JTPinTX
Custom Call Maker
It sure has been a hectic winter and spring. Seems like every time I am about to get my feet on the ground and go get after some coyotes, something else comes up. Vehicle break in, power outages, work piled up, moving my oldest son to a new house, youngest son in the hospital with a bad 4-wheeler accident, you name it. It has been one of those seasons we all have sometimes where you don't try and prosper, you just take it day by day and survive.
Anyways, I was finally able to get out last week. The first time was a quick stand after work one evening. I ran to a place 6 miles from town where I knew there was a pair that hadn't been called in a while. The wind was one way when I left town and I had a certain setup in mind. When I got there though the wind had switched 180 on me. I had to compromise my setup. It was workable, but tight. I knew I would have to be really careful on the downwind side and play the edge.
I walked in to set up and found this. I put my machine on the top of the east side of the washout, just above this old den.
I walked back to my stand location which was on the east side of a mesquite tree, on the west side of the washout. I knew I would have to be looking back SW and W pretty hard, but also keeping a weather eye out to the east since they could get on top of me real quick from that direction. I started my stand with a couple of low-key female howls. I waited a few minutes and then went into platinum grey fox. About 12 minutes in I see a pair come over the hill to the SW. They are coming pretty good, but obviously headed downwind. I keep reeling them in as long as I can, hoping to get enough room for a double. Finally though they are getting too close to my scent stream and I have to go for the kill. I barked at the lead dog to stop him and shot him in the chest from 75 yards with my 243. Man I love that 87 VMAX, it is a hammer for sure! Killed him, but the mate lit a fire hard, and I couldn't stop her. She got away.
This is how the stand worked out. Black line is my route in from the pickup. Yellow is sun direction, which was not optimal at all. Blue dot is the calling machine, and wind direction from it. Green dot is where I was sitting (facing south, I shoot lefty), and wind direction from that. Orange is the trail the coyotes followed in, red dot is the kill point. As you can see I was really playing the edge, and it was easily possible for something to go wrong. But I had a really good idea of where the coyotes were and what direction they would be coming from. I had given it about an 80% chance in my mind it would go down exactly the way it did.
A few days later my oldest son came home for a visit, and he wanted to go try and call some in. We got up Saturday morning and headed out. It was a little cool and wet, a little breezy, but still workable. I had a really good stand picked out for the first set of the morning. We parked on the county road in a little hole, hopped the fence and walked in headed downwind. I set him up on what I though would be the most likely approach, watching straight downwind and into some really good country. He could see either side of downwind pretty good. That direction was south, and I was facing west, just around the knob of the hill from him. Everything looks good, except that black hat! I told him next time he had to have something better.
Right off the bat I threw out a lone female howl. Immediately one answered back from just 400-500 yards west (nearly right out in front of me), so loud it nearly blew us off the hill! I could see really good that direction for a long ways, but couldn't see it. I gave it a minute or two and couldn't see anything so I started in on nutty nuthatch at mid volume. Sure enough, after 30 seconds or so I see her slipping down the bottom about 300 yards out, heading on an angled path downwind. Her big problem though was that she had started nearly upwind, and had a long circle to get there. A circle that kept bringing her right into my front pocket. I knew she would get downwind of me before she would get where my son could see her. Once she got about 80 yards I barked at her and dumped an 87 VMAX in her chest, just like the one earlier that week. My son said the bullet hitting her was louder than the rifle going off! Another pop-flop, hunting suppressed we don't do bang-flops.
Unfortunately that was the only coyote we killed out of 4 stands that morning. But any day you kill a coyote is a good day, especially when you get to hunt with your son. I love that kid (I know at 24 he is far from a kid, but us parents still tend to think that way), and with him out on his own in a different town we don't get to hunt together near as much as either of us would like. I cherish those days more than any other.
After stand number 4 it was starting to get really wet, and we called it off. So I am going to just throw in some more random pictures from the morning to round things off.
I am guessing this was the product of someone else's bad day, once upon a time:
Anyways, I was finally able to get out last week. The first time was a quick stand after work one evening. I ran to a place 6 miles from town where I knew there was a pair that hadn't been called in a while. The wind was one way when I left town and I had a certain setup in mind. When I got there though the wind had switched 180 on me. I had to compromise my setup. It was workable, but tight. I knew I would have to be really careful on the downwind side and play the edge.
I walked in to set up and found this. I put my machine on the top of the east side of the washout, just above this old den.
I walked back to my stand location which was on the east side of a mesquite tree, on the west side of the washout. I knew I would have to be looking back SW and W pretty hard, but also keeping a weather eye out to the east since they could get on top of me real quick from that direction. I started my stand with a couple of low-key female howls. I waited a few minutes and then went into platinum grey fox. About 12 minutes in I see a pair come over the hill to the SW. They are coming pretty good, but obviously headed downwind. I keep reeling them in as long as I can, hoping to get enough room for a double. Finally though they are getting too close to my scent stream and I have to go for the kill. I barked at the lead dog to stop him and shot him in the chest from 75 yards with my 243. Man I love that 87 VMAX, it is a hammer for sure! Killed him, but the mate lit a fire hard, and I couldn't stop her. She got away.
This is how the stand worked out. Black line is my route in from the pickup. Yellow is sun direction, which was not optimal at all. Blue dot is the calling machine, and wind direction from it. Green dot is where I was sitting (facing south, I shoot lefty), and wind direction from that. Orange is the trail the coyotes followed in, red dot is the kill point. As you can see I was really playing the edge, and it was easily possible for something to go wrong. But I had a really good idea of where the coyotes were and what direction they would be coming from. I had given it about an 80% chance in my mind it would go down exactly the way it did.
A few days later my oldest son came home for a visit, and he wanted to go try and call some in. We got up Saturday morning and headed out. It was a little cool and wet, a little breezy, but still workable. I had a really good stand picked out for the first set of the morning. We parked on the county road in a little hole, hopped the fence and walked in headed downwind. I set him up on what I though would be the most likely approach, watching straight downwind and into some really good country. He could see either side of downwind pretty good. That direction was south, and I was facing west, just around the knob of the hill from him. Everything looks good, except that black hat! I told him next time he had to have something better.
Right off the bat I threw out a lone female howl. Immediately one answered back from just 400-500 yards west (nearly right out in front of me), so loud it nearly blew us off the hill! I could see really good that direction for a long ways, but couldn't see it. I gave it a minute or two and couldn't see anything so I started in on nutty nuthatch at mid volume. Sure enough, after 30 seconds or so I see her slipping down the bottom about 300 yards out, heading on an angled path downwind. Her big problem though was that she had started nearly upwind, and had a long circle to get there. A circle that kept bringing her right into my front pocket. I knew she would get downwind of me before she would get where my son could see her. Once she got about 80 yards I barked at her and dumped an 87 VMAX in her chest, just like the one earlier that week. My son said the bullet hitting her was louder than the rifle going off! Another pop-flop, hunting suppressed we don't do bang-flops.
Unfortunately that was the only coyote we killed out of 4 stands that morning. But any day you kill a coyote is a good day, especially when you get to hunt with your son. I love that kid (I know at 24 he is far from a kid, but us parents still tend to think that way), and with him out on his own in a different town we don't get to hunt together near as much as either of us would like. I cherish those days more than any other.
After stand number 4 it was starting to get really wet, and we called it off. So I am going to just throw in some more random pictures from the morning to round things off.
I am guessing this was the product of someone else's bad day, once upon a time:
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