Indiana Predator Challange

[FinsnFur]

Anyone got anything on the 07 IPC?
It fit nicely on the calendar but......is that all we get? 

[stevecriner]

I heard Jason and his team won with two foxes maybe....And a coyote,i aint for sure....

[FinsnFur]

You heard.

Jason wanted  post it on the FNF Calendar...I'd think he would come around and post the outcome of it. 

[stevecriner]

Yah i heard but didnt really catch it all so it might of been more animals than that, but i think thtas right.
steve

[slagmaker]

I went!! and my team tied for third place with a nice 38 pound male.

I dont rmemeber the names of the teams but the winning team came in with two red foxe, Jason was the guide for that team, the second place team brought in a double on yotes and both third place teams brought in a yote each.

All in all it was a great time even though the weather at night was near 0 no one lost heart and everyonie kept on hunting.

I will post more later and maybe even a pic or three

[slagmaker]

Gona try posting pics while I am at work so lets see if this works.

These pics are on the midwest predator sight and if I am doing wrong in posting them here Jason let me know and I will get ride of them.

the winners


second place


two teams tied for third



Heres a pic of the fur pile


My team got the biggest dog, thats my team with the guy wearing the oragne hat. Everyone hunted there little hearts out even with the weather like it was. I have to give a big piece of rasin pie to jason for putting on a very well done event. I am already making plans to go next year

[Bopeye]

Lots of fur........which one is you Slag?

[FinsnFur]

At's what a'hm talkin bout 
Thanks for the update slag.....great pics!
How many people would you guess showed?

[slagmaker]

About 35 ta 36 people showed up "if I counted the group shot right" with I belive 11 teams with 3 to 4 men on a team.

Hears a group shot taken at the begening of the hunt.


I am the one in the middle of the pic with the guy in the Bright orange hat. Hes my cousin and the guy on the other side of me is PredatorX, He is on the midwest predator site. Hes the one that shot the yote on the last day of the hunt, heck of a nice guy and hes got a fat man friendly truck.

[Bopeye]

I do like those "fat man friendly" trucks.........

[slagmaker]

When we started out on our little challenge it was snowing and a little breezy the temp was in the high 20's. Little did we know how much that was gona change. When we were let loose and started to hunt my team went straight to the HNF office to get a map and some info from the Conservation officers there. Man what a helpfull bunch, they put us on yote right away. Didn't get any called in but they were there of that there was no doubt. Jim's e-caller was making them sing. As the day and stands went on the temp started to drop but that didn't deter our spirits. On Saturday morning about 2:30AM the frost was comming down and the temp was about 4 above no wind thank God. We had made about 10-12 stands and decided that was enough. It hard to hunt when everything that isn't a natural fiber creaks whenever ya move it.

Went back to the hotel and got some sleep. Not much sleep! Alarm goes off 5:30 AM and were back at it. We didn't get to the filed as soon as we would have liked but we still trudged on. Stand after stand and Now we have wind and not just a light breeze but a full blown make the flag flap wind. then it comes time for check in and FOOD. Man what a dreary eyed group. Every one was tired and hungry. when the check in was done everyone was let loose on the food. NOW THAST WAS SOMW GOOD GRUB!!! Fellow by the name of Gamechef and his family fixed us some fine vittles and my hat is off the them for all the work they put into the meal.

After the meal awe headed out to the range to check out the paper shoot and that was interesting to watch. Little boring if your not the one burning powder but still interesting. Best score in that got extra points to wards winning the challenge. After the shoot it was off to make some more stands in the high winds. But the wind and cold would not deter us from popping a cap in a yotes but. On and on it went. After one stand I met in the field a fellow by the name of Yodeldog, been talking to him for awhile on the MWP sight and it was interesting to finally meet him face to face out in the filed doing what we both love. Talked with him a few and it was time to head back to the hotel to get some rest and pick up the lights so we could hunt into the night.

After sleeping a few we headed out and decided to try out an area that one of the CO's had told us about. Now that my friends is an adventure. Driving around in the middle of the night in a big truck on itty bitty country roads in an area that no of us had seen in the day light and trying to follow detour signs. I am trying to read the map and stay awake. My cousin9in is in the back seat snoring away and me an Jim are drinking Mtn Dew and gnawing on some jerky.

Finally found the area just before sun up. I would not trade that experience for anything. We were set up under a power line in the clear cut. the sun was lighting the sky but not yet showing. Jim let out a howl on his caller and next thing you now we have a yote howling at us from about 30 yards to me and my cousins right. Almost instantly theres one from the left not far from where Jim set up. Then it was one after another say8ing good morning to each other all along the hill tops on a cold Sunday morning. Word scan not adicualty describe the beauty of the situation so I wont even try. The Woods were thick enough that Darren and I could not SSE the yote that was closest to us but a sharp crack from Jim's 220 swift let us know that we had finally gotten fur. We made a few more stands before we had to head back and check out of the hotel but we didn't do any good, had several sound off but nothing came in.

This is a shortened version of our trip and as such has left out some interesting points. I will have to sit down and wright it all down cause we did have a great time and a lot of memories were made.

Jim was using a wildlifetech E-caller. MAN what a caller!!! Very realistic sounding from the lowest of volume to the highest. I checked out the price when I got home. Was thinking about getting one. Well I think I am gona have to wait on that, there a little pricey but I think well worth the money.

[fuzz624]

      Glad to see you had a good time slag.I have one question though.Why were the 2 red foxes worth more than the 2 coyotes?

[slagmaker]

Points system was set up as such

1 point= coyote
2 point= red fox
3 point= grey fox

in the event of a tie weight was to be used as the deciding factor.

[CavTrooper]

I think you got it reversed, Im thinking it was reds=3, coyotes=2 and greys=1... I could be wrong though.

[slagmaker]

I cant find my rules that I printed off but now that you mention it you may have it right. Either way it was a great time and I am looking forward to next year.

[Jrbhunter]

Oops, guess I should've looked harder.  I have a bad habit of glancing at the 2 or 3 freshest threads once a week- then if I post it gives the appearance I am reading the entire site.   Apologies.

The hunt went off really well, dispite some unfortunate situations that forced a few teams to cancel at the last minute.   Also we battled pretty nasty weather for the bulk of the hunt, single digit temps and winds gusting up around 25mph were painful and the clear, cold, moonlight nights were pretty unproductive for our hunters.

Dispite it all, teams managed to call in dozens of animals and get some of them killed.  We had a great group of folks this year and wonderful assistance from federal and state agencies.   The food was unbelievable- our buddy "Game Chef" from Midwest Predator really served it up right.  The prize packages were again awesome, special thanks to FNF members like HawksFeather & Whitehare Lanyards amongst others.   Some of those guys really came through to help us budget in more quality prizes with our restricted funds... very thankful for that.

The Indiana Predator Challenge operates a little differently than most- one big difference is the option for a team to have a "local hunter" which will assist them navigate the terrain and backroads.   In the previous years, no guided team has won... but this year was different.   The team I drew came down from Michigan to compete, on the first four stands we called in four red fox!!!     After that we hammered out 41 other stands (45 total) and never saw fur again! LOL!    We took two of the four reds... and missed a third... so that gave us 6 points going into the final checkin.   Sawmiller's team called in 3 coyotes on the first stand and killed 2 of them... so they had 4 points.    Again- the weather turned off pretty crappy so it turned out those "Early strikes" were crucial.... the first and second place teams would eventually carry those points through two more days of blank stands!!!

In the end, third place was awarded to "The Howlers" because they killed one coyote and won the rifle competition.  The rifle competition was worth 2 points for first..... and one point for second.   Then, forth, we had "Two Cousins" including Slagmaker shown above with their one hefty coyote.   Slagmaker had a good chance at the rifle competition with his shoulder cannon 30-06 but came up a target or two short.. I don't remember.    As I judged I was getting used to the 22 centerfire "pops" until Slag got up there and set the hills to thundering- DAMN!

Anyways- the winners were from Michigan and scored their first ever called/killed Red Fox.   The one boy that connected on a Red had never seen a predator come to a call... so he was pumped!    The second place team was from Illinois, and both shooters there were able to harvest their first ever called/killed coyotes!   The third place team took their coyote at closer range than they had ever encountered- like 8'!!   What more can you ask for?!

Slag did a good job with the pics, if you'd like to see more info or pictures on the event just check out www.IndianaPredatorChallenge.com     The site is being upgraded so it will look new and improved in the next few days- right now it still reflects the updated information and photos!    Thanks; Jason