Yesterday was the coldest day so far this year not by northern standards but cold down here, 14 degrees. I broke out the long johns.
I met with another PM member, we try and get a couple hunts in a year. First three stands were in brush filled arroyos coming out of the mountains, with zero responses, winds in the arroyos was very swirly, so who knows.
Next was a hotspot I knew from javelina hunting but the wind was wrong so we headed to a rock walled canyon he knew that was quite a ways from the road. It was up through a lava rock field which is tough for me, having to lift my legs and slipping off the stone causes my hips to hurt so i have to stop every hundred yards and let the pain pass. My partner headed up with the dogs, he hunts with two awesome white labradoodles. When we hit these kind of places he get up there and sets up and I hobble in time to start the stand. This time things got exciting, when he got to the stand he saw two bobcats just lying there and thought at first they were coyotes, when he got the scope on them , bobcats, and he didn't have a furtakers license. They took off and headed deeper into the rocks. he waved me up and I was able to see one of them bound through the rocks but didn't have a shot, I have a license. We tried to call them but no luck.
Next stand was a grass bottomed valley, steep greasewood hill on one side and a raise greasewood flat on the other, with a rock bench running across raised flat pretty much like a grandstand to sit on and watch the valley. We separated, he took the downwind end of the bench and I took the grass valley end and set up the calle, eight minutes into the stand I hear a single shot, I' pretty sure that ended a blank day. He said he saw the coyote a long way out working its way down wind, when he finally stopped about 200 yards out and not far from where he would have hit our scent, the shot was taken and dropped the coyote on the spot. Great shooting , 223 40gr NBT. My partner said he was scanning the grease wood and just saw a light spot out there that he didn't think was there earlier and sure enough it moved.
Turned out to be another old male missing teeth. Usually I get one of those every couple years, this is the fourth this year and no young ones.
Big border coyote, I'll weigh him this afternoon and skin him out.
I met with another PM member, we try and get a couple hunts in a year. First three stands were in brush filled arroyos coming out of the mountains, with zero responses, winds in the arroyos was very swirly, so who knows.
Next was a hotspot I knew from javelina hunting but the wind was wrong so we headed to a rock walled canyon he knew that was quite a ways from the road. It was up through a lava rock field which is tough for me, having to lift my legs and slipping off the stone causes my hips to hurt so i have to stop every hundred yards and let the pain pass. My partner headed up with the dogs, he hunts with two awesome white labradoodles. When we hit these kind of places he get up there and sets up and I hobble in time to start the stand. This time things got exciting, when he got to the stand he saw two bobcats just lying there and thought at first they were coyotes, when he got the scope on them , bobcats, and he didn't have a furtakers license. They took off and headed deeper into the rocks. he waved me up and I was able to see one of them bound through the rocks but didn't have a shot, I have a license. We tried to call them but no luck.
Next stand was a grass bottomed valley, steep greasewood hill on one side and a raise greasewood flat on the other, with a rock bench running across raised flat pretty much like a grandstand to sit on and watch the valley. We separated, he took the downwind end of the bench and I took the grass valley end and set up the calle, eight minutes into the stand I hear a single shot, I' pretty sure that ended a blank day. He said he saw the coyote a long way out working its way down wind, when he finally stopped about 200 yards out and not far from where he would have hit our scent, the shot was taken and dropped the coyote on the spot. Great shooting , 223 40gr NBT. My partner said he was scanning the grease wood and just saw a light spot out there that he didn't think was there earlier and sure enough it moved.
Turned out to be another old male missing teeth. Usually I get one of those every couple years, this is the fourth this year and no young ones.
Big border coyote, I'll weigh him this afternoon and skin him out.
