In years past, I hunted year round, but this old man just can’t tolerate the oppressive S. TX heat & humidity like I used to. I had been planning on hanging it up until fall, but, with my calendar clean last Friday, and the weatherman predicted high temperature of only 94*, wind 1 mph @ daybreak, increasing to only 14 mph mid afternoon, I just couldn’t help myself.
The eastern sky was starting to brighten as we opened stand one with a couple of female invitational howls. Waited a few minutes and tried baby cottontail distress. Sunrise ushered in this lanky bobkitty to the tune of woodpecker distress for a closer look at the Jackdaddy decoy. Suddenly he spun quickly and return to the thick brush from whence he came. He might have detected my slight movement as I tried to find him in the camera viewfinder.
Cats aren't on the ticket in this pasture, but what a great way to start the day!
After the cat's hasty departure, decided to give whitetail buck fawn bleats a try and soon caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. Wasn’t sure if it was the cat again or perhaps a coyote which ran a very quick 10 ft. circle into the clearing and right back into brush almost exactly where the cat had just disappeared.
Hit coyote pup distress and almost immediately, this young female coyote came back out of the brush on a heading straight toward the decoy, only to be dropped by my partner’s 87 gr. .243 bullet.
Made one dry stand, then, on stand 3 started w/bird distress. Switching next to fawn distress; lo and behold, almost immediately a coyote appears on the brush line making a beeline toward the call at a trot. Tried to bark him to a stop, but no sale, so when he angled toward me, I took the shot. Knocked him down (in knee high grass) only to see him get up and stumble back into impenetrable brush.
Another dry stand, then managed to call in a bald coyote (w/fawn distress again) on stand five, only to bungle the shot by hurrying and getting on the trigger when he paused briefly just under 200 yds.
Since three coyotes had already revealed their taste for venison this morning, I decided to serve more of the same and opened the sixth stand with more fawn distress. No coyotes, but three does came charging in to stare at the decoy before trotting off. The heat began to get to us (91* w/99* heat index), so we packed it in for the day.
All in all it was a good day, in spite of my bad shooting, and leaving an ugly coyote to share the mange with his peers.
Regards,
hm
The eastern sky was starting to brighten as we opened stand one with a couple of female invitational howls. Waited a few minutes and tried baby cottontail distress. Sunrise ushered in this lanky bobkitty to the tune of woodpecker distress for a closer look at the Jackdaddy decoy. Suddenly he spun quickly and return to the thick brush from whence he came. He might have detected my slight movement as I tried to find him in the camera viewfinder.
Cats aren't on the ticket in this pasture, but what a great way to start the day!
After the cat's hasty departure, decided to give whitetail buck fawn bleats a try and soon caught a movement out of the corner of my eye. Wasn’t sure if it was the cat again or perhaps a coyote which ran a very quick 10 ft. circle into the clearing and right back into brush almost exactly where the cat had just disappeared.
Hit coyote pup distress and almost immediately, this young female coyote came back out of the brush on a heading straight toward the decoy, only to be dropped by my partner’s 87 gr. .243 bullet.
Made one dry stand, then, on stand 3 started w/bird distress. Switching next to fawn distress; lo and behold, almost immediately a coyote appears on the brush line making a beeline toward the call at a trot. Tried to bark him to a stop, but no sale, so when he angled toward me, I took the shot. Knocked him down (in knee high grass) only to see him get up and stumble back into impenetrable brush.
Another dry stand, then managed to call in a bald coyote (w/fawn distress again) on stand five, only to bungle the shot by hurrying and getting on the trigger when he paused briefly just under 200 yds.
Since three coyotes had already revealed their taste for venison this morning, I decided to serve more of the same and opened the sixth stand with more fawn distress. No coyotes, but three does came charging in to stare at the decoy before trotting off. The heat began to get to us (91* w/99* heat index), so we packed it in for the day.
All in all it was a good day, in spite of my bad shooting, and leaving an ugly coyote to share the mange with his peers.
Regards,
hm
