Major’s Articles
I have written columns on varmint hunting for the Varmint Hunter’s Magazine (now out of print), problem wildlife control for Sheep! magazine, articles about Remington rifles for the Remington magazine, big game articles for a Norwegian magazine, fire fighting articles for the the Smokejumper magazine and various articles on trapping and predator hunting for other U.S. outdoor magazines. I do, and have done, what I write about. My specialties are rattlesnake, coyote, beaver, and prairie dog control.
I have worked with wildlife in Peru and Africa as well and have written several articles about my work for the Smithsonian, working in those countries.
Below are links to articles that I have written about predator calling. I call them “Keys to Successful Predator Calling.”
Links to Articles about Calling
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #10: Mountain Lions
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #10: Mountain Lions—Key Strategies And More Tall-Tales about the Mysterious Mountain Lion by Major Boddicker Several years ago, I was hunting arrowheads about 100 miles east of Denver, out on the Colorado plains, in wheat country. On Colorado’s vast plains there are tiny islands of rough rocky [...]
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #9: Mountain Lions – Calling’s Top Trophy Curiosity Kills the Big Cat
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #9: Mountain Lions – Calling’s Top Trophy Curiosity Kills the Big Cat by Major Boddicker One early summer morning in 1979, the phone rang. “Major, could you come over and look at a dead deer at our place? It’s laying about 20 feet from our bedroom window, [...]
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #8 – Calling Bears, Hazardous Duty
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #8 – Calling Bears, Hazardous Duty by Major Boddicker The Alaskan stream behind me was about 20 feet wide and 6 inches deep. It gurgled quietly by. I sat with my back against a huge 60-foot tall spruce tree, which towered over the stream bank. A large […]
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #7 – The Senses, Generally Speaking
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #7 – The Senses, Generally Speaking by Major Boddicker Sensory systems (smell, taste, touch, hearing and seeing) work like an old John Deere slip-clutch tractor: as the clutch lever is first pushed, no movement happens; then it engages, but slowly; responses and sensing accelerates; then it is fully […]
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #6—Tactics of Predator Calling
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #6—Tactics of Predator Calling by Major Boddicker February 21, 2001, 20° F, wind out of the northwest at 5 mph, with a storm two days out. Two friends and I went calling in the mixed sandhills and crops of eastern Colorado. A 130-acre irrigated cornfield sat on […]
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #5: Managing People
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #5: Managing People, Vehicles, and Things by Major Boddicker Sam was a nice guy, from another state. He was excited and gung-ho. But as he climbed a fence, I stared down the hole in his gun barrel again, after I had requested that he be careful about […]
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #4: Weather and Country
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #4: Weather and Country—Coping With the Elements by Major Boddicker Beep, beep, beep, beep—that obnoxious alarm rang at 4 a.m. I looked out the bedroom window and was greeted by a nasty blizzard. "Good morning, Bill. It is nasty out here. What is it like in Denver?" [...]
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #3: Calls and Calling
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #3: Calls and Calling—Generally Speaking by Major Boddicker A delegation of three Dutch muskrat trappers was visiting Denver several years ago for a meeting of the European Economic Union’s humane trapping group. I was asked to host them for an expedition; so, I took them on a […]
During early morning, late evening, and night calling, call in areas where predators will be feeding. Good places are around fields (corn, soybean, and wheat fields), wetlands, wood lots, feedlots, dead animal dumps, and other feeding areas. During mid-day, call loafing areas, ravines, high grass, timber, sagebrush, cattail swamps, isolated...
Keys to Successful Calling Key #2: Guns, Cartridges, Clothes, Optics, and Paraphernalia By Major L. Boddicker, Ph.D. Clothes and Stuff Clothes for predator calling are hardly a fashion statement, although if you want to make it that, that is fine with me. One of my calling buddies who is...
Keys to Successful Predator Calling Key #1: Use the Predators' Senses to Your Advantage By Major L. Boddicker, Ph.D. At the 1998 Varmint Hunter’s Jamboree, a young guy came up to me and asked me where he could get the “real” secrets of how to call predators. I have...
It was created and invented in 1976 to put more authentic animal sounds into hunters' hands. We designed out the flaws of other calls, making the Crit'R·Calls freeze-proof, extremely durable, and guaranteed not to fail on the job. The tough plastic material chosen for the Crit'R·Call was selected for the...