The summer heat of Arizona shows no sign of relenting. In spite of hunting on the surface of the sun, AZ Bushman and I keep at it. Bushman is a great partner, he doesn't want to give in till we have given it our all. Saturday we had the opportunity to take out a new predator hunter and give him the chance to experience what we all love. While it was not as hot as it has been, it was VERY humid, and the predators were not very responsive. We called 9 stands, and Bushman took a long shot at a coyote, made the hit, but we were unable to recover the coyote as it fell down into a crevasse. Our new hunter also ended up suffering from heat stroke. So while our day wasn't a total bust, it didn't end the way we wanted. We regrouped, talked over our strategy, and decided to head back out Sunday.
Today started off a lot better. The first stand saw a coyote come in, but it shied away, and moved out of our stand. We decided not to take a bad shot, so as I kept calling, Bushman began a long stalk. As he is stalking, and just about to throw a shot, a group of motorcycle riders spooked up another coyote, which spooked off the first. Drenched in sweat after having crawled several hundred yards across open ground for a chance at a shot, Bushman and I were actually upbeat.
Second stand was a bust, but the third saw a fox drop down out of the rocks, only to turn around as we were changing calls. We were seeing animals, but they were not behaving in a normal manner. They were curious, but were not coming in hard. Undaunted we moved on. Fourth stand was a blank. We moved on into a canyon for our fifth stand. As we were stalking in, Bushman drops back and tells me that we had spooked something up out of the canyon. It was fairly large as it made quite a bit of noise. We decided to try a little different calling strategy, so we set up, with Bushman looking along the canyon, while I was guarding the backdoor behind him. I triggered grey fox distress on my FoxPro Scorpion, and began scanning the hillside in front of me. On my first sweep left to right, I spot a face peering down at me from net to a bush. A look through the scope confirmed that a cat was looking down at the call, and has now seen my movement behind the rifle. The cat had a large head, so much so that I wasn't sure if I was looking at a bobcat or possibly a mountain lion cub or juvenile, neither of which I would shoot. I examined the cat and saw the pointy ears, dropped the crosshairs to it's chest and fired the shot. It back flipped in a cloud of dust. I looked down to turn off the caller, and saw the timer sitting at 23 seconds. I kept eyes on the area, while Bushman climbed up to retrieve it. The 53gr Hornady HP, fired from my Specialized Dynamics 16in .223 flat top AR-15, had done the job. In fact it might have been a little too good. The 53gr proved to be pretty tough on the fur, making a small entry and a HUGE exit. The fur will be salvageable for a wall hanger, but not for selling it, or mounting it.
The cat was a little thin, probably from a lack of food, but it was still a large cat, so I had to get a little creative for the hike out. A few years back fw707 had made me a beautiful lanyard for my hand calls, so after a few minutes, and some good ole boy scout knot skills I was able to truss up the cat. Bushman loved the idea so much that he named it a "furse". Half cat, half purse. Look for one in a store near you.
Bottom line, when things are rough, you gotta keep at it until things turn. We all have dry spells, but a day like today makes the rough days that much better.
Today started off a lot better. The first stand saw a coyote come in, but it shied away, and moved out of our stand. We decided not to take a bad shot, so as I kept calling, Bushman began a long stalk. As he is stalking, and just about to throw a shot, a group of motorcycle riders spooked up another coyote, which spooked off the first. Drenched in sweat after having crawled several hundred yards across open ground for a chance at a shot, Bushman and I were actually upbeat.
Second stand was a bust, but the third saw a fox drop down out of the rocks, only to turn around as we were changing calls. We were seeing animals, but they were not behaving in a normal manner. They were curious, but were not coming in hard. Undaunted we moved on. Fourth stand was a blank. We moved on into a canyon for our fifth stand. As we were stalking in, Bushman drops back and tells me that we had spooked something up out of the canyon. It was fairly large as it made quite a bit of noise. We decided to try a little different calling strategy, so we set up, with Bushman looking along the canyon, while I was guarding the backdoor behind him. I triggered grey fox distress on my FoxPro Scorpion, and began scanning the hillside in front of me. On my first sweep left to right, I spot a face peering down at me from net to a bush. A look through the scope confirmed that a cat was looking down at the call, and has now seen my movement behind the rifle. The cat had a large head, so much so that I wasn't sure if I was looking at a bobcat or possibly a mountain lion cub or juvenile, neither of which I would shoot. I examined the cat and saw the pointy ears, dropped the crosshairs to it's chest and fired the shot. It back flipped in a cloud of dust. I looked down to turn off the caller, and saw the timer sitting at 23 seconds. I kept eyes on the area, while Bushman climbed up to retrieve it. The 53gr Hornady HP, fired from my Specialized Dynamics 16in .223 flat top AR-15, had done the job. In fact it might have been a little too good. The 53gr proved to be pretty tough on the fur, making a small entry and a HUGE exit. The fur will be salvageable for a wall hanger, but not for selling it, or mounting it.
The cat was a little thin, probably from a lack of food, but it was still a large cat, so I had to get a little creative for the hike out. A few years back fw707 had made me a beautiful lanyard for my hand calls, so after a few minutes, and some good ole boy scout knot skills I was able to truss up the cat. Bushman loved the idea so much that he named it a "furse". Half cat, half purse. Look for one in a store near you.
Bottom line, when things are rough, you gotta keep at it until things turn. We all have dry spells, but a day like today makes the rough days that much better.
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