# Northern AZ Trip



## Mark Steinmann (Jan 28, 2014)

Hey guys,

I headed up to northern AZ early Saturday to meet up with my brother-in-law for a day of calling. It was a trip to our honey hole for coyote but little did we know that we were in for a big surprise. This is an area that we have called for the last couple of years and the only predator that has come to our calls has been coyote up until now. I had been practicing my howls the past few weeks in attempts to call in some coyotes in the rut.

We made our way to a stand that has produced coyotes every time we have made a stand in the past. It was about 15 minutes after first shooting light as we headed into the stand and a few coyotes were howling off to the south. After we had set up and let the area calm down I started off with a few invitation female howls followed up with some male howls on the FoxPro. After waiting a few minutes with coyotes howling from a couple different directions I turned on a jackrabbit call on the FoxPro and let it play for a couple of minutes. I did a few howls during the rabbit sequence when I saw something running towards me from 400 yards out. The first thing I thought was strange was the size of the animal. I have seen quite a few coyotes out at that range and this was MUCH larger than any coyote I had ever seen. It closed the gap in a matter of seconds, never pausing to get a better look. I saw a glimpse of him as he came across the wash and headed downwind 40 yards away. I turned farther to my left to get a better look as I thought it was going to head downwind, but it suddenly popped up above the wash 30 yards from me. As I turned my head to see what it was it gave me no time to look it over and sprinted away downwind of us. It was a Mexican Grey Wolf, right there in our Coyote honey hole! After the set was over we got up to check out the prints. I didn't think about getting a picture of them until we were already a few miles down the road, but the 1 print that was in dirt soft enough to leave a mark was almost 4 inches long. The wolf was around the size of a German Shepard and now I am really wishing that I would've hit the record button on my camera as soon as I saw movement...

Around 2pm we setup in an area that was thick with junipers and there was a meadow a couple hundred yards to our south. The wind was blowing due North at 5mph. I had my brother-in-law setup to watch the downwind side and I sat on the other side of the juniper to get the sound into the virgin land. I was using a new "bite-down" call that I got from Ed and on my second sequence I jumped at the sound of a gun shot. I looked back at him and asked him what it was, he whispered to me that it was a fox and that it was down. After calling for another 5 minutes without any other movement we went to check it out. It was a really nice male Grey Fox. The first fox that he has ever seen in the wild, and the first kill for his new AR-15!

We made 4 more blank stands that evening and ran across a very fresh bobcat kill(Jackrabbit), but no other predators to speak of. That evening was the most quiet I have ever heard the woods, not even a bird was chirping that evening.

















Mark


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## Mark Steinmann (Jan 28, 2014)

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## azpredatorhunter (Jul 24, 2012)

Nice Mark, tell your brother-in-law congratulations. Did the mexican grey wolf have a radio collar?


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## Mark Steinmann (Jan 28, 2014)

azpredatorhunter said:


> Nice Mark, tell your brother-in-law congratulations. Did the mexican grey wolf have a radio collar?


No radio collar that I could see on it. I have see tracks of two wolves running through the forest in the snow 40 miles east of this spot, this is a first here though.

Mark


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## azpredatorhunter (Jul 24, 2012)

That's strange, I was under the impression that all the reintroduction grey wolves here had radio collar's...maybe it was a German shepherd, or a big coyote.


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## azpredatorhunter (Jul 24, 2012)

Off topic... But since your here, could you tell me about the BF Goodrich AT KO's you said that they came out with a new formula for the rubber? I bought my BFG's about three years ago...


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## Mark Steinmann (Jan 28, 2014)

azpredatorhunter said:


> That's strange, I was under the impression that all the reintroduction grey wolves here had radio collar's...maybe it was a German shepherd, or a big coyote.


According to a report from AZ Game & Fish, there are at a minimum of 86 wolves now here & only 25 have radio collars.

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## prairiewolf (Feb 19, 2012)

Way to go Mark, nice looking Grey. it looks a lot bigger than the ones we got at Roosevelt. You know if theres a few wolves in that area coyotes wont be around there much anymore, unless it was just passing through.


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## azpredatorhunter (Jul 24, 2012)

Ok... I am not doubting you. I am not looking forward to calling in one anytime soon, I guess we need to be really aware with wolves in the picture.


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## prairiewolf (Feb 19, 2012)

Its only and issue if you make it one !!! shhhhhhhhhh


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## hassell (Feb 9, 2010)

Congrats. on the hunt, thanks for sharing.


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## Mark Steinmann (Jan 28, 2014)

azpredatorhunter said:


> Ok... I am not doubting you. I am not looking forward to calling in one anytime soon, I guess we need to be really aware with wolves in the picture.


Yeah, it was bittersweet seeing it. Cool to have it come in, but I'm not looking forward to having wolves I'm my hunting spots. Hopefully it was just moving through the area!

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## Mark Steinmann (Jan 28, 2014)

prairiewolf said:


> Way to go Mark, nice looking Grey. it looks a lot bigger than the ones we got at Roosevelt. You know if theres a few wolves in that area coyotes wont be around there much anymore, unless it was just passing through.


Yeah we estimated it to be around 15 pounds. Really nice Grey for AZ!

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