Coyote and Badger on same stand. (phone video)

Merdit

Active member
Grammy is here for Christmas so that gave my wife and I the chance to leave the kids behind. I threw my calling gear in the feed pickup, and we took off. Fed the heifers, then the cows, and then headed to the south end since we had a northeast breeze. Set up high on the edge of a big bowl on a rock rim, pulled out my new Carver Calls Rubber Rabbit, and let the foxpro loose with a couple lone howls because in my rush to get out of the house I forgot my favorite NCK cowhorn howler.

About 15 minutes into squalling with my hand call, I see a badger coming in way to the left. I got pretty excited and told my wife this is the first one I have ever called in. As I am trying to tell her where it is, it makes it to the bottom of a small cut and out of sight. I get her looking close to where it disappeared and she sees something, not the badger, but a coyote! I thought it had us pegged since I had just stopped squalling to point out the badger. It finally moved it's head, and apparently it had been watching the badger. It glanced our way then back in the badger's direction which gave me time to move my rifle. I shot it at about 125ish yards fairly broadside. It yapped, spun twice, and went down. I hit pup distress on the foxpro and let it run a minute or so, then went back to hand calling.
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I scanned the area again and found the badger had made its way around a knob and was coming in. We just watched it for a while. I then thought to have my wife try to video it with my phone. I switched my foxpro to baby rabbit distress and let it play to bring the badger on in. I debated shooting everytime the little digger stopped, but decided to see how close it would come. I ended up letting it get to about 20 yards or so before it finally got us skylined and had our wind. It set there checking us out for a bit. I didn't shoot it there because I would have been shooting a little in front of my wife and the angle may have put the bullet in the rock ledge just past her feet. It took off in high gear back the way it came. I wasn't real sure how far to lead a streaking badger so I just put it on its nose and let fly. I heard a good solid hit and the badger was DRT. I scanned the area again. With all my attention on the badger, I would not have seen anything else come in. I didn't see anything else so I turned off the call and looked back to the badger. It wasn't DRT. It had played possum. It was going again but slowly. I put another one in it. NOW its dead...Nope! There it goes again full tilt and out of sight! I picked up a big rock and jogged down the ridge with my wife laughing at me for only bringing three rounds in my rifle. I found the blood trail going over and around the knob leading right into an old burrow. Swell. Looks like I lost my first badger. However, it was still an awesome stand with my wife as my sidekick. I may get harrassed a bit from time to time for my mistake, but it sure was fun having her with me.

Click the pic to watch. Not good quality, but still kinda neat.









Hopefully learned a bit from this mistake.
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Oh come on crawl in there and wiggle your arm around and fish him out haha you could always try twirling a piece of barb wire in the hole and see i you can fish him out that way
 
Brownie--I did go back to the house an hour later and got a piece of barb wire. Could only work it in for a few feet. Got brave and stuck my hand in, after trying the barb wire of course, and found a sharp bend in the tunnel. I put a couple sticks across the hole just to see if by chance it comes out. Really wish I hadn't messed this deal up. Feel like a heel leaving one wounded.
 
I'm probably a bit more stubborn than most, but I keep a shovel in the truck for this purpose. I dug up about 50yrds of trench once and ended up about 6ft deep after a badger once.
Then again, when I have a Saturday free, I do whatever strikes me, so I don't mind losing 5hrs and a sore back all after one stupid badger.
 
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