Reckon What the Mojo Critter'll Drag in Next?

hm1996

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Moved to another ranch to try and thin out some coyotes this week.

We set up right on an outside border fence which is heavily grown up w/brush and exactly 3 minutes after I started the call w/bird distress, a huge tom bobcat bounded out of the brush along the fence. He covered the 20 yards between the fence and the mojo in a heartbeat and slammed on the brakes a mere 18" from the critter, leaving clear skid marks on the caliche roadway.

I've never seen a cat come in that fast or throw it in reverse so quickly. His rear end flew up off the ground about a foot, nearly passing his nose. Couldn't help myself, I laughed out loud at the gymnastic display; wish I'd had my camera out. So much for cats responding slowly and stealthily.
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He ran back into the high grass along the fence, but I could barely see his ears moving and managed to get my camera out; but not turned on before he walked half way back across the road and then changed his mind again and disappeared across the fence.

A few minutes later, the list of unlikely critters drawn to the Mojo continued to grow. This nice Sable bull apparently was curious as to what had the birds stirred up and became fascinated by the critter. He walked a semi-circle around within 20 feet to inspect it thoroughly.

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We moved to a small water hole and didn’t have to wait very long to find out what the Mojo would drag out next; turned out to be a bull waterbuck which was curious about the fawn distress sounds seemingly coming from that strange little furry critter.

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Next stand we moved to a large dry lake bed and set up. Started out with coyote pup distress and this herd of 30 or so wildebeest found it irresistible. They stampeded in from the left and formed a semi-circle around the call. Only one mature bull (below arrow) in the herd, but judging from the number of young calves, he has been a pretty busy boy.

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Coyotes on this ranch have gone silent. You can’t coax a howl out of one for love nor money! Friday morning, the last day of our hunt, we walked out on porch about half hour before daylingt to hear a challenge howl about a half to three quarters of a mile south of camp. I responded in kind w/Tony Tebbe howler and we started talkin’ trash; all the time he was coming closer. About that time a truck drove into camp and the discussion ended, but it was still 20 minutes till daylight.

We grabbed our rifles and gear and walked around to southern perimeter of the heavy brush surrounding the campsight and set up to await daylight. As soon as I could see, I tried to strike up a conversation w/my buddy again, but no dice, so I switched to some bird distress, then coyote pup distress.

That did it! Almost immediately, a very large coyote emerged from the brush around camp about 10 yards past the call, paused for a short moment in the road but just as I picked him up in my scope, he trotted into knee high grass sprinkled w/lots of chest high bushes and disappeared into more thick brush. There was no time for a shot and barking didn’t stop him.

My partner, who was watching an angle roadway said the coyote stopped broadside in his road about 125 yards out long enough for a shot but had a bunch of thin brush between them, so no shot there either. Guess it was that coyote's lucky day.

Called another 10 minutes and decided to pick up the call and while I was walking toward the call a 2nd coyote ran across the road about 200 yds down the road. Darn!

We moved back to the large dry lake and set up where we had called the wildebeest the day before. Didn’t take any pictures but the decoy was spotted the same as in picture above (white circle) and slight wind from about 11 o’clock. Started out with hurt coyote pup and almost immediately were rewarded with a mature male coyote charging the decoy from about 3 o’clock. Had to bark 3 times to stop him long enough to shoot and was rewarded with a solid whack when the .55 gr. Sierra SP made contact just behind his shoulder.

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This hunt closed the book for this year on this ranch, so we loaded the jeep on its trailer and headed for the house. After getting the jeep serviced, will move to another ranch where they have been losing some fawns and the trapper tells me he's catching quite a few YOY coyotes and some cats.

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Regards,
hm

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Ya know, slick, they do come to the call, but seems like a lot more of the non-predators come in and stick around longer out of curiosity than ever did w/o the critter. It seems to really hold their attention a lot longer.

Also, most of the coyotes and bobcats that have responded seem to come in with greater gusto than before. So much so, in fact, that it seems to be a lot harder to get them to put the brakes on by barking, based on about six or eight months of using the critter.

Regards,
hm
 
Originally Posted By: hm1996So much so, in fact, that it seems to be a lot harder to get them to put the brakes on by barking, based on about six or eight months of using the critter.



yep, that is not good when you cant get one to stop and it runs right up on top of the caller or a decoy. well good if you have a shotgun. not so good for most rifle shooters.
 
Originally Posted By: SlickerThanSnot yep, that is not good when you cant get one to stop and it runs right up on top of the caller or a decoy. well good if you have a shotgun. not so good for most rifle shooters.

You can say that again; I've missed and passed more running shots this year than in a long time due to the fact they are coming in closer than in the past, many times don't have time to even get on them. Just not co-ordinated enough to manage both a shotgun and a rifle and not willing to give up the range to go strictly to shotgun. Forgot to mention that prior to the critter, I used a jack-in-the-box which gains their attention but just doesn't seem to excite them like the critter does.

Originally Posted By: Infidel 762This is a really nice write-up... I can just imagine being out amongst all those exotics... Thank you for sharing...

Thanks, Infidel. There are a lot of God's beautiful creatures on the ranches I am privileged to hunt. Never a trip goes by that I don't see something that I've never seen before.

Other than the wildebeest stampede this trip, the next best thing was a momma skunk and her "chilluns", which casually strolled down the road toward the approaching jeep. I stopped and took a couple of pictures. Fortunately, she spotted us when they were about 25' away and turned into the brush.
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She came back out about 50 yards away, heading in the opposite direction, just as a doe stepped into the sendero.


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The doe froze and patiently watched and waited as the mother skunk and five younguns, which seemed to ignore the doe, passed no more than five feet in front of her.

The doe and the skunks then went their separate ways, without any major drama.

Regards,
hm

 
Ya know huntin down der' in South Texas, it's a wonder the mojo didn't bring in any of those unaccompanied illegal children coming across our border
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Originally Posted By: Infidel 762Ya know huntin down der' in South Texas, it's a wonder the mojo didn't bring in any of those unaccompanied illegal children coming across our border
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Nah, Infidel, a much more effective means of bringing undocumented illegal aliens across the border is baiting, ie. offering freebies and amnesty to all comers. It has been proven 100% reliable!
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Regards,
hm
 
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