shotty stand

scruffy

New member
This time of year when I get a hot bit of bobcat intel my brain shifts gears and starts thinking on ways I can capitalize on it. Well, Wednesday I got a really HOT bit of intel. As the kids were eating breakfast I walked past the table and glanced out the window to see a large mature bobcat, didn't look like a tom, but a big Mrs Bob. She had been walking the old fence line 50' north of the house. I quickly got the kids attention and we all watched Bob hunt her way to a strip of standing corn in a low muddy spot in the field. It's not often you get to see wild cats in their element, looking for their breakfast, and we were soaking it all in. Then my wife smacked me back to reality and said to get a gun and call and go get it. She said she hates bobcats up around the house.... I had 10 minutes before I needed to run the kids to school but only needed the cat to come a short distance, so I gave it a shot. I slinked over to where I have the tractor equipment huddled west of the house and sat down with a hand call and the tikka. Hindsight I would have grabbed a shotgun and one of the foxpros, but I was in a hurry and the tikka and handcall have worked for spotted coyotes, kitties are a little different scenario though.

Anyway, I've been thinking since Wednesday morning how I'd call my place, when I'd call my place, but the weather hasn't been cooperating. Between a deluge of rain then ice coating everything Thursday and Friday just weren't good times to call. Mrs Bob would likely be holed up somewhere and not inclined to come to my calls. Saturday's forecast finally looked promising. Low winds, cold, no rain or ice coating everything and the creek was back down so anything coming from the south could easily cross. After much consideration and weighing the odds of success from different options I decided to call in the timber with the shotgun, at a spot I've had success with coyotes in the past at day break.

So before the sun broke the horizon I was already nestled in the turkey lounger against an old 30" oak tree. The foxpro scorpion was stood up against the base of a small tree with a white eye catcher on it's antenna not 20 yards to my SW. It was located right along an animal trail that ran to the NW along a bend in the creek which would guide an approaching predator on a string right at the caller and right in front of me for the ambush shot. I sat with the 870SM's barrel pointed to a spot down the trail just a bit, where a predator answering the call would see the white eye catcher and likely check up. When it was light enough to see well enough to see a sneaking Mrs. Bob I started the caller with some low bunny blues. There were a group of noisy wild turkeys west of me over 100 yards, clucking and carrying on, enjoying a morning without ice and rain. After a minute I turned the caller down so low I couldn't hardly hear it so it would coax into view any sneaking predator hiding back at a distance in the cover. After a number of minutes of that I turned the caller back up for a minute before dropping the volume again. After the second louder series I heard something drop into the creak and with a couple of good splashes exit the area. It sounded like a deer coming to investigate the call and decided it didn't like it.

At around the 12 minute mark I turned the volume up again for a minute and dropped it back down. A couple of minutes later I heard the calm wild turkey clucks get more excited and they were also much closer, maybe 100 yards or a little less to the west. The turkey sounded like they were pushed in my direction. A minute later they loudly spooked and took flight, definitely under 100 yards to my west and definitely being pushed by something coming in my direction. At around the 18 minute mark and nothing appeared I decided to dig into the bag-o-trick and switch up the calling a little to try and break whatever it was loose. Then at the 20 minute mark a coyote comes running down the trail towards the caller. Sitting with the shotty shouldered all I had to do was raise the front end a few inches and my trigger finger pressed the left handed tactical safety. The coyote stopped at the selected spot, 24 yards away, right according to the script, right in front of the shotty, and after confirming the 3 lit up fiber sights were appropriately alinged on the coyote's broadside I squeezed the trigger. With a loud boom the coyote went straight down, the #2 hevishot taking out the running gear, breaking his spine and a couple of legs. Having my fill of tracking coyotes recently I gave him an extra load of #2's for good measure, but it wasn't necessary, he wasn't going anywhere.

For a split second as I squeezed the trigger I thought maybe I should let the coyote walk to give Mrs Bob more time to respond given the hot intel on wednesday and perfect calling conditions and setup, but before I could complete that thought my trigger finger instinctively did the deed and put the coyote down. Oh well, there's still plenty of time for Bob.
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Picture of Mr Coyote with my "little" 870 supermag shotty... kind of a porker coyote LOL!

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And a pic of the setup, coyote is laying dead in the center of the pic, blends into the underbrush but he's the light spot in the center. The caller is to the left a little bit and he approached from the right, coming down the animal trail that goes west along the creek. Setups like this are great for calling critters right into your lap since they feel safe with all the cover.

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And as I type this post looking out the dining room window, a flock of turkeys are out in the picked corn field eating brunch, the same field Mrs Bob was in Wednesday morning. I imagine they might be a little "thankful" this holiday weekend knowing that the coyote is in the freezer and one of them isn't.
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Nice work Scruff!!!! One less coyote near the place and one less to get in that bobcat's way next time you go out calling!!! I hope!
 
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