Duhhh
Well-known member
My little family and I took a trip to my father in laws farm in northern Minnesota for the weekend. I’ve never called up here and it sounds like there’s a good bit of pressure on the coyotes.
I’ve been determined to take my 3 year old son out calling for his first time ever. He’s been asking to shoot coyotes since last December and I’ve decided this year would be thee year. He’s been on one backpack deer hunt when he was 2 1/2 but I’ve known calling was going to be a huge challenge with him being so young. He’s currently 3 years old.
So I decided to bring my call and hunting gear. After talking to my father in law he told me about a coyote he’s been seeing on his trail cams lately. Looks like a decent sized male. With that in mind to threw my boy in my pack and we took off into the woods, somewhat blind. We were pretty loud walking in because well, you know, 3 year old things and hating mosquitoes.
I found a “hill” we could somewhat see from and set the call about 60 yards up wind from us. We got set up behind the tripod and I threw a hoodie on him.
After a few minutes of calling I switched up to a super secret new sound I downloaded and had a flash come running out of the trees in front of us. I couldn’t get it to stop but it was a big ole coyote. He ended up about 30 yards behind our call and upwind of us. I wasn’t able to get swung over on him right away because my son was on my lap. Eventually I scooted him off and got the coyote in my crosshairs. Right as I got the safety off he busted and headed back in front of us. I got him to come back with a coyote and coon fight sound but the grass was to high to get a decent shot. He got approximately 40 yards in front of us before he busted again. As he was running away, I felt the pressure of having my boy with me and knowing that I screwed up an almost for sure kill. So I rushed a running shot and missed over the top of him. That shot sent him into a thicket about 300 yards away. I was pretty bummed and feeling like a loser but I kept the call going. Well that coyote started challenge howling hard so I sent the challenges right back. We had about a minute battle back and fourth before I changed back to the super secret sound again. No more than 30 seconds later I saw the coyote charging in again. He came right in front of us, where I had just missed but veered off to the left of us and headed upwind again. This time he stayed out of site and kept challenging me. I sent a few challenges back before he appeared on the other side of the draw and kept challenging me. My boy was LOVING it. kept having to tell him to be quiet haha.
Well as soon as he stopped to challenge again, I was set up on the gun and determined to be a hero this time. I got settle on him and sent a near perfect shot into the boiler room at approximately 200 yards. Got it all on film thru my triggercam. Here’s right before the shot…
He ran a short way but I knew he was done. We ended up finding him about 20 yards from where I last saw him. Sure enough he was a pretty good sized male.
I’m not sure who was more excited, me or my son but this is a moment that forever go down as one of the coolest experiences of my life. I still can’t believe we pulled it off but here’s to the beginning of the making a killer.
This is him howling.
Oh yeah, he was wearing footwear that was only fitting for this way of life “Paw Patrol.”
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Great story, thanks for sharing. Brings back some old memories. First few deer hunting trips out w/my son mom went along to ride herd on him. Hard to keep 'em still.
Good job dad!
