The drought is over - fur down !!!

wilydawg

New member
jarheadhunter and I have been out several times in the last 6 weeks or so, and with the exception of a few "teases", we have been unable to get into position to put any fur on the ground, so we were starting to wonder if we were jinxed or something, but today we finally broke the spell and connected on an awesome double!

We couldn't get out of town until around 9:00 AM, so we didn't get to our area until around 11:00 or so, and by the time we got geared up and Josh's Rhino unloaded we didn't make our first stand until around 12:00. There were deer and antelope everywhere we looked, and lots of fresh coyote sign, and with overcast skies, temps in the high 20s and a light wind, we hoped this would finally be our day.

We made three unsuccessful stands, and moved on to our fourth. There wasn't much cover at this one, so we hunkered down on the hill in front of the only small clump of sagebrush we could find to somewhat break our outline. We were sitting only about a foot apart to take best advantage of the cover we had to work with. We were calling upwind into a long valley flanked by short hills on each side. In spite of the meager cover we had, we both agreed that something about this stand just felt really right.

We had the Foxpro and the Mojo Critter set up about 30 yards to our side, and Josh kicked the set off with a few greeting howls. There was no answer, so he switched to singing the dying rabbit blues. After about twenty minutes with no movement in sight, I whispered to him to try another howl. After a short series, we soon heard a distant answer.

We began to scan the valley and hillsides beyond trying to locate our guests, and after a minute or so, I whispered to Josh, "there they are, a pair and they are sitting up on the hill out in front of us, right in the middle of a big open patch of snow, which was probably 800 yards away. Josh whispered, "what do you think I should hit them with?", and I said, I don't know, maybe tune up Lightening Jack and see what happens. Watching them through our binos, as soon as the sound reached them they headed straight our way, first the male, who stopped at the bottom of the hill to wait for the female. Soon after she got up and followed him down into the heavy sage in the bottom of the draw. We kept waiting to see them reappear, as we were certain that they could not leave the valley or get to us without us seeing them, but after a few minutes of nothing, I began to wonder if they had an escape route we couldn't see. I whispered to Josh to hit the howl again, and as soon as he did they answered, and this time they were much closer, and way to the right of where we thought we would see them reappear. I still can't figure how they got to that point without us seeing them, but no matter, now we had a directional fix on them again.

Before we started the call at this stand, as I usually do I ranged some objects for reference, one of them being a band of sagebrush in front of us at about 300 yards. I had my glasses trained in the direction of the last howls we heard, and I suddenly see the male pop out of this band of sage with the female close behind. I whispered to Josh "don't move, they are right in front of us", and after a couple of seconds, he replied "got 'em".

He said, "I am on the one in the back, take the one in front", "Roger that"! When they saw the Mojo, they stepped it up and came toward us on a string. My cross hairs were steady on the lead dog, but if he was coming closer, I was determined to let him. At about 75 yards, he stopped, and at that instant I sent a 50 gr. VMax into the center of his chest. At impact, he stiffened and went down drt.

At the shot, the other dog took off at a dead run, Josh got on her and fired, but his first shot missed. No wonder as she was well over 100 yards away by now, and quartering away from us with the afterburners on, dodging between sagebrush, which makes for a very tough target. We now both fired at her, and had snow flying up right next to her on every shot. Unfortunately close doesn't count in coyote hunting. I was watching through my scope when she turned and started running directly away from us, which was a good turn of luck as a straight away target is a little easier to hit.

Josh fired, and I watched her roll in my scope. An outstanding 200+ yard shot on a dead run! The spell was finally broken, fur X 2 was down!

Great hunt Josh, I always have fun hunting with you, but today was something special! Can't wait to do it again Buddy!

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Thanks Steve that was a sweet write up buddy. I had a blast every time we have gone out. Today was just iceing on the cake. It was pretty cool watching that pair work in on us and being able to take them both down. Good way to break in the new R15. It has been pretty tough hunting this last month and half two months. It makes it all worth while when you have a good day like this.
 
Good day all around. I ended my 4 week loosing streak today also. Called in a triple, took the first. Congrats.
 
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