Hunting Wolves
General Topic
If you have hunted wolves share how it went and how you did. If you have any photos please post. Obviously this is not going to get many archery responses so any weapon and story is welcome. Suggestions welcome as well.
On my brown bear hunt we heard wolves every day. One day my guide started howling to see if any would come in. 10-15 min later here come 3 directly in front of us. They started to circle, and guide says no way you're gonna get a shot with a bow, so I grabbed his rifle and shot all 3. Its pretty easy lol!
I tried with my recurve several years Closest I got I called six into a meadow 2 went east of me 2 went west and two locked in and came straight at me. They are smart Soon I could only see two but figured 4 were flanking me Recurve my only weapon and only 4 arrows left I opted to leave the grouse I shot to distract them and headed for the tree line. Once at my truck I grabbed a rifle and started calling again. They answered and called my trail part way to me then I heard one of them bark and it was over
I have read debates on wolves barking and I can clear it up for you yes they do I’ve seen and heard it both times it meant gig was up and you were not going to see or hear from them again
Oz
I’ve hunted and trapped them. The best way to hunt is over a fresh kill but I have called them in with cow calls to under 10 yards.
I participated in dog hunts when Wis had a season...... I did not have a tag, just handled trucks and radios. We got 6 in 2 days. The state quota was filled in 3 days. Want to kill wolves, run dogs.
Howled in a large male along the Dalton Hwy/Haul Road (archery only corridor) a few years back. Slung an arrow just over his back at about 30 yards.
No excuse..... I was just so shook that I missed! But I will never forget the shot!
Pete
interesting so few have gone after these in places where it is legal todo so.
Over bait Ontario late January -35 F in a heated blind. grabbed a bone took off running, tagged him at 260 yards with rifle second morning. Over the counter tag. Easy Cites paperwork and border crossing
I was in a blind on a salmon stream in Alaska several years ago. One morning two wolves were following the stream on the opposite side. When they got to thirty yards I sent an arrow through one’s chest. She ran 20 yards and was done. It was a summer hide so not real good. I had it tanned anyway cause killing one with a bow was so unique. And I have the skull.
Winter Wolf Hunting
Winter Wolf Hunting
Takes lots of patience to hunt wolves... A CITIES permit has to be applied for in advance of your hunt. They have a best before date so can't apply too early. Your outfitter will have the number and website to apply or just contact any OMNRF office for info. Can have permit sent to hunter or to the outfitter. The Export permit can be issued immediately at any local OMNRF office.
One of my guides Jackson Surbey from Alberta with a good size male he killed with us a couple weeks ago,100 lbs.
One of my guides Jackson Surbey from Alberta with a good size male he killed with us a couple weeks ago,100 lbs.
Outfitter 100
Outfitter 100
We, my head guide Gerard operating out of my lodge, do a few wolf hunts each year over bait with a 100-150 yd shot. It’s not easy, it takes a lot of meat scraps with all the coyotes and ravens hitting the baits too. The bait has to be where a pack is already living, they won’t go out of their way to consistently hit a bait. And it’s not very consistent at the best of times. A hunter has to stay on the ball, OFF their phone which is nearly impossible these days for most people. We are 90% opportunity rate and about 75% kill.
The wolves don’t just stroll in and get shot like a bear. Often the opportunity comes when they just walk across the open line, if you miss it sometimes they don’t come back in daylight for days.
Jackson killed his wolf with one day of hunting with us, but if you add in a whole other unsuccessful wolf hunt he did with another outfitter it was his 7th day of hunting wolves.
Matt Wetzel from Oklahoma, March 2nd, 2024
Matt Wetzel from Oklahoma, March 2nd, 2024
Outfitter 130! You hear about 180 lb and even 200 lb wolves but we’ve never seen anything close to that. Anyone weigh a giant?
Outfitter 130! You hear about 180 lb and even 200 lb wolves but we’ve never seen anything close to that. Anyone weigh a giant?
Matt hunted whitetails with us this past fall and after chatting with Gerard he decided to come back and do a wolf hunt in March.
Gerard had a pack on cell cam coming in every couple days and a lone male on another bait almost daily, in daylight. He thought it would be fairly slam dunk hunt, get one in just a day or two. Six, 10 hour days later, 60 hours on stand, in some sub 0 F temps and no wolf kill. Matt had seen a couple at long range but not close enough for a shot.
I believe his flight home got delayed by a day so he got in an extra day of hunting and this huge male came in, 130 lbs! It’s the biggest one we’ve shot or snared out of a couple dozen.
It was a beautiful blue, gray color.
BC on a spring bear hunt. Came upon a logging road that dropped down into a switchback and straight out 500 yds below us. My guide suggested we get out up top and check for bears. When we got to the edge there was a lone male trotting down the road towards us. He spotted us at 300yds and got dumped with a frontal shot. My guides girlfriend also shot a big black wolf just above his house 2 days later as they came into a cow carcass.
Yes great post, info and photos.
As Groundhunter said, hounds are very effective. During our second wolf hunt in Wisconsin, I believe there were 219 wolves killed in about 3 days, most by hound hunters. Conditions were perfect in February with a fresh snowfall.
I've personally seen several wolves at close range while hunting deer from tree stands in far northern Wisconsin. The deer herd is decimated there now.
Here's a big one over 100 pounds that a buddy (he's about 6'4") killed in Wisconsin during our first wolf hunt.
Never had an opportunity to hunt them. Saw one done in a full body mount at a taxidermy shop in Tennessee. It was same size as a 10 pt whitetail next to it . Owner said it was shot in Alaska and live wt. was 165lbs. No way for me to verify the wt but this thing was huge. Most impressive to me was the long legs and huge feet.
March 28th.
March 28th.
Last minute Wolf... Season ends Sunday.
A warm day up there Chris!?! Short sleeves and snow!
It was quite nice out... about 38F
Spike buck, have you weighed any of your wolves? I’m curious what you’ve found?
So far Mike all less than 100 lbs. Average 80 pounds.
I arrowed this young male while deer hunting, heart shot, I couldn't believe how far he ran!
I've had two opportunities while hunting spring black bears in BC, no baiting legal. Ambush and I were sitting on the high side and glassing a power-line cut when a nice lone wolf came over the ridge. Rod gave me yardage every so often.....80 yds, then 70 yds, then 60 yds, then 50 yds, then 45 yds....then as I shot the arrow for 45 yds just as he was saying 40.....right over his back! That was as close as he was going to get as he was directly below us.
Missed another near dark as a pair came around a corner on a brushy old logging road, stopping to figure out what I was up ahead of them. I got an arrow on the string without the wolves leaving, then got a range on them....63 yds. The front wolf was a coyote colored one, the rear a beautiful jet black. Managed to get drawn on the black, shoot a beautiful shot releasing with back tension, but dang they were quick....jumped the string and were gone when the arrow arrived. 273 fps arrow, 189 ft to the wolves, about 2/3 of second for them to react and they were outta there in about 1/2 of that.
Missed a third wolf that I walked up on bedded behind a boulder when I was Stone sheep hunting...again a long shot....71 yds to the front side of the boulder. Wolf lifted his head above the boulder and was looking around, but not at me. I settled the sight pin in on his head, executed a good shot, but dang, decided to hold for about 73 yds and went right between his ears. Needed to be about a yard lower on the hold.
He took off down toward the creek and another wolf, unseen till after the shot raced up the hill toward a group of ewes on the ridge top. Then the howling between the two wolves started. Went on for a minute or two as they relocated each other but were separated by about 600 yards. Was cool to see and observe before they finally disappeared and shutup.
Have always wanted a wolf with the bow from when I saw my first wild ones in Alaska in 1984....grizzly ran a pair of wolves off my moose gut pile. He ran them hard...probably for 200 yds.
On another note, I talked to one of the top wolf outfitters (Byron Wolf, Wolf Huntn Adventures) in Alberta about bow hunting wolves with him. He said he thought my odds would be just a few percent that I'd get a shot at one on a 6 day hunt. He would have been happy to take me, but was honest that it was a low odds deal to kill one with the bow. I believe his rifle hunters killed 28 wolves this winter as of a couple weeks ago.
Saskatchewan allowed non residents to hunt them for the first time in 2023 but only while hunting whitetails and no wolf bait allowed. Every year a few of our deer clients see them at deer baits or while sitting on fields. Five clients bought tags and killed one. One guy with no tag videoed a big black one in front of his ground blind for a few minutes as close as 30 yds. In our area they seem quite active mid day.
Dang, some of those wolves are huge...
I trapped one a juvenal male in my home state of WI in 2014. The season opened on Oct 15th and they closed my unit on the 17th because we already exceeded the quota. Hunter/Trappers were given 24 hours to call in to register their harvest. If I recall the quota in my unit was 12 and by the time they tabulated all all the harvests they topped out at 29 in 48 hours. Northern WI is overrun with the damn things.
How’s the deer herd up there. Is there one?
Bou northern WI deer herd is a joke. My brother has a cabin and some land in Price county. Deer season is a joke. I stick to hunting birds up there. The last 2 years of our firearms season I sat all day and both years saw only a single spike over an established food plot
Bou northern WI deer herd is a joke. My brother has a cabin and some land in Price county. Deer season is a joke. I stick to hunting birds up there. The last 2 years of our firearms season I sat all day and both years saw only a single spike over an established food plot
