Long range weather reports pointed to Thursday or Friday as being the best choices for a quick afternoon outing in quest of ole Wiley, as we had a fairly strong norther with rain on Wednesday.
First choice was Thursday, as it was still to be mostly cloudy, which I prefer. Then the weatherman threw in 25 mph wind. All reports were predicting 5-10 mph on Friday, but switching from west to east during the afternoon and bluebird clear skies. It had been over a month since we had been able to get out, so Friday it was, high barometer, fishtailing breeze and all.
First three stands had me wondering if we shoulda stood at home, as they were all blanks. But then while driving southwest and discussing where to make our next stand, a coyote crossed the sendero (red arrow) about 400 yards ahead of the jeep (yellow arrow). He was definitely on a mission, so felt sure he was heading toward a stock tank about 1/4 mile to his east. We made a quick decision to try to get ahead of this one and set up at centerline fence.
We quickly circled around, parked the jeep (J), set up on the fence (X) and tried to look like a bush after placing call (C) about 50 yards to the north.
I opened with two female invitational howls followed, after a couple of minutes of silence, by adult cottontail. At the 9 minute mark, we were surprised to see a red coyote coming across the clearing on the other side of the fence at a trot!
He ran almost up to the fence and, never changing his gait, made a tight loop and disappeared, into the thick brush headed for the Mason Dixie Line located quite a ways north of the dry creek bed visible in screenshot.
I suspect he caught a whiff of the call, as the wind had been really squirrely all afternoon; 0 to 5 mph and swirling a bit more than 180* (from NW to SE) on every stand.
I hit pup distress, hoping he might circle back around and step out of the brush for a second look, but that was not to be.
Just a couple of minutes later, however, a darker colored coyote stepped out of the brush from the left and paused at the fence (white star), looking back at our decoy, where he was introduced to a NBT from my partner’s 243. I’m pretty sure this was the same coyote we had seen cross the sendero earlier. He was a mature, but not old male. Gotta love it when a plan comes together.
Looks like he has been eating coyotillo berries.
We had just an hour of daylight left and had hoped to make two more stands, so headed south in the direction of camp one more time. We had been on stand five for 15 minutes and I noticed the shadows were getting very long, so called the stand and moved to an old favorite spot a half mile east of camp to wind up the day.
Over the 15 years I have hunted this ranch, we have probably killed more coyotes calling from this cattle guard (yellow dots), than any other location on the ranch. In the early years, there were a lot more cattle as well as more big game hunters on the ranch and the dead pit almost always contained at least one or more carcasses or other coyote candy. Today, not so much, but coyotes still check out the area regularly.
Back in the day, when we spent two or three consecutive days every week hunting, we would sneak in before daylight , set up our chairs and sticks (white heart) and wait for sufficient light to pick off one or two coyotes with great regularity from across the pasture, as I recall the range was about 225-250 yards.
With less than 25 minutes of daylight left we parked the jeep (J), set up at the cattle guard (yellow dot) facing east and again, I opened w/female invitational. Immediately received a group response from at least ½ mile SE of our position (white circle), maybe more. A couple of singles joined the chorus from various directions.
I didn’t get a chance to check the time, because things got western fast! Coyote #1 ran across the road @ 98 yds., stopped very briefly looking back at the decoy (which was half way between us). I had to hurry the shot, which knocked him down, but he got up and began to spin after the shot. My partner and I both shot just as he was trying to walk into the brush. My second shot put him down; partner said his missed.
I hit pup distress just as the smoke cleared and the sound of the barrage had barely faded, when coyote #2 burst from the brush (center arrow) and was across the road before a cat could lick his hind end with his tail up and his tongue out! Neither of us came anywhere close to getting a rifle on him before he was gone.
Moments later, #3 trotted across the road, stopped momentarily quartering very slightly @ 143 yards. We both fired almost simultaneously and #3 dropped where he stood, thus ending a very fulfilling day.
Coyote #1 was another mature male.
Second coyote of this stand was a mature……coyote. Light was fading fast and we had to put the jeep to bed and a long drive home. Beside that, since I had to retire the AR, been shooting the Savage scout and between my 125 grain 308 NBT and my partner’s .243 70 gr. NBT, it was such a mess we did not check gender.
Regards,
hm
First choice was Thursday, as it was still to be mostly cloudy, which I prefer. Then the weatherman threw in 25 mph wind. All reports were predicting 5-10 mph on Friday, but switching from west to east during the afternoon and bluebird clear skies. It had been over a month since we had been able to get out, so Friday it was, high barometer, fishtailing breeze and all.
First three stands had me wondering if we shoulda stood at home, as they were all blanks. But then while driving southwest and discussing where to make our next stand, a coyote crossed the sendero (red arrow) about 400 yards ahead of the jeep (yellow arrow). He was definitely on a mission, so felt sure he was heading toward a stock tank about 1/4 mile to his east. We made a quick decision to try to get ahead of this one and set up at centerline fence.
We quickly circled around, parked the jeep (J), set up on the fence (X) and tried to look like a bush after placing call (C) about 50 yards to the north.
I opened with two female invitational howls followed, after a couple of minutes of silence, by adult cottontail. At the 9 minute mark, we were surprised to see a red coyote coming across the clearing on the other side of the fence at a trot!
He ran almost up to the fence and, never changing his gait, made a tight loop and disappeared, into the thick brush headed for the Mason Dixie Line located quite a ways north of the dry creek bed visible in screenshot.
I suspect he caught a whiff of the call, as the wind had been really squirrely all afternoon; 0 to 5 mph and swirling a bit more than 180* (from NW to SE) on every stand.
I hit pup distress, hoping he might circle back around and step out of the brush for a second look, but that was not to be.
Just a couple of minutes later, however, a darker colored coyote stepped out of the brush from the left and paused at the fence (white star), looking back at our decoy, where he was introduced to a NBT from my partner’s 243. I’m pretty sure this was the same coyote we had seen cross the sendero earlier. He was a mature, but not old male. Gotta love it when a plan comes together.
Looks like he has been eating coyotillo berries.
We had just an hour of daylight left and had hoped to make two more stands, so headed south in the direction of camp one more time. We had been on stand five for 15 minutes and I noticed the shadows were getting very long, so called the stand and moved to an old favorite spot a half mile east of camp to wind up the day.
Over the 15 years I have hunted this ranch, we have probably killed more coyotes calling from this cattle guard (yellow dots), than any other location on the ranch. In the early years, there were a lot more cattle as well as more big game hunters on the ranch and the dead pit almost always contained at least one or more carcasses or other coyote candy. Today, not so much, but coyotes still check out the area regularly.
Back in the day, when we spent two or three consecutive days every week hunting, we would sneak in before daylight , set up our chairs and sticks (white heart) and wait for sufficient light to pick off one or two coyotes with great regularity from across the pasture, as I recall the range was about 225-250 yards.
With less than 25 minutes of daylight left we parked the jeep (J), set up at the cattle guard (yellow dot) facing east and again, I opened w/female invitational. Immediately received a group response from at least ½ mile SE of our position (white circle), maybe more. A couple of singles joined the chorus from various directions.
I didn’t get a chance to check the time, because things got western fast! Coyote #1 ran across the road @ 98 yds., stopped very briefly looking back at the decoy (which was half way between us). I had to hurry the shot, which knocked him down, but he got up and began to spin after the shot. My partner and I both shot just as he was trying to walk into the brush. My second shot put him down; partner said his missed.
I hit pup distress just as the smoke cleared and the sound of the barrage had barely faded, when coyote #2 burst from the brush (center arrow) and was across the road before a cat could lick his hind end with his tail up and his tongue out! Neither of us came anywhere close to getting a rifle on him before he was gone.
Moments later, #3 trotted across the road, stopped momentarily quartering very slightly @ 143 yards. We both fired almost simultaneously and #3 dropped where he stood, thus ending a very fulfilling day.
Coyote #1 was another mature male.
Second coyote of this stand was a mature……coyote. Light was fading fast and we had to put the jeep to bed and a long drive home. Beside that, since I had to retire the AR, been shooting the Savage scout and between my 125 grain 308 NBT and my partner’s .243 70 gr. NBT, it was such a mess we did not check gender.
Regards,
hm
