nyttrain5150
New member
Spur of the moment I decided my 9 year old daughter and I would head out to do a little calling. Shes been out with me several times seeing everything but coyotes. Its been raining here pretty much since yesterday so everything is pretty soggy. The rain has stopped for a while but it was still overcast. We drove to this little wooded spot on the outskirts of town. I've called it before but haven't touched it since last year and even then I only called it once with no success. As we were walking in I noticed how soft everything was, the twigs that normally crack under your feet would just bend and sink into the spongy leaves and mud. We made our way along a small creek a few hundred yards looking for a good spot to see the two likely directions we thought something would come in. We found a small flat area at the T of two creeks and several trees to sit against so I sat my daughter down to where she could look upwind and I sat positioned looking at the downwind side. We had already had "the playbook talk" before we had parked. I told her to stay still as a stone, look with your eyes but don't turn your head except for very slowly. I said, if you see anything interesting just smack your lips at me and showed her how. So we sat there, letting the silence consume the woods, settling in with the remnant smells of a full days rain. I slowly reach down to find a call and get ready. Usually I start with the rabbit, I've never been much of an opening howl kind of guy. But this time I had a gut feeling. I reached for my NCK howler, put it to my lips. Just as I was about ready to belt out a lone howl I had a second thought. I took a couple slow deep breaths and started ripping out a pup distress that was bouncing and echoing off of every tree. I let it sing for about 30-45 seconds and then silence. Looked around for about 30 more seconds and started up again. I couldn't see my daughter from where I was because she was essentially behind me. I caught movement to my right so I silenced the pup distress and lowered the howler and slowly picked up my shotgun that had been laying across my lap. At this point I could hear my daughters lips smacking like crazy! As I looked down the rib to the Tru Glo fat bead I notice there are two coyotes staring at me! One was at the highest point of the north bank of the creek, the other had walked down the bank and jumped across the creek and stood on the lower south bank, neither was more than 25 feet away. I centered up on the north coyotes chest and squeezed the trigger sending the #4 buck. He was DRT and didn't flinch! I swung to the second coyote who was starting to run and had gotten a few strides already. she was running almost straight away and I let one fly, she bobbled a bit but kept on trucking. I let another one fly but couldn't see that I hit her at all. Next thing I know shes gone. I quickly reach down and grab the NCK howler and start letting out the KI YI. I belted on it until I was out of breath, took a small break and then back on the call again, nothing. I waited a few minutes and sung another verse of KI YI, nothing still. I slowly got up, looked around and gathered my wits. I told my daughter to sit still and I'd go look for signs of the second coyote. I crossed the creek and clawed my way up the wet bank on the other side. I started walking along a game trail that I was sure she ran down but didn't see any blood or signs that I hit her although I know I did on the first shot. I walked about 150 yard down this trail looking both sides but nothing. We are still not convinced she isn't lying out there somewhere. I made my way to where a nice male coyote lay, gathered him up and slide on my feet down the creek bank and threw him up the other side, then clawed my way back up. This is when it occurs to me that I am not only NOT young anymore but I'm also out of shape. I'm going to need to work on the latter a bit since I can do nothing about the former. We positioned the coyote on the ground so my daughter could take a picture with it, then us with it. Its our first successful hunt together, her first witnessed coyote period. Even though hes not fully furred up hes going to be tanned. Seeing the elation on my daughters face was priceless for sure. This was also my first shotgunned coyote! I've shot them that close with a .223, but the shotgun just puts the fur down!
My 9 year old daughter
What can I say, this NCK howler is awesome!
Shes usually a pretty reserved kid but she sure looks happy
My 9 year old daughter
What can I say, this NCK howler is awesome!
Shes usually a pretty reserved kid but she sure looks happy
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