Amazing start to the new season!!!

wilydawg

New member
jarheadhunter and I got out yesterday for the first time this year. Last year we got a late start to the season and pledged to get an earlier one this year, so we met at o'dark thirty and made our way to one of our favorite areas, which has always produced some form of action in the past. Little did we know what kind of action we were in for this day!

We arrived a little early for our first stand, so we waited in the truck for it to get a little lighter before heading out. After sitting there for about 15 minutes, we look up and a coyote is crossing the dirt road about 30 yards in front of the truck and vanished in the sagebrush! Not a bad sign to start the day!

We set up our first stand, and began playing a Foxcast sequence I built for my CS-24. (which by the way would prove deadly, at least on this day!) For any that are interested in using this cool feature, I put up instructions in an earlier post. Here's the link: Foxcast Instructions

About 5 minutes in, we hear a coyote howling and warning barking several hundred yards downwind. We later figured it was probably the one that crossed the road in front of us, as that was the direction he was heading. At about the 7 minute mark, Josh says "don't move, one is coming straight to the call". I shifted my eyes but he had already moved into a dip behind the knoll we had the call set up on. A few seconds later, I see a head appear about 5 yds. from the call, and hear Josh's AR bark. The coyote flops over and number one for the day is in the bag.

We continue the stand, but nothing else shows up. We walk to the coyote and find a big old barrel chested male we figure to be around 40 lbs.

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Nice mature male

We debated doing the next stand, because it would put the sun at our faces, but since the wind was right, we decided to proceed. With the call about 75 yards in front and to the side of us, we started the sequence again. About the 8 minute mark, a head appears just behind the call, but must have seen us because he lit out. At about 200 yards, Josh makes a great running away shot and rolls him up. We are high fiving, but then look and see that he is hunched up but up and moving away. We both pull up the ARs and send two more rounds into him and number two is in the books.

Next stand is a classic and one of our favorites. On this one, you can see for miles, and it's really cool if you get a willing player. We started the sequence, but after about 18-20 minutes, nothing. Josh and I were whispering that maybe it's time to go, when we look below us and to the left, and here comes our player with tongue hanging out and closing the distance to the call to about 50 yards. How he got this close without us seeing him, I'll never know. Knowing he would hit the scent cone of the caller any second, I fed him a 50 grain Vmax and a young male rolls up for number 3 for the morning.

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You can see forever on this stand

On to stand number 4. This one is a hide on a fairly steep hill overlooking a sweeping valley with a number of rolling ridges in the bottom. We fire up the Foxpro, and about 2-3 minutes in we spot a huge coyote going straight away over one of the ridges. We figure that he must have seen us coming in and spooked out. We are kind of bummed because it's obvious he's a monster. But we continue the stand, and about twenty minutes in Josh says "we have one coming in on my side". When it goes out of our sight, we re-position our rifles and seconds later it tops out on a little rise about fifty yards away. instantly Josh fires, and it spins biting its side, we both fire at the same time and 2 more hit home. Coyote number 4 for the day bites the dust.

Obviously, we are blown away by our success thus far, and can hardly contain ourselves on the way to stand 5. We had a pretty cool experience there last year. On that day we were carefully watching all the areas we figured a coyote to come from, and toward the end of the stand we almost crap ourselves when a coyote charges in from the last place we expected to see one and dang near runs right into us. Josh made a great running shot on that one as payback for scaring the heck out of us!

Anyway, back to the present. About 2-3 minutes in we spot a coyote in the thick brush about 75 yards in front of us. It kept moving around preventing a shot in the thick stuff, but we couldn't believe how hard it was to see, until we realized we were looking at a pup that was maybe the size of a medium house cat. So we gave it a pass and decided that even though we didn't kill that one, we were still 5 for 5 since if we had wanted to kill it, it was pretty much a sure thing.

By this time it was getting pretty warm so we decided to take a long drive to scout some new ground. We didn't find anything too amazing so we came back to our familiar area for the evening and made a couple more stands, which didn't produce anything.

By the end of the day we had seen 11 coyotes, called in 5 and killed 4. On top of that we saw 2 of the coyotes on a mule deer fawn kill that was so fresh that the doe was still attending it; as well as about thirty elk, including 4 bulls that would score in the 350-380 class. Not to mention other deer, sand-hill cranes, rabbits, birds of prey, etc.

An unbelievable day afield, for sure one that makes a guy feel blessed to be a part of creation! And what a killer start to the season. We already have plans to get out again right away. We know it will be tough to top a day like we had, but we're sure going to have fun trying to!

Thanks for reading this fellas and good hunting!

wily

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I don't know how the HOM stories are picked, chosen, nominated or whatever, but I think yours should darn sure be in the running.

Great day guys. Those are the ones you remember forever. Thanks for sharing. Enjoyed it.

Edit: Are you guys signed up and participating in the bounty program? You got payed for gas and then some if ya are..
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It was defiantly a great day. I have only had one other day like that ever and it wasn't as good because I was by myself and didn't have anyone to share it with. I will add a few pics to go along with the story.

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Found another pic. This is on the stand that you can see for miles. I took a pic of what the coyote saw as he came in. We were setting by the big bush at the top of the hill.

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Thanks for the comments everyone it was a blast. Just need to get out more often and hope for more days like these. The days like this one are what make all the days not even seeing a coyote worth while.
 
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