The Az night coyote season started the 1st of December, but I was busy, so I got out this weekend for some night calling.
On our second stand of the night we had coyotes howling around us, so we dropped onto the edges of a wide wash. I didn't have any takers with prey calls, so I got in on the howling and went into some puppy distress/growling. I caught this lady trotting along the edge, obviously curious about the commotion that she was hearing. We all know what curiosity did to the cat, well...it didn't do good things for the coyote either.
image000001 (5) by Jason Mosler, on Flickr
The sun came up and we grabbed a newbie hunter. he's been "hunting" twice and never saw anything. We saw 4 and he shot at 2. His first was a miss, chalk it up to coyote fever. Coyote #2 took a HARD hit, we heard it thump from 200 yards out, it jumped, rolled and crawled into a wash. We got into the wash and crawled on hands and knees into the salt cedars. We found TONS of blood but eventually lost the track. I am sure that the coyote wasn't far from where we found the blood, but figured it must have gotten in under some brush.
I was going to lay up and get some rest but my friend Dean wanted to go out, so off we went again for some night calling after a short nap. We called in a nice bobcat, but they are not legal to hunt at night so we had to settle for watching it approach and attempt to attack the call 3 or 4 times. No coyotes we howling and since I had a hunt scheduled for Sunday am it was back to the house.
Sunday am and AzBuhsman, Woody and I were out. First light, we see two coyotes as were are walking in. They never gave us a second glance. We set up real quick and quiet. About two minutes into some cottontail calls and this female comes racing out of the brush. Woody tumbles her.
image000001 (4) by Jason Mosler, on Flickr
The call went into pup distress but since she came to cottontail, I switched back into it. Coyote #2 comes racing in from ahead of us. it is ducking in and out of the brush and I missed it.
Now the call goes into pup distress and coyote #3 pops out and Bushman nails it with his .204
We ended the day with 4 coyotes on 4 stands.
Now I need to go back to work to get some rest,
On our second stand of the night we had coyotes howling around us, so we dropped onto the edges of a wide wash. I didn't have any takers with prey calls, so I got in on the howling and went into some puppy distress/growling. I caught this lady trotting along the edge, obviously curious about the commotion that she was hearing. We all know what curiosity did to the cat, well...it didn't do good things for the coyote either.
image000001 (5) by Jason Mosler, on FlickrThe sun came up and we grabbed a newbie hunter. he's been "hunting" twice and never saw anything. We saw 4 and he shot at 2. His first was a miss, chalk it up to coyote fever. Coyote #2 took a HARD hit, we heard it thump from 200 yards out, it jumped, rolled and crawled into a wash. We got into the wash and crawled on hands and knees into the salt cedars. We found TONS of blood but eventually lost the track. I am sure that the coyote wasn't far from where we found the blood, but figured it must have gotten in under some brush.
I was going to lay up and get some rest but my friend Dean wanted to go out, so off we went again for some night calling after a short nap. We called in a nice bobcat, but they are not legal to hunt at night so we had to settle for watching it approach and attempt to attack the call 3 or 4 times. No coyotes we howling and since I had a hunt scheduled for Sunday am it was back to the house.
Sunday am and AzBuhsman, Woody and I were out. First light, we see two coyotes as were are walking in. They never gave us a second glance. We set up real quick and quiet. About two minutes into some cottontail calls and this female comes racing out of the brush. Woody tumbles her.
image000001 (4) by Jason Mosler, on Flickr The call went into pup distress but since she came to cottontail, I switched back into it. Coyote #2 comes racing in from ahead of us. it is ducking in and out of the brush and I missed it.
Now the call goes into pup distress and coyote #3 pops out and Bushman nails it with his .204
We ended the day with 4 coyotes on 4 stands.
Now I need to go back to work to get some rest,
