How to Have All the Hunting Land You Want to Hunt
Use New Decoys
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.
For many years, critter getters have used decoys, including
bird wings, fuzzy animals or moving tails, to focus
the predator's attention as the animal responds to the
hunter’s call. I’ve even seen predator hunters
use toy wind-up gorillas as decoys to get the animal's
attention. However, when a hunter uses a decoy, the
predator never may see it unless the animal’s
within gun range. Recently predator hunters have begun
using crow, owl and hawk decoys mounted on poles or
set in trees above the sites from where they’ll
call. Here’s the reason why. If you’ve ever
called predators, you know that crows, hawks and sometimes
owls will come in to your calling site first, looking
for the animal in distress because these birds of prey
and birds that feed on carrion hear very well.
MOJO
Outdoors has brought one of the hottest new decoys –
the MOJO Hawk, a spinning-wing hawk decoy - to the predator
market in 2006. Many of us have heard about the MOJO
Mallard and the MOJO Dove, both spinning-wing decoys,
and realize how these decoys lure in waterfowl and doves.
MOJO’s Hawk Decoy mounted on a pole appears to
hover over an animal in distress, giving a visual to
go with the predators call. "One of the advantages
of using a bird decoy is that when a coyote, a fox,
or a bobcat comes to a predator call, he’ll be
looking up instead of down," Al Morris explains.
"Often the animal’s using its eyes to try
and spot the location of the prey instead of its nose.
I’ve seen coyotes come to a bird decoy with their
heads up, looking at the decoy instead of their heads
down, testing the wind. I know some predator hunters
who won’t go into the woods or fields without
some type of bird decoy."
The
placement of a bird decoy provides reinforcement for
the coyote that an animal or a bird in distress is in
the region. The bird decoy takes the coyote's eyes to
the place where it hears the calling originating. The
predator’s not looking at the ground, attempting
to spot the animal in distress because the predator
knows it will find the wounded or hurt animal immediately
below the bird of prey (decoy) the predator sees. These
birds of prey decoys give the predator confidence to
come in, take its eyes off the area where the call’s
coming from and enable the predator to travel the shortest
route to the decoy.
Tomorrow: Hunt Feral Hogs and
Define a Landowner’s Problems
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