Outdoorsman’s Journal-
An Outdoorsman’s Journal-
By Mark Walters
Two nights with the crew from Night Ops
Hello friends, One of the coolest parts of my job as an outdoor adventures writer, is the all the very interesting people I meet. A couple months ago, Brian Ball, who lives near Waupun, with his wife, Sharon, and their yellow lab, Dux, reached out to me and invited me on a nighttime coyote hunt.
Brian and his long-time friends, Jeff Leitner and Tom Hoinacki, also of Waupun, run “Night Ops Coyote Control.” What these guys do requires brains, physical endurance, patience, the ability to pull into a hunting location with your lights off and not getting too caught up with your bullet not hitting the “yote,” if that should happen.
Friday, March 13 • High 41, Low 23
As I said, today would be my first real experience around these guys, and it was interesting and pleasant. First, I drove to the Balls’ cabin near Waupun, which Brian and Sharon built from the ground up, including the doors.
Next, I learned about Heroes Hunt For Veterans, which Brian is the founder and chairman of, and is one extremely active organization. In a nutshell, at the Balls’ property, WHFR has set up a permanent hunting camp. In the fall, for 14 weekends in a row, they take a group of either two or three vets bowhunting, and the local community really helps in a big way.
Next, Brian has a Daniel Defense M4 AR15, with an ATN X-2 night vision scope set up on it and I got to shoot it. I fired two rounds, hit the bullseye both times and was amazed.
One of the biggest parts of being part of the Night Ops team, is speaking with lots of landowners; guns going off on their property in the dark require permission and notice. We spoke with landowners in Fond du Lac and Dodge counties, and here are common reasons they want some coyotes killed: soon the calving season will begin, coyotes love to kill young calves when they are vulnerable; the fawn season will begin, many fawn die to coyotes as well as adult deer.
The other reason, is that coyotes also find dogs very tasty, espe- cially small ones.
Back to the hunt. I am an observer, Jeff and Tom are on one side of a wooded fence line, and Brian and I are on the other, with maybe 100 yards between us. Everything is planned out with the wind, these guys have put a whackin’ on more than 90 coyotes in the last three winters, and have some incredible stories of cold conditions, fatigue, messing up and a lot of success.
So, everyone is either looking through a night vision scope, a thermal scope or a thermal scanner “minocular.” All the rifles are resting on tripods.
Brian sets out the Fox Pro 499, which is a top-of-the-line call and it is located about 80 yards up-wind of us. Within seconds, a coyote howls back after Brian puts out a call imitating a passive female. I can see very little, but enjoy the show. Brian spots one and long story short, it lives to hunt another day.
On our next set-up, the guys let me watch through one of their thermal scanners and it was just nuts.
Before we let out the first holler on the call, we could see six deer and eight raccoons scavenging in last year’s soybean field. I was told to watch what was going to happen once the call was activated. The deer headed for the forest and the coon went to the closest trees.
Folks, for two nights, we put in big hours all over this part of the world and was I ever impressed with the lay of the land here. Fence lines that are tree lined and 40-feet wide, deer everywhere, always the sound of geese, next to no human activity after dark.
All of us are in the same age bracket, “tag end of five centuries,” and the hiking, patience, dealing with the cold wind and a positive attitude, were always apparent.
These guys sell their hides, but Brian also has a vision of making a blanket for his bed out of them and I have to tell ya, I was impressed with everything about Night Ops! Sunset
