West.Mass.Hunter
Member
This happened to me a few weeks ago but it's a slow night at work tonight and I figured I'd share it.
I arrived at my favorite place to call coyotes. I've called in more coyotes here then anywhere else I hunt combined. I noticed the temp on my truck read 0° and I asked myself if I were stupid!? I then remembered that there was absolutely NO wind in the forecast and a fresh 2" of snow just dropped, so while I still might be stupid, I had really good reasons to be. I put a bullet in the chamber and slammed the charging handle shut, then slapped the magazine in and then loaded up the shotgun and started my walk in the dark.
I setup my Firestorm and sat on a small knoll in the middle of a huge field for 10 minutes or so until the sun started coming out. I turned on bay bee cottontail and started scanning the field around me. Less then a minute into calling I see out of the corner of my eye what I thought was a crow landing in the field. I then see a coyote jump up out of the thick overgrown grass just a few yards out of the wood line and roughly 700 yards away. He runs towards the call jumping up over the grass every 20-30 yards to pinpoint where the sound is. When he comes into 200 yards or so I turn the sound down to the lowest setting on the Firestorm and turn on the decoy that's attached. He slows his running to a slow creep at 100 yards. He's walking on the same dirt road that the decoy is on and I know he can see it. The grass and brush was to thick and I didn't want to chance a miss so I decided to wait for a better shot. He froze up behind a bush at 90 yards. Minutes go by and he hasn't come out from either side of the bush so I bring up my rifle and start picking the bush apart through my scope. That's when I realize that he's not there anymore. I increased the volume on my call and I can find him anywhere. Scanning the field back and forth, nothing but grass and bushes. I grabbed a mouth call and let out 3 short barks and I see him stand up about 200 yards away in the direction he came from. Sitting head on to me I decided to take the shot. I lost sight of him at the shot and was excited because I thought I dropped him, until I seen him running hard straight away. I tried to turn pup in distress on but the sound wouldn't change, call and remote must have been to cold. I barked a few times in hopes that he would stop but that wasn't going to happen. I sat for another 5 minutes before I got up.
As I walked towards my call I was trying to change the sound all the way to it. It finally changed when I was about 20 feet away. I gathered up everything and went to where the coyote was stand when I shot. No blood, no hair, enough pee to stain the snow. I followed his tracks for 150 yards or so scraping the snow around his tracks hoping to uncover warm blood that was beaded up by the cold fresh snow. I shot a deer last year in similar conditions and all the blood that hit the snow beaded up and the snow covered it all. The deer run 60 yards or so and died. The blood didn't show up until later in the day when the air warmed up. Unfortunately I didn't have the same outcome with the coyote. Back to the truck with my tail between my legs.
I walk about 100 yards up the dirt road and I see a beautiful red fox run across about 300 yards away, coming from behind where I had just been calling. I had never seen a fox here or any fox sign for that matter. I start to run up the road and when I cut his tracks I set out the call and I sit 30 feet away in front of a small bush. I range the wood line at 125 yards and a small hill at 75 yards. I turn on red fox pup distress and he comes barreling out of the woods within 5 seconds. He ran right to the top of the small hill and stopped dead in his tracks. As I put him in my cross hairs a coyote starts barking from behind me. As the fox starts to turn around I squeeze the trigger....CLICK!! Big beautiful red fox is now running away harder then he ran in.
The call is still playing, coyote behind is still barking, fox still running and the coyote I missed earlier still lucky. I quickly take the magazine out of my gun and pull back the charging to find that a bullet was never cycled when I shot earlier. I must not have slapped the magazine hard enough at the truck. I put the magazine back in, slap it as hard as I deserved to be slapped and slammed the charging handle closed.
The coyote behind me barks 2 more times when I see another coyote run out of the thick grass 60 yards in front of me running straight towards to Firestorm with its decoy spinning on top. I quickly put his shoulder in my cross hair and squeeze the trigger, CLICK! As soon as the gun clicked the coyote growls and grabs my call and runs about 3 strides with it in his mouth. He then drops the call and runs around back towards where he came out. While that was happeneing I switched guns and I hit him way far back with some T shot. As he spun I seen another coyote take off behind him which kept me distracted enough to not be able to get another shot at the hit coyote. I watched him run away with a sore butt. The foxbang switched the call to pup distress when I shot so I sat at the ready. The coyote that I hit and it's partner were in the woods barking and yipping, then the first coyote that I missed at sun rise started barking while the coyote behind me never stopped. That lasted for another 2 minutes and then nothing. I played a few different distress sounds to no avail. Turned off the call and it was as quiet and calm as when I first arrived.
While I sat quietly I grabbed my rifle to see what was going on. Dumped the magazine and pulled back the charging handle. This time a bullet was ejected. Fished out the bullet from the snow and looked at the primer. Not even slight dent. So I looked in the chamber and found snow. I don't know how it got in there but it was enough to prevent the bolt from closing all the way.
I got up and trailed the hit coyote for 200 yards or so, not a single drop of blood. A little bit of hair where I hit him but that's it. So I don't know if this was the Best Worst day or the Worst Best day. All I know is that i educated 4 coyotes and 1 fox in less the 20 minutes. Although I will never forget that hunt, I will be kicking myself everytime I think of it!!! And all I have to show for it is a picture of my call after it was grabbed.
I arrived at my favorite place to call coyotes. I've called in more coyotes here then anywhere else I hunt combined. I noticed the temp on my truck read 0° and I asked myself if I were stupid!? I then remembered that there was absolutely NO wind in the forecast and a fresh 2" of snow just dropped, so while I still might be stupid, I had really good reasons to be. I put a bullet in the chamber and slammed the charging handle shut, then slapped the magazine in and then loaded up the shotgun and started my walk in the dark.
I setup my Firestorm and sat on a small knoll in the middle of a huge field for 10 minutes or so until the sun started coming out. I turned on bay bee cottontail and started scanning the field around me. Less then a minute into calling I see out of the corner of my eye what I thought was a crow landing in the field. I then see a coyote jump up out of the thick overgrown grass just a few yards out of the wood line and roughly 700 yards away. He runs towards the call jumping up over the grass every 20-30 yards to pinpoint where the sound is. When he comes into 200 yards or so I turn the sound down to the lowest setting on the Firestorm and turn on the decoy that's attached. He slows his running to a slow creep at 100 yards. He's walking on the same dirt road that the decoy is on and I know he can see it. The grass and brush was to thick and I didn't want to chance a miss so I decided to wait for a better shot. He froze up behind a bush at 90 yards. Minutes go by and he hasn't come out from either side of the bush so I bring up my rifle and start picking the bush apart through my scope. That's when I realize that he's not there anymore. I increased the volume on my call and I can find him anywhere. Scanning the field back and forth, nothing but grass and bushes. I grabbed a mouth call and let out 3 short barks and I see him stand up about 200 yards away in the direction he came from. Sitting head on to me I decided to take the shot. I lost sight of him at the shot and was excited because I thought I dropped him, until I seen him running hard straight away. I tried to turn pup in distress on but the sound wouldn't change, call and remote must have been to cold. I barked a few times in hopes that he would stop but that wasn't going to happen. I sat for another 5 minutes before I got up.
As I walked towards my call I was trying to change the sound all the way to it. It finally changed when I was about 20 feet away. I gathered up everything and went to where the coyote was stand when I shot. No blood, no hair, enough pee to stain the snow. I followed his tracks for 150 yards or so scraping the snow around his tracks hoping to uncover warm blood that was beaded up by the cold fresh snow. I shot a deer last year in similar conditions and all the blood that hit the snow beaded up and the snow covered it all. The deer run 60 yards or so and died. The blood didn't show up until later in the day when the air warmed up. Unfortunately I didn't have the same outcome with the coyote. Back to the truck with my tail between my legs.
I walk about 100 yards up the dirt road and I see a beautiful red fox run across about 300 yards away, coming from behind where I had just been calling. I had never seen a fox here or any fox sign for that matter. I start to run up the road and when I cut his tracks I set out the call and I sit 30 feet away in front of a small bush. I range the wood line at 125 yards and a small hill at 75 yards. I turn on red fox pup distress and he comes barreling out of the woods within 5 seconds. He ran right to the top of the small hill and stopped dead in his tracks. As I put him in my cross hairs a coyote starts barking from behind me. As the fox starts to turn around I squeeze the trigger....CLICK!! Big beautiful red fox is now running away harder then he ran in.
The call is still playing, coyote behind is still barking, fox still running and the coyote I missed earlier still lucky. I quickly take the magazine out of my gun and pull back the charging to find that a bullet was never cycled when I shot earlier. I must not have slapped the magazine hard enough at the truck. I put the magazine back in, slap it as hard as I deserved to be slapped and slammed the charging handle closed.
The coyote behind me barks 2 more times when I see another coyote run out of the thick grass 60 yards in front of me running straight towards to Firestorm with its decoy spinning on top. I quickly put his shoulder in my cross hair and squeeze the trigger, CLICK! As soon as the gun clicked the coyote growls and grabs my call and runs about 3 strides with it in his mouth. He then drops the call and runs around back towards where he came out. While that was happeneing I switched guns and I hit him way far back with some T shot. As he spun I seen another coyote take off behind him which kept me distracted enough to not be able to get another shot at the hit coyote. I watched him run away with a sore butt. The foxbang switched the call to pup distress when I shot so I sat at the ready. The coyote that I hit and it's partner were in the woods barking and yipping, then the first coyote that I missed at sun rise started barking while the coyote behind me never stopped. That lasted for another 2 minutes and then nothing. I played a few different distress sounds to no avail. Turned off the call and it was as quiet and calm as when I first arrived.
While I sat quietly I grabbed my rifle to see what was going on. Dumped the magazine and pulled back the charging handle. This time a bullet was ejected. Fished out the bullet from the snow and looked at the primer. Not even slight dent. So I looked in the chamber and found snow. I don't know how it got in there but it was enough to prevent the bolt from closing all the way.
I got up and trailed the hit coyote for 200 yards or so, not a single drop of blood. A little bit of hair where I hit him but that's it. So I don't know if this was the Best Worst day or the Worst Best day. All I know is that i educated 4 coyotes and 1 fox in less the 20 minutes. Although I will never forget that hunt, I will be kicking myself everytime I think of it!!! And all I have to show for it is a picture of my call after it was grabbed.
