Scouted some new ground today--1/6/2008

Silverfox

New member
I attended chruch with my family this morning and then took my wife out for breakfast. We arrived home at about 1:00 p.m. and she said she had to sew some curtains for the recreation room in our daughter's home, so I decided to do a little scouting on a ranch out in eastern Montana. A friend of mine owns 6,500 acres of some pretty rough country in eastern Montana and while I did some calling up by his home place three or four years ago during Christmas break and called in and shot a double on coyotes, I had never been on the south end of his land. I had not been back there since then either. I don't know why. It is only about 25 miles from my place and he has told me I'm welcome to come out and call coyotes any time!!!

Anyway, he said there is a trail that I could get on down by the RR tracks near the Missouri River and that I could get all the way up to his home place about 6 miles north of there if I had an ATV. I found the place to turn off the main road and then took the left fork in the road. I ran out of road/trail, but decided to walk in to the NE and set up and call for the fun of it. I got a mule deer to come in, but nothing else. The wind was wafting out of the SW at 12 to 15 mph and I was calling with the wind. I set up to the west of the call. I had the call hanging in a dead tree down below me. I was in the shade and I couldn't feel the wind where I was sitting. It was about 2:30 in the afternoon and here are some photos of that setup.

FX5_in_tree--small.jpg


Wider view to the east with the FX5 still in the photo.

FX5_in_tree_wide--small.jpg


View to the NE from my position.

Northeast--small.jpg


View to the NNE

North--small.jpg


I called in that spot for 30+ minutes. I drove back to the gate where the road forked and tried the right fork to see if that would take me to some trails that would lead up north. I drove in to the ENE about a mile and the road ended!! I decided to try calling. I called using a bird sound on medium volume so the sound would only carry up the small draw to the south of me. I only called for about 12 minutes and there were no takers.

I walked in to the east about 1/3 of a mile and saw a huge basin to the NNE, east, and ESE of the ridge I was on. I got down off the top of the ridge in a hurry and hung the FX5 in a tree. I set up about 50 yards to the SSE of the call and began with the DSG Cottontail sound. I played a couple of interrogation howls, a couple of female invitation howls and then went back to the DSC Cottontail. A small herd of 8 mule deer appeared up to the north of me and stayed on that hill side all during the stand. I was hoping that if anything was coming in I could count on those mule deer to get nervous and bust off of that hill side.

At about 15 minutes into the stand I played the Randy Anderson Coyote Locator sound one time. No response. I waited a minute or so and played it again. Still no response. I stayed on that stand for 35 minutes and saw nothing but those mule deer. I hiked back out of there. I only saw one scat pile, but did see some coyote tracks that looked to be a day or two old.

I still hadn't discovered the trail to get up north on this land so I drove to the land owner's ranch. He explained that the place I had parked at to make my last two stands was right north of the trail I had been looking for. He said it isn't a real well worn trail and that I would be wise to get my ATV to go up a very steep hill instead of my nice 4WD pickup. So, if things play out right tomorrow, I might just haul my ATV out there around noon and see where that trail leads. With the warm weather, I don't think there'll be many coyotes coming in to the call, but I'll bring the call and gun along just in case.

I get to go back to work on Tuesday so tomorrow is my last day to play around for a while.
 
TA17rem-- I'm not sure, but it seems like the coyotes around here don't respond as well when the temperatures are in the 30s and 40s. It takes less food to keep them warm when the temperatures are moderate. When it gets colder, I think they are more apt to come to the food prey sounds because they need more food to fuel the furnace.

As I get older, I am finding I don't like to get out and call when the temperatures are down in the single digits to below zero even though I think the coyotes will probably respond better then. I'm getting too soft!!!!
 
Prime looking country you have there Allways enjoy your post
All The Best, In this game we have to just enjoy catching the good times!! thanks for sharing.Rick
 
Silverfox, I always like to read your posts, I might be moving over to Sidney hope to find some good hunting. Hope you get a couple off that place.
 
Back
Top