Valentines day eve hunting

[chiefz28]

Anybody going out tonight.  Whats your thoughts on tonights conditions? Good/bad?

[Shovelheadave]

Planning on it.
Hoping the wind will cover up some of the noise from the frozen snow walking in.

[uncle buck]

Just hunt legal and you will probably call something in. Also  keep wind in your face or if crosswind have it blow to and obstacle on your side like a barn or farmers house. They can't circle and come through a barn. Now they could approach in between a barn and shed! the call is a tool don't go after them call them to you!

[chiefz28]

Thanks UB I'll take your advice and hopefully put some fir 5 on the ground.  How long do most of you guys wait before going back to a spot you missed to try and call him in again.  Red fox that is. (Not that I'm saying you guys miss. .but if you would miss

[Misterjake23]

If it's not pressured by other hunters, I try to give it a week.  I will also change up sounds.

[chiefz28]

Thanks Mj23

[Hern]

How long do most of you guys wait before going back to a spot you missed to try and call him in again.  Red fox that is.
I may circle back later that same night if it's on the way home.

It's Valentines Day evening right now and no hunting for me.
Snowing sideways the past hour or so with the high winds.

[Pa Goosehntr]

  Hern musta bought 2 RC colas and a couple of Moon pies for the eve 

[chiefz28]

Got out after work,it was about 11:30 hunted til about 2:30a.m. We had very little to no wind and no snow til I was pulling  in to the drive. No fur for our effort.

[Dale]

that's surprising, a storm coming in and you didn't see anything moving... very rare, they're normally out feeding up before food gets hard to find...

[chiefz28]

I should also point out that I'm not very good at this predator hunting.  I enjoy/love doing it and put in a quite a bit of time scouting and reading,but very unsuccessful. So there's a good chance they were out and about.and I just goofed.

[Dale]

aight this aint rocket science, lets figure out what you're not doin or doin wrong...

keep your vehicle hidden from the area you're gonna be calling, keep it way back... a couple years back I was out with another of our brethren, snowing but not that bad... we pulled into a spot parked on the road, walked into the field, maybe 25 yards and started calling... lo and behold a fox shows up down to our right, never expected to see one come from there... instead of coming across the snowy field, lazy rascal turned out the road and started coming to us... was all good till he came into view of our ride, off into the wild blue yonder, could read it all after we came off stand... hide the ride...

I normally wear the brown Carharts when calling works real well in corn/open fields... I do have a decent set of snow camo coveralls for what most of your area is getting now... an old white bed sheet with a hole cut for your melon will work if you have nothing else...

lights, turn your scanning light on when you walk out into the field and keep it on and keep scanning when you're walking into your stand... get set up start calling, and continue to scan... when you see eyes DO NOT take your light off them till you have fur on the ground... when an animal commits to the call and is coming in quit calling... if he hangs up give him a couple squeaks on the mouse call that'll normally get them moving again...

calling... when you get set up start with a short run of mouse squeaks, 45 seconds to a minute, 2 times... a minute or 2 between sets, start off low and increase volume till you end at full volume... if nothing, start off with a run of the broke bunny blues, again on the low side and increase volume as you go along, one to 2 minutes still continually scanning...

you can from here go into other sounds as you feel comfortable with... remember you're imitating small prey in pain, keep your sounds fairly short and choppy a rabbit doesn't let off a 2 minute long screech, nor will a bird in distress... still continually scanning...

me and my partner would normally go through 5-6 sets on a stand, about 20-25 minutes and we were gone still scanning till we got back to the truck...  one of us would be on the gun the other calling, tripod between us looked like a big ole haystack out in the field, remember your light is your shield...  if you're doing anywhere near this there's no reason you shouldn't be seeing animals...

good luck with'em...

[chiefz28]

I'd say for most part the vehicle is parked at a good location. If hunting real close to home I have pretty much everything on and ready to go if I'm hunting further from home I usually stop about half mile before my spot and get ready so when I do get where in going I basically just need to grab gun and go. Truck doors only closed to point of barely being latched.  I do use a headlamp (red) that I turn on as soon as I start in. I believe it was UB that once wrote "turn it on when you get out and keep it on till you get back" which I do.

As my calling goes,its pretty similar to pattern you gave,but not every time.  I prob tend to under call, on average. Usually start lower volume (2) and then work my way up,my volume goes from 0-10 (Fox Pro Firestorm) I rarely ever go over 7-8. I recently started hunting with a buddy at night about a month ago we've been out about 3-4 nights. After hunting with him I'd saying I wasn't scanning enough. I wound scan  but it was more like watch over to right a bit then back and forth then watch to left then slowly scan back and forth again,him on the other hand uses a hand held light for scanning and he is back and forth the field like bang bang.

I think the biggest thing I'm doing wrong is my set up and the wind ,that I'm just not using it properly and calling/watching the areas I want to call the way they should be.  I know there are dogs in these places I've heard them I've scouted tracks and scat.

I'm definitely starting to scan more/faster and going to start running call a little longer (but not to point of over calling).
 I so badly wanted to attended the school/class held a couple weeks back but daughters birthday party was already scheduled and that comes before predators. I'm sure I could have learned something with all the guys that attended.