jimanaz
New member
I decided that after the little rain we had last night and the prediction of more off tomorrow, I should slip out and see what kind of mischief I could get into today. Left the house at about 8:30 and by a little after 9:00 I was on my first stand. Looked and felt good and there were fresh coyote tracks in the road as I walked from the truck but nobody came to the party.
I drove on about a half mile and decided to call a big canyon. On the way in I spotted a 150 class mule deer buck, which is pretty fair for a desert buck. Found a likely spot where I could see anything coming up to me, put the caller on an adjacent finger, and started the cottontail blues. At about 4 minutes I saw something streaking through the brush coming up the finger below the caller. I muted the call and watched as a coyote closed in for an easy meal. She stopped and eyeballed the decoy from a few yards, giving me a chance to get lined up on her. I kissed her out from behind the brush and let the air out of her at about 35 yards with the Carey Custom/55gr V-Max combo. Despite her small size, this was a 3-4 year old. No sign of bleeding yet.
I spent the next few hours calling some of the best looking bobcat/fox habitat a guy could ask for. I'm starting to think I'm never going to kill another bobcat. Either they ain't coming or I'm not seeing them. Either way, I'm not having any luck with the kitties. I kept moving and trying long after I should have given up and moved on, but it just looked soooooo good. Finally after about the fifth "one more empty stand and I'm leaving", I moved to another area.
The area I moved to was pretty thick so I opted to haul the shotgun and ladder out. Thick stuff is good for the ladder for 2 reasons, 1, I can see better (duh), and 2, I don't have to carry the dang thing very far. Went about 200 yards from the truck and set up. About 5 1/2 minutes into a woodpecker sound I had a customer coming on a steady, fast walk. 1 shot from the 12 gauge is all it took at 25 yards and she was down for the count about 10 feet from the caller. I switched to a cottontail sound and continued to call. 5 minutes later there's another one coming on the same line. This one was a little more cautious, but committed just the same. When she got to where she could see the first coyote laying on the ground she started to circle but the gauge outran her. Here's the stand.
Here it is zoomed a little. Coyote number two was about 5 yards out and to the right.
And here it is looking back to my position.
And the hero shot.
Made one more stand and called another one but it must have caught my scent as the wind was kind of swirling, and changed directions just in time to live another day. Even with the clouds I still got sweaty a few times and my glasses kept fogging up from the humidity.
I drove on about a half mile and decided to call a big canyon. On the way in I spotted a 150 class mule deer buck, which is pretty fair for a desert buck. Found a likely spot where I could see anything coming up to me, put the caller on an adjacent finger, and started the cottontail blues. At about 4 minutes I saw something streaking through the brush coming up the finger below the caller. I muted the call and watched as a coyote closed in for an easy meal. She stopped and eyeballed the decoy from a few yards, giving me a chance to get lined up on her. I kissed her out from behind the brush and let the air out of her at about 35 yards with the Carey Custom/55gr V-Max combo. Despite her small size, this was a 3-4 year old. No sign of bleeding yet.
I spent the next few hours calling some of the best looking bobcat/fox habitat a guy could ask for. I'm starting to think I'm never going to kill another bobcat. Either they ain't coming or I'm not seeing them. Either way, I'm not having any luck with the kitties. I kept moving and trying long after I should have given up and moved on, but it just looked soooooo good. Finally after about the fifth "one more empty stand and I'm leaving", I moved to another area.
The area I moved to was pretty thick so I opted to haul the shotgun and ladder out. Thick stuff is good for the ladder for 2 reasons, 1, I can see better (duh), and 2, I don't have to carry the dang thing very far. Went about 200 yards from the truck and set up. About 5 1/2 minutes into a woodpecker sound I had a customer coming on a steady, fast walk. 1 shot from the 12 gauge is all it took at 25 yards and she was down for the count about 10 feet from the caller. I switched to a cottontail sound and continued to call. 5 minutes later there's another one coming on the same line. This one was a little more cautious, but committed just the same. When she got to where she could see the first coyote laying on the ground she started to circle but the gauge outran her. Here's the stand.
Here it is zoomed a little. Coyote number two was about 5 yards out and to the right.
And here it is looking back to my position.
And the hero shot.
Made one more stand and called another one but it must have caught my scent as the wind was kind of swirling, and changed directions just in time to live another day. Even with the clouds I still got sweaty a few times and my glasses kept fogging up from the humidity.
