John's Journal...

How to Have All the Hunting Land You Want to Hunt

Click to enlargeHunt Predators – One of America’s Fastest-Growing Sports

Editor’s Note: Do you want to have all the land you need to hunt and even more? Instead of you looking for land to hunt, how about if farmers and ranchers call you to come hunt their properties? Predator hunters often enjoy these kinds of perks. When coyotes, raccoons, bobcats, foxes and/or feral hogs create problems for landowners, deer hunters and turkey hunters, anyone who can remove these predators generally has an open-ended invitation and a warm welcome awaiting him to hunt new property. Predators kill and eat newborn livestock, including calves, lambs, goats, deer fawns, occasionally adult deer, poultry, domestic pets at times and turkey poults. They also destroy turkey nests and the nests of songbirds. In years past, trappers have kept predator numbers down. However, with the decrease in fur prices for many years, the predator hunter has replaced the trapper in many areas as the way to keep predator populations in check. Therefore, to have all the hunting land you want to hunt, become a predator hunter.

Click to enlargePredator hunting has become one of America’s fastest-growing sports because in most states predator hunters enjoy long hunting seasons with an abundance of lands available to hunt. Predators create problems, and predator hunters can solve those problems. The numbers of coyotes, foxes, bobcats, raccoons and feral hogs have grown at alarming rates. Many suburbanites now hear the calls of coyotes inside the city limits. Foxes often will show up in the headlights of suburbanites. Bobcat numbers have gone unchecked. For instance, in the spring of 2006, wildlife agencies from across the country held a meeting in Mobile, Alabama, to discuss the problems involved with feral hog populations and to look for solutions to control their alarming growth. These wildlife professionals named feral hogs as the top predator problem in upcoming years across the U.S.

Click to enlargeDon’t ever forget that predators have all the skills they need to avoid humans. They primarily hunt at night, stay out of the sight of hunters and possess extremely-keen senses of smells and/or amazing eyesight and hearing, making hunting them very exciting. Due to many predators’ sharp hearing, these predators even can hear a mouse squeak from 100-yards away, which means predator hunters will have great success calling them.

Use New Calls to Make Predator Hunting Easier:
In the past, the sport of predator hunting has consisted primarily of hunters who have known how to blow predator calls and make the distressed sounds of a wide variety of species. However, the cassette player and the ability to record predator sounds and play Click to enlargethem back in the woods has drawn new hunters, not necessarily skilled callers, into the sport. With the invention of the DVD and the portable DVD player that better records sounds and makes carrying players in to the field easier, simpler and lighter, large numbers of individuals have begun hunting predators. Too, today's new DVD players feature remote controls that can operate from as far as 1/4-mile away and allow hunters to change calls while remaining away from their players. Call manufacturers have made predator calling available to any hunter at almost any skill level. No longer do you have to blow a mouth-blown call like a master caller. You can turn on a DVD or a cassette player that produces the actual distress calls of birds and animals like a master.

Tomorrow: Understand That Predators Aren’t Easy


Check back each day this week for more about "How to Catch Big Snapper"

Day 1: Hunt Predators – One of America’s Fastest-Growing Sports
Day 2: Understand That Predators Aren’t Easy
Day 3: Use New Decoys
Day 4: Hunt Feral Hogs and Define a Landowner’s Problems
Day 5: Find Land to Hunt

 

Entry 353, Day 1