I got to the hunt on Sunday afternoon. Well, actually I got to Cruces on Sunday afternoon and didn't get to the hunt until Wednesday.
My family from San Antonio (Mom, Dad, sister, and niece) who I hadn't seen in 2-5 yrs decided to drive over for a few days, and my nephew (who I raised for years) and his family came over from El Paso (he's an E5 at Ft Bliss). We did family stuff during the day, and I got to socialize with the other PM folks in the evening, (meaning eating two or three times what I normally do).
I got to take my niece, Haleigh, to the range for her first introduction to firearms. What a blast. She absolutely loved it. Haleigh shot my Colt 1911 .45 (much too big for her 11 yr old hands) and put 5 out of 7 into a 10" target at 25 yds
the very first time she had ever fired a gun. I think it's genetic. The women in our family seem to be natural marksmen (the men have to work at it).
The family left Wed morning and I got into full "Predator Master" mode...almost. Haleigh and I had figured out that I had a bad/incompatible 30mm scope mount on my new rifle and I spent the day going to Silver City to buy a new one. I did manage to get in 3 stands on the way back, but came up empty.
Thursday was entirely taken up with PM business, so I didn't hunt at all.
Thursday evening Redfrog asked me what I had planned for Fri (like it would be a mystery) and would I mind taking a couple of new members with me (as if).
That meant that Friday I got to hunt with Major Dave Littrell and his 12 year old son Jacob. First time coyote hunting for both of them I believe.
What an amazing, day.
After hearing about the luck guys had had west and south (mixed), and having had none at all north and a little west, I decided we'd try the south east corner of NM.
Barry (rockinbbar) had told me that there were lots of coyotes in the area but that they were hard to hunt since the cover was pretty dense with little hillocks, and the visibility was limited. I decided to try it anyway.
Jeff (Mock) lent us his (very luxurious) truck, since the Jeep I'd rented wouldn't have held the three of us and our gear.
We had a little trouble figuring how to get to the right road, and the sun was well and truly up before we got into hunting ground. Jake was getting a little anxious, ("isn't this a good spot?", "What about over there?") and I finally pulled over at a stock tank, even though it was still very heavy cover with no elevation.
We walked in a couple of hundred yards and found a (relatively) open spot, I told Dave and Jake where they should be, and set up the FX5 playing a screaming jack.
Just a couple of minutes into it Jake lets off a couple shots and right in front of me I see a coyote tail spin around and take off. Just the tail even though he was 30 ft in front of me.
Real thick cover. I hit the Kiyi's for a couple of minutes, but every coyote in the area was indignantly proclaiming that we were trespassing, and I called it off. Jake had gotten a little buck fever and missed his shot (we all remember that, right).
Turns out that the one I saw wasn't the one Jake saw, and David had another one by him he'd been looking at, waiting for it to come out from behind a mesquite to get a shot at.
First stand of the day, a triple called in.
We stopped to talk to a couple of Border Patrol guys, and they suggested an area just down the road, which we went to.
This time we were on the edge of a small mountain range (is there such a thing as a "hill range"?). The sun and the wind were wrong, but we had some elevation, enough to get us probably 60' off the desert floor, and it was morning and still warming up, so our scent was going to rise.
Halfway into the stand the batteries died in the FX5 and I finished with hand calls. I never saw anything but David had 2 on his side that hung up. He says next time he'd take the shot.
Two stands, 5 called, 0 taken.
We made a couple of more stands working our way around the base of the hills, but came up dry.
When we got around to the upper end of the range, we found a spine coming down to the desert floor, running north (we'd been calling the east side). Figuring a great coverage area, I set up Jake on the west, David on the spine facing north, and I took the east side.
Set the Foxpro in an ocotillo bush, walked up the hill to a small tree, hit the remote, and...nothing. FPs are great callers, but you really need to turn them on. Walked back down the hill...and couldn't find the caller (they're easier to find if they are turned on too).
Oh well, we're already set up and might as well make a stand before we look for the caller, so I blew hand calls for 20 minutes. Nothing. We bust the stand and find the caller pretty quickly, go back to the truck, clear weapons on the tailgate, and as I walk around the driver's side a coyote is beating feet not 50 yds away. Simultaneously another one is skedaddling in front of David on the right side.
Dang it a double with unloaded rifles
.
5 or 6 stands, 7 called, 0 taken, but man is Jake fired up now.
We start heading back to Cruces on gravel roads, and about two thirds of the way the brush starts opening up a little. I see an outcropping of basalt/lava rock a couple of hundred yds off the road that has a great big neon sign hanging in the air above it saying
SHOOT COYOTES FROM RIGHT HERE , (well okay it wasn't actually
neon).
As we get to our places, BANG-BANG-BANG. I turned around and Jake is blasting away at a coyote he dang near stepped on getting to the stand. No hits but lots of adrenaline
. I called for a while trying to get him back, but no dice.
6 or 7 stands, 1 triple and 2 doubles called and one kicked out of bed. None taken, but man what a day
.
Thanks David and Jake for one of the most enjoyable hunts I've had.
Saturday is the Egg Shoot. I managed to survive the first round cut, but not the second. An egg at 150 yds is a
small target off of sticks.
Congratulations to the winners. Great shooting!!
After the competition, Scot and Moe from Specialized Dynamics had a table set up with half a dozen or so rifles from .204 to .308 and all the free ammo you could want. We spent a couple of hours whacking steel targets and finishing off the "spare" eggs (there were a lot of unbroken "spare" eggs
). What a blast (pun intended).
Thanks Scot and Moe!!
Saturday night was the big banquet. I'll let others tell about the ceremonial stuff, except to say congrats to Rick Robbins (BearmanRick) on winning the Will Craig award. Well deserved
.
Then came the raffles, and that went alright I guess, and that's about it.
WAIT WAIT, DON'T SHOOT ME!!! IT WAS A JOKE!!! Yeah I
guess it went alright, WOW!!
I had purchased 150 general raffle tickets and wound up winning a couple of T-shirts and a couple of DVDs I already have, that I had Barry give away.
Oh well, not my lucky night and the money goes to a good cause.
Then we got to the "special" raffles and I cleaned up. I won
both Nightforce scopes
and the CZ .204. I have other rifles and other scopes, but I
DIDN'T have Barry give those away.
What a great hunt/convention!!!
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