19-Year-Old Pulls the Trigger on Pack of Wolves After Being Surrounded in Duck Blind

In a rare case now under investigation by Wisconsin’s DNR, a group of young hunters were allegedly surrounded while sitting in their duck blind and threatened by a pack of wolves.

After arriving at their blind in the darkness of the early morning, 19-year-old Chase Melton and a group of hunters - one as young as 13 years of age - began setting up for the morning’s sit.

“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.

As the group settled in, one of the hunters noticed something approaching the group. Originally thinking it was a small deer, Melton stood up to get a better look and quickly realized it was a wolf that was approaching the blind just as the sun was rising for the day. 

“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.”

A witness, who was hunting about 300 feet away from the group of young boys, was able to corroborate their story, stating that he reportedly saw five wolves surrounding the blind and another four wolves in the nearby vicinity.

Melton went on to state that one of the wolves continued to close the distance and when the animal was within 8-10 yards of him, he made the call to lethally dispatch of the approaching wolf. Melton fired a single shot from his 12-gauge shotgun, hitting the wolf in the face, killing it instantly.

“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.”

Following the shot, Melton contacted the Wisconsin DNR once the remaining wolves had retreated from the scene. 

“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.

With an estimated 1,000 wolves in Wisconsin, they remain a federally protected species. As such, it is illegal to kill them to defend either livestock or pets, but allowances can and are made for the protection of human life. And while that certainly seems to be the case in this incident, the investigation remains on-going.