The team at PTG continues to grow and change. This year, we were pleased to have Andrew and his wife Kathy join our team. So I asked Andrew to join me in representing PTG at the PM Convention in Elko this past week. Andrew hasn't hunted coyotes in another state yet and I thought it would be good for him to see what the PM community is all about and the best way is at the convention.
It is a 12 hour drive for us from the ashtray of America up to Elko and we spent a lot of that time discussing predator hunting in and around Elko.
Our first day hunting saw us calling in coyotes but they just were not interested in committing to the call/stand. We had a few drift through. On the second day I was able to connect with a coyote that was hung up on a fence line. But as you know, my .308, the HOG, has put down quite a few coyotes, so that wasn't really what we were after. Andrew was running a 6.5 Grendel that we built for him, and it hadn't gotten any fur yet. So as satisfying as putting down that coyote was, it wasn't what I really wanted.
Day 3, the morning of the egg shoot. We agonized over participating in the egg shoot or hunting. Seeing what Stacy Worden was able to do with her rifle, I think we made the wise choice in choosing to hunt. We started off in Carlin, just outside Elko. It was our first venture to the west. We spotted some nice areas on satellite and decided to start off of a river bottom that had a lot of promise. Stand #1 had a lot of howlers around us, a pattern that seemed to repeat for just about every hunter at the convention. The coyotes talked a lot but few committed. Stand #2, same thing. Howling, but they were definitely getting closer. We continued to follow a two track away from the bottom. There were fresh coyote tracks on the tow track and I just didn't want to let those go.
We were on stand #6 and something popped out at me. Word on the street was that there was a lot of calling going on in the area, so I decided to try a call sequence and sounds that they might not hear. We saw sign that something had eaten a bird, so we carefully rounded a hill, giving the coyotes a couple of thick brushlines out in front to travel in, and we started with some bird sounds. Several minutes with no response and it was time to get aggressive. I throw out a high volume female coyote howl, and as the echo is rolling around the valley I go right into a jackrabbit call that I hoped wasn't used too much. I see a FLASH of fur to my left. A coyote is hackled up and charging out of the brushline heading toward the call. I alert Andrew and am getting ready to have him howl to stop it when the coyote turns towards us and stops just downwind of the call. I tell Andrew to "hammer it." BOOM! The coyote looked like it took a 10lb sledgehammer to the chest and folds back. Andrew was ecstatic. His first coyote with his 6.5 Grendel on a hard charger!
pm convention coyote 1 by Jason Mosler, on Flickr
So Andrew went down the hill to grab the coyote. Now Andrew is no small guy. Built like me but standing at 6'8" I knew we had something special when he hoisted the coyote up off the ground. From the hill I could see it was big. But when I got down to it I could see just how big it really was. It was a porker. We got some photos and sent some off to the guys. The question that everyone wanted to know was how big it actually was. So we rolled into Carlin to a hardware store and bought a scale. The folks at the hardware store came out to see and they were impressed by it' size.
image000001 (14) by Jason Mosler, on Flickr
image000001 (12) by Jason Mosler, on Flickr
Officially it measured 4ft from tip to tail and weighed in at 35lbs. Quite a nice coyote. The winds came up and blew us out so we went on back into Elko to enjoy dinner at the last night of the convention. It was a lot of fun to see Andrew welcomed to the PM community and he was justifiably proud of his toad. That one coyote made the entire trip worthwhile.
It is a 12 hour drive for us from the ashtray of America up to Elko and we spent a lot of that time discussing predator hunting in and around Elko.
Our first day hunting saw us calling in coyotes but they just were not interested in committing to the call/stand. We had a few drift through. On the second day I was able to connect with a coyote that was hung up on a fence line. But as you know, my .308, the HOG, has put down quite a few coyotes, so that wasn't really what we were after. Andrew was running a 6.5 Grendel that we built for him, and it hadn't gotten any fur yet. So as satisfying as putting down that coyote was, it wasn't what I really wanted.
Day 3, the morning of the egg shoot. We agonized over participating in the egg shoot or hunting. Seeing what Stacy Worden was able to do with her rifle, I think we made the wise choice in choosing to hunt. We started off in Carlin, just outside Elko. It was our first venture to the west. We spotted some nice areas on satellite and decided to start off of a river bottom that had a lot of promise. Stand #1 had a lot of howlers around us, a pattern that seemed to repeat for just about every hunter at the convention. The coyotes talked a lot but few committed. Stand #2, same thing. Howling, but they were definitely getting closer. We continued to follow a two track away from the bottom. There were fresh coyote tracks on the tow track and I just didn't want to let those go.
We were on stand #6 and something popped out at me. Word on the street was that there was a lot of calling going on in the area, so I decided to try a call sequence and sounds that they might not hear. We saw sign that something had eaten a bird, so we carefully rounded a hill, giving the coyotes a couple of thick brushlines out in front to travel in, and we started with some bird sounds. Several minutes with no response and it was time to get aggressive. I throw out a high volume female coyote howl, and as the echo is rolling around the valley I go right into a jackrabbit call that I hoped wasn't used too much. I see a FLASH of fur to my left. A coyote is hackled up and charging out of the brushline heading toward the call. I alert Andrew and am getting ready to have him howl to stop it when the coyote turns towards us and stops just downwind of the call. I tell Andrew to "hammer it." BOOM! The coyote looked like it took a 10lb sledgehammer to the chest and folds back. Andrew was ecstatic. His first coyote with his 6.5 Grendel on a hard charger!
pm convention coyote 1 by Jason Mosler, on Flickr So Andrew went down the hill to grab the coyote. Now Andrew is no small guy. Built like me but standing at 6'8" I knew we had something special when he hoisted the coyote up off the ground. From the hill I could see it was big. But when I got down to it I could see just how big it really was. It was a porker. We got some photos and sent some off to the guys. The question that everyone wanted to know was how big it actually was. So we rolled into Carlin to a hardware store and bought a scale. The folks at the hardware store came out to see and they were impressed by it' size.
image000001 (14) by Jason Mosler, on Flickrimage000001 (12) by Jason Mosler, on FlickrOfficially it measured 4ft from tip to tail and weighed in at 35lbs. Quite a nice coyote. The winds came up and blew us out so we went on back into Elko to enjoy dinner at the last night of the convention. It was a lot of fun to see Andrew welcomed to the PM community and he was justifiably proud of his toad. That one coyote made the entire trip worthwhile.
