TonyTebbe
New member
I woke up this morning with all intentions on building some custom calls today. Mother Nature had different plans, as it was snowing a mini-blizzard with a very light wind. What's a predator hunter to do???
As I was training Gunner this summer, I seeked advice from well known houndsmen on this board. They told me he was at the right stage, now just put alot of fur in front of him. Those words of wisdom held true, as I put coyote after coyote in front of a young and eager dog. The other day, Gunner decoyed his 199th coyote this season. I set out this morning to see if I could hit the magic 200th for him. Gunner's birthday is on Friday. He'll be 1 year old.
I loaded up Gunner and Mouse (my saluki/greyhound/stag) to make some stands. I've been wanting Gunner to range out further from me, so I brought Mouse along to pursuade him. She's a sighthound and has no problems rangingn out, as well as chasing after coyotes.
Needless to say, the snow had the dogs eager and searching for coyotes.
The first 6 stands, we drew blanks. The only thing we called in was the following:
The next stand, was a small dry lake bed. The dogs were on alert, while I wailed out some jackrabbit blues.
Afer 6 or 7 minutes, I caught movement off to my right, on the lip of the pond edge. It was a coyote. He was standing there staring at the dogs, as they were still scanning and searching to my left. His body language told me that he wasn't committed to come any further and wasn't looking back for his partner. We had a standoff. There's time for pictures, then there's time to shoot. It was time to shoot, as he wasn't going to stick around long.
I sent a 60gr Vmax his way and caught him the front shoulder. Down he went. At the sound of the shot, Gunner and Mouse took off. That's Gunner's signal to go find the coyote or it's mate. I fumbled for the camera to snap a couple pics.
They were so eager, that they ran right past the coyote! I grabbed my gun and shooting sticks and headed over there to get them on it. As I walked to where I thought it dropped, the dogs were already a good couple hundred yards with Gunner yipping. At first I thought he was on the track of a second coyote, but realized he was on the original coyote's track....just running it backwards. He's a young dog, he'll figure the nose thing out.
I found the coyote laying where I expected. He was down...but not dead. A young male, from this year.
He was none to pleased to see me, so I snapped a quick pic, then called the dogs back. They finished him off in quick order.
I wrestled around with Gunner and congratulated him on his 200th Coyote!
I'm sure he thought I was a bit crazy as it probably sounded something like "Blah, blah, blah Gunner, Good Boy blah, blah, blah, Coyote, blah blah blah."
We loaded up to give it another try. Gunner was on high alert now. He even stood on the very edge of the door, while driving to get every bit of height advantage he could.
We ended up making a couple more stand, but drew blanks. We did run into a nice covey of blue quail and decided to get some for the table. My daughter and I shot some yesterday and ate them last night. The family requested more.
All in all, a great time with the dogs. Gunner got his 200th coyote, I got another hide and 8 quail in the freezer, and we all had frozen feet and warm memories.
Thought I'd share.
Tony
As I was training Gunner this summer, I seeked advice from well known houndsmen on this board. They told me he was at the right stage, now just put alot of fur in front of him. Those words of wisdom held true, as I put coyote after coyote in front of a young and eager dog. The other day, Gunner decoyed his 199th coyote this season. I set out this morning to see if I could hit the magic 200th for him. Gunner's birthday is on Friday. He'll be 1 year old.
I loaded up Gunner and Mouse (my saluki/greyhound/stag) to make some stands. I've been wanting Gunner to range out further from me, so I brought Mouse along to pursuade him. She's a sighthound and has no problems rangingn out, as well as chasing after coyotes.
Needless to say, the snow had the dogs eager and searching for coyotes.
The first 6 stands, we drew blanks. The only thing we called in was the following:
The next stand, was a small dry lake bed. The dogs were on alert, while I wailed out some jackrabbit blues.
Afer 6 or 7 minutes, I caught movement off to my right, on the lip of the pond edge. It was a coyote. He was standing there staring at the dogs, as they were still scanning and searching to my left. His body language told me that he wasn't committed to come any further and wasn't looking back for his partner. We had a standoff. There's time for pictures, then there's time to shoot. It was time to shoot, as he wasn't going to stick around long.
I sent a 60gr Vmax his way and caught him the front shoulder. Down he went. At the sound of the shot, Gunner and Mouse took off. That's Gunner's signal to go find the coyote or it's mate. I fumbled for the camera to snap a couple pics.
They were so eager, that they ran right past the coyote! I grabbed my gun and shooting sticks and headed over there to get them on it. As I walked to where I thought it dropped, the dogs were already a good couple hundred yards with Gunner yipping. At first I thought he was on the track of a second coyote, but realized he was on the original coyote's track....just running it backwards. He's a young dog, he'll figure the nose thing out.
I found the coyote laying where I expected. He was down...but not dead. A young male, from this year.
He was none to pleased to see me, so I snapped a quick pic, then called the dogs back. They finished him off in quick order.
I wrestled around with Gunner and congratulated him on his 200th Coyote!
I'm sure he thought I was a bit crazy as it probably sounded something like "Blah, blah, blah Gunner, Good Boy blah, blah, blah, Coyote, blah blah blah."
We loaded up to give it another try. Gunner was on high alert now. He even stood on the very edge of the door, while driving to get every bit of height advantage he could.
We ended up making a couple more stand, but drew blanks. We did run into a nice covey of blue quail and decided to get some for the table. My daughter and I shot some yesterday and ate them last night. The family requested more.
All in all, a great time with the dogs. Gunner got his 200th coyote, I got another hide and 8 quail in the freezer, and we all had frozen feet and warm memories.
Thought I'd share.
Tony
