# February Club Hunt - What Comes After Plan C?!



## Mark Steinmann (Jan 28, 2014)

Well the second to last club hunt was coming up fast and we originally planned to go after Fox near Tim's cabin. The Friday before the hunt I called up Forest Service and found out all the roads in the area were closed until further notice.... there went plan A! I called Tim and we let the weather decide where we should go. We settled on a spot that was super remote and we've always wanted to check out. I got our route maps downloaded and ready to go. Well, morning came and he picked me up at dark-thirty and off we went! We made our way down the first dirt road but we drove past a road closed sign and soon found out why. The road had a bunch of loose sand over it and there was still 8-10 inches of water flowing 40 yards across, bummer! With 20 minutes before first light we got on the maps and made up plan C. Already at plan C and it wasn't even shooting light of the first day.... oh boy. Haha.

We decided to hunt our way back to the highway the first half of day 1 as we had seen good amounts of rabbits and a few piles of scat along the road. On stand 3 we got into some action. Tim was calling and I was sitting across from him, we were in a thicket and trying to cover each others backs. A while into his calling the were a bunch of birds making a ruckus and slowly working closer to us. We've learned that a lot of times they'll be following a Bobcat or Fox in. I shifted to my left a bit so I could get a different angle of the openings past Tim. Shortly after that the birds flew off and nothing presented itself. Right before Tim was going to call the stand off I caught movement to my right, crap! A Coyote trotted in and bounced over a small bush coming to a stop as he landed on his feet. Since I moved to my left this would be a very hard shot! I waited and watched. The Coyote looked my way and then back towards Tim, it wasn't going to come any closer. I pulled up my shotgun and swung but that Coyote was too fast for me! He jumped into the brush 10 yards away and the only thing my BB's tore up was a bit of my hearing...

We made our way around a bend in the wash and I just had to call a certain spot, looked too good! There was a bend in the wash and on both sides of the wash a big thicket, but what I really liked was there was a deep rocky cut in the mountain behind the far thicket. The plan was to get just on the far side of the wash to call a Bobcat or Fox out. As we neared the wash we found some very fresh and large Bobcat tracks which got us excited! The problem was there was a lot of water and mud and I didn't have on my waterproof boots. I set the FoxPro just inside some vegetation on this side and had Tim watch around the caller. I felt we really needed someone on point to hopefully get a shot if something poked out of the brush on the far side(60 yard minimum shot). The bummer is we both brought shotguns, we really needed a rifle! I made my way to the edge of the brush and found some cover to hide in. I ran through some rabbit distress and then bird. Around 10 minutes in I see something trotting in away about 70 yards. I pulled up my shotgun to be ready when it came up out of the draw but something was wrong, my front post was gone! All I had was my rear ghost ring left to look through. It was about that time when I identified the predator, it was that big ol' Tom Bobcat that left its prints earlier! It got behind the last bush at 60 yards and wouldn't come out! I held that gun up for a full 5 minutes and made Tim wonder what the heck was I doing. Haha. My arms eventually had enough and I lowered the gun to my lap slowly. I switched up sounds to a kitten distress and bingo, about 20 seconds went by and then the Bobcat stepped out. I raised my gun back up as the cat looked over at me. I aimed down the barrel and let some BB's fly! A few hit on each shot but I ran out of shells and the cat was scraping to get away. I yelled at Tim that I needed him to finish the cat and he sprinted across the riverbed to put the final shot in him. What a nice cat he ended up being, my biggest to date for sure!

As I skinned the cat Tim hiked the opposite side of the road to call a canyon but had no luck. Just too steep and tight to see anything respond. We picked our next stand using the maps and we found ourselves setting up in a bowl shaped area just outside another big thicket off the main wash. I placed the FoxPro out in front on the opposite side of the bowl. Tim watched the main drainage entry and I setup to watch the downwind ridge. After doing some rabbit distress for a while I changed it to bird distress and worked in Ki-Yi's with my diaphram call. Around 15 minutes into the stand I scanned back to the right with my eyes and there stood a Coyote up on the ridge at 70 yards! It came in so that a bush was between it and the distress sound but little did it know I could see her plain as day! I slowly moved my sticks a few inches to the right and settled into my scope. After zooming in a bit I put a 55gr pill right at the base of her neck and she fell over stiff legged. Gotta love an easy recovery!

We did a couple more stands and then decided it was time for lunch and a change of scenery due to the wind not being favorable for this stretch of road anymore. We picked up and headed a ways away to some totally different country. What we didn't know is the area had a HAM hunt for Javalina going on and we would be fighting for some quiet country. We finally came across an area after driving a long ways that had a bunch of fresh Bobcat and Fox sign.

Towards last light we hiked a bit into a big canyon that ran for miles. After finding an opening in the brush I sat point on rifle and Tim got into the edge of the brush with the shotgun. He called for 20 minutes and towards the end I thought I saw movement most the way up the far wall but couldn't put eyes on anything. As soon as Tim hit that Fox distress though I found out what that movement was! A big Grey Fox came busting down the rock slide and I watched as it paused a few times on the way down. Knowing how Tim was setup though I just let the Fox come in, surely it would come right into the call. Well that Fox never gave Tim the chance and started peeling back up the ridge shortly after I lost sight of him... must've caught the wind! I tried to get on it but it hit thick brush and I didn't see it again. Just a minute after I lost sight of that Fox Tim caught movement to his far right. He stood up to try and find his Fox and it was scrambling up the backside of the canyon that we were setup on. Tim lined up his sights and let it rip on a small target at 65 yards...and the BB's found their mark! A good ending to a fun late season day!

We called the wives and dropped back into lower elevation to camp as where we shot that Fox was already below freezing on the drive out! The plan in the morning was to head back to a unit that didn't have a HAM hunt going on so there wouldn't be as much traffic. We enjoyed brats and beans for dinner and then got some needed sleep, we did a bunch of footwork on day one and we could both feel it. I camped out under the stars with a tarp wrapped around my zero degree sleeping bag to keep the ice off. Tim slept in the back of his pickup as usual. As the alarm sounded at 6:30 Tim fired up the truck to get it heated up as we packed up camp. The thermometer read 14°!! That's cold for us AZ desert natives! We made a few stands on the way out of the area and had success on 1.

The day before as we blew past miles of country we pinned 1 spot that looked awesome for Bobcat and Fox. It was the 4th stand of the morning and all 3 previous we had guys on Razors drive through the area as we called. We hiked a bit further this time and found an area that Tim could call and run shotgun and I could watch point with the AR-15. He began calling on the EW Bite-Down call and after 2 sequences a Grey Fox came bounding right into 10 yards from Tim. I was able to watch through my scope as Tim slowly pulled up and squeezed off a round. No more Fox in my scope! Haha.

After that the wind picked up and kept getting stronger the rest of the day. We found ourselves on 2 different roads that afternoon(plan E or F I think by now?!) and we were calling on good sign, we just think nothing heard the calls. About an hour before last light we setup on the less windy side of some rocky foothills that fed up to a huge boulder filled mountain. Surely we could at least pull a Fox out right? The wind was now above 20mph, easily gusting to 30mph or more. Tim and I setup on a small feeder wash and he set the call Hurst on the edge of the brush. I was watching downwind and Tim had the caller straight out front. He started off loud and proud with Cottontail distress to hopefully grab somethings attention. Well it sure worked! Only 4 minutes in Tim caught the slightest of movements as a Female Bobcat sat down just a few feet from the FoxPro. He never saw its approach. With just a sliver of a shot lane he put the bead right on the fur that he could see and took the shot, surprising the crap out of me! Lol. The cat went down and we had our final animal of the trip!

It proved to be a tough weekend for the club hunters. 6 teams competed. One other team managed to call in 4 Coyotes and shot 2, but they couldn't recover either one unfortunately! We brought in 2 Bobcats, 2 Grey Fox, a d 1 Coyote to take first place in the friendly competition hunt. There was no second or third place trophies to be awarded as nobody else showed up by 9pm with a kill.

Can't wait to get these cats on the stretcher!

- Mark






































































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## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

14 degrees makes for some cold camping, that's for sure.

Lots of challenges on those hunts and it's no wonder the turnout was low. Way to stick with it!


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## hassell (Feb 9, 2010)

Congrats. on the hunt, great pic's..


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## azpredatorhunter (Jul 24, 2012)

Congrats Mark! Can't wait to see all them tanned pelts...


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## SWAMPBUCK10PT (Apr 5, 2010)

*Way to go Mark Great Read---excellent Pictures really nice. Congrats on your Kills----skip*


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## Mark Steinmann (Jan 28, 2014)

Thanks guys! Sad to see the season end coming so quickly but it has been a blast!

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## Mo Mo (Sep 16, 2016)

Nice work on the predators! Can't wait to see how that bob hide looks.


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## Mark Steinmann (Jan 28, 2014)

Tater Chip said:


> Nice work on the predators! Can't wait to see how that bob hide looks.


Thanks! I'll try to remember to post a pic of him after stretching. We'll see if the large stretcher arrives in time to put it up before the NAFA drop off date! 

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