A Couple of President's Day Dogs (Kinda long with pics)

tt35

New member
Since Verminator2 had President's Day off, we thought we better take advantage of the situation. We headed for a ranch we had only hunted once before. We were a little late getting there so it was full light by the time we headed for the first stand. We had called the first stand about a month ago in the wind and ended up opening with a howl and scaring the snot out of two coyotes that were bedded not 100 yards from where we set the Foxpro. Fortunately the male came charging back in when I got the caller switched to distress.

We set up and rearranged our positions to account for the wind. We spotted a herd of mule deer before we opened the stand and when I started the distress, the whole herd came up the slope to check on the intruder. They actually crossed our downwind to get to us and circled the call coming within 60 yards of V2. They hung around trying to figure out what was causing the commotion. While I was getting a count on them through my binoculars I noticed them check up and "point" with their ears. I quit the binoculars and, sure enough, a coyote had come into the basin and worked around the hill and downwind of the call. She may have gotten a whiff of Ben or she just got nervous but she turned and started to leave. I barked her to a stop and got the shot at about 70 yards with my .204 Predator Hunter. DRT.

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The female was missing a large portion of her left hind leg. The foot was still attached but it had shrunk up to just under the "hock". It was mostly healed and she was in good condition. We wonderded if she might have been the female of the pair we scared/called the month before. You can see the short leg in the picture.

Stand number three was a blank but we could see some deer in the distance. They turned out to be on the two-track we were taking to our next stand and they were patient as we looked them over and took some photos. Here are a few...

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The next stand is one of those places that just has to hold coyotes. We saw 10 more deer come into the call and spotted a herd of seventeen about a mile away. As Ben was looking at the far herd through his 18X scope, he noticed them all looking up the hill. Just above them on the top of the rimrock were three coyotes! We threw some howls at them and they came a little closer and stopped. The scenario repeated a couple more times and I finally put some pup distress on the Foxpro. They then started coming pretty steadily around the top of the rim but at about a half mile they turned and went away from us. Turns out that they could see the pickup from the top of the rim. Oh well, we'll work a different plan the next time.

One more stand came up empty and we left the ranch and decided to call our way towards home. The next stand was one I had had some luck on a before but Ben didn't like it. I told him his negative vibes weren't working for me. Since I was driving, I stopped anyway.
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Each time we crossed another set of coyote tracks on the way to the stand, I'd whisper to him to keep his eyes open there were coyote tracks everywhere!

We set up where the sage opened up into grass from an old fire. I asked Ben whether he wanted to gaurd "Joe" (The highly original name we gave the MOJO Critter!) or to watch the downwind. He took Joe so I moved to the right to set-up and started with a couple Female Invitation Howls then went to Adult Jackrabbit. At around eleven minutess I hear Ben start woofing and look to my left and see a nice coyote swinging around the decoy. It looked beautiful with its dark coat contrasting with the yellow grass. He stopped and looked away from us totally oblivious to our presence. One 58 grain V-max from V2's .243 Ackley and he was down at 120 yards! Broadside shot and no exit. This was the first coyote V2 has shot with the 58 grain bullet and it performed perfect on this coyote anyway. He was a really nice colored coyote with very long, dark, unrubbed gaurd hair. And, he was a two-point!
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Here's the pic.

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The next stand had one coming hard at over a half mile and then he just shut down. I'm not sure if he saw a reflection off V2's binoculars or what but he went from running in to leaving in a heartbeat. It never did come in. We made one more stand and called it a day. Great day in the field with my son. Beautiful weather. We saw over seventy head of deer and six coyotes. Two coyotes ended up in the truck.

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Thats awesome thanks for sharing! You should send that first picture of the deer in to a magazine with the clouds, white, green, and yellow background its just an awesome picture!
 
Nice work there friend! That country you have there makes me envious! I love the feel of that area and it always makes me miss my Colorado roots! Good work on the Yotes too.

I see you use the Outlaw Sling. I bought it a few months ago and tried it but just can't seem to get in the groove of using it. How do you get accustomed to it? It is comfy when it is on me, but getting it on to both shoulders and not getting tangled up and dislocating my shoulders to do so has made me take it off and put on my normal sling. But I hate it and wish for something different still!

Paul
 
Thanks, everyone.

Paul:

I had a similar experience to yours when I first tried the Outlaw Sling. It seemed surprisingly quick to get out of but hard to get into. What I've found is it's very similar to some of my packs. Instead of swinging it around my back, I simply take a strap in each hand and lift it up over my head and let the straps then slide down my arms. Ocassionally it will hang up on something but not very often. I hope I explained that clearly.

To get out of it, I just slide my left hand through the bottom of the left strap of the sling while I begin to get out of the right sling and it just slides off as quickly as any other sling. Initially I was more worried about getting out of it for quick shots while big game hunting but after trying it I feel much more confident. It definitely distributes the weight of the rifle well when it's on.

PM me if my explanation doesn't make sense and I'll try to clarify. Thanks.

Tim
 
Thanks Tim. I will try that again. Yes, the backpack method seems to not work for me. And my AR Grendel is a literal HOG so if I can't get the Outlaw sling to work, I may have to commission AlumaLite trailers to manufacture some kind of wheeled trailer that I can tow out to each stand that carries my Grendel!
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Thanks guys. Coyotesniper, I get into it like a backpack, but I do have pretty long arms being 6'2". Try like tt35 said, sounds like it might work better, but I've never tried it. Sorry I couldn't help you.
 
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