I normally walk 4 to 6 miles every morning. This morning I left while it was still dark.

I have about 200 yards from the front door to the town road that dead ends and T's my driveway.

I have a good LED head lamp.

I made the turn onto the town road and walked about 50 yards. To my left is very thick brush and small trees.

I noticed a set of eyes about 35 yards away.

Out came my handgun a Glock 23 loaded with 165grJHPs.

The eyes were very close to the ground I thinking raccoon. Ok lets try and get a shot.

All of a sudden there are 5 more sets of eyes and all of them are a lot higher then a raccoon.

Turned out it was a pack of six wolves. They were not very respectful. They stood around and looked at me even after I yelled at them.

I called my wife and said shotgun behind the bedroom door bring it to me now. 870 tactical with a stream light forend light and red dot sight. Seven rounds of OO buck in the mag another 5 on the stock.

As I backed away I could tell the eyes were following me. As I hit the end of the driveway.

The wife wife pulled up in my truck. I opened the passenger door. Removed my shotgun chambered a round and turned on the tac light and dot sight.

Nothing like a 870 fill with buck and a good tac-light to make one feel better.

As I lite up the woods with the tac light no eyes were seen.

The head lights shining through the woods and the sound of the truck must of scared them . They sure were not afraid of me on foot.

The closest one was 20 yards the furthest one 35 yards.

An exciting start to my morning walk. All I can figure they must of been bedded down about a 150 yards from the house.

These are not the first wolves I have seen nor the closest. But not that many that close.

Living in the woods can be interesting.

Christmas morning about 60 miles away we had a wolf killed in self-defense.

"Wolves in the dark" - posted 08 Feb/24

Can't believe there were no replies to this! But I suppose it's rather unique for most American hunters who live in States other than Alaska and those on the Great Lakes.

Outside of coyotes, I've seen quite a few real wolves, some up close, and I've hunted them coming very close to shooting one or two but not yet. But your story has inspired me to go get a tag, especially for the month of March which is their matting period.

There's a particular solo black wolf I trailed for several winters on snow shoes. I got to know his trails and came within a few yards and moments of catching up with him. But he knew he was being trailed so made his escape. On another occasion, in mid to late March, I decided to check out an area I knew well because I had a bear bait there. I drove off the main highway onto a dirt sideroad that had yet to be plowed after the winter's snowfall but was melting with ice under the snow. I went as far as I dared without getting stuck in there (a bear-bait site was just up the ridge and buried in snow). I stopped, and in looking around for any wolf tracks, I glanced in my rear-view mirrors and saw two wolves had followed me onto the side road. My rifle was in the back seat (should have been with me!). So it was too late to get out to retrieve the rifle, so I just sat there watching them in the mirrors. There was a large one and the other was smaller. They circled my vehicle with the larger one standing off at about 25 yds and the smaller one coming around to my driver's door, looking up at me. I noticed it had a tracking collar on. They milled around a bit before heading off on a hunting trip, dropping off the road into the forest again. I also noted that the larger one also had a tracking device on its neck. So they had been previously sedated by the MNR. I let them go and never trailed them because of the wet-heavy snow would have not worked with my snowshoes.

Bob
www.bigbores.ca

quote:

But I suppose it's rather unique for most American hunters who live in States other than Alaska and those on the Great Lakes.

The states out west that have wolves. Would be a prime area for things like this to happen.

But they also have a season and tags available. The problem here is the over protection of wolves.

Several people have shot wolves in self-defense.

P.D., it certainly seems that Wisconsin should be considering controlled hunting of these admittedly magnificent apex predators. Is it politics or just a brain-dead department of fish and wildlife?

I have game pictures of red wolves baying up a mature black bear.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
P.D., it certainly seems that Wisconsin should be considering controlled hunting of these admittedly magnificent apex predators. Is it politics or just a brain-dead department of fish and wildlife?

I am guessing both politics and stupidity. The people with the most say in the matter, live in cities and are brain dead. They love big predators, but don't have to live with them. There is just no common sense in the World anymore.

Fresh snow fresh wolf tracks a half a mile from the house.

We have a lot of anti's in our cities that have no clue.

right now we have a very anti governor and AG.

He has been able to place anti's on the Natural resources board.

We should be killing at least 500 wolves a year to kept them under control.

i don't think that is going to happen.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:

quote:

But I suppose it's rather unique for most American hunters who live in States other than Alaska and those on the Great Lakes.

The states out west that have wolves. Would be a prime area for things like this to happen.

But they also have a season and tags available. The problem here is the over protection of wolves.

Several people have shot wolves in self-defense.

You are spot on in your thoughts. I live in MT and we have a number of wolves here. Before we had a hunting season here on them the wolfs had no fear of people and these types of encounters were happening often. The wolfs were damn ballsy. The first year we opened a hunting season on them the quota filled up in a week or so. It did not take very long for the remaining wolfs to get a good fear of man. Now the wolfs are damn hard to see and to hunt, they see, hear or smell you they are gone. the issue we are having now is grizzly's, they now have several generations of bears that have not been hunted and they have lost fear of man and we are starting to have more bear/people encounters. We have been trying to get a limited bear season but have been stopped by do Gooders that don't even live around here. So like you said the best thing that could happen would be to get a hunting season on the big dogs.

A good deal of fear is lost by animals when it is dark. I have been within 20 ft of bears after dark, that clearly could smell me. A yell, and they would go crashing off though. Wolves have the pack thing going on a bear doesn't have.

quote:

A good deal of fear is lost by animals when it is dark

That is why Thermal is so effective.

The predator thing has everything to do with politics
Simply stated, anyone ever saw Democrat defending guns and hunting?
As rare as hens teeth and there is the rub…

Oh, but they look so pretty and fluffy in the coffee table book!

Fuck. Me.

There are millions and millions of Americans who are Democrats who own guns and hunt. It's the talking heads who can't be trusted, and that goes for the Republican bozos as well.
Urban populations tend to be clueless about wildlife management, but they have a lot of votes AND the anti-hunting interests have learned how to effectively pitch their emotion-based propaganda to these people while pro-hunting and science-based conservation groups have not. It will only get worse, I fear.

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
There are millions and millions of Americans who are Democrats who own guns and hunt. It's the talking heads who can't be trusted, and that goes for the Republican bozos as well.
Urban populations tend to be clueless about wildlife management, but they have a lot of votes AND the anti-hunting interests have learned how to effectively pitch their emotion-based propaganda to these people while pro-hunting and science-based conservation groups have not. It will only get worse, I fear.

And all one has to do is look at the arpf to see exactly what dems who claim to be outdoorsmen are really like.

Well they're real pretty but don't look as cuddly as bears ...

quote:

Originally posted by Aspen Hill Adventures:

quote:

Originally posted by Bill/Oregon:
There are millions and millions of Americans who are Democrats who own guns and hunt. It's the talking heads who can't be trusted, and that goes for the Republican bozos as well.
Urban populations tend to be clueless about wildlife management, but they have a lot of votes AND the anti-hunting interests have learned how to effectively pitch their emotion-based propaganda to these people while pro-hunting and science-based conservation groups have not. It will only get worse, I fear.

And all one has to do is look at the arpf to see exactly what dems who claim to be outdoorsmen are really like.

This is exactly why I don't lookat the arpf anymore!

AR is a Forum primarily about guns, shooting, and hunting, yet a good number of posters on ARPF post support for the politicians that oppose guns, shooting, and hunting.

quote:

ARPF

What is ARPF?

quote:

Originally posted by DIs:

quote:

ARPF

What is ARPF?

ARPF = Accurate Reloading Political Forum

It won't take long for the nice migrants to lose
their fear/loathing of Liberal Democrats.
I remember when they used to be called undocumented
or illegal aliens-and were quickly deported.

To re-instill fear of the police and Border Patrol,
maybe we need to issue culling: of the nice aliens or...

I always chuckle at the lack of self-awareness these guys in the ARPF have when they see what's going on right now but can't connect that it's a direct result of how they voted.

quote:

Originally posted by Bull Sprig:
I always chuckle at the lack of self-awareness these guys in the ARPF have when they see what's going on right now but can't connect that it's a direct result of how they voted.

They are the definition of insanity. Even though I have been a member of AR for a very long time now I am still shocked at the crazy liberal contingent members. Seriously.

Ann, I don't have any idea how some of the most consistently "liberal" posters in the PF conduct themselves in the outdoors -- or even if they do at all. In my own family, my two younger brothers are proud Democrats, and yet they are avid hunters and fishermen. I'm the conservative and can't figure out what went wrong. Maybe I didn't "slug-bug" them enough when we were kids.

Firearm owners and outdoorsmen voting for democrats.

Is like chickens voting for Col. Sanders.

quote:

Originally posted by p dog shooter:
Firearm owners and outdoorsmen voting for democrats.

Is like chickens voting for Col. Sanders.

There^^^
Exactly my sentiment

This past summer I was working in Central Nevada. I was driving to the project early in the morning when I saw three very large black dogs that had thicker coats. At first I thought maybe they were someones dogs as they were running from a rancher's property. Later that morning we had our weekly progress meeting and afterwards I was talking with a local DOT employee. When I told him what I saw he pulled out his phone and showed me close up pictures of the black wolves. He had set up game cameras in one of their pits because he and a few others had seen the same "Dogs" in and around the same area.
He brought the pictures up to a Game Warden and was told that Nevada's stance is there are no Wolves in the state. If they were to admit their there Wolves they would have to write new regulationsand management/protection documentation that met Federal guidelines.

After my encounter with them, there were a few guys on the construction crew that had also seen them.

When I went hiking up in the Wilderness areas, I had my Glock 10mm strapped to my chest and would carry my 25-06 when coyote hunting. I never did see them but I did see plenty of tracks.

Seen wolves on ocassion in Idaho, they keep distance between themselves and cowboys, must be the cowboys smell!