Predator hunting guide and hunter Matt McHugh has fooled up to 24 coyotes in one night to be toppled by clients. His best single setup in North Dakota saw nine coyotes fall, and his best in Wisconsin dropped six song dogs.
But the real skill nobody can match is his natural voice, duplicating dozens of predator and prey sounds that are so good, electronic call maker FOXPRO records him for their calls.
Call him the Pavarotti of predator sounds.
Members of the Clintonville Bow Hunters were treated to three of his hair-raising sounds Feb. 22 during their annual banquet in Marion, where the 37-year-old New London man shared his astounding hunting success and world champion voice calling.
“I grew up coon hunting with dogs (starting around age 7),” he said. “I was coon hunting as soon as I could walk and carry a flashlight. Hunting predators is going to teach you how to hunt anything better. You need to understand what makes them tick.”
Coyotes are his main quarry, as there are few restrictions on hunting them in most states (they can be hunted year-round in Wisconsin), and they are known to prey on deer, which of course makes them extremely unpopular in this state. He averages 400-450 coyotes a year in multiple states.
To say he takes his hunting and guiding seriously is an understatement. He displayed four of his custom .22 Creedmoor bolt-action rifles used with his clients. They are fitted with thermal scopes and suppressors, making lights and ear protection unnecessary.
Wisconsin has a quirky law that prohibits using lights to locate predators (the light can only be used to make the shot), but the thermal scopes eliminate this problem. The rifles sit atop rock-solid tripods for shots most hunters probably wouldn’t attempt, thanks to rangefinding reticles dialed in to the ballistics of the hand-loaded cartridges.
He has about $11,000 invested in each rifle package and carries $8,800 thermal binoculars to ensure proper target identification and coordinate up to four hunters firing in unison at the same coyote. It is all about efficiency, he explains. He wants his clients to leave with lasting memories of a successful hunt, but like all hunting, there are no guarantees.
“One hundred to 180 (yards) is my happy place,” he told the group of spellbound hunters. “Six hundred yards is a chip shot.”
His incredible voice first learned to sing karaoke. To get coon dog puppies excited, he learned to mimic the sounds of raccoons. He then learned to imitate the sounds of dying rabbits (a predator caller’s most common choice) and later the sounds of both male and female coyotes, foxes and more.
He won back-to-back World Predator Calling Championships in 2013 and 2014 in Waco, Texas, where judges could request up to 65 different animal sounds. McHugh explained and demonstrated the differences between the non-aggressive female coyote call (which can readily draw males to the gun) and aggressive male calls (which can often spook males and females) during the banquet.
One of the judges at the contest, Steve Dillon, took an interest in McHugh’s talents, because his family owns FOXPRO, one of the leaders in electronic game calls. In the old days, game call pioneers like the Burnham brothers used actual animals to record their calls, but those practices have been abandoned. Instead, McHugh travels to Pennsylvania where FOXPRO records his mimicry for the callers that are sold nationwide.
The callers sell for $200-$1,500 and can hold hundreds of digital sounds for hunting everything from crows and snow geese to four-legged predators.
Don’t play an e-caller or blow a mouth call for 20 minutes at a time, he advised. Instead, try short bursts of two to eight seconds at a time. If your target animal doesn’t show up in 15 minutes, move to another spot.
Wind is everything, and no cover scents will fool a crafty coyote’s nose. Don’t slam truck doors, and in general, get as high up as you can. Set the call 125-150 yards away to catch a circling animal.
Click here to see McHugh among the FOXPRO field staff: www.gofoxpro.com/community/foxpro-field-staff/.
He’s been a guide for 13 years and charges about $250 per hunter for his services, which includes use of his rifles, ammo and callers. If you’re lucky, he might even use his voice.
He also runs Moondog Madness coyote hunting contests in multiple states. They recently wrapped up a contest in Dale, where 13 three-person teams brought in dozens of coyotes (the winning team harvested 34 animals in two rounds).
You can contact him through the Moondog Madness or Matt McHugh Facebook pages.
Ross Bielema is a freelance writer from New London and owner of Wolf River Concealed Carry LLC. Contact him at Ross@wolfriverccw.com
Call of the wild: Predator hunter uses voice to create recorded calls
