ADC Coyote Hunt 5-13-2008

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by Silverfox -as posted on www.saubier.com with his permission.

I headed out around 5:45 p.m., May 13, 2008. I had about 23 miles to go. I stopped at the ranch house, but no one was home, so I headed south of the buildings in my pickup. The wind was coming out of southeast. I found a spot to park my pickup behind a hill close to my first calling stand. I hiked up to the SSW to the edge of a dry creek bed where I set my rifle and gear down. I took the FX5 out of my backpack and started down the creek bank to set the caller up in a tree in the creek bottom. About halfway down the bank I realized I had forgotten to take the remote out of the backpack, so back up the hill I went to fetch the remote. I finally got the caller set up in the crotch of a tree, got back to my rifle, and settled in for some calling. There were lots of cattle off to the northwest, west, and southwest of my stand. I’d have to be real careful if coyotes came in and cattle were in the background. I used just the Lightening Jack sound on this stand instead of both prey sounds and howling. I wanted to save the howling for the next stand where there was a big coulee to the west and lots of coulees off over the hills to the south and southwest. No coyotes came in during my 20 minutes on that stand, so I walked across the creek bottom heading to the southwest.

There were cow-calf pairs and lots of yearlings all over the pasture as I walked to my next stand. There was a big stock dam just to the west of where I crossed the creek. When I got up to where I could see into the dam, there didn’t look to be more than a hundred gallons of water in the bottom. It is really dry around this part of the U.S.

I kept heading to the SW of the dam and found what looked like a good spot to set up. There was good visibility to the ESE and all the way around to the north. I set the FX5 up on my homemade tripod and got back about 50 yards to the NE of the e-caller. Before I could even start the call the cattle were milling around and giving me the eye. When I started out with the female invitation howls, the cattle started heading towards my FX5!!! About 15 head of cattle got to about 30 feet from the FX5 and stood sniffing and snorting and bellowing!!! Some of them were pawing up dirt and had their heads down like they were ready to charge the caller!!! I switched to some cougar growling sounds to see if they would back off, but they weren’t budging. I spent about 50 minutes on this stand and was constantly worrying about whether my FX5 would get stomped into the ground or not. There was a constant parade of cattle coming from every direction to check out the sounds from the FX5 during the whole time I was on stand!!! I got no takers other than about 75 head of cattle!!

I packed up and headed back to the pickup. I drove to the east southeast and up a little hill and stopped the pickup and got out and took a walk to the south so I didn’t expose the pickup to the land to the south. I could see a large valley stretching out to the south so I decided to try calling one more time before it got dark. It was about 8:30 p.m. I could feel a chill in the air as the sun went behind some clouds.

I decided to leave the FX5 in the pickup and just use mouth calls because it takes extra time to set up the tripod and get the FX5 set up. I had good view to the east, southeast, south and southwest and it was about 8:45 p.m. by the time I started calling. I used my SlyDog “Clasic” II deer antler call. This call is voiced with a cottontail reed and has been effective for me in the past. I used that call for the first 5 minutes, using a calling sequence where I call for about 30 to 45 seconds and then go silent for about 45 seconds and then call again. I went silent for about 3 minutes and then took out a high-pitched coyote howler and did some female invitation howls for the next minute or so. I listened for answering howls for a minute or so and then hit the female invitation sounds again for a minute. Still no answering howls. I took out my Bill Austin Howler and did some male challenge howls and mixed in some wounded coyote sounds with the high-pitched howler and then used the SlyDog “Clasic” II call for some rabbit sounds. I wanted the local coyotes to think invading coyotes had captured a rabbit and were fighting over it. At the 14 minute mark, I could hear several coyotes howling back at me from east of my stand. I howled back, trying to imitate some of the howls they were making. I went silent for a few minutes and then used the rabbit call again for a couple minutes.

I checked my watch and I had been on stand for almost 20 minutes. Still no coyotes showing up. Maybe they were circling to the north of me. They could stay out of sight until they caught my scent and be gone without me ever seeing them. I used the high-pitched howler again for some more female howls, but this time I cupped my hand so the sound was aimed to the south, hoping to make the coyotes think this female was south of where I was set up. At about the 24 minute mark I finally spotted a coyote coming over the hill to the east and then a second coyote came into view. My old heart started to beat a little faster, but then I took a few deep breaths and got the initial rush of excitement settled down so the heart beat rate went back to normal. One of the coyotes was a real light color and the other was very dark. They were probably 500 yards away when they first topped the hill. They moved in a WSW direction and were coming along the opposite side of the little valley in front of me on the side of the hill to the SE of my position. The direction they were headed would eventually take them way south of my stand, and they were taking their time. They would move about 25 yards and stop to look and listen, move another 25 yards and stop to look and listen again. I imagine they were looking for the other coyote or coyotes that had invaded their territory.

They got to a saddle about 250 yards SE of my location and stopped. I slipped the safety off on the Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger. I turned the power ring up to about 12x hoping I’d get a standing shot of about 100 to 150 yards. However, if they kept going southwest, they would be out of my line of sight in just a few steps, so I decided to see if I could change their path and get them coming more towards my hiding spot. I lip squeaked a couple times. Both coyotes homed in on my squeaks and the front one started coming right to me like it was on a string. It was coming way too fast for my liking! The other one soon followed the lead coyote, but the back coyote was about 50 yards behind the lead coyote. I reached up and turned the power ring back down to 6.5x in case I couldn’t get them stopped before they hit the end of my gun barrel!!! I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like shooting at moving coyotes—I have missed more than my fair share of coyotes when they are on the move.

I had the crosshairs on the lead coyote and when that coyote got about 100 yards away I used my voice to bark a couple times. The coyote didn’t stop, but did turn sideways while still moving. After a couple more steps it finally stopped standing broadside to me with its right side in my direction. I had the crosshairs settled in right behind the right front shoulder and squeezed off the shot. CLICK!!! NO SHOT WENT OFF!!! I could see in the scope that when the firing pin hit the primer and made the CLICK that the coyote I was aiming at must have heard the CLICK or got nervous and it started to shy away again. I carefully ejected that shell, trying to make as little noise and movement as possible and chambered another round. Both coyotes were doing a slow trot away from my stand. The back one was headed SE and the lead coyote was headed south. I barked a couple times again and the lead coyote stopped and turned broadside to me again. I had the crosshairs on a spot right behind the right front shoulder again and squeezed the trigger one more time. This time it went BANG—WHAP!!! The coyote went down. I chambered another round and spotted the other coyote just as it disappeared over the hill—no chance for a quick shot! I got on my Bill Austin Howler and did my best imitation of a wounded coyote for the next couple minutes, but that other coyote was not coming back for a look. I checked my watch and I had been on stand for almost 30 minutes.

I decided to drag this coyote back to the pickup where I had left my camera. I stepped off the distance to the dead coyote—125 yards. The bullet entered just behind the right front shoulder and exited the left shoulder area. There was a small entrance wound and a small, bullet-sized exit hole. The 39 gr. Sierra worked great again.

Here’s the dark coyote from the pair with the gun that did the deed.



Here's a wide shot view of the coyote with you looking to the southeast. The coyotes came from over a hill quite a ways left of the left side of the photo.



Here’s the “Hero Photo” in living color!!! The “Hero” looks tired!!!



By the time I finished up with the photos and got back to rancher’s house, it was close to 10:00 p.m. The rancher was very pleased and invited me in for a cup of coffee, which I politely refused because I was bone tired and ready to take a bath and get some sleep. Too much fresh air and exercise for an old man like me makes me sleepy!!!

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Catch ya L8R--Silverfox

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