Montana Woods N Water December 2016 Print Edition | Page 8

PREDATOR HUNTING Montana Woods N Water would like to welcome Jay Sheffield to our Pro Staff team of writers. Jay and I have met from time to time as I scoot around the Libby/Lincoln County areas. I recently went to his office and his walls are covered in pictures and memories from local hunts to African hunts. Jay loves hunting from a mountain bike and that really perked up my interest...I love new ways of thinking about accessing the back country. Couple that with his passion to chase predators such as bears, lions, coyotes and wolves and my wheels started turning. Here is little background on Jay. Jay has served as the elected Lincoln County Justice of the Peace for the past 8 years, taught both Hunter Education and Bowhunter Education for the last 12 years. Jay was also appointed by the director of Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks to a 3 year term on the citizen advisory board and currently also sits on a bighorn sheep advisory subcommittee. He has been a dedicated predator hunter for 40 years, taking his first coyote in the desert southwest at the age of 15 using a P.S. Olt hand call and a Remington 700 in 30-06. Since then Jay has hunted many of the western states taking numerous coyotes, bobcats, bears, lions and wolves using a variety of weapons including handguns, rifles, shotguns and longbow Jay has also hunted bear, bobcat and lion in several states with his own hounds as well as the hounds of friends. To add to his arsenal of tricks he uses his own and use a variety of factory and custom hand calls and occasionally an electronic call. My most challenging hunts were calling and taking coyotes and finally a wolf with the longbow. The wolf was taken at 28 yards by hand calling in 2014 and is believed to be the first modern day American wolf intentionally hunted and taken with a longbow. He was voted Predator Masters “Hunter of the Month” five times and “Hunter of the Year” twice. Jay has written a number of articles on predator hunting for archery and hunting magazines. Jay has instructed a number of people in predator calling techniques but his greatest passion is solo backcountry predator hunting. Jay, welcome aboard team MWNW and we are honored you have chosen to write for us. I know our readers will love to follow you in your adventures and the wisdom you are about to share on predator hunting. If you have a topic or question for Jay send an email to [email protected] and we will get him to address it in the next issue. Don’t do the email thing...call me at 406-407-0612 and I will pass your question on. I was very pleased when Montana Woods N Water (MWNW) offered me the opportunity to start a column on predator hunting. It is a pursuit I am very passionate about and I know there are a lot of folks out there who would like to either improve their technique or learn enough of the basics to at least get out and get started. Continued on page 9. 6 The staff at Minnie’s wants to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Minnie’s will be closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Years Day!