*** If reading this post is difficult due to the picture on your computer, scroll down to post on 3/6/21***
Occasionally while calling I'm in situations I need to make a difficult decision and learn just as much from my mistakes as my successes. I think others would find this scenario interesting and like to hear what others would do because I'm always trying to learn new tricks to fool coyotes.
Yesterday morning I had a few hours free and my wife wanted me to take the dogs out to run their energy out. I thought I would attempt to call some coyotes on a couple stands even though this BLM land gets a lot of human traffic from hikers, recreational shooters, ATVs, dirt bikes, etc. There are still many coyotes even though I know it gets heavy calling pressure.
We have a 10 month and 22 month golden doodles. AWS has gone with me when I took these dogs calling coyotes and seen how they are not any help when it comes to calling coyotes. They have too much energy and are always moving around while I'm calling. I've had numerous coyotes coming in and once they spot my dogs decided that the crying rabbit isn't worth fighting a couple goofy dogs for. They would make great bait if they weighed half as much as a coyote instead of twice as much as a coyote.
I started this stand with a couple howls, followed by a couple minutes of silence. Then I did about 30 seconds of crying rabbit on my Carver rabid rabbit followed by another couple minutes of silence. At about the 4 minute mark I spot a coyote moving about 500 yards out and it stops where the red circle is. I'm almost certain it has spotted my restless dogs running around. Wind is moving about 5mph the direction of the purple arrow.
I'm completely covered by the shadow of a large yuca plant so I feel confident I can get away with some slow movement so I take a look with my 10X binoculars to get a better read on the coyotes body language. There is also a 2nd coyote next to it in the brush that has a much larger body size. I'm guessing they are a mating pair and the big one is the male. They are looking in my direction and alert and I'm almost certain they are looking at my dogs who are exploring the brush 10-30 yards to the side of me. After a minute of them looking in my direction, it appears they are not convinced it is a good idea to come any closer.
What would you do?
#1 Try calling them closer? What sound will you use?
- this is risky because they will likely circle to the right and disappear behind a hill when they are still 300+ yards away and then reappear on the hill on the right 200 yards away where they are directly downwind. They could very likely smell me before I get a good shot opportunity.
#2 Take the shot? They are 380 yards away.
-I could make this shot but I feel much more confident if I could get prone. Wind drift for my little 40 gr bullet will be about 10 inches so I'm not all that confident that I could anchor both coyotes quickly with only shooting two times.
#3 Wait them out and see what they do or try something else?
If they are standing side by side, would you shoot the smaller once first because it is likely the female? This is assuming the male is more likely to give you a shot because he doesn't want to leave the female behind.
I'll post what I did and the coyotes did in a couple days.
Occasionally while calling I'm in situations I need to make a difficult decision and learn just as much from my mistakes as my successes. I think others would find this scenario interesting and like to hear what others would do because I'm always trying to learn new tricks to fool coyotes.
Yesterday morning I had a few hours free and my wife wanted me to take the dogs out to run their energy out. I thought I would attempt to call some coyotes on a couple stands even though this BLM land gets a lot of human traffic from hikers, recreational shooters, ATVs, dirt bikes, etc. There are still many coyotes even though I know it gets heavy calling pressure.
We have a 10 month and 22 month golden doodles. AWS has gone with me when I took these dogs calling coyotes and seen how they are not any help when it comes to calling coyotes. They have too much energy and are always moving around while I'm calling. I've had numerous coyotes coming in and once they spot my dogs decided that the crying rabbit isn't worth fighting a couple goofy dogs for. They would make great bait if they weighed half as much as a coyote instead of twice as much as a coyote.
I started this stand with a couple howls, followed by a couple minutes of silence. Then I did about 30 seconds of crying rabbit on my Carver rabid rabbit followed by another couple minutes of silence. At about the 4 minute mark I spot a coyote moving about 500 yards out and it stops where the red circle is. I'm almost certain it has spotted my restless dogs running around. Wind is moving about 5mph the direction of the purple arrow.
I'm completely covered by the shadow of a large yuca plant so I feel confident I can get away with some slow movement so I take a look with my 10X binoculars to get a better read on the coyotes body language. There is also a 2nd coyote next to it in the brush that has a much larger body size. I'm guessing they are a mating pair and the big one is the male. They are looking in my direction and alert and I'm almost certain they are looking at my dogs who are exploring the brush 10-30 yards to the side of me. After a minute of them looking in my direction, it appears they are not convinced it is a good idea to come any closer.
What would you do?
#1 Try calling them closer? What sound will you use?
- this is risky because they will likely circle to the right and disappear behind a hill when they are still 300+ yards away and then reappear on the hill on the right 200 yards away where they are directly downwind. They could very likely smell me before I get a good shot opportunity.
#2 Take the shot? They are 380 yards away.
-I could make this shot but I feel much more confident if I could get prone. Wind drift for my little 40 gr bullet will be about 10 inches so I'm not all that confident that I could anchor both coyotes quickly with only shooting two times.
#3 Wait them out and see what they do or try something else?
If they are standing side by side, would you shoot the smaller once first because it is likely the female? This is assuming the male is more likely to give you a shot because he doesn't want to leave the female behind.
I'll post what I did and the coyotes did in a couple days.
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