hunt0168
Well-known member
It was archery season here in NY 10 or 12 years ago. I had permission to hunt right behind my house on the neighbor’s land. It was a convenient spot that I could arrive home from work, hop in my camos and run out the back door for the last couple hours of daylight.
This spot held a good size flock of turkeys, and they were very consistent in their travel route to roost. The racket they would make scratching their way through the hardwoods was very consistent as well. One evening the wind was wrong for my usual perch, so my plan B was across the ridge. The route I took to get there was right along the same general route the turkeys would often travel. With bow in hand, dry, crunchy leaves underfoot, and no way to quietly get to my stand I was just trying to get there without alerting every animal in the county. I was using my typical woods gate of taking two, three or four steps and a pause of a few seconds. Well, it worked extremely well at tricking the prettiest coyote that I have ever laid eyes on! As I was making my way up through the woods, I was in a slight depression. Not a deep depression, but a hair lower than the surrounding terrain. As I’m crunching my way up towards the top, to my immediate right at about 5 yards, this fox red coyote springs up out a little depression just over a little knob of earth! Our eyes met for a millisecond, and that rascal turned and burned faster than a top fuel dragster.
I have no way to ever prove it, but my theory was that this particular coyote had figured out that those turkeys traveled that general area consistently, and heard me coming up through the woods towards it. I think it made the decision to lay low and pounce on a passerby turkey. I think it got a little more turkey than it bargained for when it made its move! Lol… What I got out of the encounter was an insane desire to put that joker’s hide on my wall. That never happened, but that red coat is stuck in my brain to this day. I can only hope to someday see another so perfect.
My point to this story… If you need to make noise, make noise like the animals do. Not like the humans do!
This spot held a good size flock of turkeys, and they were very consistent in their travel route to roost. The racket they would make scratching their way through the hardwoods was very consistent as well. One evening the wind was wrong for my usual perch, so my plan B was across the ridge. The route I took to get there was right along the same general route the turkeys would often travel. With bow in hand, dry, crunchy leaves underfoot, and no way to quietly get to my stand I was just trying to get there without alerting every animal in the county. I was using my typical woods gate of taking two, three or four steps and a pause of a few seconds. Well, it worked extremely well at tricking the prettiest coyote that I have ever laid eyes on! As I was making my way up through the woods, I was in a slight depression. Not a deep depression, but a hair lower than the surrounding terrain. As I’m crunching my way up towards the top, to my immediate right at about 5 yards, this fox red coyote springs up out a little depression just over a little knob of earth! Our eyes met for a millisecond, and that rascal turned and burned faster than a top fuel dragster.
I have no way to ever prove it, but my theory was that this particular coyote had figured out that those turkeys traveled that general area consistently, and heard me coming up through the woods towards it. I think it made the decision to lay low and pounce on a passerby turkey. I think it got a little more turkey than it bargained for when it made its move! Lol… What I got out of the encounter was an insane desire to put that joker’s hide on my wall. That never happened, but that red coat is stuck in my brain to this day. I can only hope to someday see another so perfect.
My point to this story… If you need to make noise, make noise like the animals do. Not like the humans do!
