batman1262
New member
I aquired Merle with all the hope of trying to make a decoy dog out of him. Worked hard at obedience training, scent trailing, and all the stuff trying to get im ready. He is now 10 months old and has bee on 10-12 stands and I have failed miserably at putting yotes infront of him. Seems almost like he was an unlucky charm.
Went out this Sat morn cause the weather here in KY was perfect. First cool snap after a rainy evening. Plus the farmer had called me saying the yotes were whipping up on his dogs and he was concerned bout his cows.
I arrived at the farm bout 20 mins before first light. Made the long walk thru the woods to the large hay field that had just been cut. The wind was exactly as forcasted NNW. Sneaked into my stand location and set out the foxpro and went and tucked into a fence corner. I was well concealed. Couldnt quite see across the field yet. Field was 250 yrds wide and Approx 800-900 yards long. Just as I could see other side of the field(250 yrds) I fired up the foxpro with a lone howl. Nothing. Waited 2 mins and lone howl again. This time was a group howling back off of my right shoulder. Seemed to be a mile or better away. Waited another 2 mins. Nothing. So I start with field mouse distress and let it run 2 mins and shut it off. All this time Merle is milling aroun 50ish yard out in the field doing puppy stuff, smelling everything, and generally goofing off out in the cut hay. I waited a minute and went into lighning jack. Periods of off and on for 5 mins. Nothing. Waited for 1 min of silence and used coyote pair for a min. and then silence for 1 minute and used puppy distress. Puppy distress been playing approx 4 mins and I was geting really discouraged and shut it off thinking to my self how crapppy at this that I really am. Started to thinking about leaving and said wth I am already here let it play. Started up coy pup distress again and Merle runs out to the caller and starts his own version of howling. I start to chuckle at the sound of a 10 month old Austrailian Shepperd trying to howl. I look over to my right shoulder and at the other end of the field I see something come out of the woods. Approx 800 yards away I am not sure what I am seeing. Slide gun over and power up the scope, its a coyote! Merle is still singing his own song and the yote sits down. I am trying to figure out what I am gonna do next and Merle abruptly stops howling. Been roughly a minute since yote showed up and Merle starts scent checking the wind. He acts kinda funny and I am wondering is he maybe smelling the yote? Another min goes by and I am starting to believe that he does smell the yote cause wind is breezy and straight from yote to us. All of a sudden Merle lets out a wierd sounding bark and started moving that way. He gets roughly half way and stops and starts barking. But then the yote goes from siting to standing and Merle seen that and was gone like shot out of a gun rite at it! As he starts to close in the yote goes back into the woods. Merle follows into woods. I start to panic and reach for collar controler and cant find it. [beeep] my dog gonna die cuz I am too stupid to have it ready. I look up and Merle is 100 yards out of woods headed my way, and what is rougly 75 yards behind? Yep the yote! I couldnt hardly believe it! I am startin to shake uncontrolably! 500 yards out, 400 yards out, 300 yards out, 250 yards out! At 250 yards the yote locks up! Merle kept coming. Yote starts barking and inching my way. Merle got back to abot 50 yrds of me and stopped and started baking back. Yote came another 25 ish yards and that was it. And that was all my nerves could take. I centered crosshairs on a frontal chest and just under chin and BOOM! THWAAP! Not even a tail twitch! Merle comes back to me like WTH? And I was all kinds of torn up! I know I prolly shot too soon but any more and I would have been too torn up to shoot. I was already hearing the blood pumping in my ears! I am so proud of my dog.
Let me tell you that Nosler Custom tropy grade with ballistic tip varmit bullet is some serious bad medicine! Tiny entry whole and no exit!
Went out this Sat morn cause the weather here in KY was perfect. First cool snap after a rainy evening. Plus the farmer had called me saying the yotes were whipping up on his dogs and he was concerned bout his cows.
I arrived at the farm bout 20 mins before first light. Made the long walk thru the woods to the large hay field that had just been cut. The wind was exactly as forcasted NNW. Sneaked into my stand location and set out the foxpro and went and tucked into a fence corner. I was well concealed. Couldnt quite see across the field yet. Field was 250 yrds wide and Approx 800-900 yards long. Just as I could see other side of the field(250 yrds) I fired up the foxpro with a lone howl. Nothing. Waited 2 mins and lone howl again. This time was a group howling back off of my right shoulder. Seemed to be a mile or better away. Waited another 2 mins. Nothing. So I start with field mouse distress and let it run 2 mins and shut it off. All this time Merle is milling aroun 50ish yard out in the field doing puppy stuff, smelling everything, and generally goofing off out in the cut hay. I waited a minute and went into lighning jack. Periods of off and on for 5 mins. Nothing. Waited for 1 min of silence and used coyote pair for a min. and then silence for 1 minute and used puppy distress. Puppy distress been playing approx 4 mins and I was geting really discouraged and shut it off thinking to my self how crapppy at this that I really am. Started to thinking about leaving and said wth I am already here let it play. Started up coy pup distress again and Merle runs out to the caller and starts his own version of howling. I start to chuckle at the sound of a 10 month old Austrailian Shepperd trying to howl. I look over to my right shoulder and at the other end of the field I see something come out of the woods. Approx 800 yards away I am not sure what I am seeing. Slide gun over and power up the scope, its a coyote! Merle is still singing his own song and the yote sits down. I am trying to figure out what I am gonna do next and Merle abruptly stops howling. Been roughly a minute since yote showed up and Merle starts scent checking the wind. He acts kinda funny and I am wondering is he maybe smelling the yote? Another min goes by and I am starting to believe that he does smell the yote cause wind is breezy and straight from yote to us. All of a sudden Merle lets out a wierd sounding bark and started moving that way. He gets roughly half way and stops and starts barking. But then the yote goes from siting to standing and Merle seen that and was gone like shot out of a gun rite at it! As he starts to close in the yote goes back into the woods. Merle follows into woods. I start to panic and reach for collar controler and cant find it. [beeep] my dog gonna die cuz I am too stupid to have it ready. I look up and Merle is 100 yards out of woods headed my way, and what is rougly 75 yards behind? Yep the yote! I couldnt hardly believe it! I am startin to shake uncontrolably! 500 yards out, 400 yards out, 300 yards out, 250 yards out! At 250 yards the yote locks up! Merle kept coming. Yote starts barking and inching my way. Merle got back to abot 50 yrds of me and stopped and started baking back. Yote came another 25 ish yards and that was it. And that was all my nerves could take. I centered crosshairs on a frontal chest and just under chin and BOOM! THWAAP! Not even a tail twitch! Merle comes back to me like WTH? And I was all kinds of torn up! I know I prolly shot too soon but any more and I would have been too torn up to shoot. I was already hearing the blood pumping in my ears! I am so proud of my dog.
Let me tell you that Nosler Custom tropy grade with ballistic tip varmit bullet is some serious bad medicine! Tiny entry whole and no exit!