Shotguns And Loads
For Close-Range Predators Stephen D. Carpenteri
you have the right equipment for the job. Here’s how it’s done for maximum efficiency and minimal hide damage. My first shotgun predator hunt
I
was a brilliant success in some ways but, overall, a disaster that still troubles me 50 years later. This was long before such tactics as baiting, electronic call- ing and long-range sniping became the rage among predator hunters. Armed only with a Burnham Brothers C-3 long- range “dying rabbit” call and an ancient single-barrel 10 gauge shotgun, I set out to rid the world of the red foxes that were sneaking in and stealing the ring- necked pheasants I had been raising in partnership with the 4-H Club and the state wildlife department for fall stock- ing on public land. I knew enough to set up at the far
corner of the farm and, on the advice of Murray Burnham himself, faced down- wind into a swampy area where I knew the foxes spent their days. I’d put out a couple of cotton balls soaked in (real!) skunk essence (much to the chagrin of my mother, who claimed the smell “got into everything”), and gave my best imitation of a dying rabbit. Remember, there were no demonstration videos or varmint-hunting shows on cable back then – in fact, there was no cable! I did listen to the instructional 45 rpm record that came with my call and tried my best to emulate Burnham’s innovative calling style. I certainly sounded like something that was dying, though my warbling wails were like nothing I’d ever heard before. Whatever I did must have been
right because Mr. Fox showed up on cue, right up the scent trail as Murray had said he would. I waited till he was 20 yards away, centered the silver bead on his chin and pulled the trigger. The 10 gauge went off like a bomb,
obliterating the front half of the fox and left me with a wasted, useless hide that, in those days, could have brought me
t’s easy to take coyotes, foxes and bobcats with a shotgun if
Choose any repeating shotgun, even double- or single-barrel versions. The key for predators is a modified or full choke patterned to center the target at 40 yards.
$20 – nearly a week’s pay! Instead, I bur- ied the hapless red in the compost pile and began to reconsider my approach to shotgunning for predators. Obviously, a 3-inch magnum 10
gauge load (which came in full-length brass cases at that time) was too much gun for a relatively fragile 8-pound fox, and hide damage was unaccept- able – the front half of the animal was destroyed. I’d already been a trapper for a few years so I knew how even
the slightest tear or hole in a muskrat, raccoon or mink hide would reduce its value, and in a time when a dollar was actually worth something I could ill af- ford to waste a $20 bill. So began my quest for the “ulti-
mate” predator caller’s shotgun, and it has taken a lot of experimenting to come up with the final recipe. Of course, there always is room for debate and discus- sion and in the end every hunter has the right to choose his own gun, but when
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