Hidenseekpro
Member
I went out this morning to an area north of the village of Loco Hills, NM that is covered up in coyotes, but is tough to hunt because of the terrain. The next couple pictures are representative of the country.
Its hard to even get a picture of it, but the area is all sand hills covered with scrubby oaks and mesquite. There's not an open stretch to be had and very few decent vantage points. For my first stand of the morning though, I found a natural "bowl" that afforded good visibility for quite a ways in all directions. I remember that Leon, in one of his posts about a stand at the last PM hunt, described a place that had a flashing neon sign that said "call coyotes from here". This was one of those spots.
I got set up and started calling. Almost as soon as I started, two coyotes emerged from the brush on the far side of the bowl. They looked reluctant to cross the center of the bowl and they skirted around to my right, upwind side instead. They were halfway around the side and two more came out of the brush behind them. The front two coyotes split up with one heading around behind me and the other dropping down into the bowl. As I lost sight of the one going behind me, the other coyote appeared from a low spot right in front of me. I woofed at him, he stopped, and I dropped him four steps from where I sat. At the shot, it seemed there were coyotes running everywhere! One stopped on the far side of the bowl. I leveled the rifle and shot cleanly over his back. He was having no more of that gunshot business and split.
Things calmed down for a while and I kept calling. At about six minutes from the beginning of the stand, two more coyotes come out of the brush on the far side of the bowl (I'm not sure if they were part of the original four or not). One of them struck out across the bowl headed right for me. It checked up in a clearing near the bottom about 100 yards out. I steadied the crosshairs and dropped that one. The other took off to my left around the top edge of the bowl. I continued calling and caught sight of the other coyote hard over to my left at about 200 yards out, looking my way. I could see its head and neck above the brush. I rushed a shot from a weird position and got bumped out of the field of view at the shot. The shot itself felt good, but there ended up being no coyote, no sign of spinning, and no blood at the other end.
It was a madcap twelve minutes or so that ended in as many as six coyotes called, two shot, and two missed. The bowl I was calling is out beyond the dirt berm in the background.
I had one more successful stand this morning at which I called in two and shot one at around 50 yards.
Our latest little "cool spell" is just about over it seems. It was pushing 90 by 10:00 AM and the coyotes called it a day. I did, too. It was already a big 'ole day for me, though. Thought I'd share.
Its hard to even get a picture of it, but the area is all sand hills covered with scrubby oaks and mesquite. There's not an open stretch to be had and very few decent vantage points. For my first stand of the morning though, I found a natural "bowl" that afforded good visibility for quite a ways in all directions. I remember that Leon, in one of his posts about a stand at the last PM hunt, described a place that had a flashing neon sign that said "call coyotes from here". This was one of those spots.
I got set up and started calling. Almost as soon as I started, two coyotes emerged from the brush on the far side of the bowl. They looked reluctant to cross the center of the bowl and they skirted around to my right, upwind side instead. They were halfway around the side and two more came out of the brush behind them. The front two coyotes split up with one heading around behind me and the other dropping down into the bowl. As I lost sight of the one going behind me, the other coyote appeared from a low spot right in front of me. I woofed at him, he stopped, and I dropped him four steps from where I sat. At the shot, it seemed there were coyotes running everywhere! One stopped on the far side of the bowl. I leveled the rifle and shot cleanly over his back. He was having no more of that gunshot business and split.
Things calmed down for a while and I kept calling. At about six minutes from the beginning of the stand, two more coyotes come out of the brush on the far side of the bowl (I'm not sure if they were part of the original four or not). One of them struck out across the bowl headed right for me. It checked up in a clearing near the bottom about 100 yards out. I steadied the crosshairs and dropped that one. The other took off to my left around the top edge of the bowl. I continued calling and caught sight of the other coyote hard over to my left at about 200 yards out, looking my way. I could see its head and neck above the brush. I rushed a shot from a weird position and got bumped out of the field of view at the shot. The shot itself felt good, but there ended up being no coyote, no sign of spinning, and no blood at the other end.
It was a madcap twelve minutes or so that ended in as many as six coyotes called, two shot, and two missed. The bowl I was calling is out beyond the dirt berm in the background.
I had one more successful stand this morning at which I called in two and shot one at around 50 yards.
Our latest little "cool spell" is just about over it seems. It was pushing 90 by 10:00 AM and the coyotes called it a day. I did, too. It was already a big 'ole day for me, though. Thought I'd share.
Last edited by a moderator:
