Hidenseekpro
Member
That's four hot-weather coyotes down this weekend.
I headed out yesterday morning just after dawn. I'd decided to stay in closer to town and called a few areas I don't often hit. I used the Kirsch card in my GPS to locate a few of the more obscure pieces of BLM land in an area mixed with private and state parcels.
The calling was pretty good early on with coyotes responding on my first couple of stands. The wind was a bit higher than forecast and it held them out a bit farther than I would have liked, though. I was on my fifth or sixth stand before a coyote gave me a doable shot.
I set up on a well pad at the boundary of a piece of BLM land and a high-fenced state trust area. The wind was blowing right towards the high fence and I hoped it would force any responding coyotes to skirt around it on the way in. The only thing working against my cool plan was that most of the downwind area they could respond from was across a paved county road. Well, it worked! Problem was, the first coyote to come in did so at a dead run. He shot across my kill zone and caught my wind easily. He didn't stop 'til he was skylined with the county road and a few wells behind him. I didn't take that shot. Right on his heels, another one came in. He was running in toward downwind, just a lot more angled. I lipsqueaked and he kept coming; I woofed and he he kept coming; I finally resorted to "woo-woo" and put on the brakes. He spun off at the shot but looked hurt. Zack and I walked out to track him down. Once Zack got downwind of where the coyote was laying, he ran right to him and let me know he had him. I pulled the coyote back to the well pad for the hero shot.
All this wrapped up before noon and I burned back to the house. I took the kids to a church fair and then we went to a retirement party for one of my coworkers.
This morning, we got out before dawn. We went out to the old standby, the oilfield.
This was the view heading in to our first stand.
The first two stands had me wishing more than ever for cooler weather and protected furbearer season. On both stands, badgers showed up almost immediately and hung around at about ten yards the whole time. On the second one, Zack passed back by the rig and met up with the badger. They both bowed up and kinda' faced off. After a couple beats, they decided to leave each other alone. Being that the badger was out of season, I was fine with the detente.
Another stand found us set up on the shady side of a tank battery. Not long into the stand, some mule deer spooked out of the dunes downwind and let me know something was up. I kept an eye out and spotted two coyotes looking for all the world like they were going to be hard chargers. I guess they caught my wind and thought better of their plan. I saw one checking up on a small rise in the mesquite thicket on the left of the picture below.
A minute or two later, one of the coyotes emerged in the pipeline cut you can see on the right of the picture. A short series on the call stopped him broadside just about where you can see the sand drifted over the pipe.
The wind was going pretty good right toward the thicket and he was quite a ways out. He was facing to my right, so I held high up into his neck area. I figured it was a Hail Mary shot, but I concentrated and applied all the fundamentals. At the shot, he hit the deck and tried to spin. It turns out he was hit at the rear edge of the lung/liver area and was dead before we walked out to him. I figured it was far and brought out the rangefinder to see how far. Ranging back to the rig from where he fell, it was 285 yards; my farthest successful shot on game so far. Here he is back at the rig right where it sat for the stand.
I decided to run over to the east side of the closest paved county road. On the way there, I called a stand that found the one taker coming in way downwind. He ran around a bit, got my wind and boogered off. Once I got across into the sand dunes, I tucked the Jeep in next to the shady side of a mesquite tree. It was a cool spot with large sandhills rising in every direction. After a few minutes, a coyote came running out from behind me to the right. He trucked right on through to my downwind side, no stopping. Not long after that one, another coyote showed up. This one was a bit closer in, but coming from the same direction. I got it stopped and made the shot. I got so wrapped up fooling with Zack I guess I forgot to take any pictures. This coyote made the group photo at the end, so I guess it's alright.
I made one more stand back on the west side of the road. I set up by a pump jack and started calling. I'd called this area before and got beat a couple of times. I had an idea where the coyotes might come from. Sure enough, he showed up out of the brush where I thought he would with the pump between me and him. The motion gave me a little cover to move around and pull down on him. He moved around a bit to my left and one more series of baby jackrabbit stopped him cold. He made for an easy 130 yard shot. We dragged him back and here's the hero shot.
By this time, it was good and hot. I took a quick pic of the day's work and headed for home.
If you stuck with me this far, thanks for reading.
I headed out yesterday morning just after dawn. I'd decided to stay in closer to town and called a few areas I don't often hit. I used the Kirsch card in my GPS to locate a few of the more obscure pieces of BLM land in an area mixed with private and state parcels.
The calling was pretty good early on with coyotes responding on my first couple of stands. The wind was a bit higher than forecast and it held them out a bit farther than I would have liked, though. I was on my fifth or sixth stand before a coyote gave me a doable shot.
I set up on a well pad at the boundary of a piece of BLM land and a high-fenced state trust area. The wind was blowing right towards the high fence and I hoped it would force any responding coyotes to skirt around it on the way in. The only thing working against my cool plan was that most of the downwind area they could respond from was across a paved county road. Well, it worked! Problem was, the first coyote to come in did so at a dead run. He shot across my kill zone and caught my wind easily. He didn't stop 'til he was skylined with the county road and a few wells behind him. I didn't take that shot. Right on his heels, another one came in. He was running in toward downwind, just a lot more angled. I lipsqueaked and he kept coming; I woofed and he he kept coming; I finally resorted to "woo-woo" and put on the brakes. He spun off at the shot but looked hurt. Zack and I walked out to track him down. Once Zack got downwind of where the coyote was laying, he ran right to him and let me know he had him. I pulled the coyote back to the well pad for the hero shot.
All this wrapped up before noon and I burned back to the house. I took the kids to a church fair and then we went to a retirement party for one of my coworkers.
This morning, we got out before dawn. We went out to the old standby, the oilfield.
This was the view heading in to our first stand.
The first two stands had me wishing more than ever for cooler weather and protected furbearer season. On both stands, badgers showed up almost immediately and hung around at about ten yards the whole time. On the second one, Zack passed back by the rig and met up with the badger. They both bowed up and kinda' faced off. After a couple beats, they decided to leave each other alone. Being that the badger was out of season, I was fine with the detente.
Another stand found us set up on the shady side of a tank battery. Not long into the stand, some mule deer spooked out of the dunes downwind and let me know something was up. I kept an eye out and spotted two coyotes looking for all the world like they were going to be hard chargers. I guess they caught my wind and thought better of their plan. I saw one checking up on a small rise in the mesquite thicket on the left of the picture below.
A minute or two later, one of the coyotes emerged in the pipeline cut you can see on the right of the picture. A short series on the call stopped him broadside just about where you can see the sand drifted over the pipe.
The wind was going pretty good right toward the thicket and he was quite a ways out. He was facing to my right, so I held high up into his neck area. I figured it was a Hail Mary shot, but I concentrated and applied all the fundamentals. At the shot, he hit the deck and tried to spin. It turns out he was hit at the rear edge of the lung/liver area and was dead before we walked out to him. I figured it was far and brought out the rangefinder to see how far. Ranging back to the rig from where he fell, it was 285 yards; my farthest successful shot on game so far. Here he is back at the rig right where it sat for the stand.
I decided to run over to the east side of the closest paved county road. On the way there, I called a stand that found the one taker coming in way downwind. He ran around a bit, got my wind and boogered off. Once I got across into the sand dunes, I tucked the Jeep in next to the shady side of a mesquite tree. It was a cool spot with large sandhills rising in every direction. After a few minutes, a coyote came running out from behind me to the right. He trucked right on through to my downwind side, no stopping. Not long after that one, another coyote showed up. This one was a bit closer in, but coming from the same direction. I got it stopped and made the shot. I got so wrapped up fooling with Zack I guess I forgot to take any pictures. This coyote made the group photo at the end, so I guess it's alright.
I made one more stand back on the west side of the road. I set up by a pump jack and started calling. I'd called this area before and got beat a couple of times. I had an idea where the coyotes might come from. Sure enough, he showed up out of the brush where I thought he would with the pump between me and him. The motion gave me a little cover to move around and pull down on him. He moved around a bit to my left and one more series of baby jackrabbit stopped him cold. He made for an easy 130 yard shot. We dragged him back and here's the hero shot.
By this time, it was good and hot. I took a quick pic of the day's work and headed for home.
If you stuck with me this far, thanks for reading.
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