A Rare Night Hunt

Hawk-eye

New member
I don't do a lot of night hunting anymore. I like day time calling these days. I used to hunt those cold full moon nights more often when I was younger but anymore, it's hard to drag me out of my warm, dry house. Must be getting old, because I just don't care for it like I used to. But I called up a buddy of mine yesterday afternoon and asked him if he wanted to head out after some night time grey ghosts under the full moon. I figured it would be a good night and it was.

We hit the first spot and my partner had a shotgun so he sat on one side of a fence that had a lot of closer cover on that side and I sat on the other side overlooking a wide open hillside where I could see quite a ways to pick off a coyote from a long distance. I sat the caller on his side but started with some mouth calls to fire things up, then let the caller play a little since I was sitting right out in the wide open. It didn't take long and a coyote came loping over the hill headed right at me! He got to within 30 yards and I had to move. I picked the rifle from it's bipod and swung on the coyote before me. He did an about face and began loping back out the way he came. I barked a few times and he never wold stop completely but slowed some. I knew I'd better not wait much longer, and soon heard that "Smack" of the bullet putting him down after pulling the trigger.

Next spot was a bust with no coyotes. We got them howling in the section to the Southwest of us but nobody returned howls from our section. Figuring no one was home there we moved on.

The next spot was just plain fun! I set up overlooking the cover from a terrace and my partner was a bit South of me infront of a cedar tree. I blew some calls and waited. Just after starting the caller, a coyote popped out of the weeds beyond the caller about 100 yards out from me and a quick shot from me dropped him. It only took about 3 minutes. Figuring that we might as well keep calling I sat there for a bit and before I could start calling again a coyote began really giving us a hard time from the cover of the cedars only about 125 yards away. With such a still night last night, he sounded like he was standing right beside us. Barking, and short howling, he was upset and not liking what was going on. I didn't either. That usually means that you've got a stubborn, almost unmovable coyote sometimes. So after a while I began barking back. He continued and continued as I sat there scanning the treeline thru the scope hoping that he was sitting there within sight and his movement from barking would give him away. I never could find him. About the only other thing that came sometimes bring them a little closer is to continue talking so long that they forget what they were upset about and come or to offer some submissive whimpers. Whimpers didn't work either.

This went on for a long, long time! After 15 minutes of continuous barking and short howling I got up and slowly moved across the wide open bean stubble. He continued vocalizing. Now convinced that he was in the cover not looking at my location I walked down thru a crossing, barking back at him half of the way. Once I got to the crossing I shut up and so did he. I moved into another field where I could look down into the cedars from the other side. I crept to a hilltop and army crawled to the top to peak over. I scanned and scanned thru the scope but couldn 't see him. Reluctant to give away my location I went ahead and continued my barking and short howls at him from there. My partner was watching the whole thing. He fired back up, this time from a little further down in the bottom. He had retreated a little ways from where he had been. Either because of my movement or from getting bored. I scanned the field edges down in there but just could not see him. I could just about pinpoint all of those barks to his exact location but he must have been sitting right on the edge of cover where I couldn't see him?

I gave up and walked back to my partner where I found him looking for the coyote I had shot. He looked at me and said "That was awesome!" It was awesome. I enjoyed every bit of it and my partner enjoyed the show too! I wanted nothing more than to silence that barker and came so close to getting it done. The coyote I had shot had scampered off about 30 yards and died. It was a male, so I'm not sure if the other one was a female or not?

We hit one last spot and had quite the sit. Just after we started calling, three "POP" "POP" "POP" noises shattered the quietness of the dark from the other side of the section we were in followed by the sounds of an engine revving. Their shots got us a little nervous sitting there in the dark. We continued to listen to a truck crunching thru the snow over there. Wonder what in the world someone was doing at 1 in the morning over there? It certainly didn't help us. Nothing showed itself the rest of the stand naturally.

So we called three and got two. A fun night. Saw several shooting stars and a fox on the way home. It was a fun hunt even though it felt a bit like cheating. I'll probably get back to my daytime hunting here soon. I haven't been out very much lately.
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Great story and pics! It sounds like you had a fun nighttime adventure. The pic with the moon in the background is great!!
 
Originally Posted By: Hawk-eyeThis went on for a long, long time! .............. He looked at me and said "That was awesome!" It was awesome. I enjoyed every bit of it and my partner enjoyed the show too!

I had a stand like that in the dark back in October. It ended the same way (no shot) but was awesome. The coyote and I barked and cussed back and forth for a long time. Although no shots were fired it was a great stand.

Thanks for sharing and that's a cool photo.

Sendit
 
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