Fursniper
Active member
Joy N. Laughter is not her real name, but it is a good description. I met Joy N. Laughter about 25 years ago when she was an AZ hunter education instructor. I had lost contact with her for several years and recently crossed paths with her again when I moved back to northern AZ. She is an outdoors woman who loves to hunt and is a competition pistol silhouette target shooter. She has never been predator calling or killed a coyote. I invited her to go predator calling a few times to introduce her to the sport and this is how it went.
Here is a picture of the area that we hunted first. Most of the stands were in the flatter terrain in the foreground of Lake Powell around 4000 feet elevation.
We went predator calling for the first time in August. We could only make a few stands in the morning due to the heat. We called in 2 coyotes but never could connect. The first coyote ran in at Mach 4 speed, zoomed into the call, and exited just as fast. The second coyote should have been DRT. It came in and stopped about 25 yards away from us in some tall vegetation. I totally messed up and should have waited for a better opportunity, but took the shot and missed.. Joy N. Laughter was excited to see a couple coyotes come in while I kept kicking myself for missing.
I gave Joy N. Laughter an open reed call to practice with. A few weeks later we went predator calling again in a different place near the AZ/UT border.
We tried hand calling a few stands, but did not do any good. It was obvious that she had done some practicing on her hand call because she sounded like a drama queen. The coyotes did not cooperate so we drove into AZ to do some sight seeing along the rim of the Paria Canyon.
While we stood here looking into the canyon, we had 3 California Condors fly directly over our head about a 150 feet away. The Condors were initially released in this area in the 1990's as a nonessential experimental population under the 10-J provision in the Endangered Species Act.. This means that the condors are protected, but the habitat protections did not come with the birds. There are no bans on hunting with lead bullets here. If you shoot an animal using lead bullets, the protocol is to bury the carcasses under the canopy of a tree so it cannot be seen and consumed by birds flying overhead. Voluntary compliance by hunters to bury carcasses or use non lead ammo has been pretty good. We returned to hunt in this area about a week later.
A cold front had moved through and the first day the weather cleared up it was excellent conditions for predator calling. On the first stand a coyote came in at about 30 seconds. Joy N. Laughter was using a 223 caliber bolt action rifle and I was using a shotgun. We both shot at the same time. The coyote fell, got up, and then we both shot a second time to finish it off. We stayed put to let the call continue playing for 15 minutes hoping a second coyote would come in. Nothing else showed up so we then retrieved the coyote. I felt bad about shooting because I wanted Joy N. Laughter to shoot her first coyote. I planned not to shoot again unless it was a last resort. We continued hunting.
We spaced the calling stands out about 1 mile apart as we drove down this 2 track dirt road.
On the 4th stand we got a surprise. We had called for 15 minutes and did not see the coyote come in. We put the FoxPro remote in the daypack, put our shooting sticks away, and started to stand up. Joy N. Laughter then says, “THERE'S A COYOTE!” I grabbed my hand call and start playing puppy distress while Joy N. Laughter scrambled to draw her rifle to take an off hand shot. The coyote steps out from behind the tree and presents a broadside shooting opportunity. She drops it with one shot through the front shoulders. We pace it off at 125 yards. Joy N. Laughter was stoked!
Both of these coyotes were killed just barely inside Utah. Nonresident hunters can collect a $50 bounty per coyote, but we were not interested in receiving the bounty for a couple reasons. First, it is my understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong) that accepting the bounty requires a nonresident to file an additional income tax return for the State of Utah. The hassle of filing an additional tax return for another state is not worth collecting the bounty for us. Second, these were special coyotes in that they were the first ones this young lady had ever shot. We wanted to keep the skulls so they could be cleaned for souvenirs. The bounty requires turning in the lower jaw which is a conflict for doing the skulls. Therefore, both coyotes were buried under the canopy of a tree so the condors could not see them or eat them and the bounty was not collected. The skulls are in the process of being cleaned for Joy N. Laughter and will be given to her as a gift.
A couple days later we went hunting coyotes again in the same area. We left at dark thirty, drove all the way out there, got the guns out, then determined that I forgot the ammo...... DANG IT!!! To salvage the trip we decided to try hand calling in hopes that Joy N. Laughter could call in her first coyote. We did have a loaded pistol with us so at least we were armed in case a bold critter showed up. We encountered a stand that was a perfect setup. Sun to our back, wind in our face, and some small trees to stand next to for cover. Joy N. Laughter called for about 2 minutes doing her best impression of a dying jackrabbit on an open reed hand call. A coyote pops out from behind a tree about 25 yards in front of her then starts coming toward her. She quits calling. The coyote comes closer and closer until it gets about 6 feet away from her and stops. Joy N. Laughter does not move. The coyote stands right next to Joy N. Laughter close enough to pet it. It lifts his head and looks up higher then higher until it's eyes meet Joy N. Laughter's eyes which are now getting really big. The coyote takes a step back then gets this expression on its face like holy crap and runs off. Joy N. Laughter steps out of her hiding place and says, “OH, WOW!! I DID IT! THAT WAS SO NEAT!!” She is hooked and that is the luckiest coyote not to get shot in Utah!
Here is how our predator calling stats turned out hunting along the AZ/UT border. Overall, we did a total of 19 stands, called in 5 coyotes, killed 2, and our total calling time was 267 minutes. That's averaging 1 coyote every 3.8 stands with 53.4 minutes of calling effort.
Thanks for reading. Good luck and good hunting everyone!
***********************************************************************************************************************
OUTCOME OF THE SKULL:
The coyote skull that was being cleaned for Joy N. Laughter was finished about 2 weeks after she got her coyotes. It was supposed to be done and given to her as a gift, but Joy N. Laughter had an interest in how to clean skulls. So she ended up doing the majority of the work herself. I think she did a pretty good job. Here are some pictures of it.
The hero picture was framed to accompany the skull so she can display both of them together. The skull from the other coyote is still in the freezer. We may use it later to make a post for how to clean skulls using the crock pot method.
It's nice to see more women involved in the sport. She has signed up to be a member on Predator Masters and should be chiming in soon.
Good luck and good hunting everyone!
I missed this in Oct so am nominating it for the November vote. Reb8600
Here is a picture of the area that we hunted first. Most of the stands were in the flatter terrain in the foreground of Lake Powell around 4000 feet elevation.
We went predator calling for the first time in August. We could only make a few stands in the morning due to the heat. We called in 2 coyotes but never could connect. The first coyote ran in at Mach 4 speed, zoomed into the call, and exited just as fast. The second coyote should have been DRT. It came in and stopped about 25 yards away from us in some tall vegetation. I totally messed up and should have waited for a better opportunity, but took the shot and missed.. Joy N. Laughter was excited to see a couple coyotes come in while I kept kicking myself for missing.
I gave Joy N. Laughter an open reed call to practice with. A few weeks later we went predator calling again in a different place near the AZ/UT border.
We tried hand calling a few stands, but did not do any good. It was obvious that she had done some practicing on her hand call because she sounded like a drama queen. The coyotes did not cooperate so we drove into AZ to do some sight seeing along the rim of the Paria Canyon.
While we stood here looking into the canyon, we had 3 California Condors fly directly over our head about a 150 feet away. The Condors were initially released in this area in the 1990's as a nonessential experimental population under the 10-J provision in the Endangered Species Act.. This means that the condors are protected, but the habitat protections did not come with the birds. There are no bans on hunting with lead bullets here. If you shoot an animal using lead bullets, the protocol is to bury the carcasses under the canopy of a tree so it cannot be seen and consumed by birds flying overhead. Voluntary compliance by hunters to bury carcasses or use non lead ammo has been pretty good. We returned to hunt in this area about a week later.
A cold front had moved through and the first day the weather cleared up it was excellent conditions for predator calling. On the first stand a coyote came in at about 30 seconds. Joy N. Laughter was using a 223 caliber bolt action rifle and I was using a shotgun. We both shot at the same time. The coyote fell, got up, and then we both shot a second time to finish it off. We stayed put to let the call continue playing for 15 minutes hoping a second coyote would come in. Nothing else showed up so we then retrieved the coyote. I felt bad about shooting because I wanted Joy N. Laughter to shoot her first coyote. I planned not to shoot again unless it was a last resort. We continued hunting.
We spaced the calling stands out about 1 mile apart as we drove down this 2 track dirt road.
On the 4th stand we got a surprise. We had called for 15 minutes and did not see the coyote come in. We put the FoxPro remote in the daypack, put our shooting sticks away, and started to stand up. Joy N. Laughter then says, “THERE'S A COYOTE!” I grabbed my hand call and start playing puppy distress while Joy N. Laughter scrambled to draw her rifle to take an off hand shot. The coyote steps out from behind the tree and presents a broadside shooting opportunity. She drops it with one shot through the front shoulders. We pace it off at 125 yards. Joy N. Laughter was stoked!
Both of these coyotes were killed just barely inside Utah. Nonresident hunters can collect a $50 bounty per coyote, but we were not interested in receiving the bounty for a couple reasons. First, it is my understanding (please correct me if I'm wrong) that accepting the bounty requires a nonresident to file an additional income tax return for the State of Utah. The hassle of filing an additional tax return for another state is not worth collecting the bounty for us. Second, these were special coyotes in that they were the first ones this young lady had ever shot. We wanted to keep the skulls so they could be cleaned for souvenirs. The bounty requires turning in the lower jaw which is a conflict for doing the skulls. Therefore, both coyotes were buried under the canopy of a tree so the condors could not see them or eat them and the bounty was not collected. The skulls are in the process of being cleaned for Joy N. Laughter and will be given to her as a gift.
A couple days later we went hunting coyotes again in the same area. We left at dark thirty, drove all the way out there, got the guns out, then determined that I forgot the ammo...... DANG IT!!! To salvage the trip we decided to try hand calling in hopes that Joy N. Laughter could call in her first coyote. We did have a loaded pistol with us so at least we were armed in case a bold critter showed up. We encountered a stand that was a perfect setup. Sun to our back, wind in our face, and some small trees to stand next to for cover. Joy N. Laughter called for about 2 minutes doing her best impression of a dying jackrabbit on an open reed hand call. A coyote pops out from behind a tree about 25 yards in front of her then starts coming toward her. She quits calling. The coyote comes closer and closer until it gets about 6 feet away from her and stops. Joy N. Laughter does not move. The coyote stands right next to Joy N. Laughter close enough to pet it. It lifts his head and looks up higher then higher until it's eyes meet Joy N. Laughter's eyes which are now getting really big. The coyote takes a step back then gets this expression on its face like holy crap and runs off. Joy N. Laughter steps out of her hiding place and says, “OH, WOW!! I DID IT! THAT WAS SO NEAT!!” She is hooked and that is the luckiest coyote not to get shot in Utah!
Here is how our predator calling stats turned out hunting along the AZ/UT border. Overall, we did a total of 19 stands, called in 5 coyotes, killed 2, and our total calling time was 267 minutes. That's averaging 1 coyote every 3.8 stands with 53.4 minutes of calling effort.
Thanks for reading. Good luck and good hunting everyone!
***********************************************************************************************************************
OUTCOME OF THE SKULL:
The coyote skull that was being cleaned for Joy N. Laughter was finished about 2 weeks after she got her coyotes. It was supposed to be done and given to her as a gift, but Joy N. Laughter had an interest in how to clean skulls. So she ended up doing the majority of the work herself. I think she did a pretty good job. Here are some pictures of it.
The hero picture was framed to accompany the skull so she can display both of them together. The skull from the other coyote is still in the freezer. We may use it later to make a post for how to clean skulls using the crock pot method.
It's nice to see more women involved in the sport. She has signed up to be a member on Predator Masters and should be chiming in soon.
Good luck and good hunting everyone!
I missed this in Oct so am nominating it for the November vote. Reb8600
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