 ALLEN
MORRIS AND PREDATOR HUNTING
Predator Hunting 103 – The Hunt
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.
I just took second place in the World Predator Hunt
in Elko, Nevada, in January 2006. There were 72, two-man
teams in this contest. Another team from Utah beat us
by 10 minutes. My partner and I took 13 coyotes in a
day and a half, and our strategy was simple. Everyone
on the hunt was talking about how many coyotes they
were seeing. Most teams had found plenty of coyotes
to hunt. However, most predator hunters hunt like most
other predator hunters and buy high-powered rifles with
big scopes, which will allow them to take a coyote at
200 to 300 yards. They believe if they see a coyote
at a long distance, they should be able to shoot him.
Naturally, they believe that the more land you see,
the greater your odds are for taking coyotes. My partner
and I decided to hunt just the opposite way. We decided
that we only needed to see 50 or 60 yards to take a
coyote with a shotgun. Therefore, we started calling
areas that had heavy sagebrush. We were calling coyotes
in places that other hunters were driving past because
they were looking for the classic coyote stand where
they could see great distances. A classic coyote stand
will be on top of a little hill 15 to 20 feet above
a big flat that is relatively open where you can see
200 to 400 yards in all directions. You should be able
to see almost 180 degrees out in front of you, and your
buddy on a little knob behind you should be able to
see the 180 degrees that you can’t. By using this
type of setup, one of you should be able to see and
take any predator that  comes
within range. This is a perfect coyote stand, but my
partner and I avoid those types of stands. I sit on
the Hunter’s Specialties’ Tripod, an elevated
stool. I have my shotgun at the ready, and I call toward
the heavy sage.
One of the advantages of calling in this type of cover
is that most hunters won’t try and get this close
to a coyote, and most hunters also won’t call
to them in a section of land this thick. These coyotes
haven’t heard any predator calling like the coyotes
have heard from those classical stand sites. I’ll
put my partner 70-yards upwind of me and let him call.
We’ll both be at the ready with our shotguns.
Most of the coyotes we take are with shotguns. We carry
our rifles with us too. I believe most predator hunters
prefer to shoot rifles than shotguns, and they’d
rather hunt wide-open spaces instead of thick brush.
We would’ve won the World Championship this year
if we had killed just one more coyote or arrived at
the check-in station quicker. Taking second place with
more than 70 teams is not a bad finish. We’re
really proud that we were able to do that well in that
contest. The first-place team had 13 coyotes. We had
13 coyotes in second place. The third-place team had
11 coyotes, and the fourth-place team had seven coyotes.
I think we did well by hunting those thick-cover areas.
 I’m
beginning to learn that the places that look like where
you can set up and call a coyote are the spots getting
the most coyote pressure. The nasty-looking areas with
a lot of thick cover where you can only see 50 to 60
yards are the places that receive the least amount of
hunting pressure. Therefore, in these regions, the coyotes
are more willing to come to the call. By scouting, I’m
learning that the highest density of coyotes is usually
in the areas with the thickest cover.
To learn more about Hunter’s Specialties’
predator products, go to www.hunterspec.com.
TOMORROW: CALLING AND SHOOTING
PREDATORS
|
