Wow, what a day!

ARCOREY

New member
This morning I went to a beef cattle farm that I predator and varmint hunt on pretty regularly. I got a little bit of a late start and tried to sneak into the field edge and was planning to sneak around the cattle herd and head for my favorite calling areas. All the cows were on edge and would have no part of it. They raised a ruckus and headed up the valley where I wanted to call. I figured I'd let things settle and did a quick stand right in the edge of the field. Nothing showed, so I hiked about half a mile through the wet, waist high hay and made it to my next stand. I tried alternating cottontail and baybee cottontail for about 8 minutes then went to pup distress on my Foxpro FX3 with FoxJack. No replies, so I gave it a minute or so and went with fawn distress. About 2 minutes in I catch movement and realize it is something black sneaking toward my call from the field below. I move around and get the rifle ready and see it is a black bear sneaking up on my call. I mute the call and stop the FoxJack and watch him close in on my location. I eased the camera out of my pack and snapped a few pictures. It was still a little dark, so the quality wasn't very good. This wasn't a huge bear, but big enough that I didn't want him to find me or the decoy
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I let him get out of range and try the fawn distress again, but without the decoy. After about 5 more minutes, I shut the call off and sit there for about 15 minutes. I had just texted a buddy and told him about the bear and was just sitting there with the rifle in the sticks pointed toward the decoy when I hear something a few feet away. I turn and see a coyote looking at me through the fence from about 20' away and he is at my right shoulder. I can't move or do a thing. I was flat busted. It didn't take long for him to leave and I packed it in and moved on. I walk the spine of the ridge another half mile or so looking for my final set and keep kicking up deer and turkeys at every turn. Finally I see a fairly open hollow and and spot a log half way to the bottom. I set the call on it and having learned my lesson from sitting too close on the previous stand and not having the decoy running, I decide to sit back about 50yds from the decoy where I can see better. About 2 minutes into the fawn distress I see a coyote coming on a string from my left. I give him the lipsqueak in the open and wouldn't you know he stops right behind a huge oak tree. I can't see him at all. I put the scope on the tree and wait. He steps into the next opening and I stop him about 20yds from my call. He's hypnotized by the decoy. He looks back at me with a puzzled look. I put the cross hairs on my Remington 17rem Model 7 behind his shoulder and there is a branch and another over his head. I slide another couple inches back and shot him at the back of the lungs. He goes into the spin cycle then hits a death run straight away from me. I chamber another round and get him in the scope running through the trees. About that time he does the nose plow followed by a cartwheel. When he makes it back to his feet at 110yds I popped him in the back of the head ending it instantly. I tried the pup distress as soon as I dropped him that time to no avail. It was a young male with some starts of mange around his hind quarters and a stubby tail. The 17rem didn't do bad, I wish I had more of the point of the shoulder or the head visible instead of having to shoot back. There was no hide damage even though I got a passthrough on the first shot, the second shot didn't exit the head and gave him popeye. I was using 25gr. Berger Target HP's.
The view over the call and decoy to the coyote in the distance.
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The rifle and my FX3 with FoxJack.
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I called the farmer and let him know I was leaving this mangy coyote back where I killed him and that he had one less calf killer. On the way out I scouted a few brush piles for groundhogs. This pasture grizzly stuck his nose out at the wrong time. I shot him through the ear at 102yds off the shooting sticks while kneeling. Little blood out of the entrance hole, no exit.
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Big thanks to FoxPro for making a decoy I don't mind carrying and to Tony Tebbe and Travis Chilson at Predator University. I have called in coyotes on a much more regular basis since coming home from hunting with you guys, that never use to happen. I don't see the same areas I use to hunt through the same eyes
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I missed this in May so will nominate it for June
 
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Thanks guys. Calling coyotes and getting one is always good, but calling a bear in close was icing on the cake. You might know this would be the one time I don't take the video camera
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Originally Posted By: ARCOREYThanks guys. Calling coyotes and getting one is always good, but calling a bear in close was icing on the cake. You might know this would be the one time I don't take the video camera
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The good stuff always happens when you don't bring the video camera.
 
Thanks guys. With all that action, I have an overwhelming urge to hit that farm again tomorrow, although I know I shouldn't. I will probably give the calling 2-3 weeks to calm down and try another spot or two in the mean time. Calling all those predators with a fawn distress really opened my eyes to what it happening to our whitetail population. There's a lot of opportunists listening for that dinner bell.
 
Originally Posted By: ARCOREYCalling all those predators with a fawn distress really opened my eyes to what it happening to our whitetail population. There's a lot of opportunists listening for that dinner bell.

That has been happening for eons. Mother Nature keeps a balance.
I would not worry about the predators.

MAN the PIG messes up the balance with development and habitat reduction..


btw - nice story you posted. Enjoyed the read.
 
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