“WIND”

My my my, say no more! Now this is a topic many hunters ask and talk about! I am also asked about this topic, so here is my 2cents worth with regards to this WIND thing.

Ok, here goes, well how do I start? This is a tricky one, uuummm – ok – well to be successful on a jackal hunt we must know all about the moon, sounds to use, a good location and how to pick one, caller placement and THE WIND!

Many hunters all have their own theories about these aspects I just mentioned above, and many disagree on them; however we need to pay a lot of attention to wind for a jackal, ok it is a given not all of them are clever, some of them are not as slim as others, but if we don’t take note of wind we will be killing all the more stupid ones and leaving all the main slim ones behind!

This is my angle on this wind thing; this is taken from an article of mine called Night Vision secret, see what I say here as an example;

On most stands you have an opportunity to make two kinds of sets for wind; you can make a cross wind set up (good for day calling) or the normal wind in the face calling stand.

Most people go with this wind in the face style. Ok, here is an example; lets say you are to call a stretch of land that is say 2 kilometres in length.  The wind is going from right to left. So this means you will have to drive all along that road and make marks of 700m apart of at least 5 spots plus minus and work along the road with the wind. Then at the last spot you mark, you make this your first spot and work from here backwards thus allowing you now to work back and every stand you do you will be working into the wind. (Hoping the wind doesn’t change). If it does you need to move so you approach each stand from downwind and call into the wind.

When I mark every spot I will stand at I use toilet paper near the side of the road and I draw on a piece of paper how the land looks, so at night at every stand I can quickly look at my drawing and see what the land is like, and see if any dongas or whatever is close that I need be aware of.  I place that caller out depending upon cover, if it is open land I place it a ways out and if using Night Vision I will always keep caller away from me. Mostly in typical Karoo stubble I will place it 50- 70m away, if its pitch dark I keep it close to me, all this placing a caller far away is mostly a load of bullshit (thousands of jackal have been called with hand calls by a hunter on a bakkie, with a call in his mouth not many metres away from him). I keep it close 10-15-20m away on dark nights and moon nights then it’s far from me, or if I hunt on a windmill its 75-80m from me…..

So, what I do is place the caller in front of my bakkie, I try place it into the wind and keep it just left or right of the road, this makes it easier to find in the bush. I am NOT a guy to fond of using reflectors on my callers as many guys do! BECAUSE any predators coming in at angles will see reflections not found in the Karoo and it can spook a predator. I also keep it OFF the ground because a caller on the soft sand or ground will not make crispy sounds, they will be muffled, so by placing it off the ground will make the sounds crispy, sharper and you will get greater distance at a lower volume level.

These are just things I do, so I have the bakkies nose in the wind, the caller is placed out in front also into the wind, with no moon max 20m from me, with a moon 70m from me. I like a caller closer as you will see an animal’s eye reflection faster as he is not looking in another direction.

Each stand I will call for 45 min – 1 full hour. If nothing comes in I will after this sit still and now and again just watch with red light or Night Vision. BECAUSE many times very late a jackal will come through your area very late after you have finished calling, he can pin point your exact location so sit still and wait 10 minutes.

This kind of set up, most the dogs I have killed came from the front and past my bakkies front, about 30% came from another direction. Some approach from downwind but they first appear in another area. This is also debatable as many guys have other responses.

CROSS WINDS

This is another style of calling, more so used in day calling without a bakkie, but it does work at night also.

Here we can work a stand lets say if we are on a dust / sand farm road and cant drive in the bush but the wind is coming across the road from 9 to 3 o clock, in other words a direct cross wind, here we can make a setup that we cant sit back and call into a cross cut wind.

Here is how this is achieved;

The wind comes towards you across the road you are driving, say you are driving towards 12 o clock, and the wind hits you at 3 o clock towards 9 o clock, you pull of the road, walk out ( if you can see on open flat terrain) walk out to 2 o clock position and place the caller 70m away from you, turn your bakkie to face 3 o clock. And start calling, light up a lot at the down wind side but watch that 1 o clock position to the 4 o clock position if calling jackal. Place the caller at a 45 degree angle to the 2 o clock position to achieve a cross wind stand.

I hope this all helps you out. I have hunted this way for over 20 years and have great results, so it can’t be far wrong.

REMEMBER

When calling cats the wind is not a factor, they don’t try winding you and most times will come in from any direction, and will offer you plenty time to shoot unlike the jackal. In all the years I have called cats, I have called just about 100% of them all when the wind made no difference at all, lynx / wildcats are pretty dumb animals, (that’s why they are caged trapped) and will approach a distress sound from any direction.

Good luck, I hope this helps you out!