Hard day calling.

O

OKRattler

Well-known member
Yesterday it was almost 70 degrees and the absolute worst day of calling I've had in a long time. The very first stand of the day I called up a double in less than 5 minutes. The male was ahead of the female coyote and he stops at 60 yards and is looking for the call. I look and she's still coming. I look through the scope at him and I can tell he's about to take off so I dropped him. Got the scope on the female as she ran away. As I was swinging the gun to my eye I noticed movement. Got off the scope and he was trying to get back up. I saw his head raise above the wheat so I shot him in the head. By then the female was long gone.

For anyone wondering I was shooting a 22-250 and 55 grain Nosler Ballistic Tips. My first shot connected with the shoulder and blew a softball sized hole in him. Didn't exit out the other side. Chunks of bone and a little bit of lung was showing. Second shot was through the ear hole. That one obviously made a pretty big impact on his life.

Made 10 stands after that and blanked out on every single one. I was playing breeding sounds, prey in distress and fight sounds. They weren't having any of it. I hate calling in hot weather. It freakin sucks. If it's not 50 degrees or less I have a hard time even going and turning on a call. Who else thinks warm weather is the worst possible conditions to call in? I've never had any luck if it's warm.

It didn't help that I stepped in a hole and hurt my knee. Two stands later I accidentally stuck my elbow in the middle of a cactus and the stand after that I sat in a patch of sand burs. Went to brush them off my ass and ended up with them in my gloves. My luck just sucked every way possible yesterday. And like an idiot I just kept trying like the coyote fairy was gonna drop a whole pack of coyotes in front of me.
 
It was definitely one of those days when I was questioning my tactics and everything that went along with it. No matter how many good days I have had or ever will have predator huntin, days like that make me feel like a fool. At a certain point I was questioning whether I really know what I'm doing. I've killed a ton of the things but at a certain point I really start wondering, is it me or what is going on here?

At the end of the day I want to blame the weather. Because.....well......my shootin was spot on. The call worked perfectly. I found that out right as the sun was peaking up over the horizon. That big ball of fire in the sky....it ruined what was supposed to be an amazing day of calling. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
I forgot about the stand I was heading to when I jacked my knee up. Sat up in a spot that looked perfect. I just knew I was gonna call one in there. I strategically placed the call at the bottom of the hill a good distance further than normal to try and place the coyote or coyotes where I wanted them. Made the painful journey up the hill to the spot I had selected to sit. Got settled in and selected my first sound of that sequence, hit the play button......nothin. No sound of any kind coming from the call. I forgot to turn it on......I'm not gonna say what I muttered under my breath. I was not impressed with myself to say the least. So back to the call I went. Limping the whole way and back. Cussin like a friggin sailor like that was gonna help.
 
Went out Thursday and Friday night and made 11 stands. Only saw one coyote and it was over 200 yds away. But there was raccoon all over the place, breeding season and no snow to slow there movement down.
 
Seriously reconsidering my future retirement gig.
Got up at 0530 yesterday morning to go call and get there and it’s fog city. Decided to wait until daylight anyways because I needed to check traps there and at another property.
Get home about 0900 and go visit my parents, mom just had shoulder replaced and left there about 1600. Stop at a buddies house I haven’t seen in a while and only planned to stay a few minutes and that turned into 3hrs.
Get home and stayed up until about midnight and decided to go call. The previous 3-4 nights is been getting pics of critters around 0230-0400.
Made several stands with “perfect” winds until 0530 and called it quits.
Set alarm for 1030 to get up and go check traps and checked phone that showed NOTHING moved last night except rabbits, lol!
The whole time I’m wondering how much money I can recoup if I sell everything off and take up something like professional napping or maybe bird watching! It was also then I realized I was up for 24hrs straight and functioning on about 4hrs of sleep.
I had the perfect night and wind but saw and heard absolutely nothing!! I couldn’t even call in a bobcat!
Now I’m just waiting until dark to get a shower and get in bed REAL early!!
 
Warm and windy is the worst. At least you got one lol! I remember 7 or 8 years ago I went out about 6 full days and only called one and whiffed on it!
 
Going by what you guys are saying I'm not the only one having some of those "momma said" days! About the time I think I have the critters figgered out, they do something entirely different. Keeps me humble and thankful I can still get out and enjoy God's beautiful creation!:giggle:
 
22magnum22 said:
Going by what you guys are saying I'm not the only one having some of those "momma said" days! About the time I think I have the critters figgered out, they do something entirely different. Keeps me humble and thankful I can still get out and enjoy God's beautiful creation!:giggle:
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Mid 40's here now so i'm setting at home but going to be in the low teen's the next 10 days at night so I'm hunting. Friday night I only heard a bunch howling but had coon running everywhere. Friday I watched a coon chase the female up a tree and another one behind the male. The bottom one attacked the other male and knocked him out of the tree, he went limping away. Keeps me amused anyway.
 
One positive thing I will say is I shot 100% all day. Killed every coyote I shot at.

Even if I did have to shoot it two times. But then again what's better than hearing a high speed bullet connect with a coyote? Hearing it twice. It made a big ol' pop when he stuck his head up out of that wheat stubble. Didn't really do the damage that one to his shoulder did which surprised me. In one ear and out the other and somehow broke his jaw. You'd have thought at 60 yards hitting it the shoulder I'd have got a complete pass through with that 55gr Nosler BT. It definitely didn't do him any good but it wasn't the most ideal thing that could have happened. I wouldn't shoot those if I planned on saving fur.
 
Looks like this is the thread to vent....I'm in a slump myself. I finally called one in on 1/24 in a spot I know there's almost always coyotes in the area, but just can't seem to get them to commit to the call. That night I finally spotted one, but it came in from where I felt it shouldn't have. It had to have cut my track in and then my wind to get to where I spotted it. Got on it and let it come, it went up and over a hill and disappeared. Maybe 3-4 minutes later I spot it again up on the hill going back. I got it stopped and missed :mad:That was with the 6arc that I've posted about not being happy with the bullet I'm using and planned on switching back to my 6.5CM/95gr vmax anyway. Got everything switched over to the other rifle and made 4 stands on Wednesday, all blanks. Got out again on Friday and went to a very promising spot I just picked up on a buddy's deer hunting lease. I had him with me on my spare scanner so he could see how the whole night hunting thing works. Called in a pair. They were a bit further than I'd hoped, but got the second one stopped before it got our wind. Squeezed the trigger and it wouldn't move. Checked the safety and it was off. Got on the coyote, stopped it again and squeezed the trigger. Again it wouldn't move. Thought maybe the bolt wasn't all the way forward so I checked it with the forward assist, nothing. Said F it, ejected the round and let it slam a new new one in. Got on the running coyote and was able to get 2 shots off, misses. The other coyote was long gone. Next 2 stands were blanks, and I stewed about what had happened the rest of the night. It dawned on me that any time the bolt isn't all the way forward, the trigger will move, it just doesn't fire. I think it's an issue with the safely. Checked it the next day and I can't make it replicate what it did. I cleaned and lube the trigger, and started working on a new bullet for the 6arc. Now I've got everything switched back over to that rifle and just need to zero the thermal today. This downward spiral I'm on needs to stop. Nothing worse than equipment issues.
 
At least you’re seeing/hearing coyotes!!
My issue is unless I hear them, then normally it’s gonna be a blank stand. I think every coyote I’ve shot with the e-caller has let me know where they were before coming in.
 
Spurchaser said:
I think every coyote I’ve shot with the e-caller has let me know where they were before coming in.
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Really!? Wow, my experience has been exactly opposite, but I hunt daytime only. The few that respond to my calls rarely come in. Once in a while they do, but mostly silent.
 
Well I'm just here crying in my soup too.

Went out last Wednesday, killed one on the first stand, then blanked on the next 3.

Went out the next night, made 3 sets with no customers.

Next night made 2 sets, said f' it, and went home empty handed.

Since then, been sitting here make lame excuses to not go.....:unsure:
 
Yeah, guess I’ve been lucky or spoiled, lol. If I don’t get a response right away I pretty much know how the stand is going to go. Heck, the last successful hunt we had they lit up so far away I thought there’s no way they’re coming in. 10min later one is running down the road to us. Now I can’t say for certain it was one that answered but he came from that same direction.
I have a buddy with a drone and I’m tempted to offer him a little money to fly the property one night for a predator check. We’re just curious what kind of population we have. No I'm not wanting him to find them and then me try and shoot them, but it would be cool if he could watch a hunt and see it from the air on how they react. Remember now I’m in SWGA and unless they hit a road or field, our odds aren’t in our favor for seeing anything at a distance.
 
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