Silverfox and Howler did some coyote calling in Eastern Montana Thursday. We struck out on our first stand. The wind was out of the east at this time so we drove in on the east side of the country road to where we had scored a double last winter. This time Silverfox did the calling and Howler was guarding the back door. The red fox decoy (this is the decoy so many of you made fun of—shame on you!!!) was set up to the north of Silverfox’s position with the decoy facing south and the FoxPro was set right under the fox’s nose facing into the wind. Silverfox set up in the shadow of a big hill about 75 yards to the SSW of the FoxPro and red fox decoy as you can see in the photo below.
The FoxPro was started and was playing the rabbit distress blues for about 3 minutes on low volume before being muted for a minute. The sound was changed to the interrogation howls on medium volume for about 45 seconds, then switched to the female invitation for about 30 seconds and then muted for about 2 minutes. Then Silverfox took out his Robert Cobb howler and the Bill Austin howler and played some interrogation sounds on them, trying to sound like a couple of lonesome coyotes. Then he turned on the dying rabbit blues again.
At about the 11 minute mark Mr. Coyote came into view from around a little rise to the NW. Silverfox muted the FoxPro and got the crosshairs on the coyote. The coyote had his neck craned to the right looking at the red fox decoy. Silverfox turned up the power on the scope to about 14x, and waited for the coyote to stop. Mr. Coyote did just that and received a 35 gr. Berger FB HP bullet right in front of his right front shoulder at approximately 11 minutes 45 seconds into the stand. He went down in a heap, but turned his head around and bit his right front foot. He died with his foot in his mouth. Tiny entrance wound and no exit.
Silverfox used the Bill Austin howler to do some wounded coyote ki-yis and turned on the FoxPro to the dying rabbit sound again in case this coyote’s partner was around. The stand was ended at about the 25 minute mark.
Of course, we have to have one photo for the FoxPro contest, so here is the caller/shooter, the Fabulous Red Fox Decoy, the coyote with the FoxPro on his shoulder, and the Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger. The 35 gr. Berger bullet did the job just fine.
This was a very nice, older male coyote. His teeth showed some pretty healthy wear, but he was in prime shape. He wound up a mere 20 steps from the Brave, Beautiful, Very Authentic Looking Red Fox Decoy!!!
Howler and Silverfox loaded up the coyote and headed out for the next calling stand. As we were driving in to the next calling location, Howler spotted three coyotes out in some mixed stubble and summerfallow strips. They were headed north away from where we had planned on calling. We figured they were the coyotes from this territory so we decided to try to get around to the north of them and call them in. We spent the next two hours calling in two locations trying to get these coyotes to come in with no success.
We called in three more places with no takers. However, on the last stand of the day, Howler had some coyotes talking to him to the SSE of where we were set up. We couldn’t see where they were at and they didn’t seem like they wanted to come any closer. They just stayed their distance and howled. These were not warning bark howls and one of the coyotes was issuing challenge howls, but they wouldn’t come investigate us.
We were a little disappointed that we had only called in one coyote, but the warm weather, deer season gut piles, and lack of snow cover have probably made it real easy for coyotes to keep their bellies full.
The FoxPro was started and was playing the rabbit distress blues for about 3 minutes on low volume before being muted for a minute. The sound was changed to the interrogation howls on medium volume for about 45 seconds, then switched to the female invitation for about 30 seconds and then muted for about 2 minutes. Then Silverfox took out his Robert Cobb howler and the Bill Austin howler and played some interrogation sounds on them, trying to sound like a couple of lonesome coyotes. Then he turned on the dying rabbit blues again.
At about the 11 minute mark Mr. Coyote came into view from around a little rise to the NW. Silverfox muted the FoxPro and got the crosshairs on the coyote. The coyote had his neck craned to the right looking at the red fox decoy. Silverfox turned up the power on the scope to about 14x, and waited for the coyote to stop. Mr. Coyote did just that and received a 35 gr. Berger FB HP bullet right in front of his right front shoulder at approximately 11 minutes 45 seconds into the stand. He went down in a heap, but turned his head around and bit his right front foot. He died with his foot in his mouth. Tiny entrance wound and no exit.
Silverfox used the Bill Austin howler to do some wounded coyote ki-yis and turned on the FoxPro to the dying rabbit sound again in case this coyote’s partner was around. The stand was ended at about the 25 minute mark.
Of course, we have to have one photo for the FoxPro contest, so here is the caller/shooter, the Fabulous Red Fox Decoy, the coyote with the FoxPro on his shoulder, and the Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger. The 35 gr. Berger bullet did the job just fine.
This was a very nice, older male coyote. His teeth showed some pretty healthy wear, but he was in prime shape. He wound up a mere 20 steps from the Brave, Beautiful, Very Authentic Looking Red Fox Decoy!!!
Howler and Silverfox loaded up the coyote and headed out for the next calling stand. As we were driving in to the next calling location, Howler spotted three coyotes out in some mixed stubble and summerfallow strips. They were headed north away from where we had planned on calling. We figured they were the coyotes from this territory so we decided to try to get around to the north of them and call them in. We spent the next two hours calling in two locations trying to get these coyotes to come in with no success.
We called in three more places with no takers. However, on the last stand of the day, Howler had some coyotes talking to him to the SSE of where we were set up. We couldn’t see where they were at and they didn’t seem like they wanted to come any closer. They just stayed their distance and howled. These were not warning bark howls and one of the coyotes was issuing challenge howls, but they wouldn’t come investigate us.
We were a little disappointed that we had only called in one coyote, but the warm weather, deer season gut piles, and lack of snow cover have probably made it real easy for coyotes to keep their bellies full.
