12Ring
New member
So I started calling predators about 7 years ago and this year I have only manged to get out a handful of times. Between family, a January archery deer hunt, work and wind that seem to come around every day off I had, it has been tough to get out.
I had to work the night of presidents day so I decided to head out in the morning for a few stands. That isn't normally what I like to do because I have to drive so far away from the city to get into areas that haven't been hammered all winter but since I finally had time, I had to take advantage of it.
The day started off great. Weather was a little warm and there was the slightest breeze. Just enough so you can tell which direction it was going.
I love getting to the first stand about 10 minutes before shooting light, setting my stuff up and sitting there waiting for the minute its light enough to shoot. As soon as it was shooting light, I start off with a lonesome howl. Within a minute I hear a few coyotes off in the distance but they are way out there.
I wait a few minutes and start up some bird distress. I run it off and on with a mixture of low and high volume for about 6 minutes. Then I go silent for a few minutes and glass all my surroundings. When nothing is spotted I switch to rabbit distress.
Within 2 minutes I see a coyote heading in from straight up wind of the call. The caller is perfectly in between me and her so if I move she will bust me. I wait until she is about 125yds away and goes behind a small tree and then I mute the call. She stopped long enough for me to shoulder my gun, and switch to vole squeaks.
As soon as she hears that she starts coming. I was awesome to see her attitude change as soon as she saw the decoy. She went from loping with her head up looking around to ears back head down and hard charging. At that point I wished I had my shotgun in my hand instead of sitting next to me.
I started barking like a lunatic when she got to 80yds from me and 40yds from the caller and she finally stopped and looked at me at tabout the 50yd mark. I made a good shot with the .243 58gr vmax and she spun around a few times before falling over.
Normally that .243 knocks them flat but this time there was some spinning. Here she is. I like the 2 jet streams in the sky.
I have a phone with a 9 megapixel camera but for some reason it take horrible pictures when you set the timer. Oh well. These are pics are the best I could do since I was solo.
After about 4-5 blank stands in some awesome area on a perfect day and not seeing or hearing anything, I decided to make one last stand befor I had to come home.
Again I started with a howl but this time no response. I waited a few minutes and went to bird distress. Right after I started it I see two coyotes pop up out of a drainage about 150yds away. I don't know if they were bedded in that drainage or I couldn't see them coming in because they were using the drainage as cover and had been coming in since I howled.
Anyway I see two coyotes standing side by side but I don't like their position or the direction of my wind so I decide I better take the big one and I'll try to stop the other one for a follow up. Well I think my decision to take the big one paid off because when I shot him, the little female just looked down at him like what the heck are you doing. It gave me just enough time to rack another round and put her down too. I believe if I had shot the female first, that old big male would have turned inside out and hauled butt never giving me a follow up shot.
Here is how they laid. I was set up not far off a well traveled dirt road and there must have been some idiots out there drinking and throwing beer cans out the window and I didn't notice they were in the picture when I took it.
The timer on my phone starts to beep loud when you have 3 seconds until it snaps the picture, so I quickly picked them up at that point so I didn't look like I was struggling to bad. But they sure are heavy holding them like that. Its pretty obvious which is the male and which is the female. I weighed both of them so go ahead take a guess at the weights of the two and I'll updated the thread after a while. I'm 5'7 160 just so you have a size reference.
It was a great day to be out calling but I wish I had a little more time to get out. My son is almost at that age where I can start taking him so that will be awesome. It will take some of the guilt off me for being away from home on my days off.
I had to work the night of presidents day so I decided to head out in the morning for a few stands. That isn't normally what I like to do because I have to drive so far away from the city to get into areas that haven't been hammered all winter but since I finally had time, I had to take advantage of it.
The day started off great. Weather was a little warm and there was the slightest breeze. Just enough so you can tell which direction it was going.
I love getting to the first stand about 10 minutes before shooting light, setting my stuff up and sitting there waiting for the minute its light enough to shoot. As soon as it was shooting light, I start off with a lonesome howl. Within a minute I hear a few coyotes off in the distance but they are way out there.
I wait a few minutes and start up some bird distress. I run it off and on with a mixture of low and high volume for about 6 minutes. Then I go silent for a few minutes and glass all my surroundings. When nothing is spotted I switch to rabbit distress.
Within 2 minutes I see a coyote heading in from straight up wind of the call. The caller is perfectly in between me and her so if I move she will bust me. I wait until she is about 125yds away and goes behind a small tree and then I mute the call. She stopped long enough for me to shoulder my gun, and switch to vole squeaks.
As soon as she hears that she starts coming. I was awesome to see her attitude change as soon as she saw the decoy. She went from loping with her head up looking around to ears back head down and hard charging. At that point I wished I had my shotgun in my hand instead of sitting next to me.
I started barking like a lunatic when she got to 80yds from me and 40yds from the caller and she finally stopped and looked at me at tabout the 50yd mark. I made a good shot with the .243 58gr vmax and she spun around a few times before falling over.
Normally that .243 knocks them flat but this time there was some spinning. Here she is. I like the 2 jet streams in the sky.
I have a phone with a 9 megapixel camera but for some reason it take horrible pictures when you set the timer. Oh well. These are pics are the best I could do since I was solo.
After about 4-5 blank stands in some awesome area on a perfect day and not seeing or hearing anything, I decided to make one last stand befor I had to come home.
Again I started with a howl but this time no response. I waited a few minutes and went to bird distress. Right after I started it I see two coyotes pop up out of a drainage about 150yds away. I don't know if they were bedded in that drainage or I couldn't see them coming in because they were using the drainage as cover and had been coming in since I howled.
Anyway I see two coyotes standing side by side but I don't like their position or the direction of my wind so I decide I better take the big one and I'll try to stop the other one for a follow up. Well I think my decision to take the big one paid off because when I shot him, the little female just looked down at him like what the heck are you doing. It gave me just enough time to rack another round and put her down too. I believe if I had shot the female first, that old big male would have turned inside out and hauled butt never giving me a follow up shot.
Here is how they laid. I was set up not far off a well traveled dirt road and there must have been some idiots out there drinking and throwing beer cans out the window and I didn't notice they were in the picture when I took it.
The timer on my phone starts to beep loud when you have 3 seconds until it snaps the picture, so I quickly picked them up at that point so I didn't look like I was struggling to bad. But they sure are heavy holding them like that. Its pretty obvious which is the male and which is the female. I weighed both of them so go ahead take a guess at the weights of the two and I'll updated the thread after a while. I'm 5'7 160 just so you have a size reference.
It was a great day to be out calling but I wish I had a little more time to get out. My son is almost at that age where I can start taking him so that will be awesome. It will take some of the guilt off me for being away from home on my days off.
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