Tracking your kills.

[yucca]

How are you all tracking your kills. Do you keep a diary?
What do you all include?

One of my partners has several 3-ring binders full of data from the past 30+ years.
I have a form that may be helpfull or give ideas on tracking your predator kills. If anyone is interested I will be happy to email the attachment. Send me a pm with your email address.

[FinsnFur]

I'm assuming you mean keeping track (record) of the kills, verses literally tracking them.

[yucca]

Yes, keeping records of those you kill. Tracking a wounded coyote is not much fun .

[Roundman]

 :roflmao: :roflmao: :roflmao: I use one hand. 

[Okanagan]

I'm assuming you mean keeping track (record) of the kills, verses literally tracking them.

I looked in on this thread because I also thought it was about tracking a wounded animal, and I have considerable interest and a fair amount of experience in that on many kinds of game.  It gave me a chuckle to see what it was really about.  I maybe should have "tracked" my hunts with written records, but haven't very much.  If it is for learning, some of the non-kills teach you the most.  If it is to keep score, never had much interest other than payday when selling furs, though I'd encourage anyone else who likes that sort of thing to keep track.

[yucca]

I looked in on this thread because I also thought it was about tracking a wounded animal, and I have considerable interest and a fair amount of experience in that on many kinds of game.  It gave me a chuckle to see what it was really about.  I maybe should have "tracked" my hunts with written records, but haven't very much.  If it is for learning, some of the non-kills teach you the most.  If it is to keep score, never had much interest other than payday when selling furs, though I'd encourage anyone else who likes that sort of thing to keep track.

Yea! I could have done a better job with the thread title. Sorry bout that.

[Rprince]

I don't keep a record of everything but I can see where it would be handy if I did.

I have made a point to try & take pics of every critter that I kill this year, I'd like to try & put together a album.

[Okanagan]

Yea! I could have done a better job with the thread title. Sorry bout that.

You did fine, Yucca.  No sweat.  If we have to carefully edit every word we post to make sure it is said perfectly, and then have people hassle us and read into it what we didn't mean, this forum would be more trouble than it is worth.  I like folks to cordially give me the benefit of the doubt about what I meant, and hope to give the same.  When I'm willing to run the gauntlet of having someone pick at my words and twist my meaning, there's another forum for that.

[yucca]

Here is an example of what kind of data you could get if you tracked your stands for 30+ years.

This is one of our club members data. We have hunted together some over the past couple of years.
Strictly fall and winter recreational caller. Mostly weekends.

I have been putting more effort into my record keeping.
Cumulative Results table:

[FinsnFur]

Nice.
I've heard of people recording the location and the conditions also. That'd be nice to have to be able to look back at.
I'm sure over time you could even watch the routines and conditions of successful kills change too.

[THO Game Calls]

Probably get my butt whooped but what the heck.

I use an old topo mapping program by Wildflower Productions.  They make them for each state and some states have two or three disk.

I plot with the GPS the stand sites, kill, sign, and sightings of all coyotes and fox I find in a year.   At the end of the year, I can print the map out on clear acetate film.   Then over the years, you can lay the maps on top of each other and see patterns emerge.   

I have found that if I get access to a new spot to hunt, by looking back at the old maps one on top of each other, if I can find like terrain that has been successful for me in the past, I have an advantage in the new areas. 

I actually started doing this for deer hunting a long time ago on big printed topo maps.  No GPS back them just a compass and a SWAG for the final spots.  But it helped.   Sounds like a lot of work but with the GPS's now being able to store over 500 way points, you can store them and just take a rainy afternoon to update the maps in the computer. 

Browning has seen some of my maps before.  They really do give you a good idea of what is what were you hunt,

Al

[Okanagan]

Got to thinking about it and remembered that I got into a journal for most of one season.  I did it to help me learn, so put down quite a bit of info on stand set-up, wind direction, my intent and result.  I'll paste in a  few here as a sample of what helps me.  It was good but I didn't put enough time into it to keep it up.  If a guy updated it maybe once a week /month it could help learn animal traits.  Some of my entries for that season taught me a LOT about set ups for bobcat and call sounds for lynx and mule deer.   Here are four samples from that calling journal:  bobcat, coyote, caribou, mule deer.  Edited slightly to be readable, leave out locations & juicy good stuff; bobcat sample added from a different season: 

Jan. 20, bobcat.  Overcast, 3 PM, bench in timber off xxxx Lake Rd.  M1 call 20 ft. from NE edge of break to steep downhill, decoy on stump beside it.  Visibility 5 to 18 yards in timber, access road 40 yards behind my perch on 6 ft stump, 12 yards SW of call.  Low ridge to my left tapered down to call.  Gentle down slope to my right.  Dualing fawns half volume with 30 sec. bobcat in heat every few min.  4 min. ravens came in loud and sat in tree straight above me.  6 min. two quads came down road, sounded very close and later saw that they had looped along a game trail to within 20 yards behind me, but I was heavily screened from that direction.  11 min. bobcat appeared ten feet past the call and to right of it, looking at decoy.  Saw me raise rifle over edge of camo screen, quick stepped behind a screen of brush but it had a shooting hole through it.  Large male.  .243 95 gr NP Rem 600.

Dec. 14,  Coyote @ bobcat set-up.  Xxxx Creek, end of road bench, 8 inches snow, clear, slight air sink downhill near sundown, flat landing 15x40 yds. heavy thick timber on uphill.  Set M1 call and decoy visible in in thin brush on ESE edge of steep drop-off into canyon.  Sat on ENE edge in face/full camo behind screen of white cloth clipped to willows.  Open slots to 8 yards back under dark timber across road on uphill side.  Best slot gave cat a high spot to look down on call.  Bobcat Special (frantic bird).  6 min large dark coyote appeared where cat expected.  He stood and watched decoy.  Extra large coyote, nice coat for a coastal, not after coyotes but have been wanting a hide to tan so shot him at + - 20 yards.  .243 95gr NP Rem 600.

Sept. 8,  Caribou bull 125 yards, changed direction and caught me stalking him, not legal rack so I experimented with calling.  Hid in brush and the bull came closer to see me.  Tried doe in heat blacktail call and he stopped.  Six minute wait, no movement so after several tries I stopped calling.  I showed part of me and he started closer.  Jackrabbit distress stopped him so I only did that twice.  Tolled him to within 30 yards with visual glimpses of me.  He circled downwind and snuffed at my scent then went on his original direction.

Dec. 10.  Walking, 9:30 on Xxxx Creek spur, saw a mule deer buck and doe at 180 yards in edge of timber across clearcut.  Couldn't tell if he was legal (4 pts above eyeguard on one side).  They saw me and left.  Called with xxxx, the doe came back and looked at me.  Hustled ahead 300 yards to intercept them on their migration route.  Spooked them at 75 yards before I left the road, bounded away in selectively logged.  Used xxxx come back call.  Buck sneaked back and circled toward downwind in edge of uncut timber at 90-115 yards, watched me move ten yards closer to him for better position, turned his head to show 4x4.  One shot, leaner on bull pine.  Savage 111 30-06, 165 Interbond.

[Okanagan]

Well, now that I've started on journals...

At the top of the journal I kept on computer, I had a summary list that I would update once in awhile.  The following is a copy of how it stood in late winter that season when I quit keeping it up.  As you can see, I don't call coyotes much anymore.  Used to a lot.

Summary since Sept.

43 calling stands total for all game.
29 animals called that were seen or verified by tracks.
5 more probables unseen, no snow to verify tracks, plus some "possibles".

Details:
4 caribou stands:  3 caribou called, one young bull by visual tolling, none killed.
6 blacktail deer stands:  4 deer called, two does and ?, none killed.
9 whitetail stands:  3 positives, 2 probable deer called, killed a 4x4.
2 mule deer stands:  3 deer called, saw 2 does and killed a 4x4 plus eyeguards.
8 bobcat stands:  1 killed plus 1 probable (several stands in poor locations just eager & learning to use my new e-call).
5 wolf stands:  0 wolves called.  Tracks later convinced us that we were never within hearing range of wolves because they had left the area.
8 cougar stands:  0 confirmed, 2 high probables, one vocalized a response at close range.
1 black bear stand:  1 black bear, did not shoot him.

Incidentals:
2 coyotes, 1 killed.
1 grizzly bear that came in either to deer calling or to my shot.  He circled while I boned the buck and then ate the lungs and covered the rest with sticks and grass.
1 bull elk bugled back at a caribou call at close range.
1 unknown animal glimpsed, almost certainly a lynx, that came to an experimental caribou call in timber.
3 mule deer does to fawn distress sound on predator stands.
6 bull elk approached a fawn distress sound to where they could see its source, then stopped and watched.

[Okanagan]

Oops.  THO posted good stuff while I was typing.

THO, your idea of GPS mapping kills & significant sightings etc. is an excellent idea.  That kind of record is a little work to keep up but really pays off.  I'm afraid that I have kept most such stuff in my head, and it is getting leaky, balky and hazy.  With such info I know that when certain weather condtions coincide with right time of year, I go to location A for high probability of success.  With different weather at the same time of year, go to place B.  I have such location/timing/condition patterns for both coyotes and mule deer in sage and pine mountains,  a different pattern for mule deer in spruce forest, even for skin dive hunting for halibut with spear gun.  Location, location , location, especially when it intesects with right conditions.

An affirming yarn:  in about 1999 I asked an old timer who grew up near Wenatchee, WA before WWII but hadn't hunted there since 1950, if he knew where I could kill a mule deer buck near Wenatchee.  We were 400 miles from there.  "As a matter of fact I do," he said.  "You could kill one there in the morning."  I was living in WA and a week later I followed his napkin notes for a steep mile of hiking one evening to find the place, then killed a 4x5 plus eyeguards there within 20 minutes the next morning.  Killed another buck the following year within 100 yards of the same spot.   Not written but he had a map in his miind with locations for a dozen bucks killed in that canyon, with the spot he told me about as the best.

Some young hunter reading here is going to pay attention to your mapping plan and it will pay off big.

[Bopeye]

It's been over 15 years ago, but I use to have permission to hunt a farm that was a couple hundred acres. I kept records on that thing for a number of years. I could almost tell you when a deer was gonna pee. 
All travel routes, big boys in the area, mast crop, trails, bedding areas, secondary bedding areas, thermal actions, moon phases, all kinds of stuff.

Quit deer hunting and quit keeping records at that time.

Keeping track of your hunts, scouting, kills, etc.  is a good idea though. 

[alscalls]

I do not keep records like I used too, but I do find from past expierience that you should track both posotive and negative results. I have learned from both.

[TA17rem]

I have kept a log book on hunting and calling fox and coyotes for the last  20 some years.
I don't keep track of blank stands or stand numbers.
Here is some of the stuff i keep track of for future references.

Was animal called or hunted?
If called what sounds i used and how long it took for pred. to come in.
Area hunted in.
Time of day, temps., wind condition, cloud cover or sunny, storms before and after hunt. If it snowed how much and what did the wind do dureing and after.
I also keep a few notes on how the stand played out and how coyote reacted..
What gun and cartridge was used, bullet weight or brand..
Distance shot, was it one shot or more...
where bullet struck the animal and what the damage was by said bullet.
When animal is skinned i keep notes on damage caused to the muscle area and bone and depth of wound channel.. I like to keep track of what bullets work best for each cal. that is used.
The group of cartridges i record the most info on are the 17 rem., 204, 223, 22-250, 22-250 imp, 243, 243 imp. and the 300 win. mag.
I also keep track of coyotes or fox i see dureing the summer and alsoany spotted by others.
I record on a topal map where kills have been made and coyote siteings.. I do this for two states....

I also keep track of fur conditions dureing hunting season and how much i get for the fur when i sell.

I put up and sell over a 100 coyotes a year and by looking through my records i see patterns forming for best conditions and times of year and what bullets seem to work the best on an avr.. and so on..

[yucca]

We also keep locations on kills. Thats just info that had to be edited out for privacy purposes.


One of the reasons I like the accurate records  is if you have ever went to the bar with a great hunter the kill totals tend to flucuate as the booze is flowing. This type of records keeping would help them relay accurate info in their hunting tales . 

[yucca]

I have kept a log book on hunting and calling fox and coyotes for the last  20 some years.
I don't keep track of blank stands or stand numbers.
Here is some of the stuff i keep track of for future references.

Was animal called or hunted?
If called what sounds i used and how long it took for pred. to come in.
Area hunted in.
Time of day, temps., wind condition, cloud cover or sunny, storms before and after hunt. If it snowed how much and what did the wind do dureing and after.
I also keep a few notes on how the stand played out and how coyote reacted..
What gun and cartridge was used, bullet weight or brand..
Distance shot, was it one shot or more...
where bullet struck the animal and what the damage was by said bullet.
When animal is skinned i keep notes on damage caused to the muscle area and bone and depth of wound channel.. I like to keep track of what bullets work best for each cal. that is used.
The group of cartridges i record the most info on are the 17 rem., 204, 223, 22-250, 22-250 imp, 243, 243 imp. and the 300 win. mag.
I also keep track of coyotes or fox i see dureing the summer and alsoany spotted by others.
I record on a topal map where kills have been made and coyote siteings.. I do this for two states....

I also keep track of fur conditions dureing hunting season and how much i get for the fur when i sell.

I put up and sell over a 100 coyotes a year and by looking through my records i see patterns forming for best conditions and times of year and what bullets seem to work the best on an avr.. and so on..

Wow! Thats a bunch of info. All I really need to know is if coyotes answerd a call, how many and did I kill any. If the wind is above 20mph I head to the house.

100 coyotes a year is an impressive number for calling. You must live in a great coyote state to do that. Congrats.

[vvarmitr]

I have a post-a-note around here somewhere w/ my record on it.