- Shauna Johnson
- 22 hrs ago
- https://www.wjfw.com/news/19-year-old-hunter-shoots-wolf-to-defend-himself-and-fellow-hunters-amid-pack-encounter/article_83671a54-7acc-11ef-8f4b-d35a97259d14.html
Saturday morning at approximately 6:15 AM near St. Germain, a young 19-year-old hunter from Sugar Camp had to make an instinctual decision to shoot and kill a wolf to protect himself and two younger hunters from a pack of brazen wolves.
“We pulled up to the spot at like 3:45 in the morning to get our spot because it was opening morning. We got to the spot we built our blind. A little bit before shooting light, we threw our decoy outs we had some goose silhouettes some mallards and some teal,” said Chase Melton the 19-year-old hunter.
But come daybreak, that normal opening morning quickly became a nightmare.
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“The one kid next to me he was 14 years old said ‘hey you have a deer coming down on your left side,’ so I stood up and looked over at it was a wolf,” said Melton.
Melton said it was hard to identify at first whether it was a wolf or coyote.
“I tried making some noise, I was clapping, stomping, breaking some sticks, whatever. This wolf turned at me and we locked eyes, and it started to come at us not like a walk but like a jog almost and it was at about 40-50 yards. So, I started to panic a little bit they started panicking because they’re younger kids and they’re like oh my god we’ve got wolves around us,” said Melton.
“So, I grabbed my gun just in case something would happen,” said Melton. “Then, the 13-year-old who was two people down from me said ‘Chase right behind you!’ I looked, and we had a wolf at about five yards – I probably could have touched it with my hand, that was extremely scary. So now, we’re really panicking were like alright were surrounded we have a wolf charging us right now.” Said Melton.
A witness that was hunting 300 feet away reported seeing at least five wolves surrounding the young hunters’ blind and another four in the general area. The witness also reported hearing barks, growls and howls coming from the wolves surrounding the young hunters’ blind.
“This wolf got within 15 yards and I’m like he’s still coming, he’s still coming, he got withing 8-10 yards and it’s not what I wanted to do but to protect us and to protect them we felt harmed, so I pulled the trigger,” said Melton.
Melton fired one shot, close range at the wolf’s face using a 12-gauge loaded with non-toxic waterfowl load.
“This wolf that was five yards behind us went off into the woods, came down, and then grabbed this wolf that I shot by the neck and started dragging it off. I’ve never witnessed something like that.”
Melton said he’s witnessed wolves in this spot once before but never an encounter like this.
“So after this wolf grabbed the one that I shot by the neck, they were yipping super loud, beyond scary,” said Melton
Melton said he contacted the DNR immediately after the encounter occurred after the wolves retreated into woods. A DNR official confirmed the incident.
“They reported that incident to DNR right away that morning. A DNR conservation warden and biologist were able to follow up that morning to investigate and confirmed that it was a wolf. At this time the investigation remains open so unfortunately, I’m unable to share any more details at this time,” said Randy Johnson, Large Carnivore Specialist for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
As for Melton – an avid outdoorsman – it’s a day he won’t forget.
“Even just being out in the woods in the future it might have an impact on me its just hard to say,” said Melton.
