ANF Hunter
New member
So back about a month ago a buddy and i set out in some pretty deep woods with a lot of oil and gas drilling going on. it's a major project in a big area of woods, but it's miles of 10 year old clearcuts and loaded with deer and rabbits. plenty of coyote sign all over the place. decided to set up on a 50 yard wide gas line right of way adjacent to a dirt road. parked the truck out of sight, and decided to set up near the top of a hill at the edge of the woods. i chose my position, and my buddy began to walk up the right of way 100 yards or so before noticing a rather large black bear with 2 cubs. we decided to move the opposite way down the right of way to avoid having to deal with the bears. moved a few hundred yards down the line and chose another position. got set up, and just before i was about to start calling, the woods behind us explode with coyote howls and yips. figured the closest group was within 300 yards of us, so again we repositioned further down to about a 30 degree corner in the right of way, as close as we could get to the coyotes, but just at the edge of the right of way. we were pumped. started straight off with pup distress, but no takers... 10 minutes later tried about a minute of adult cottontail, but was interrupted by a water tanker rumbling down the road about 60-70 yards behind us. at this point i was pretty disappointed, but the trucks run 24/7 out there, so it's nothing they haven't heard before. after the truck passed i switched over to the old standby fawn in distress. we were well beyond the 15 minute mark now and i worried we would be skunked with coyotes close by. i let the fawn distress play continuously for about 5 minutes, then noticed movement coming up out of the woods, about 80 yards from me and 20 yards from my buddy who was further down the line. it was just before dark, and took me a few seconds to pick out the outline of a deer standing just outside of the woods on the right of way. it had come directly out of where we heard the coyotes. the deer was nervous, would not commit to the open area of the right of way, and was constantly looking back into the woods from where it came. in the failing light i watched the deer, fawn distress blaring away in the background, and beginning to lose hope of seeing a coyote. just then the deer startled, jumped 5 feet in the air and bolted straight back into the woods. i caught a flash of movement crossing the right of way from where the deer had been and heading straight for the foxpro. clicked on the wicked light and by the time i had the coyote in my scope he had crossed about 100 yards of open right of way and was only feet from the call on a run, 50 yards from my position. a 55gr vmax from the 223 and he was DRT, 15 feet from the call. he fell immediately but was obscured from my view by some high grass, and i did not immediately know what happened, but the shot felt real good. seconds after my shot, i hear my buddy 100 yards down the line take a shot with his 22-250, and i figured i missed and the coyote had hauled the mail down his way. a moment later i make out his outline running down the right of way, followed by 2 more shots. turns out there were 2 coyotes that came out of the woods at a dead run. i shot the first one by the call, and the one trailing it (which i never say) took a hard left and passed about 20 yards in front of him. he connected high and the coyote ended up on the opposite side of a small ditch. he took a finishing shot but hit the crest of the ditchline and missed, then got a better angle and finished it off. mine was a male, probably last year's pup, and his was a mangy female slightly smaller. the resident adults who had not come out of the woods challenged us for a few minutes but wouldn't show themselves. after we gathered them up the water tanker came by again and the driver stopped to take a few pictures and key us in on some others he had seen in the area lately. good times were had by all, and we'll be back
