Coyote # 4....what a tale!

bushpilotmexico

New member
I sure hope I'm not boring anyone with my ramblings but this tale has to be told.

You'll remember that after I shot #3 Saturday I decided to make a sage brush blind on the way driving out. I kind of figured, after that female walked down the road, that the yotes seemed to be coming in from the south east and not from the north as I expected.

Yesterday wasn't supposed to be very nice so I decided to treat myself and sleep in until 4:30 and then stick around and have breakfast with the wife. The weather was true to the forecast and I stuck around the house Sunday.

This morning it was up at my regular 4:00 am, had coffee and a bite to eat and slipped out the door around 4:45.

Anyway, do you remember the Kevin Costner movie The Field of Dreams? Do you remember "Build it and they shall come." well in my world of yote hunting I have often said "If they hear you they will come."

I have shot a few dogs over the years but every trip out, for me, is a learning experience. I have often told people that a coyote is a nomadic hunter....a yote just doesn't sit on it's rear end in a field all day waiting for a mouse to come along.

I'm not sure just how far a coyote roams in any given day (maybe someone can clue me in?) but even though they appear to be territorial my guess is any where between 5 to 6 miles in a sort of circular path in any given day.

Now back to my tale....blame it on old age (but the total darkness didn't help) it took me almost 15 minutes to find my sage brush blind. I got settle in, put the Mojo puppy out with the Foxpro beside it.

Back in the blind and waited for daylight, I was sort of disappointed that I couldn't hear any packs of coyotes howling or making noise off in the distance.

At around 6:15 am I started the Foxpro (Mojo was already wagging it's tail). I let that puppy dog squeal for about 15 minutes, then I decided to switch over to a distressed jack rabbit. I kept that up for 10 minutes or so and then switched back to the puppy.

At 6:45 (45 minutes into my stand) my rear end was getting sore and I was reminded about "T'was the night before Christmas and nothing was stirring not even a mouse!"

I got up went down and picked up the Mojo and the Foxpro and went back to my stand. But you know a six sense just told me that there had to be a coyote somewhere in the area. So I sat down and pulled my old faithful PC-1 out of my shirt pocket and started pretending to be a critter in distress.

Five minutes of caterwauling and out of my left eye (he must have come out of a hole in the ground!) I saw a yote to my left. Here are two photos, I added the caption to the large picture and then figured out that it was to small to read so I blew it up.

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He or she disappeared down the road to my left, I kept up the noise thinking that it hadn't seen me and might pop up it's head.

Then in front of me I spied yote # 2 and just about choked on my PC-1. I leveled the crosshairs on him and squeezed off my shot. He was dead when he dropped but rolled down the hill about 30 feet or so.

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Nice male about 2 years old. I continued making noise and then I spotted a third yote directly in front of me but later ranged it at 350 yards.

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Should I have taken the shot? I guess the way it turned out I should have but I was convinced I could call it closer. Unfortunately it never happened but what the heck one yote in the hand is worth 2 in the bush!

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This brings up the old question "How long should I stay in my stand?"

Everyone has a different answer, I have heard from 10 minutes to 2 days but most people generally pack it in after 15 or 20 minutes. It goes back to "If they hear you they will come!"

If there's scat and lots of sign in an area don't abandon it too soon, especially if you've got good camo and decent cover and the wind is working for you. I was almost 1 1/2 hours in my sage brush stand.

That pack of 3 dogs didn't hear the Foxpro because they were out of hearing range. What brought them in was me wailing on the PC-1. If I had continued to pack up and leave when I dismantle the Mojo I would have missed # 4 of the season and lots of fun.


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Cliff,

Nothing boring about that at all. That's one heck of a nice pictorial and story. You do a good job explaining your posts with quality photos.

Looks like that 75 gr. V-Max really worked him over.

What I would give for some opportunities like that here, but it just doesn't happen that way in my neck-of-the-woods. I hunt hard each season to get one or two, sometimes nothing for a whole season. I was fortunate to get three yotes this last season.

As to how long to stay on stand, I guess your are right that most guys probably give it 15-20 minutes, pack up and move on. I did call in and kill a male coyote on my family farm that took 35 minutes.

I tend to stay on stand probably longer than most. Seems I have a hard time running and gunning. As a result, I have managed to take several bobcats that I wouldn't have otherwise.

David
 
Originally Posted By: bushpilotmexicoThis brings up the old question "How long should I stay in my stand?"

Everyone has a different answer, I have heard from 10 minutes to 2 days

Alright, that's it... I'm gonna start staying on stand for a WEEK!!! I figure I can setup a solar battery charger, live off juniper berries, drink the morning dew, and all I can is "Les Johnson, look out!!!"

LOL!!!!
 
out west its different! the open spaces in the fields and valleys make to where the coytes can hear your calls better and farther off. out here in the east and south central part of the u.s you have a harder time getting the coyotes bobcats and fox to hear you as well as you would in the west because sound tends to travel slowly when it dips in the hollers and trees! for instance out in new mexico where the coyotes are used to open country and sand an average call would usualy be 15 to 20 mins for coyote 30 mins for bobcat and about 30 mins for fox. out here in the east it would be 30 to 35 mins for coyote 45 mins for bobcat and about that for fox! hope this helps


lonnie
 
Great job Cliff. I'm an eye witness to your ability on the PC-1. You called up a nice coyote for me to shoot with it...remember?
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Thanks for sharing. Love your stories.

Tony
 
Originally Posted By: TonyTebbeGreat job Cliff. I'm an eye witness to your ability on the PC-1. You called up a nice coyote for me to shoot with it...remember?
smile.gif


Thanks for sharing. Love your stories.

Tony


Hi Tont,

I remember, how's your knife holding up? here are some of my latest

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Hope to see you in New Mexico this winter.

Cliff
 
That's strange I had the same experience last Thursday. Mojo out, ran the fox pro for awhile just before giving up went to a mouth call and one came right in. My ending was not as good as yours he spotted me the same time I spotted him. Great job and congrats on number 4!!
 
Originally Posted By: viperThat's strange I had the same experience last Thursday. Mojo out, ran the fox pro for awhile just before giving up went to a mouth call and one came right in. My ending was not as good as yours he spotted me the same time I spotted him. Great job and congrats on number 4!!


It's hard to beat a good old mouth call....here is what I read and maybe someone with high tech audio experience can verify or say it's baloney.

Do you remember those silent dog whistles? When you and I blew them we couldn't hear jack s**t but the old dog would cringe and bark.

Those sounds were so high in the ultra sonic range that we as lowly humans couldn't hear tham but it drove the canines crazy.

I heard that if we were to pick a jack rabbit up by the ears 80% of it's screams would be low intensity sounds that we could hear but 20% would be high sonic sounds that only wiley could hear.

Now here's the rub, if you and I or Foxpro tries to record these sounds as mp3 or fxp files our recording equipment would only allow us to record the 80% as it can't hear the other 20%. So when we play the Foxpro even though it sounds good to us something is missing, yup it's the other 20%. Canines can smell the rat!

Now when we sound off with our mouth calls the call will make sounds that only wiley can hear (ultra sonic range) which to him sounds more like a distressed jack rabbit.

May be some truth in it?
 
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