Hunter Success rates
December of 2011 proved to be the best month of wolf hunting Wingmaster has ever had! A total of 10 wolves were harvested for 5 hunters which puts our 2011 success rate at 200%!
That sounds great and I would love to say that each person went home with a wolf, but wolf hunting is tough. Honestly.
One client went home empty handed, but I do believe if the week had not been cut short, we would have been successful on that hunt as well.
The "wolf guru's" that came the first week took a total of five wolves in six days of hunting. Joe came the second week and had oppertunity at a wolf the first day then took a pair of black wolves on his second day. A father son duo from Michigan came up the third week and Jr saw twelve wolves on his second day and killed three while Sr sat patiently for 4 days and saw nothing. Sorry Sr.
The weather plays a big factor in wolf hunting, according to my experience, and we were blessed with a very mild December.
The winter of 2012 brought a record amount of snowfall in the area and the deer and population took a HUGE hit. I set out a large number of baits in different areas trying to find a pocket of hungry wolves, but alas, they were busy feasting on the starving deer. We harvested a few wolves but not nearly like we should have.
2013 was another good year for us as a low snowfall level and a failing deer population drove the wolves to my baits. I had planned a few different things this winter so I only took one wolf hunter. We were successful and Gary knocked down a huge female at my favorite bait. He sat for six days and sighted three wolves and thirty six coyotes. Gary showed more restraint waiting for a wolf then I would, and only killed four coyotes that were to pretty to pass up.
2014 came and went so fast its unreal. We had another great wolf season with each hunter taking a wolf home and missed a couple more. It takes a lot of time and energy to be consistently killing wolves and in the past 6 years our success rate has averaged out to an astounding 78%!! The later years have definitely been better as we've fine tuned the way we run the hunt, and we hope to continue that trend. Alberta's estimated wolf population is at an incredible 7000 animals and the majority of that is in the northern half of the province. A few years ago I kept a tally of the number of wolves i was feeding at each bait. That winter I figured I was feeding around 40-45 wolves on eight bait stations. Each wolf eats an estimated 19 deer per year. Do the math, the numbers are unbelievable!
2015 was an average year for wolf hunting. I tried something new this year and hunted much earlier in the season then I usually do and it did not produce the way I was hoping it would. However, I managed to scrape together a 57% success rate which brings my running average over 7 years down to 70%, which i'm still very happy with, considering the wolf is probably the hardest big game animal in North America to go out and kill.
2016 is a great year for wolves for us, we have killed 7 wolves for 7 hunters so far this year with six more hunters to go. The weather has cooperated somewhat and that has helped us out. We ran into the biggest pack we've ever had at a bait and killed two out of the pack of 13. We needed a few more shooters that morning. The remainder of the season produced two more wolves for our hunters so we ended the year off a little slower. With my trapping wolves added into there we ended off with 29 wolves total.
2017 started off SUPER strong with my first hunter killing three wolves and a couple coyotes. From there it was a struggle all through the season with numerous wolves being missed. We ended up missing wolves on 8 different occasions and wounding one ending the season with four dead wolves. With the snared wolves and the hunted wolves we ended up with a total of 24 wolves for the winter.
Thank you to all of you that have hunted with me in the past and those that are booked to come in the future!
God Bless
Kyler Knelsen
That sounds great and I would love to say that each person went home with a wolf, but wolf hunting is tough. Honestly.
One client went home empty handed, but I do believe if the week had not been cut short, we would have been successful on that hunt as well.
The "wolf guru's" that came the first week took a total of five wolves in six days of hunting. Joe came the second week and had oppertunity at a wolf the first day then took a pair of black wolves on his second day. A father son duo from Michigan came up the third week and Jr saw twelve wolves on his second day and killed three while Sr sat patiently for 4 days and saw nothing. Sorry Sr.
The weather plays a big factor in wolf hunting, according to my experience, and we were blessed with a very mild December.
The winter of 2012 brought a record amount of snowfall in the area and the deer and population took a HUGE hit. I set out a large number of baits in different areas trying to find a pocket of hungry wolves, but alas, they were busy feasting on the starving deer. We harvested a few wolves but not nearly like we should have.
2013 was another good year for us as a low snowfall level and a failing deer population drove the wolves to my baits. I had planned a few different things this winter so I only took one wolf hunter. We were successful and Gary knocked down a huge female at my favorite bait. He sat for six days and sighted three wolves and thirty six coyotes. Gary showed more restraint waiting for a wolf then I would, and only killed four coyotes that were to pretty to pass up.
2014 came and went so fast its unreal. We had another great wolf season with each hunter taking a wolf home and missed a couple more. It takes a lot of time and energy to be consistently killing wolves and in the past 6 years our success rate has averaged out to an astounding 78%!! The later years have definitely been better as we've fine tuned the way we run the hunt, and we hope to continue that trend. Alberta's estimated wolf population is at an incredible 7000 animals and the majority of that is in the northern half of the province. A few years ago I kept a tally of the number of wolves i was feeding at each bait. That winter I figured I was feeding around 40-45 wolves on eight bait stations. Each wolf eats an estimated 19 deer per year. Do the math, the numbers are unbelievable!
2015 was an average year for wolf hunting. I tried something new this year and hunted much earlier in the season then I usually do and it did not produce the way I was hoping it would. However, I managed to scrape together a 57% success rate which brings my running average over 7 years down to 70%, which i'm still very happy with, considering the wolf is probably the hardest big game animal in North America to go out and kill.
2016 is a great year for wolves for us, we have killed 7 wolves for 7 hunters so far this year with six more hunters to go. The weather has cooperated somewhat and that has helped us out. We ran into the biggest pack we've ever had at a bait and killed two out of the pack of 13. We needed a few more shooters that morning. The remainder of the season produced two more wolves for our hunters so we ended the year off a little slower. With my trapping wolves added into there we ended off with 29 wolves total.
2017 started off SUPER strong with my first hunter killing three wolves and a couple coyotes. From there it was a struggle all through the season with numerous wolves being missed. We ended up missing wolves on 8 different occasions and wounding one ending the season with four dead wolves. With the snared wolves and the hunted wolves we ended up with a total of 24 wolves for the winter.
Thank you to all of you that have hunted with me in the past and those that are booked to come in the future!
God Bless
Kyler Knelsen
Book your next wolf hunt with Wingmaster Outfitting Ltd.
Kyler Knelsen
Phone: 1 780 247 0247
Email: kyler@wingmasteroutfitting.com
Kyler Knelsen
Phone: 1 780 247 0247
Email: kyler@wingmasteroutfitting.com