A good afternoon

JTPinTX

Custom Call Maker
Last weekend my oldest son and I had a few hours to go out and call a bit. My son and I have hunted together a pretty fair amount for deer, turkey, hogs, and dove, but it was the first time he had ever gone predator calling with me. Even though I did a lot of calling when I was younger, it wasn't until last fall that I started getting back into predator hunting after a long hiatus. As it turned out we had an awesome time, and he really enjoyed himself a lot. He has always been kind of take it or leave it when it came to hunting, but after last Saturday I think he has a new addiction. He is really excited about going out again.

I was calling using my CS-24, and carrying the old standby Savage 110 FP in 25-06 for those long shots. Both of them used to belong to my dad, who was an avid caller that passed away suddenly last summer. I might as well have been carrying a stick though for all the good that rifle did for Saturday, it turned out to be all abut my son! My son Mason was carrying my little CZ-527 in .223, using a load of 27 grains of W-748 pushing a 50 grain Dogtown spitzer. That load is a nail driver and the rifle is zeroed dead on at 200.

We (meaning I) messed up the first stand. With less than a minute running on Lightning Jack, a big dominant male streaked across the front of my sons shooting zone before he could do anything about it, and then it back-doored me on my off side. I never knew that coyote was there until I heard him bark from 40 yards out. I tried to spin the wrong way and got busted, then smooth missed him as he hit high gear going away. At the shot coyotes started running everywhere back down in the mesquites 200-300 yards away. We actually saw 5 coyotes on that first stand, but couldn't get any other shots. It was a very exciting start to the evening, but we didn't put any fur on the ground on the first stand.

On the second stand we called in three dogs, but it took a little while. I had played lightning jack intermittently for the first 12 minutes on stand, and with no takers swapped over to coyote pup distress #3. That did the trick, and we could see them start coming from a long ways out, charging hard. They hung up for a few seconds around 400 yards, but I hit the call again and here they came. I passed a shot on the first one trying to let my son get a shot. It worked out just right for him, and he busted a young female at 180 yards. He was really pumped up about it. His first coyote, and he smoked her!



Then we moved on to our third stand. It was on the end of a large canyon where a local rancher had been seeing alot of coyotes hanging around his cows that were calving. We had to set up watching two directions because once we got on stand we could hear coyotes howling way back behind us in the opposite direction from where we were intending to call. I covered the back side while Mason covered our main area. I had killed a female not far from where we were calling the week before, so I went with a different sound, adult cottontail. I cranked up the machine and about 6-7 minutes in I look over and my son is pointing and holding up two fingers. He raised the rifle and I hear him shoot, and then about 20 seconds later he shoots again. I couldn't see down the ravine he was watching, but he gave me a thumbs up sign, so I knew it was good. It turned out it was a pair that came in. The female had stopped at 140 yards, that was his first shot. When he shot her, the male came over and started sniffing her, and he busted him too.

It was all pretty awesome for his first day calling. He got a single, a double, and we called 10 coyotes on three stands. His dear old daddy got skunked, but that is no problem, I would lots rather him shoot than me. I can go any time. I told him that days like the day we just had don't come around very often, and he should remember it. It might be a long while before he has another one like it! He looked at me and told me that this is the first kind of hunting that has ever really excited him, and he can understand now why his grandpa was so addicted to it. I believe we have a new convert!



 
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Good job! That's great that you got him out there and that he loved it. That's a memory he will have forever and hopefully y'all get to make many more like it.
 
His grandpa (my father) was an avid coyote hunter for the last 20 years of his life. He killed over 500 coyotes in those 20 years, and about 25 bobcats. He passed away suddenly last summer of a massive heart attack. That jacket my son is wearing was his, and I sent a couple of dad's mouth calls home with him to practice with too. The CS-24 was Dad's, and the 25-06 I take most days was his main calling rifle, that is it in my avatar. I have plenty of rifles, but I enjoy carrying his. It gives me comfort to know it is still out in the field, doing what it does best. Dad would like that. My son is 21 and lives about 2 hours away from me. He is very much ready to come back down and hunt again. He has always been a pretty natural rifle shot, he stays very calm while shooting. His Grandpa would have been so very proud of him.

Our hunt reminded me of a day calling my Dad and I had back in the fall of '95, a few months after I got out of the Navy. I got out his calling journal and looked it up, and read his entry for that hunt. We killed 4 coyotes that day, three of them were mine, one was Dad's. One of the ones I killed was wearing a home-made wire snare around his neck, you could tell he had been wearing it for awhile. I still have that snare hanging in my shop, and can still see him in my mind bounding over the little bluestem.

Thinking about that day calling with dad, and the calling trip with my son last week, it feels as though I have come full circle. Except now I am on the other side of the equation. It is a very satisfying feeling.
 
If I had realized I was going to get nominated for Hunter of the Month I could have done a lot better job writing that story, I just kind of made a quick post because I was proud of my son. Maybe I can go back and clean up the writing and flesh it out some more.
 
Awesome day for sure! The coyotes are a part of it for sure and make the memory better but to me the best part of the story is remembering your father and his impact on you and now the same impact you're having with your son. Cherish the time together, time marches too fast.
 
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Thanks guys, I really appreciate the kind words. I think the day was even more special for me than it was for him, and you can see how happy he was by looking at his face. As usual, there is more to the story, but only so much you can put into words.
 
Great story. My daughters only 3 but I'm already so excited for that bonding time. Treasure those moments as they can be taken away from you in the blink of an eye.
 
That is awesome, I feel the same way when I take my daughter out to hunt... I get more excited when she gets sum thing than if I had shot it... Your dad was prolly watching down with a smile... U have my vote..
 
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