jarheadhunter
New member
Well awhile back Jeremy or yfz450duner on PM asked me if I would like to go hunt the JMK contest with him. I of course said yes and started to gather my stuff together. We left Thur. night after work at about 6 pm. It is about an 8 hr. drive to Crane, OR where we would be staying.
We got into Crane at about 2 AM and hit the sack so we could get up the next morning and go get some scouting for the competition in. We awoke the next day to this.
We made the most we could of Friday driving around to different areas that Duane@SSU said we had the best chances of calling in coyotes. We had a pretty good idea of where and how we would set up for the two days of the competition. The JMK hunt starts Friday night check in is at 8 PM and and then you can start spotlighting right after the check in. Then you have to check in both Sat. and Sun. nights at 6 pm.
Friday night rolled around and we got to go check in and meet some people and see all the great door prizes the sponsors had put up. My favorite of course was the 6.8 SPC that Specialized Dynamics had donated.
After check in we decided that we would try a bit of spotlighting and in 3 hrs we saw a Jackrabbit so we decided just to call it a night and see what we could do in the morning. We were up before the sun the next morning and as soon as we walked out of the trailer there was coyotes howling every direction around us. We were pretty excited.
Our first stand of the day was a first for me. We set up on top of an old horse trailer that was out in some thick sage and was surrounded by a bunch of other garbage trailers and what not. This is the trailer we layed on top of to call from.
We got on top of the trailer and saw 3 coyotes out in a pivot about 800 yds away from us. We setup on the trailer so I was facing off one side and Jeremy off the other. Jeremy started with some distress and we were watching the coyotes in the pivot. They seemed to not be very interested in the call. I think we had only been calling for about 2-3 minutes when I see a coyote pop out from behind the camp trailer that was just off to our left. I pull up and drop it at about 45 yds.
We kept calling, but to no avail the coyotes in the field wanted nothing to do with us. Onto the next stand. We drove about a mile away and to the East of out first stand. We walked in about 200 yds and set up in some thick sage and our visibility wasan't that great. We tried calling with distress for about 10-12 min off and on then switched over to Ki-yi. After a minute of that we decided it was time to move to the next stand. As we stood up and scanned around us I look behind and to our right and about 200 yds out there is a coyote standing there looking at us. I instinctivly threw up the AR and shot. I missed 3 times before I could no longer see the coyote.
Onto stand 3. For this stand we were set up on a little sand dune over looking miles of sage. We called for about 12 min and no response so we move on. Stand 4 we set up on a steep hill that was part of a cinder pitt over looking a nice valley.
I decided that I would call this time. I started out with some mouth calls and then after my two sets of mouth calling I switched to the Foxpro. After about 3-4 min of calling I hear something crashing in the brush to my left and behind me. I look back just in time to see a big old male come charging in and stop right behind the call then turn tail and haul out of there. I stood up and there was a bit of a drainage the coyote had to run down into then up the other side. I waited for him to start up the other side and smoked him at about 30 yds.
We got him back to the truck and then called our next stand on the other side of the same pit that overlooks a small bowl. That stand was a blank. We drove from there around into the valley we had just shot the last coyote in and basically set up on the same ridge just about a half mile away. This was looking into the same valley just a little further to the south. We both setup next to a big sage bush and I started to call. After calling distress for about 10 min off and on I switched to ki-yi. After about 30 sec. of that I again hear something right behind us. I stand up to see a coyote hitting the brakes turing tail and running the other way. I fire one shot and miss then Jeremy fires a shot and misses and finally on my third shot at about 45-50 yds I hit the coyote and she goes down.
We walk up on the coyote and it is pulling its own intestines out of its side. We were going to go just over the hill about another 1/4 mile and call again so we didn't want to fire another shot. So I put my foot on its head while Jeremy attempted to stomp its heart and put it down. About the third stomp my foot slipped off the coyotes head and it reached around and grabbed Jeremey's foot and wouldn't let go. I was to busy laughing to do anything to help him and he ended up falling over a piece of sage and the coyote came loose. We ended up finishing it off and tieing it to a pice of sage just incase it came around before we got back from our next stand.
We had a blank on our next stand and had to drive to a different area to start calling again. We ended up walking up a monster hill and setting up below a cliff ledge. After about 5 min of calling Jeremy said I see a coyote on top of the ridge about 1000 yds away. That is pretty much where he stayed and we finally called it quits and moved on.
For our next 7-8 stands we covered about 12 miles and didn't call anything in. We were getting pretty irratated with the fact that we knew there was coyotes around. The road we were driving on was covered in scat. The wind started to pick up as well and that didn't help any.
We finally set up on a frozen slew that had thick sage all around it.
We sat up on the south end and the wind was pretty much hitting us in the back, but had a slight cross to it so we just went with it. I started some distress and at about the 4 min mark I see a bog ole coyote emerge from the sage straight across from us. I tell Jeremy there is a coyote comming in. It crosses the first part of the slew and gets behind a little finger that went out into the middle of the slew. I put my scope up on top of the finger and a few seconds later he is standing on top of the finger looking straight at us. I put the crosshairs on his chest and drop him where he stood.
Here is a pic as he lay. We were setting straight across the pond about 150 yds away.
Here is the last thing that coyote saw.
As you can tell in the last pic the sun was getting low and we were getting close to check in time. We made a few more wuick stands and then we made our way back to check in with 4 dogs for our first day. There was 2 teams with 6 and one team with 5 and then us with 4.
We ended up not spotlighting the second night big mistake there. So the next morning we go and make a few stands in the same areas we hunted the morning prior. Our first stand we spotted three coyotes out in the pivot again and still couldn't get any to commit. The second stand of the morning was also a blank. Third stand I decided that Jeremy and I would split up and I would call a few stands by the dunes that we didn't call anything in the day before and he would go back by the cinder pitt again.
I walked in about 300 yds this time and started some distress. Not even 3 min into the call I spot a coyote out about 300 yds charging in. I am watching the first yote and get a flash of another one about 50 yds behind him. I had the call set up about 10 yds to my left and the wind was blowing from the call to me. The big male tried to swing down wind of the call and ended up FTF with me. I shot him at about 10 ft. After I shot the first I had to stand up to get eyes on the second one. I finally pick the second up about 150 yds out running from right to left. I pulled up and shot and thought I hit it. I shot 2 more times before the coyote was out of sight behind the next dune. I tried to find tracks or blood, but to no avail. I packed the coyote back to the raod where Jeremy was waiting.
He had no luck on his stand. After that the wind started to really pick up. We were driving to our next calling stand and as we drove past a farmers pivot we saw a coyote about 150 yds off the road. We drove past then turned around down the road aways and went back to the ranchers house. He said we could shoot any coyote we saw on his property. I had Jeremy do the drive and drop. I jumped out of the truck and he kept driving. I walked up to a fence post and by this time the coyote knew something was up and was starting to move away from me. I gave him a bark and he sped up so I just let one or five fly at him.
That was the last coyote we saw for a few hrs and many blank stands. The wind was blowing at a constent 30+ mph. We tried stand after stand and nothing. we started to make our way back towards town so that we could check in what we had. When we got closer to town the wind wasn't blowing as bad and we made a stand on the opposite side of the pivot field we had been watching those 3 coyotes the last 2 mornings. We walked in about 200 yds and I watched one way and Jeremy the other. We turned the call on and not 30 sec later there was a coyote charging to the call. The female stopped about 8 ft behind the call just looking at it. I put the 55 gr vmax right in her chest and that's where she layed. You can see her just pass the call as she layed.
We made a few more blank stands right before check in. We had gave it our best and thats all you can do. We ended up in 4th just out of the money. Two of the 3 winning teams were locals and the third have been doing this contest for 5 of the 6 years. The first place team had 14 coyotes most of them killed spotlighting and the guy was the local Government hunter for coyotes. The 2nd place team had 10 and 3rd had 9. We were 4th with 6 so I felt pretty good being my first time to the area.
The AR ended up going to the 3rd place team. That was a little dissapointing. Overall I went 6 for 7 of shootable coyotes and my partner shot at 2, but they were not high odd shots. I had a great time and the R15 proved her self to me this weekend. I would like to thank all the sponsors that contributed to the hunt.
We got into Crane at about 2 AM and hit the sack so we could get up the next morning and go get some scouting for the competition in. We awoke the next day to this.
We made the most we could of Friday driving around to different areas that Duane@SSU said we had the best chances of calling in coyotes. We had a pretty good idea of where and how we would set up for the two days of the competition. The JMK hunt starts Friday night check in is at 8 PM and and then you can start spotlighting right after the check in. Then you have to check in both Sat. and Sun. nights at 6 pm.
Friday night rolled around and we got to go check in and meet some people and see all the great door prizes the sponsors had put up. My favorite of course was the 6.8 SPC that Specialized Dynamics had donated.
After check in we decided that we would try a bit of spotlighting and in 3 hrs we saw a Jackrabbit so we decided just to call it a night and see what we could do in the morning. We were up before the sun the next morning and as soon as we walked out of the trailer there was coyotes howling every direction around us. We were pretty excited.
Our first stand of the day was a first for me. We set up on top of an old horse trailer that was out in some thick sage and was surrounded by a bunch of other garbage trailers and what not. This is the trailer we layed on top of to call from.
We got on top of the trailer and saw 3 coyotes out in a pivot about 800 yds away from us. We setup on the trailer so I was facing off one side and Jeremy off the other. Jeremy started with some distress and we were watching the coyotes in the pivot. They seemed to not be very interested in the call. I think we had only been calling for about 2-3 minutes when I see a coyote pop out from behind the camp trailer that was just off to our left. I pull up and drop it at about 45 yds.
We kept calling, but to no avail the coyotes in the field wanted nothing to do with us. Onto the next stand. We drove about a mile away and to the East of out first stand. We walked in about 200 yds and set up in some thick sage and our visibility wasan't that great. We tried calling with distress for about 10-12 min off and on then switched over to Ki-yi. After a minute of that we decided it was time to move to the next stand. As we stood up and scanned around us I look behind and to our right and about 200 yds out there is a coyote standing there looking at us. I instinctivly threw up the AR and shot. I missed 3 times before I could no longer see the coyote.
Onto stand 3. For this stand we were set up on a little sand dune over looking miles of sage. We called for about 12 min and no response so we move on. Stand 4 we set up on a steep hill that was part of a cinder pitt over looking a nice valley.
I decided that I would call this time. I started out with some mouth calls and then after my two sets of mouth calling I switched to the Foxpro. After about 3-4 min of calling I hear something crashing in the brush to my left and behind me. I look back just in time to see a big old male come charging in and stop right behind the call then turn tail and haul out of there. I stood up and there was a bit of a drainage the coyote had to run down into then up the other side. I waited for him to start up the other side and smoked him at about 30 yds.
We got him back to the truck and then called our next stand on the other side of the same pit that overlooks a small bowl. That stand was a blank. We drove from there around into the valley we had just shot the last coyote in and basically set up on the same ridge just about a half mile away. This was looking into the same valley just a little further to the south. We both setup next to a big sage bush and I started to call. After calling distress for about 10 min off and on I switched to ki-yi. After about 30 sec. of that I again hear something right behind us. I stand up to see a coyote hitting the brakes turing tail and running the other way. I fire one shot and miss then Jeremy fires a shot and misses and finally on my third shot at about 45-50 yds I hit the coyote and she goes down.
We walk up on the coyote and it is pulling its own intestines out of its side. We were going to go just over the hill about another 1/4 mile and call again so we didn't want to fire another shot. So I put my foot on its head while Jeremy attempted to stomp its heart and put it down. About the third stomp my foot slipped off the coyotes head and it reached around and grabbed Jeremey's foot and wouldn't let go. I was to busy laughing to do anything to help him and he ended up falling over a piece of sage and the coyote came loose. We ended up finishing it off and tieing it to a pice of sage just incase it came around before we got back from our next stand.
We had a blank on our next stand and had to drive to a different area to start calling again. We ended up walking up a monster hill and setting up below a cliff ledge. After about 5 min of calling Jeremy said I see a coyote on top of the ridge about 1000 yds away. That is pretty much where he stayed and we finally called it quits and moved on.
For our next 7-8 stands we covered about 12 miles and didn't call anything in. We were getting pretty irratated with the fact that we knew there was coyotes around. The road we were driving on was covered in scat. The wind started to pick up as well and that didn't help any.
We finally set up on a frozen slew that had thick sage all around it.
We sat up on the south end and the wind was pretty much hitting us in the back, but had a slight cross to it so we just went with it. I started some distress and at about the 4 min mark I see a bog ole coyote emerge from the sage straight across from us. I tell Jeremy there is a coyote comming in. It crosses the first part of the slew and gets behind a little finger that went out into the middle of the slew. I put my scope up on top of the finger and a few seconds later he is standing on top of the finger looking straight at us. I put the crosshairs on his chest and drop him where he stood.
Here is a pic as he lay. We were setting straight across the pond about 150 yds away.
Here is the last thing that coyote saw.
As you can tell in the last pic the sun was getting low and we were getting close to check in time. We made a few more wuick stands and then we made our way back to check in with 4 dogs for our first day. There was 2 teams with 6 and one team with 5 and then us with 4.
We ended up not spotlighting the second night big mistake there. So the next morning we go and make a few stands in the same areas we hunted the morning prior. Our first stand we spotted three coyotes out in the pivot again and still couldn't get any to commit. The second stand of the morning was also a blank. Third stand I decided that Jeremy and I would split up and I would call a few stands by the dunes that we didn't call anything in the day before and he would go back by the cinder pitt again.
I walked in about 300 yds this time and started some distress. Not even 3 min into the call I spot a coyote out about 300 yds charging in. I am watching the first yote and get a flash of another one about 50 yds behind him. I had the call set up about 10 yds to my left and the wind was blowing from the call to me. The big male tried to swing down wind of the call and ended up FTF with me. I shot him at about 10 ft. After I shot the first I had to stand up to get eyes on the second one. I finally pick the second up about 150 yds out running from right to left. I pulled up and shot and thought I hit it. I shot 2 more times before the coyote was out of sight behind the next dune. I tried to find tracks or blood, but to no avail. I packed the coyote back to the raod where Jeremy was waiting.
He had no luck on his stand. After that the wind started to really pick up. We were driving to our next calling stand and as we drove past a farmers pivot we saw a coyote about 150 yds off the road. We drove past then turned around down the road aways and went back to the ranchers house. He said we could shoot any coyote we saw on his property. I had Jeremy do the drive and drop. I jumped out of the truck and he kept driving. I walked up to a fence post and by this time the coyote knew something was up and was starting to move away from me. I gave him a bark and he sped up so I just let one or five fly at him.
That was the last coyote we saw for a few hrs and many blank stands. The wind was blowing at a constent 30+ mph. We tried stand after stand and nothing. we started to make our way back towards town so that we could check in what we had. When we got closer to town the wind wasn't blowing as bad and we made a stand on the opposite side of the pivot field we had been watching those 3 coyotes the last 2 mornings. We walked in about 200 yds and I watched one way and Jeremy the other. We turned the call on and not 30 sec later there was a coyote charging to the call. The female stopped about 8 ft behind the call just looking at it. I put the 55 gr vmax right in her chest and that's where she layed. You can see her just pass the call as she layed.
We made a few more blank stands right before check in. We had gave it our best and thats all you can do. We ended up in 4th just out of the money. Two of the 3 winning teams were locals and the third have been doing this contest for 5 of the 6 years. The first place team had 14 coyotes most of them killed spotlighting and the guy was the local Government hunter for coyotes. The 2nd place team had 10 and 3rd had 9. We were 4th with 6 so I felt pretty good being my first time to the area.
The AR ended up going to the 3rd place team. That was a little dissapointing. Overall I went 6 for 7 of shootable coyotes and my partner shot at 2, but they were not high odd shots. I had a great time and the R15 proved her self to me this weekend. I would like to thank all the sponsors that contributed to the hunt.
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