We got off to kind of a slow start down here on the southern end of this hunt. I got a note from Ray a couple of days ago, that he had some things come up and would be unable to make it. But Doug and his wife and two Daughters were already on the way from Pennsylvania. We hadn't talked about what route he was going to take, and I sure hoped he had seen the Weather reports and decided to take the southern route. He had, but unfortunately, he arrived in Dallas about the same time as an ice storm. His noon arrival on Thursday, got delayed until 4:30 Friday morning, and his sleep was delayed with it.
So we decided to make 3 quick stands at daylight, then head back so he and his family could get into a motel and get some well deserved sleep. I had been saving one of my favorite areas for this hunt. I would have been willing to bets lots of money that we would see at least two coyotes on each of these stands. We didn't see a thing. Not even a volunteer while driving in or out. We heard a few while parking to make the first stand and those howls were the closest we would come to coyotes on Friday.
I picked him up at 6 this morning, with a cooler full of burritos and soda. He had told me several times recently that he was really wanting to get a bobcat, So I had made plans to Make a run up the High Lonesome Road. It's an unmaintained road that takes you along the base of the mule mountains though some wonderful fox and cat country, with a few prime coyote locations mixed in.
We made a couple of stops along the way in some good coyote areas, but on the first stand at sunrise, the only thing we saw were some curious cattle. The second stand proved a little better, the coyote however came in backdoor. I heard him running up, and turned to see him standing not 70 yards behind us. We were only sitting 20 yards apart, and I wanted Doug to take this first coyote. I squeaked and I kissed, maybe Doug thought I was a little strange, but I couldn't get him to look. Finally in desperation, I tried a left handed hook shot in his direction with a small stick. Doug never noticed, but the coyote did, and he slipped right on back out.
Just a couple of stands later, we were set up in a small ocotillo clearing. I saw him raise his rifle about 10 minutes into the stand, and at first I thought nothing of it. I thought I could see pretty well on his side, and I sure didn't see anything. Then all of a sudden, a coyote started barking and howling, not 20' from the speaker. He kept it up for a full minute or more, then just shut off and left, I never did see him. Doug said there were two of them, but he never saw the close one until it opened up in front of us, and then it was just a glimpse of some fur or an ear and it dropped back into a wash and ran off. He had been trying to get a shot of a second coyote hiding out in the brush, when the first one started barking, the second ran off too.
A couple of stands later, it was starting to get nice and warm, we had each just finished a nice big burro and Doug was almost reclined against a small hill and mesquite. Five minutes into the tape, a coyote comes in, at full bore. Runs past Doug to the caller, realized his mistake and tried to make a quick exit. He just wasn't quite fast enough as Doug took his first coyote with a fine example of the Texas Heart shot method. He was maybe an inch off of a full bulls eye, but the way the coyote folded up, I don't think he noticed.
The next stand brought a coyote peaking around a mesquite at about 80 yards, but just as Doug's sear broke, the coyote spun to leave.
The next coyote wasn't so lucky, And when he checked up 70 yards out, Doug rewarded him with a bullet to the chest. His butt hit the ground so hard you could almost hear the thump.
We never did find a cat today, but I still have a couple of more places to look before we head out for Lunch in Globe tomorrow.
See you there!
Tim
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[This message has been edited by Tim Behle (edited 12-01-2001).]
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