nutcracker
New member
Decided to try out some new land yesterday. Been hunting the state WMA's within 1 1/2 hrs of my house pretty hard since September. I stretched out a little further and drove 2 hrs to a WMA I had never been to before. It's in the Talledega National Forest and is mostly hardwoods and pines. Very mountainous region. Pretty good place to call. The state does a lot of controlled burns on this property, alternating tracts each year. Most of the areas I called had good visibility. I started early, at dawn, calling down the walk-in only roads. I was concentrating on calling in a bobcat. Made nine 40 minute stands yesterday. Only taker I had came on stand #7 at 1:45pm.
After an unproductive morning, I decided to change areas at lunch and moved about 4 miles. I looked into a big rocky holler that really looked catty, but passed it up after inspection. I decided it was too close to the entrance and the county highway has alot of traffic.
Turned down a forest road and found a really perfect spot for a stand. I was driving down a road that ran just under the top of a ridgeline. I came up one a bend in the road with a few small pines on top of the ridge. There was a ravine on the other side that ran down into a hardwood flat with a small stream running down it. Several advantages to this particular stand that played into my success here. First and most important is that it gave me a good wind quartering into me and blowing toward the ridge, and it allowed me to "get in the back door" so to speak. By parking over the ridgetop, and the roadway being below the skyline, I was able to cross the ridge into the ravine without disturbing the hardwood flat below. If I had come up the creek bottom, I would have bumped this yote and never seen her. It was windy all day, but it was a steady wind and that's much better than those variable days that blow your scent everywhere. 10-15mph all day and that helped mask any noise I made setting up. Also, it put the sun at my back and gave me that all important elevation.
As I topped the ridge I saw a well worn trail that just screamed coyotes. I don't know why I say that but it's different than a deer trail. I found one like it a couple weeks ago on another wma and followed it to a prime bedding area and scored on another female coyote. Any way, I followed that trail over the ridge and picked a spot about 20 yds from the top. Good view but skylined me too much so I moved down another 30 yds and set up against an old hardwood that had the top knocked out. Set my ecaller up in a tree about 30yds down the ravine and to my right putting it directly upwind from me.
i tied a feather bundle decoy, that i made from geese feathers, onto the tree using 6lb mono.
I opened the calling sequence using a plastic rabbit distress closed reed. After a few screams I turned on the ecaller to a very annoying bird distress. Let it play for a minute and then added a crow fight simultaneous to the bird distress. I let out a couple more screams on the mouth call and a nice coyote came in from downstream hardwoods. She checked up at about 150 yds at the bottom of the ravine. The feather decoy was doing its job, standing almost straight out on the string in that wind. She spotted it and charged up the ravine. I lost her for a minute in the thick brush, but it gave me time to get my shotgun up on my shoulder. She came out at about 30yds charging the decoy. I dropped her with one shot at about 10yds from the caller. 30 yd shot using Federal Ultra-Shok 3" #2 tungsten. Crushed her. Not another step.
Very exciting kill. I'm getting very fond of using the shotgunl This is yote #5 since October. Plus one gray fox. Having a great time!
After an unproductive morning, I decided to change areas at lunch and moved about 4 miles. I looked into a big rocky holler that really looked catty, but passed it up after inspection. I decided it was too close to the entrance and the county highway has alot of traffic.
Turned down a forest road and found a really perfect spot for a stand. I was driving down a road that ran just under the top of a ridgeline. I came up one a bend in the road with a few small pines on top of the ridge. There was a ravine on the other side that ran down into a hardwood flat with a small stream running down it. Several advantages to this particular stand that played into my success here. First and most important is that it gave me a good wind quartering into me and blowing toward the ridge, and it allowed me to "get in the back door" so to speak. By parking over the ridgetop, and the roadway being below the skyline, I was able to cross the ridge into the ravine without disturbing the hardwood flat below. If I had come up the creek bottom, I would have bumped this yote and never seen her. It was windy all day, but it was a steady wind and that's much better than those variable days that blow your scent everywhere. 10-15mph all day and that helped mask any noise I made setting up. Also, it put the sun at my back and gave me that all important elevation.
As I topped the ridge I saw a well worn trail that just screamed coyotes. I don't know why I say that but it's different than a deer trail. I found one like it a couple weeks ago on another wma and followed it to a prime bedding area and scored on another female coyote. Any way, I followed that trail over the ridge and picked a spot about 20 yds from the top. Good view but skylined me too much so I moved down another 30 yds and set up against an old hardwood that had the top knocked out. Set my ecaller up in a tree about 30yds down the ravine and to my right putting it directly upwind from me.
i tied a feather bundle decoy, that i made from geese feathers, onto the tree using 6lb mono.
I opened the calling sequence using a plastic rabbit distress closed reed. After a few screams I turned on the ecaller to a very annoying bird distress. Let it play for a minute and then added a crow fight simultaneous to the bird distress. I let out a couple more screams on the mouth call and a nice coyote came in from downstream hardwoods. She checked up at about 150 yds at the bottom of the ravine. The feather decoy was doing its job, standing almost straight out on the string in that wind. She spotted it and charged up the ravine. I lost her for a minute in the thick brush, but it gave me time to get my shotgun up on my shoulder. She came out at about 30yds charging the decoy. I dropped her with one shot at about 10yds from the caller. 30 yd shot using Federal Ultra-Shok 3" #2 tungsten. Crushed her. Not another step.
Very exciting kill. I'm getting very fond of using the shotgunl This is yote #5 since October. Plus one gray fox. Having a great time!
