Al Morris, a member of the Hunter’s Specialties Pro Staff, and his hunting partner Garvin Young recently won the 2008 annual World Coyote Calling Championship in Cortez, Colorado. They are the only team ever to win back-to-back and to capture three World Championship titles.
Morris and Young came in first in a field of 128 two-man teams who entered the event.
The contest is held over a day and a half, where participants try to call in and shoot the highest number of coyotes. Al and Garvin managed to take 18. The second place team finished with 13 coyotes.
“This year we hunted an area south of Cortez in New Mexico on some Navajo Nation land,” said Al. “We did some extensive scouting and found a location with plenty of coyotes that hadn’t been pressured by hunters. We did some late evening and early morning howling on our Mac Daddy Howlers to locate the coyotes. According to our best guess there were around 100 coyotes in the area.”
“We used the Johnny Stewart Preymaster-4 Caller with the authentic Johnny Stewart sounds. The Grown Cottontail Distress sound proved most effective,” stated Morris. “Garvin and I have worked hard to perfect our calling and set up techniques over the years. We like to use a set up that provides some elevation so we can see coyotes coming in from a distance. Since the Johnny Stewart PM-4 is a wireless remote operated caller we could set the speaker upwind of our location 50-60 yards to draw attention away from our set up.”
“We used Hunter’s Specialties Scent-A-Way products to remain scent free while we’re hunting. It really makes a difference since coyotes will almost always circle down wind of your stand to try and smell you. Garvin and I always split up so that whether the coyote circled close of far away, one of us would be in range. We shot one coyote at 5 feet in front of us and 6 of them were less than 20 yards. With the HS Scent-A-Way, the coyotes didn’t smell us, so we were able to get a considerably better shot.”
“Learning to use the right calls and working to be scent-free with the Hunter’s Specialties Scent-A-Way products definitely helped us win our third title. It takes a little more effort and attention to details, but at the end of the day it makes all the difference in the world.”
This year’s contest also saw Hunter’s Specialties National Pro Staff member Steve Criner and his hunting partner Clay Owens take 9 coyotes for a 7th place finish in a tough field of top competitors.
“We spent five days scouting and sleeping out among the coyotes,” said Criner. “We were the only team from the Midwest to enter the competition. This is truly a contest among the best predator hunters that are out there. I believe the combination of Scent-A-Way and the Johnny Stewart calls gave us a real advantage. Hunting coyotes in the Midwest is a lot different than it is in the west. We were looking for anything that would give us an extra edge and the Hunter’s specialties products did just that. We’re excited about where we placed this year and can’t wait to get back in the hunt for a title next year.”
For more information, log onto the Hunter’s Specialties website at www.hunterspec.com.
