although Morris and his partner had the same number
of coyotes as the first-place team - 13 taken in 1-1/2-days,
the first-place team returned to the tournament site
10 minutes ahead of Morris. Since the contest is judged
on who takes the most coyotes the quickest, those 10
minutes were the difference between first place and
second place. However, no one can dispute that Allen
Morris is one of the best predator hunters in the nation.
This week, we’ll talk with Morris about hunting
predators.
 The
question I’m often asked in seminars is, “How
do you get started predator hunting?” My standard
answer is, “You need to study the animal.”
One of the biggest advantages that a first-time predator
hunter has today is that you can get instructional videos
like those Hunter’s Specialties makes. You can
learn from professional coyote hunters what coyotes
are likely to do and how to call them. You really need
to know where they live, what they eat, and what they
do at different times of the year. Remember that when
you’re calling any animal, you’re either
using the sound that they want to respond to or you’re
trying to reproduce a sound that they make. As a predator
caller, you can make the sounds of the animals that
the predators like to eat such as rabbits, doe or fawn
deer, mice and birds. You can also learn to howl and
make sounds like a coyote. One of the reasons that the
sport of predator hunting is growing is because you
not only can sound like a coyote, but you can also make
sounds of the animals that the coyote eats so that you
can take a shot at him. Nothing can be more exciting
than having an animal come running to you when you call.
 I
suggest that a first-time predator hunter purchase a
metal internal-reed jackrabbit or cottontail call and
use that call to make the sounds of a rabbit in distress.
I suggest an inexpensive call – for instance less
than $10 for a PC1 hand-blown call - because you can
use the rifle or shotgun that you have and that inexpensive
call and go coyote hunting. You can also wear Hunter’s
Specialties’ camouflage and use all of their odor-eliminating
products that you’ve bought for deer season. There
are very few hunting sports that you can get in to for
less than $10. The PC1, PC3 or PC7 from Hunter’s
Specialties all sell for less than $15, and all of them
will make the sound of a rabbit in distress. You can
blow on this rabbit-in-distress call just like you blow
on a kazoo, but you’re not going to call in any
coyotes with that type of blowing. However if you blow
from your diaphragm and put emotion in that call, you
can get coyotes, foxes, and bobcats to come to you.
Start off blowing the call softly, and then get louder
and louder. Use your hand as a cup over the end of the
call. You want to make that call sound like a baby crying.
When a baby cries they don’t give out one loud
blast as, “Whaaaaaaaaaaa!” When you blow
your predator call, don’t blow one long continuous
call. The way a baby cries is, “Wh-y, wh-y, wh-yyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”
There is no better training for a predator hunter than
to listen to a baby cry and try and produce those same
cries with a predator caller. I’ve actually known
predator hunters who’ve recorded their babies’
crying, taken that recording out in to the field, played
it and had coyotes come to the sounds. When the coyote
hears that baby cry, I don’t think he’s
smart enough to know that it’s a baby crying.
What he does know is there is some kind of critter in
distress. He can usually catch and eat any kind of critter
that is wounded, hurt or in pain. If you can cry like
a baby on a predator call, you can call in a coyote.
 Once
you’ve called in a bobcat or a coyote with a hand
call, you’re going to be hooked on predator hunting.
Once you get hooked on predator hunting, you may want
to start exploring electronic callers like the Hunter’s
Specialties’ PreyMaster and build a library of
sounds that’ll call coyotes. Even though the PreyMaster
costs a little over $100, once you’re hooked on
predator calling, getting one of the best electronic
callers on the market will definitely be in your future.
Once you get hooked on a hand caller, then the natural
evolution of a predator hunter is to buy an electronic
caller that will produce more and different sounds,
and can be operated remotely.
To learn more about Hunter’s Specialties’
predator products, go to www.hunterspec.com.
TOMORROW: PREDATOR HUNTING
102 – SETTING-UP
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