 ALLEN
MORRIS AND PREDATOR HUNTING
Calling and Shooting Predators
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’ve
heard western predator hunters complain that they don’t
have these vast open places to hunt coyotes like the
hunters in the East do. However, I believe if the western
hunters will start hunting with a shotgun and partner
they can take more coyotes. If you set up your partner
75- to 100-yards away and downwind of the caller, then
you’re going to take more coyotes. A coyote that
circles 100- to 200-yards downwind of a caller will
be tough to see and tough to take. If you have your
partner set up downwind, the partner can take the coyotes
that the caller never sees. Setting up on the edge of
a creek bank so that the coyote has to come down the
other side of the creek bank is an ideal type of setup
for the partner to be able to see and take the coyotes
that the caller never sees. If your thick cover is across
the creek, then you know that the coyote will have to
come to that creek bank to get to that animal he thinks
is in distress. This tactic is productive to use with
a partner. You have to remember that 70 percent of a
coyote’s diet is made up of mammals that live
in the ground - rates, mice and moles. All those animals
like to live in thick cover. Therefore, your odds of
taking coyotes are 70-percent better when you’re
hunting thick cover than when you’re hunting open
terrain. You have to remember that we are breeding smarter
coyotes than the ones we hunted in years past. Predator
hunting has become popular, and we have such good equipment
now. Most of your predator hunters want to use those
new rifles, those new scopes, those new binoculars and
those new predator callers to take coyotes in open country
at 200 to 300 yards. Most hunters like to shoot .22/250s
that are enhanced with the latest and greatest bullets
ever developed when these coyotes come running in across
open country. However, these coyotes are the ones that
die quickly. Therefore, the only coyotes left to breed
are the ones that are staying in thick cover. Smart
coyotes live in thick cover and breed. The coyote is
a tremendously adaptable animal that has the ability
to learn how to avoid a lead  encounter.
If you are going to take more coyotes, you have to hunt
them in places where most predator hunters don’t
want to hunt. Most of today’s predator hunters
don’t want to get in thick cover, and don’t
want to use shotguns. That’s where we’ve
been the most successful.
I shoot the Benelli Super Black Eagle 2. I use Winchester
Supreme .00 buckshot, and No. 4 buckshot. I can take
the coyotes up to 50 yards easily. I carry a rifle with
me also in case a coyote is hung up at 50 yards, and
will not come in; this gives me a chance to rifle him.
My favorite call this year has been Hunter’s Specialties
CYC1, which is a mouth-blown open-reed coyote dog howler.
If there is one call a coyote hunter needs in his arsenal
of calls, it’s this call because it will make
every sound that a coyote makes, and it will produce
the sounds of a cottontail in distress, a jackrabbit
in distress, a doe deer, a fawn deer and a mouse squeak.
Eight of the 13 coyotes we killed in the World Championship
this year we took using this call. The other coyotes
were taken with the Hunter’s Specialties’
PC1, which is a variable-pitch caller, and the PC7,
which is a rabbit-in-distress call. If you prefer an
electronic call, I recommend Hunter’s Specialties’
PreyMaster. My two favorite rabbit sounds for this electronic
caller are the Grown  Cottontail
or the Vittle’s A’la Jackrabbit, but I also
like to use the Kid Goat Distress call. The Prey Master
can also be used as a locator call to locate coyotes
by imitating the sound of groups of coyotes howling.
Now that deer season is over, and turkey season has
not begun in many states, give predator calling a try.
I know if you try it, you’ll love it like I do.
To learn more about Hunter’s Specialties’
predator products, go to www.hunterspec.com.
|
