Yes, it's been a while, but I recently managed to get out for a few half day hunts and was blessed in that I managed to replenish my completely empty freezer with two nilgai cows; one each on two separate mornings. Very unusual to get lucky enough to get in range on such a short hunt. Both shots were a bit farther than I prefer, but managed to make it work.
We managed to get in one coyote stand after each nilgai hunt that only resulted in one coyote called in from over 300 yards. He came in HOT, straight to the call, which was about 40 yards out. Silenced call, then barked repeatedly but couldn’t stop him for my partner. It has been a long time since we’ve been out, and it was his turn to shoot, so when the coyote reached the call/decoy, circled it once, only 5-6’ from the call, then stopped broadside......he missed! Whaaaat? He did! Then it got worse. We BOTH missed the followup running shots; that’s right I said shotS. I got off three and he managed two running; add 'em up, thats SIX misses. Couple of times we got real close, in fact he stumbled once and I thought sure he was hit, but no cigar. Talk about educated; our only excuse was that we were both carrying our big guns (his 308 Norma and my 338 WM) with which we are not as intimately familiar as our lighter predator rifles. (Gotta have an excuse, ya know.)
This stoked the fire & convinced me to try to work in an occasional coyote hunt. The nearest ranch I can hunt is only an hour away. I can leave home @ 0400, get to ranch, switch to jeep and be on first stand at first light, yet be able to get home in an hour if need be.
As you know, game just doesn’t move every day, so half day hunts are never as successful as my old, proven MO of hunting two or three consecutive days, but, Hey, beats heck out of the couch!
We made a couple more trips and did manage to fool what I believe to be that educated coyote enough that he peeked over that same hill behind which he had disappeared the last time, but that was it. Try as I might, he refused to come over the hill for a shot this day.
Fast forward to yesterday. Landowner told me where he had seen two large coyotes so I promised to check it out. We missed first light by about 15 minutes but headed for the area suggested by the rancher for our first stand.
Please bear with me while I digress a bit. I’ve been using a decoy on just about every stand for a lot of years. Have had lots of Cara Cara, hawks, falcons and owls swoop down for a closer look, and many more land in nearby trees to watch for a spell. Even had a javelina grab the topper once, only to spit it out as I was trying to get my rifle on him, but have never had a bird actually steal the topper…... until yesterday……three different birds on three different stands!
For this first stand, we set up call and decoy about 30 yards into a rollerchop area. About 15 minutes in, this owl swooped in and hit the topper hard enough that I heard it. I had been looking off to one side, but managed to turn in time to watch him flying straight away, landing facing away and proceeded to try to eat the Foxpro Jack Daddy topper. He finally gave up on the (very tough) meal and walked over to inspect the call and decoy more closely.
I finally tired of watching his antics and walked out to recover my unharmed topper, which he reluctantly abandoned when I got within 30 ft.
We moved on the stand 2. A few minutes into the stand, the decoy fell over but continued to run. That's when owl #2 swooped in and carried the topper off to a tree about 30 yards away. He immediately started to try to devour his prize, so I got up and he flew off as I approached and disappeared around a corner of brush, carrying my topper with him.
My partner took off to see if he could locate the bird while I went back to retrieve my jeep. When Don had rounded the corner of brush, he spotted the owl sitting on the dead limb on the left of this lone tree. The owl abandoned the topper which was about 10' above the ground. Luckily, Don was able to knock it off the limb with a dead branch.
While I was loading our gear on the jeep, I looked up and saw Don returning with the wayward topper, this time just a bit worse for the wear but still useable.
On stand three, a third owl landed on a nearby fence post to ogle the decoy, but declined to attack it, to my relief.
Stand four, I decided to try a different approach in hopes of confusing the coyote to whom we had given the PHD several weeks prior. The plan was to approach the area from the back side and call from the east, instead of the west in order to view the back side of the hill he had used so effectively twice as a shield.
Started out with Female invitational, paused a few and switched to female whimpers. Around 10 minutes in tried some bird distress when Don spotted a coyote watching our direction (indicated by white star) from the edge of a brush line @ 560 yards. It was only 75 yards from our previous hides in our encounter a few weeks ago.
Try as I might, it was not committing; showed a real interest in the call, but kept looking back into the brush. I thought it had a mate it was waiting for, but then a doe stepped out about 20’ away, facing the coyote and obviously not happy. Finally, the doe disappeared into the brush and shortly thereafter the coyote disappeared, only to reappear, looking our way again!
In desperation I switched to coyote pup distress and that sealed the deal. She took off at the gallop, cutting the corner of the open laguna bed before disappearing behind that “dreaded hill”.
I told Don to take the shot if presented because I had a bush that might get in my way, depending of the angle of approach.
It seemed like an eternity before she reappeared, still trotting, down the brush line while looking toward the call/decoy.
She was 102 yards away when she stopped for one last look. Don was about to bark as he feared she was approaching the scent cone of the decoy when she stopped. I think she caught a small whiff is what prompted her to stop on her own.
Don redeemed himself, his shot found the mark and the dry female was DRT; a much smaller coyote than the PHD, so we’ll be back!
On to stand five. Almost immediately upon starting the call, the birds showed up. Cara Cara and Harris Hawks. One pair landed in the tree right above the decoy, watched a long time before departing. A few minutes later, another Harris swooped in and the topper disappeared one more time!
This time the hawk had merely knocked the topper out and it was lying right next to the decoy.
Not sure what motivated all the interest in the decoy all at once, but made for a very interesting, albeit different day afield. I am now looking forward to next trip, as usual, but with the additional hope that one or more of these birds comes back for a repeat performance:
I can just visualize the aerobatics one such low flying clown would perform when he hits the end of the 3’ slack in this nylon tether to be held by the decoy’s spike. Hope I’m looking in the right direction if and when it happens.
Regards,
hm
We managed to get in one coyote stand after each nilgai hunt that only resulted in one coyote called in from over 300 yards. He came in HOT, straight to the call, which was about 40 yards out. Silenced call, then barked repeatedly but couldn’t stop him for my partner. It has been a long time since we’ve been out, and it was his turn to shoot, so when the coyote reached the call/decoy, circled it once, only 5-6’ from the call, then stopped broadside......he missed! Whaaaat? He did! Then it got worse. We BOTH missed the followup running shots; that’s right I said shotS. I got off three and he managed two running; add 'em up, thats SIX misses. Couple of times we got real close, in fact he stumbled once and I thought sure he was hit, but no cigar. Talk about educated; our only excuse was that we were both carrying our big guns (his 308 Norma and my 338 WM) with which we are not as intimately familiar as our lighter predator rifles. (Gotta have an excuse, ya know.)
This stoked the fire & convinced me to try to work in an occasional coyote hunt. The nearest ranch I can hunt is only an hour away. I can leave home @ 0400, get to ranch, switch to jeep and be on first stand at first light, yet be able to get home in an hour if need be.
As you know, game just doesn’t move every day, so half day hunts are never as successful as my old, proven MO of hunting two or three consecutive days, but, Hey, beats heck out of the couch!
We made a couple more trips and did manage to fool what I believe to be that educated coyote enough that he peeked over that same hill behind which he had disappeared the last time, but that was it. Try as I might, he refused to come over the hill for a shot this day.
Fast forward to yesterday. Landowner told me where he had seen two large coyotes so I promised to check it out. We missed first light by about 15 minutes but headed for the area suggested by the rancher for our first stand.
Please bear with me while I digress a bit. I’ve been using a decoy on just about every stand for a lot of years. Have had lots of Cara Cara, hawks, falcons and owls swoop down for a closer look, and many more land in nearby trees to watch for a spell. Even had a javelina grab the topper once, only to spit it out as I was trying to get my rifle on him, but have never had a bird actually steal the topper…... until yesterday……three different birds on three different stands!
For this first stand, we set up call and decoy about 30 yards into a rollerchop area. About 15 minutes in, this owl swooped in and hit the topper hard enough that I heard it. I had been looking off to one side, but managed to turn in time to watch him flying straight away, landing facing away and proceeded to try to eat the Foxpro Jack Daddy topper. He finally gave up on the (very tough) meal and walked over to inspect the call and decoy more closely.
I finally tired of watching his antics and walked out to recover my unharmed topper, which he reluctantly abandoned when I got within 30 ft.
We moved on the stand 2. A few minutes into the stand, the decoy fell over but continued to run. That's when owl #2 swooped in and carried the topper off to a tree about 30 yards away. He immediately started to try to devour his prize, so I got up and he flew off as I approached and disappeared around a corner of brush, carrying my topper with him.
My partner took off to see if he could locate the bird while I went back to retrieve my jeep. When Don had rounded the corner of brush, he spotted the owl sitting on the dead limb on the left of this lone tree. The owl abandoned the topper which was about 10' above the ground. Luckily, Don was able to knock it off the limb with a dead branch.
While I was loading our gear on the jeep, I looked up and saw Don returning with the wayward topper, this time just a bit worse for the wear but still useable.
On stand three, a third owl landed on a nearby fence post to ogle the decoy, but declined to attack it, to my relief.
Stand four, I decided to try a different approach in hopes of confusing the coyote to whom we had given the PHD several weeks prior. The plan was to approach the area from the back side and call from the east, instead of the west in order to view the back side of the hill he had used so effectively twice as a shield.
Started out with Female invitational, paused a few and switched to female whimpers. Around 10 minutes in tried some bird distress when Don spotted a coyote watching our direction (indicated by white star) from the edge of a brush line @ 560 yards. It was only 75 yards from our previous hides in our encounter a few weeks ago.
Try as I might, it was not committing; showed a real interest in the call, but kept looking back into the brush. I thought it had a mate it was waiting for, but then a doe stepped out about 20’ away, facing the coyote and obviously not happy. Finally, the doe disappeared into the brush and shortly thereafter the coyote disappeared, only to reappear, looking our way again!
In desperation I switched to coyote pup distress and that sealed the deal. She took off at the gallop, cutting the corner of the open laguna bed before disappearing behind that “dreaded hill”.
I told Don to take the shot if presented because I had a bush that might get in my way, depending of the angle of approach.
It seemed like an eternity before she reappeared, still trotting, down the brush line while looking toward the call/decoy.
She was 102 yards away when she stopped for one last look. Don was about to bark as he feared she was approaching the scent cone of the decoy when she stopped. I think she caught a small whiff is what prompted her to stop on her own.
Don redeemed himself, his shot found the mark and the dry female was DRT; a much smaller coyote than the PHD, so we’ll be back!
On to stand five. Almost immediately upon starting the call, the birds showed up. Cara Cara and Harris Hawks. One pair landed in the tree right above the decoy, watched a long time before departing. A few minutes later, another Harris swooped in and the topper disappeared one more time!
This time the hawk had merely knocked the topper out and it was lying right next to the decoy.
Not sure what motivated all the interest in the decoy all at once, but made for a very interesting, albeit different day afield. I am now looking forward to next trip, as usual, but with the additional hope that one or more of these birds comes back for a repeat performance:
I can just visualize the aerobatics one such low flying clown would perform when he hits the end of the 3’ slack in this nylon tether to be held by the decoy’s spike. Hope I’m looking in the right direction if and when it happens.
Regards,
hm
