It’s that time of the year

Well, I received my first call of the year for trouble raccoons. Normally I’d have the game warden write a special permit and go trap them. They’re currently eating the ladies power source from her air conditioner to the house. We don’t open until November for trapping here. They are open to hunt. So it’s time to dust off the rust. Going to run a little handheld thermal and some night vision. See if I can pick a few off at dark as they come from the pasture. Then I’ll let the call go. I still haven’t dusted off the traps and not sure if I will.

Good luck. Hope you smack a few

Look like your ready to hammer a few.

Awesome. Slay em.

good luck ,let seem some results

Was a good night of calling. Coyotes sure were talking weren’t really set up for them. Never really factored wind so never tried to bring them in and will probably wait till they are prime. No use tearing into them yet. Raccoons were coming in hard, plenty of them and they don’t have a clue in the pitch dark. Like shooting fish in a barrel. Had a first timer with me, and at one point he was yelling over the caller “they’re running right at us.” I said that’s the point. Ha.

The most we had at one set was 6 and we got four at the problem location. We shot 14 raccoons in about 3.5 hours of fun. Saw some pretty nice bucks. The skunks were even charging the caller (they aren’t in season yet). It’s too bad raccoons aren’t worth much there’s no hiding from the thermal.

Have fun!!

what kind of call do you use for calling the coons?

Sounds like fun. I wish more people would kill a few to keep populations healthy. Im afraid this no coon market is going to really hurt them.

Last year on one 1/2 mile stretch of river, I found 12 dead coons curled up by the waters edge, plus 2 more wandering around on the shore obviously sick. I still caught several along that stretch of river. I'll trap it again this year and hopefully catch a bunch again, they obviously need thinned out.

When I used to call them a lot in the early 2000’s it was really hard to beat an old Johnny Stewart with Coon Pups. The days of cassette callers are definitely over. I just used a fox pro with raccoon fight. Seemed to have them charging pretty hard. I was amazed last winter how many raccoons were charging coyote vocals and rabbit distress. I guess I’ve found it doesn’t really matter what I’ve used. A raccoon fight is definitely the option if you’re targeting them. You also don’t have to move far to get into new groups which is also nice. If I really wanted to pile them up there were a number of “lookers” last night that the thermal would pick up on trees that came out to listen. It’s too early to do much but kill them so I only took the ones that wanted to eat the caller.

Lucky you caught any. Sounds like distemper. Usually it really hits the year of young hard and only the real rough ol boars make it through. I’ve seen it wipe out a pretty good sized area until more filter in.

Weekend warriors. Saw quite a few raccoons last night they were running hard. I’m trying to balance running the thermal and switching to night vision they’ve been charging hard. Once more crops come out there will be nowhere to hide. There were times last night we had raccoons coming from all sides. One made it about 5 feet from the caller I was watching another come from about 50 yards and heard him. Still no clue where he came from. We got both of them at that stand. The second tree’d and thought he was safe. No so much. My friend that I’ve introduced to calling did more missing than hitting. Such is life and it was still a blast. Four more down for sure. If they were worth anything I would have went out to the number of tree’d raccoons that never hit the ground and could have taken out many more. I made a quick stop today and switched to day mode, made sure I’m still on. Free hand at 50 yards I’d say I’m still on. Those .17 precision’s are tack drivers. No damage on the raccoons to be seen thus far.

Well Done

Has definitely become fall here, currently waiting for some more leaves to fall. Couldn’t hold back the urge the other night raccoons weren’t responding and the coyotes were howling. Had a guy that’s never seen thermal running the .223 most of the night.

First stop we tried had a pair of coyotes within about 50 yards after 2 minutes of female yodel. They disappeared into the thick and re-emerged about 25 yards out. Buddy couldn’t find them in the scope. I took the gun and shot the first one about 20 yards out. Second ran off into the thick and barked at us. I couldn’t get him to come out to where I could pick him up again. Got the female of the pair. Dad dropped cattle on there a couple nights ago. One less calve killer (crazy old man calves in January).

Heard another coyote next stop got downwind of them and started howling. Had two cross the road working downwind of us. Again the response was couldn’t get them and thought too far out. Depth perception is rough on thermals they were maybe 100 yards. I pretty much told him if it’s in your scope pull the trigger. I’m dead on at 50, inch and a half high at 100, back on 200, and 6 or so drop at 300. That’s about the farthest we have here. A lot of cover.

Next stop coyote came around a creek bend full stride for rabbit. He thought it was a deer. Sat down on its rear end I asked him if he’d ever seen a deer do that? Much less charge a rabbit squealing. Slipped into the creek no shot. Was 50 or so yards from the call.

Finally he redeemed himself. Old barn had a dead cow inside figured should be good. No coyote vocals just let out a lucky bird for about 10 minutes. If you want some excitement thermal is the way to go. I was running the handheld and before I knew it we had three coyotes in the catch pen with us. Anyone that knows what a catch pen is like there wasn’t much room between us and three coyotes. He rolled the first one inside the pen. Another ran out about 300 and spun around for pup distress. Told him to aim above the shoulder and he spun him. Made it about 10 feet and kicked over.

Every shot we had was on target and dead coyote. We ended up seeing around 15 total but only took those three shots for various reasons. I think I’ve hooked him as well. Up to around 27 raccoons already this year hunting and we haven’t worked for the ones we have. We are going to get into the 30’s this weekend. Night make it a little more tolerable in the thick stuff.

The other friend I’ve been primarily going out with has a Rattler 25 coming in the mail this week. We’re gonna site it in on Friday then go out. We’ve got some pretty good video so far. I’ll have to try to remember to record some more and start posting some.

A thermal is definitely on my bucket list! Keep this thread rolling too!!

I would definitely save and get one of the mid-grade to start. Picture is ridiculous for $2k and over. I wouldn’t buy anything less than that for sure. I thought my buddy had the rattler 25 but he bought the 35. Sweet set up. He shot his first coyote last night. He’s always been into guns but this is the first time he’s been actually shooting at something other than targets.

Weather was perfect down to 39 degrees. Had a number of stands with pups. Lots of chattering. Then when I’d switch to male challenge the big dog would come from behind them all. We had four charge the call out of all of them we heard last night. Shot three adult males and one female out of a pair. Another four down. I ran a lot of coyote sequences last night. Trying to save the distress sounds for when the food is a little more scarce. Still a little too much cover could have easily got a few more on follow up shots but they’d get in the timber and bark at us. Longest shot was probably about 250 on the female. Couldn’t get them in any closer but I feel pretty confident out to 250 and I knew the location well. Closest start we had was a coyote that we literally didn’t know was there until he growled at the call (made it through two hand held scanners). He was probably at 20 yards when I first saw him after the bark but I couldn’t get him to stop, he was ready for a fight and had to have sprinted in. I shot him when he turned back to howl at about 100.

I think I’ll switch gears tonight and go back to night vision and raccoons. Maybe call a few coyotes if they howl at the raccoon fights.

I've been working on getting everything down to a science for the upcoming winter months. I've had quite a few locations where I just watched the raccoons charge. I do have a video of a raccoon attacking the caller. I've primarily been using the day/night vision scope for the raccoons. It comes with an infrared light which does what it should for raccoons. I'd say 50 yards was about the distance you could easily see raccoons in it. The problem is switching from thermal to night vision I'd often lose the raccoons and miss opportunities for some pretty easy shots. The IR it came with just didn't have enough to light up the surroundings and there's a lot of vegetation still currently. I went ahead and purchased an aftermarket IR for the scope. This .17 is a tack driver and I wanted to get to where I could comfortably take some shots on coyotes with it as well. The only problem is as we all know 50 yards is a dime a dozen on coyotes once the season heats up. This IR should reach my range out to 3-500 yards with the night vision. I don't need that much but figured if I was going to upgrade I'd skip the middle of the road stuff. I did have to change the mounts on the scope so I had to go re-site it in. After three shots I am back to a pretty solid grouping. I'd feel confident out to 100 with it on a coyote. It would be either a front chest shot or head whichever presents itself. All I know is the raccoons are really going to light up even more as well which should make the transition from thermal to night vision much better. I do plan to really try to get some video going in the next couple outings. The video on these night vision scopes is ridiculous and honestly it's much cheaper to get into then thermal. I definitely prefer the thermal if I am going after coyotes though.

what are you running for light? ive got two IRs basically hooked to each other just because that's what i already had. individually they seem ok in the 200-300 range but its nice to have both to give more useable light when you want it. one just has three settings while the other has a variable control. i like that control better so that you don't turn everything into whitewash if there is brush etc. probably should just buy one good one and be done. know what you mean about going from scan mode into gun mode.

I went with the Nightsnipe.NS. It has a very simple adjustable beam, you can go from flood to controlled in a matter of seconds. It also has two adjustments that can be made easily on the light to center your beam. Then there's the three modes of IR of low, medium, and high. The transition from thermal scanning to shooting nightvision is definitely a challenge. I had even contemplated going all thermal even for the raccoons because the ability to get on target is just that much faster. I'm hoping with the IR upgrade I will calm myself. I really like the ability to pin-point your shots with the night vision much better than thermal. I hate to waste how well this rifle is shooting with generalized thermal shots. I have no doubt if my IR can get there I can easily be within an inch at 100 yards. I've got it set just 0.35 inches high at 75 and dead on at 100. I'm zipping little 17 grainers so wind will be a factor I'll have to factor when the time comes. The above picture was at 25 yards as it's still rising. I think I will go out for a couple hours tonight and most likely go for quite a while on Friday night. I don't have to work until noon on Saturday. If I would remember to hit the record button I'd be in good shape the videos I have taken have been amazing I'll have to figure out how to get them up on here. I hit it the other night at a stop and forgot to shut it off. 6 hours of coyote calling bliss captured inside the truck. Ha. I don't even think I took it out of the truck the rest of the night.

Nice set up wade!! Looks like you had a alsome time!!

Here’s a video from last night. Short but sweet. Took my dad out he’s 68 and having the time of his life scanning for me with the thermal. Had four confirmed in two hours. Will be going out most of the night tonight. The picture is even better than it appears on video. I could easily scan to 4-500 yards last night.

We had a good short run last night. Took out seven raccoons. My partner was getting a little excited and taking some early shots. This one almost made the slinky run out. No such luck for him. Curiosity killed the cat.

This was one of the first locations of the night. I didn’t get the last shot on camera but all three went down.

Had a great night last night. I am getting older had half a night to go and I wanted to go to bed. Everything seemed to be moving but the raccoons didn’t want to charge too hard. Hit 32 degrees last night a lot of lookers. Coyotes were going. Most we had come in at one time was four at a dead sprint. We got two of them. Couldn’t shoot the other two due to a house on the horizon. No need to be unsafe.

Ended up with another four raccoons and three coyotes. I get my Rattler 35 on Monday and will be putting it on an AR. No more bolting and faster shooting. I’ll also have video capability so should get some videos. Had two bobcats come into coon fight. We can’t shoot them until December here or they’d been done. I did take one video. Enjoy.

nice

I received the AGM Rattler 35 in the mail on Monday. What a difference it is going to make. Lightweight. Solid little unit. Easy to get on. I sighted it in last night. I didn't even need a heat source in the evening gloom. I was able to site it in at 50 yards with a little over six shots. Should be good as usual from 50-300 without much adjustment in shooting. It has a 1235 yard detection range and the detail even in the daylight is amazing. I can't wait to see the first pile of coyotes through it.

I did pick up an external battery pack which should run the unit for at least 8 hours and it can be plugged into your truck to charge as needed. I doubt I will ever need it. I do have to figure out some adjustments to get the extra cord out of the way but so far no issues and honestly I don't think there will be many. I also decided to put this one on an AR so I won't have to bolt and I can work on putting down more than one at a sit. I sure wish I had the ability to put some lead down fast last weekend.

Rattler 35 daytime action

It's been a while since I posted. I have had some pretty busy weeks I've been picking up some in the emergency department which cuts into the fun time. However, I've been going out calling as often as I can. I even shot the first buck I've shot since 2009. Just hadn't seen anything that really tripped my trigger but with the prices of meat I'm ready to eat deer for a while. My youngest is starting to show interest in outdoor activities which is what I've been waiting for. He's finally ready to have some fun. Wore him out pretty well deer hunting this year and even though it's not my cup of tea it was a blast hearing his voice crack when they walked out.




I've found I have had some day time hours which were better suited to get out. Surprisingly (I'm not why it surprises me) the Rattler does equally as well in the daylight as in the night. I linked a video I hope of the rattler on a coyote at about 100 yards in the daylight just before this. Wind was blowing that day which made getting steady a chore but the gun did its job. The picture on picture does not show the cross hairs in the video, but there are crosshairs in the zoomed image as well. I have been trying to call a cat out of there that I saw a week or two before season opened. Took him about 45 minutes to get tired of hearing the squealing.




I recently traded off my low end thermal. Didn't have a whole lot of use for it. I picked up a 6.5 creedmore RPR. Also came with about 200 rounds of ammo which seems to be half the battle in that caliber. I have not even shot it yet but it was used previously by a South Dakota predator control expert who has since passed away. I'm sure if this thing could tell a story they would be good ones. I am currently looking for glass for it but I am leaning towards going all daytime on this one. I'm looking into some long range options.



Finally, the boy is really starting to get into the swing of things. Starting this weekend he's going to be off school for a week. He wants to catch a bobcat. I think I am going to finally set my first trap of the year. I've seen now a total of 15 different bobcats with thermals all of which were before season opened up so I think we can get on a couple within a week. Total so far this year is 15 coyotes and 68 raccoons I've taken with thermal. One of these days I am going to start shooting all of the racoons looking out of the trees but I haven't talked myself into it yet.

Have a small line out while the kid is off school. 20 traps and I think we’ll call it good with that. He’s living his best life and learning about nature along the way. Took two days to catch him his cat. Was hoping for first night success but we’ll take it.

We hit some cold and snow around here which is all it takes to really get those coyotes going. Went out two days ahead of the cold front and had the most amazing night I've had yet calling. Saw over 100 raccoons easily. Counted 48 deer in one field with three nice bucks. I did take some pictures of them in the thermal and will see if I can get them uploaded. Called in a total of 10 coyotes that night with two pairs. I put eight of them to sleep but didn't double on either pair as we were in some cover. Also shot the third bobcat of the season calling.

Most people were locked up inside enjoying the warmth but I've got a little crazy on my side. Went out with about 2 inches of snow and -8 degrees. Sure makes the coyotes hungry. Had to work Monday morning so only went for a couple hours Sunday night. Called in two groups of three at a time with simple rabbit in distress. I've used coyote vocals for most of the year but figured they'd be a bit hungry. Dad will be calving a pasture soon so I wanted to see what was in there and I wasn't disappointed. Within three minutes I had a triple coming right at me.

I have really called a number of locations multiple times. I have stuck around ground we have cattle on or that I typically trap. I've traveled out of my territory maybe a couple nights over the course of the winter. I've found that with the thermals as long as I make a note of what sounds I'm using I can switch it up and get other coyotes to respond. I had worried I wouldn't be able to keep putting them down but they seem to continue to either move in or respond to a new set of vocals. I have been hitting them hard in about a 10 square mile area. So far going into the new year I'm at 38 coyotes that I've put down.

Also finished out my son's small trap line. I only ran about 20 traps for 5 days but it was the memories with him that made it worth while. He was on the road with me every day once he was out of school even when I drug him out of bed at 0300.

great pic. thanks for sharing

Good stuff Wade

Nice work Wade.
Jim

Wade,
Donna and I are big fans of your threads. We smile the whole time we read along.
What a special deal that you are taking your son along at these crazy hours. Memories for a lifetime!

Blessings,
Mark

Awesome pictures

Thanks guys. Couldn't make it a whole season without a few traps in the ground. Weather front was coming in and I went out a couple nights ago. Was not disappointed. Picked up another seven coyotes in three hours. Saw a total of ten. There aren't many getting by. Have been going back to the coyote vocals as they are starting to pair up. Finding them in the cattle for the most part. So far on the year I've shot fourty-seven coyotes. Can't ask for much more being this is the first season I've had a thermal the whole time. We are getting into a raccoon contest in about two weeks. We have to drive 1.5 hours to check in which is going to cost us three hours overall, but it's the most raccoons killed legally in 24 hours. Four man team. We might try it with two. I've been taking mental notes of where we've seen the concentrated raccoons we've let go but not for long. I'll try to take some pictures.

That’s awesome Wade, enjoy your post and thanks for sharing

Great pictures and kudos for taking the youngin'. My wife loved the picture of him sacked out in the truck.
Good luck in the coon contest

What type of call are you using?

Predator quest open reed, or fox pro inferno?(the name always changes and I’ve had it for 8 years, the cheaper fox pro)

I’m an idiot, I just opened this thread and saw the question above and thought it was asking what calls everyone uses. Well if anyone cares, I told you what I use haha

Call me crazy at the end of last season's vacation I took this pile of fur and sold it off. I had enough for an entry level thermal, a Ruger 223, and just enough to come up with a Fox Pro Patriot. I didn't want to spend any more money then the fur check allowed. I've used that call since then and it's done everything I need. The rest has just kind of came along as I have went. I had to work this morning but called three places last night after work. Just fell short of my goal of 50. Shot another two coyotes. I almost kept going to hit that number but it will come soon enough. My dad lost a heifer almost five weeks ago and the coyotes finally found it. I'm going to wait until they are piled on it and see what I can pick off. I'm currently torn between a number of items I'd like to update before next season. First of all I am looking really hard at the Iray Bravo 384, second I'd like to update the caller with some new sounds, and finally now that the suppressor has gone online I've considered suppression as it would make my job that much easier at night.




A lot of guys question thermals but calling with them day/night it's very hard to miss much of anything. I can see them coming easily from 1/2 mile away and if you're positioned to where you can watch it's very hard for them to get around you. They try pretty hard though. If you play the wind it's pretty interesting just how close you can get them in while it's pitch dark out. This has been my first full season calling them with thermal, last season I did for maybe a month at the end of the year. I'm back to all coyote vocals again and they are coming for them.

Getting ready to head out, have an 0800 check in for a 24 hour raccoon tournament tonight. It's a weird time to check it but we have to drive 1.5 hours to get to it so I am happy its early in the day rather than right at dark. We've pretty much decided we aren't going to call during the day and just go as hard as we can go all night, so we're pretty much driving to check in and coming home. We aren't really planning on winning and this is the first year they've done it but it will be interesting to see how many we can get. Plan is to pretty much go for 12 hours before we drive back up to check in. I took the Rattler 35 off my .223 and mounted it on the .17 yesterday. Will be my first night shooting raccoons with thermals instead of night vision and I can't wait.

Helped a local guy set five traps yesterday. New to trapping and has some cats on camera, we'll see how that comes about. It was nice to smack a few sets in the ground again but I'm also very glad they're his traps and he's going to be checking them.... I can just enjoy what he catches.

Hopefully I remember to hit the record button a few times. It always sounds like a good plan until they're sitting in your lap.

Good luck Wade. Sounds like you’ve got a good plan. Those cats spots and belly’s are a heck of a lot nicer than any cat I’ve ever seen around here.

Was definitely a fun time with the contest. First one I've ever been in and I can still hang with the young pups. We only ended up starting hunting around six in the evening and went all the way through. Saw a pile of raccoons. Had a couple Christmas trees we couldn't get to work out such as seven raccoons in one brush pile and six in a den tree. We dropped probably an additional 10 raccoons for our half and 15 for the other half that either fell back into trees or made their way to holes before we could get our hands on them. What we didn't anticipate was that the flyer mainly mentioned hunting but did specify legal means in Nebraska, so there was one team that trapped and were allowed to compete. They won the contest with I believe 74. They were a team of four young guys and it was great to see them do well. If it is going on again next year and not specified again I'll definitely be running traps prior to hunting. Otherwise we finished fourth out of a total of 27 teams from what we could gather on the counts and the top three hunting teams were relatively close I believe we had 43, then 48, and 49. Largest raccoon weighed 26 pounds our biggest was 22.5. Smallest raccoon trapped tied us at 5.25 lbs and they won the tie breaker. There was a buyer there and there were some disappointed teams. I wasn't surprised with the averages as they were mostly hunted likely full of holes and the current state of the fur market. Our pile of 43 was valued at less than a $1 a piece and we just donated it back to the Fire Hall the competition was raising money for. Overall, it was a great experience and even though I only had the .17 we did have one curious coyote come in and I finished my season right at 50 coyotes. Couldn't be happier. I'm surprised my eyes were open at that point I'd been up for around 24 hours. Finally crashed after 36 hours.