Everyone, thanks for the comments on this story. These are a great way to keep fresh the excitement of the hunts.
I'm done for the year but have a couple more stories to finish this one.
Sunday turned out to be an absolutely beautiful day. After suffering through gale force winds all week, I really needed to end on a high note.
It was -4 below and not a breath of wind when I started the truck to warm it up. I love hunting in the cold. No mud, no getting stuck, no rutting up two tracks and ranchers don't mind you driving on their land. It was going to be a great day!
I never have my day planned out, just the area I'm generally going to hunt. This day was no different. On my way to a ranching friends house, the highway intersected a State School section. As I'm driving through I see gate I call pull into the school section. It was also a good place to hide the truck so I slam on the brakes and almost miss the turnout. I park just inside the gate and Bubba and I walk almost 1/2 mile into a prairie dog town that couldn't be seen from the road. I love calling around dog towns because coyotes flock to them. Not two minutes into the stand I spot a pair charging hard. In no time they are both on Bubba, teeth snarling, hackled up and doing the coyote hop. Bubba is barking his head off and chasing one at a time. While he’s after one, the other is circling trying to get in a bite or two. I would have killed for a good video camera at this point. Bubba would chase them away, I’d tone him back and they would be right on his tail. Just like in the Dogging Coyote videos. Eventually one stops well off to Bubba’s right and I dump her. Sure enough Bubba tears into the dead coyote and the remaining coyote goes nuts! The first coyote was standing on a sheet of ice when she dropped and Bubba is slipping and sliding as he’s shaking her. The remaining coyote comes barreling in and grabs Bubba but she is slipping everywhere too and lets go before he can get a few bites in himself. She's circling him a few times and eventually stops where I can take the shot.
I’m calling them the Ice Dog Doubles! Kind of catchy if I do say so myself.
We hadn’t killed anything else by noon and as I’m putting the caller out on a rock in front of me, I spot a pair at ¾ mile walking away. Darn, busted! I scurry back to the gun and immediately hit a long lonesome howl. They stop, turn around and begin to yip. Ooh, I like it when they do that so the next call was a challenge howl. That was it, they could see Bubba running around and the challenge was all they could take. They slowly come in, stopping to posture, pee and scrape the entire way in. There is absolutely nothing better than watching a coyote coming to the call and the longer they prolong the experience, the better as far as I’m concerned. Eventually they are at 225 yards barking at Bubba but won’t come any closer. I’m scoping them both and the male looks like he has the better fur so he drew the short straw, so to speak. Bubba is off at the shot, as was the coyote, but I knew he was hit well.
I don’t think he had a heart left, for sure no blood!
On the way to the next stand something catches my eye and I just have to take a picture.
I'm torn between naming this The Leaning Tower of Poop or Turd Art. Help me out, what should we name this unique phenomenon?
I spotted the last coyote of the day coming up the long drainage we had just parked behind. We eased over the top of the hill and hit the long lonesome howl and here he comes. When the coyote saw Bubba he hackled up and did the coyote hop the last 50 yards of his life. It’s so interesting watching them react to Bubba, especially this time of year. The coyote wasn’t quiet dead when Bubba arrived and he got in one last scuffle to end the season. I swear Bubba was smiling! That was it, #64 for the year and we finished the season with a 4 coyote, cold and beautiful day. What could be better?
Tools of the trade.
