This year Sean(Yellowhammer) could not go with me on the PM hunt so Seth Skinner(Skinnerworldchamp) and his wife Robin were supposed to make the trip with me. As happens he had work issues so Billy Leal(M-M-Miss) was gonna go instead but then he had to stay and close on his house.
So Wednesday morning I headed out by my lonesome for Las Cruces and I made it to the New Mexico state-line about 4pm. I turned south off the interstate and headed toward the border which is only about 10 or so miles. I found a two track and within minutes met a Border Patrol officer. I stopped and told him I was going to hunt in the area and he gave me the local office number. I assume that way if I got shot I could call and let them know where to find my body. Actually he said I should have no issues at all but if I saw anything out of the ordinary please call and report it. I saw nothing.... Oh except two coyotes and I kilt one and m-m-missed the other one. The second one was peeking around a Yucca and I tried to shoot thru it with no luck.



I got to the hotel just in time to miss orientation so I signed in and hit the sack.
I drove west well before daylight the next morning and arrived at my destination just after daylight. If you are familiar with the area you will recognize "three sisters"



My first set a hard charger at 50yds DRT. I was happy with the start. Stands two and three no takers. Stand four at the 17 minute mark a good sized male runs in and will not stop so I took the running shot and got that spectacular nose dive skid. Sweet.
Set number 5 was blank but some hunters drove by and I think they were hunting javelina because I heard a shot in the direction I was headed. Set 6 I see a coyote coming from 300yds out and he stops to look at 85 yds and DRT.

Here was view from stand

When I drag him to the road I see blood dripped all in the road from the truck earlier I guess. I decide to keep going the way they shot from because now I know they have left.
Set 7 I have to walk 853 yards(ranged) and I can still see my vehicle but I am hoping that it will be mistaken for a cow which are around my vehicle. I setup next to a Yucca and place the foxpro on the only other Yucca about 40yds away to get it off the ground because the wind is now blowing pretty good.
After about 15 minutes nada but since it was a decent hike I decided to hang around for another 5 to 10 minutes. At the 18 minute mark here come 3 running hard from my left and my barks are ignored so I roll the second in line and the other two split up and I empty my gun 5 more shots with nothing to show for it except empty brass. I tell myself that I did not want to drag two coyotes that far anyway....... No, I did not believe that story either.
Here is a picture of that stand. I was sitting by the Yucca on the left and the foxpro was on the shorter one to the right of center.

Anyhow by now the wind is howling and I only called one more the remainder of the day and did not take the shot.
Here is my group photo which did not turn out to good I guess due to the twilight and the flash washing it out.


Day two the wind kept switching and somehow always managed to have me looking into the sun unless I wanted to watch downwind which I did on a few sets. Set two I got one on top of me before I see it and he spots me moving and I miss a running shot.
Next set I am looking downwind and I see a coyote cautiously circling and I pop him at about 200yds. The bullet exited way back due to the angle.

Well, that was it until 4pm and I kilt a hard charger.



My next stand I get another one circling and I bark him to a stop...right behind a Yucca well he keeps circling so I bark again he stops again ...behind a mesquite but I think I can squeeze thru. Nope!


The area that I hunted this day had been hunted by a team in the Worlds I was told later (they killed nothing)and I also bumped into two other PM members at a water hole who were from northern NM and they had one coyote and were taking pictures when I drove up.
The next day was the great egg massacre so I did not get to hunt as I was range officer/cheerleader.

That's a good weekend!

I'm sorry I didn't get to make it this year. Sounds like you did pretty well.

Maybe we can make it again next year.

Sounds like you had a blast!! Great read and pics.

Thanks for taking the time to share.

Sweet, nice job!!

Looks like you had a great trip. Good hunting as usual, you always seem to put the fur on the ground! Were you hunting by yourself or did you hook up with some of the other members?

I was by myself. I wish I had hooked up with Bearmanrick as he got stood up but I had already left before I knew that.

I am going to guess you probably had some of the better luck down there. Complete guess though. Ya there is a bunch of land to hunt down there but I cant imagine there is much of that area that hasn't been called heavily at this point in the year. Great job man.

We killed 5 in one day last year in that same area and had some more we should have gotten.

Nice going Venatic!! Maybe, next year I will get to meet some of you guys when I don't have to have knee surgery on Valentines day.........

Looks like you had your share of fun killer.

Thanks for the recap.

Great job David and really cool pics Me and Robin sure hated missing this years hunt but with work and a funeral it wasn't in the cards. Looks like you had a blast and really put some fur down I'm not really surprised you always seem to have successful hunts. I'll call you this week! God bless Skinner

Awesome stuff, thanks for sharing !

Great write up!

David, It was nice to meet & visit with you at the waterhole... & at supper. Rob & I missed most of the action in the evening cuz we just couldn't quit hunting even though we didn't call many in. PETA took over a most of our stands ( Predators Evading The Ambush ).It was sure nice to call in the warm weather, we hit a snowstorm on our trip home and drove about 100 miles on ice & snow pack.