My son and I make an annual coyote calling trip to Western Kansas about this time of year and have for a number of years. Typically we can get away for 2 to 2 1/2 days and we usually kill 10 to 15 coyotes. This year was no different with the exception of one pretty memorable stand.
We had made a couple of stands on the way out Thursday evening, and hunted all day Friday, as fate would have it all the shooting had been on my side of the call. That was about to change though.
We take my Polaris out as it is handy to get around in, good to hunt from and easier to hide. It also works out well for me because he navigates and I drive. He saved 2 historically good stands for right before sundown.
We were in a pretty remote area in the middle of section after section of corn and milo. Harvest was in full swing. We headed North, up a 2 track between two harvested corn fields and after a mile ended up at a gate to what looks like a big flat top pasture with farm ground on 3 sides.. There is a hidden treasure in this pasture that you can only see through ariel maps or standing right on top of it. Running South to North and beginning at the South fence is a canyon or almost a gorge that you can't see until you're right on top of it. It drops off several hundred feet and widens in a half mile then makes a 90 degree turn and disappears around the corner. My words just don't do it justice.
The wind is straight out of the East at 15mph. We hug the South fence on our approach. Matt sits in the head of this canyon looking North into it and I sit 50 yards East of it with the caller in front of me and a little West. All I can see, even this close, is pasture. The sun is getting low and casting some pretty long shadows.
I started with rabbit and not very long into the call here a woof and a boom and then a few seconds later another boom. I heard the first bullet connect but wasn't sure about the second. I looked toward Matt and could just see his head and shoulders and he was still in the scope. Well, running the call and not being able to see the action, my mind starts racing a little, trying to decide what to play. My thought process was; did he kill one and need a follow up shot, did he kill two, did he kill one and one is leaving? For the first two I would just let the rabbit run for a while longer. For the last I would go to the fight preset and try and turn it around or stop it. I hit the fight preset button.
Less than a minute later I heard another woof and a shot and the bullet connect. I let fight run and less than a minute, another woof and a shot and connect. Suppressors are wonderful things. After a couple more minutes with no action I switched to screams and almost immediately heard a woof and glanced that way. He at least let this one get where I could see it before the shot. When I looked back up from this I had a screamer coming across the pasture hackled up and ready to fight. I had to adjust my gun a little right and he saw the movement and flared right. I was able to get a bullet out there and he ran into it. The shot just took a front leg out so another was required.
After calling a few more minutes I signaled to see if he was ready to end the stand and he was. When we stood up I asked how many he had dead and he said four. The second shot was a follow up. I wonder if we would have called and killed 5 if I would have let rabbit run instead?
3 males and 2 females. The biggest coyote is a female. Probably barren to get that big.
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