Borderdog
New member
Over the weekend we got somewhere in the neighborhood of eight inches of snow and the first good cold snap of the winter up here in north central Montana. Monday I had the opportunity to hit the field for my first cold weather coyote hunt. I was born and raised in Montana but spent the last 10 years in Washington and Arizona and nobody that I knew predator hunted up here before I left.
Anyway, I got to my first stand shortly after sunrise. It was kind of nerve wracking getting to the stand location as I was pushing snow with the bumper of my pickup at a couple of points. I managed to make it without getting stuck in any of the drifts and found a place that I deemed safe to park. I set up low on the side of a big coulee and put the foxpro and my decoy on an old hollow dead fall log lower down the side. After maybe five minutes of calling I heard a howl off to my right and a little in front me so I answered back with a challenge howl. That got a howl in response from the original yote and also an answering howl from another dog far off to my left. I know next to nothing about howling so I went back to distress calls and tried every trick and sound that I could think of over the course of the next fifteen minutes. It was nearly impossible to spot any movement as the mule deer came out of the woodwork as soon as I started calling and they were crawling everywhere. About five minutes after I heard the initial howl I spotted a particularly doggy looking bush about 400 yards out. I tried to get a better look with the binos but they were not only fogged up but also had a layer of ice over them. Oh well, I watched it for a few minutes without seeing any movement and then went on with my normal scanning of the countryside. I stopped the call at about twenty minutes into the stand. I let things settle for a couple of minutes then took off the hood of my ghillie suit, got up to my knees, and moved my shooting sticks and rifle so I could get a better look at the “bush.” Due to the fact that I hadn’t been breathing on it my scope was still crystal clear and it revealed the inquisitive face of the coyote that had been watching me for the last 10 minutes. I got into a stable position, lined up my shot, and squeezed the trigger. The coyote dropped it’s head, gnashed it’s teeth a couple of times, and then whirled and ran. I walked out to the spot the coyote had been standing, easily recognizable by the tracks and clumps of fur in the snow, fully expecting to see the dogs body within a hundred yards of the spot. I tracked the dog for around three hundred yards before I decided it was no longer worth the effort of wading through thigh deep snow drifts in carhartt bibs. I have done a lot of shooting and have every confidence in my .22-250 out to 400. The dog was facing me and as he ran off I could see that no legs were broken. I’m not sure where I hit, but with him facing me and knowing it wasn’t a leg shot I can’t think of a whole lot of places that I could have hit that aren't vital.
After the first stand I called one of my buddies that had planned on trying to meet me in the field to let him know where I would be. He came up with several previous engagements and informed me that he had a lot of respect for a guy that would go out and call when it was 25 degrees below zero. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif While driving to the next stand I couldn't help but wonder if he might not have actually had any previous engagements and just didn't want to come out into the cold.
My second stand was in a dry creek bottom of sorts. I set up about mid way down the incline and set my foxpro and decoy in the bottom. Given the terrain I figured anything coming in would come from my right side and I set up my rifle accordingly. I turned on the foxpro and was greeted by 20 seconds worth of snowshoe hare before it froze up. I'm assuming it froze due to the fact that it would work in the pickup but not outside and the batteries were fresh with only 30 minutes worth of calling on them. I always carry my lanyard so I just picked up with one of my hand calls and laid back on the hill Les Johnson style (one of my friends says I watch too much Predator Quest but I'm not even sure that's possible). After a few minutes I spot a coyote about a mile out following a fenceline in. I saw that he was going to come in from either my left side or straight in front of me (downwind) and thats when I noticed a oversight on my part in stand location. I didn't realize until it was too late that there was absolutely no terrain features for the dog to run behind that would allow me to move my rifle without a chance of being seen. So I did my best impression of a three toed sloth and tried to slowly move into position. Not an easy task given that half of the length of my shooting sticks was under the snow. My luck being what it is, the dog came in right in front of me as I was leaned to the side with one half of the sticks on solid ground and the other half of them with what appeared to be an endless void of snow underneath. What's a guy to do? I've got a coyote standing facing me 100 yards down wind and me in a position reminiscent of a game of twister. I did the only thing that a man of my caliber can do in a position like that. I missed. Once standing and three more times on the run. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
On to stand number three. I set up on the side of a hill with just my decoy down in front of me. There was a small cow pond 100 yards in front of me and a brushy creek bottom a mile or so off. I started calling and was primarily looking in the direction of the creek bottom. I had a cross wind blowing from left to right. Fifteen minutes into the stand I look towards the pond and there is a dog standing on the berm looking at me. As she started down the berm I moved into position and tried to whistle her to a stop. She kept walking moving towards my downwind side. Whistling didn't work so I moved on to barking and eventually cussing. Finally I decided she wasn't going to stop and shot her before she winded me. A couple more minutes of uneventful calling and I went to claim my prize.
By the time I got around to stands four and five it was well into the afternoon. The heavy snow and lack of someone to pull me out if I got stuck kept me fairly well bound to the main roads and I had to travel more between stands than what I'd planned. Only five stands hunting from sunrise to sunset still seems to slow to me even considering the conditions so I've got some room for improvement. All things considered it was a great hunt and probably the most fun I've had out chasing coyotes.
The coyote
The dog again
My mad bomber after the third stand
The view from stand 4
Stand 4
Nate
Anyway, I got to my first stand shortly after sunrise. It was kind of nerve wracking getting to the stand location as I was pushing snow with the bumper of my pickup at a couple of points. I managed to make it without getting stuck in any of the drifts and found a place that I deemed safe to park. I set up low on the side of a big coulee and put the foxpro and my decoy on an old hollow dead fall log lower down the side. After maybe five minutes of calling I heard a howl off to my right and a little in front me so I answered back with a challenge howl. That got a howl in response from the original yote and also an answering howl from another dog far off to my left. I know next to nothing about howling so I went back to distress calls and tried every trick and sound that I could think of over the course of the next fifteen minutes. It was nearly impossible to spot any movement as the mule deer came out of the woodwork as soon as I started calling and they were crawling everywhere. About five minutes after I heard the initial howl I spotted a particularly doggy looking bush about 400 yards out. I tried to get a better look with the binos but they were not only fogged up but also had a layer of ice over them. Oh well, I watched it for a few minutes without seeing any movement and then went on with my normal scanning of the countryside. I stopped the call at about twenty minutes into the stand. I let things settle for a couple of minutes then took off the hood of my ghillie suit, got up to my knees, and moved my shooting sticks and rifle so I could get a better look at the “bush.” Due to the fact that I hadn’t been breathing on it my scope was still crystal clear and it revealed the inquisitive face of the coyote that had been watching me for the last 10 minutes. I got into a stable position, lined up my shot, and squeezed the trigger. The coyote dropped it’s head, gnashed it’s teeth a couple of times, and then whirled and ran. I walked out to the spot the coyote had been standing, easily recognizable by the tracks and clumps of fur in the snow, fully expecting to see the dogs body within a hundred yards of the spot. I tracked the dog for around three hundred yards before I decided it was no longer worth the effort of wading through thigh deep snow drifts in carhartt bibs. I have done a lot of shooting and have every confidence in my .22-250 out to 400. The dog was facing me and as he ran off I could see that no legs were broken. I’m not sure where I hit, but with him facing me and knowing it wasn’t a leg shot I can’t think of a whole lot of places that I could have hit that aren't vital.
After the first stand I called one of my buddies that had planned on trying to meet me in the field to let him know where I would be. He came up with several previous engagements and informed me that he had a lot of respect for a guy that would go out and call when it was 25 degrees below zero. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused1.gif While driving to the next stand I couldn't help but wonder if he might not have actually had any previous engagements and just didn't want to come out into the cold.
My second stand was in a dry creek bottom of sorts. I set up about mid way down the incline and set my foxpro and decoy in the bottom. Given the terrain I figured anything coming in would come from my right side and I set up my rifle accordingly. I turned on the foxpro and was greeted by 20 seconds worth of snowshoe hare before it froze up. I'm assuming it froze due to the fact that it would work in the pickup but not outside and the batteries were fresh with only 30 minutes worth of calling on them. I always carry my lanyard so I just picked up with one of my hand calls and laid back on the hill Les Johnson style (one of my friends says I watch too much Predator Quest but I'm not even sure that's possible). After a few minutes I spot a coyote about a mile out following a fenceline in. I saw that he was going to come in from either my left side or straight in front of me (downwind) and thats when I noticed a oversight on my part in stand location. I didn't realize until it was too late that there was absolutely no terrain features for the dog to run behind that would allow me to move my rifle without a chance of being seen. So I did my best impression of a three toed sloth and tried to slowly move into position. Not an easy task given that half of the length of my shooting sticks was under the snow. My luck being what it is, the dog came in right in front of me as I was leaned to the side with one half of the sticks on solid ground and the other half of them with what appeared to be an endless void of snow underneath. What's a guy to do? I've got a coyote standing facing me 100 yards down wind and me in a position reminiscent of a game of twister. I did the only thing that a man of my caliber can do in a position like that. I missed. Once standing and three more times on the run. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif
On to stand number three. I set up on the side of a hill with just my decoy down in front of me. There was a small cow pond 100 yards in front of me and a brushy creek bottom a mile or so off. I started calling and was primarily looking in the direction of the creek bottom. I had a cross wind blowing from left to right. Fifteen minutes into the stand I look towards the pond and there is a dog standing on the berm looking at me. As she started down the berm I moved into position and tried to whistle her to a stop. She kept walking moving towards my downwind side. Whistling didn't work so I moved on to barking and eventually cussing. Finally I decided she wasn't going to stop and shot her before she winded me. A couple more minutes of uneventful calling and I went to claim my prize.
By the time I got around to stands four and five it was well into the afternoon. The heavy snow and lack of someone to pull me out if I got stuck kept me fairly well bound to the main roads and I had to travel more between stands than what I'd planned. Only five stands hunting from sunrise to sunset still seems to slow to me even considering the conditions so I've got some room for improvement. All things considered it was a great hunt and probably the most fun I've had out chasing coyotes.
The coyote
The dog again
My mad bomber after the third stand
The view from stand 4
Stand 4
Nate
