I had missed the hunt the last 2 years, but this year I was able to go again. I made the 3 hour drive from my house to Venatic's house on Tuesday morning.
After we loaded gear and he made last minute reloading tweeks to his eggshoot and sd cup gun, we rolled out of Waco about noon. One the way to Las Cruces, we stopped by the fur buyer in San Angelo to sell our bobcat hides. I had 5 and David had 10. We did pretty well considering our southern fur and we continued on the track to Las Cruces. We arrived at the motel about 10 pm after loosing an hour when we crossed the time zone east of El Paso.
There were a few PM guys in the lobby and after a few hand shakes and greetings we carried our gear to our room and hit sack in preparation for getting up early and getting in some hunting.
Wednesday morning we rolled out early and again saw a few PMers in the lobby before we headed out. We should have left about 5am, but ended up leaving at 6 am for the driver to our chosen hunting area near Deming. Not far from Deming we saw a coyote standing on the shoulder of the highway without a care in the world, and not to much farter we saw another coyotes running across an open field, so we had high hopes.
The first 3 stands were zeroes, but after seeing another coyote cross the road way up ahead we decided to give him a try.
Sure enough, at the 2 minute mark a coyote showed up from the direction we had seen the coyote go a little while earlier. Venactic put him down hard with the Dtech 6x45.
Did I forget to mention that Venatic left his suppressor at the motel in the other gun case? He was not sure exactly where it would hit without the suppressor but suspected it would be high. I guess he was right.
The very next stand I saw a coyote come charging from the brush about 100 yards out. He was about as hard charging a coyote as you will ever see. He was bearing down on the caller from right to left and when he was about 50 yards out I tried to "woof" him to a stop by he just ran on by. At the "woof" Venatic looked around to see the coyote running by the caller and fired the first shot. Before it was over we had fired 5 shots and no coyote blood was shed.
Here is what some of the country looked like.
We made a lot more stands without seeing anything. Until the last stand of the morning. We had been grinding out the stands with nothing to show for it and light was fading. I had swapped jackets or something, and got my chair and shooting sticks and headed to put out the call. Unfortunately, in the monotony of getting in and out of truck, getting the gear and heading out, I failed to realize I didn't have my gun slung over my shoulder.
So, back to the truck to get my gun. I walk back, sit down get my sticks ready and glance over to where Venatic is set up. Just as I do I see him stand up and point his gun to the right. A coyote had come slipping through our set up and apparently saw me getting settled in. Maybe if I had already been set, we would have been calling and ready before he came in.
We got back for the evening food and seminars and talked to other members about the days hunts. The general consensus was that the hunting was slow.
We vowed to head out earlier the next morning an left the motel about 5am. We were making our first stand good and early, but after a good many stand we had nothing to show for it. On about the 6th stand we had a coyote show up about 300 yards out, but he saw something he didn't like and started to leave. Venatic had his suppressor on this time and he took a shot at the coyotes head stickup up as he was leaving about 250 yards out, but it was a miss. A couple of stands later we had 2 big dogs show up, and when they spotted Venatic they set to barking and moved off to a hill about 150 yards out and just stoop up there an barked. We waited to see if they would attract some coyotes, but I guess they were not very good decoy dogs, or there were not any coyotes near by. After picked up to leave, the dogs came our way parking and giving us a mean look as we headed back to the truck. That is when I heard a shot and looked back to see a guy coming over the hill with a pistol in his hand.
About half way to us, we could see him stick his hand with the pistol in his coat pocket, and we just stood there with the barking dogs to see what he had in mind. He came on, cussing the dogs as he came. We told him we were calling coyotes and he cussed the dogs some more and headed back towards where he had came from with the dogs following.
We decided to move on to another area, and after getting some directions from a couple of border patrol agents sitting on the side of the road, we started hunting again. A couple of stands into the new area, we were on a bank overlooking a big flat about 200 yards across with another brush covered hill on the other side. Again about 2 minutes into the call, Venatic says we have 2 coming in. I see them, and he says "take the one on the right and I will take the left."
The are charging across the 200 yards of flat and I am zeroing in on the right hand coyote. Just as I do, the left hand coyote shies away from the call about 80 yards out and breaks right as the other keeps going right. I make the mistake of switching coyotes and see the coyote die in my scope and Venatic takes him out. I then try to find the now left hand coyote and we both chase him with bullets back across the 200 yards of flat. After 6 shots, I stop shooting.
David with his coyotes. It was 12:30 pm.
We made a few more stands and by then it was getting late and we decided we needed to head in for evening activities. We pulled back onto the highway, and saw a truck coming from the direction we were going. As we passed the border patrol, he made a U turn and followed, getting right up on our tail and then dropping back. About 6 or 7 miles down the road, he is joined by another border patrol and they hit the red and blues. We pull over and they ask what we are doing. We saw hunting coyotes, and they ask to look in our truck, and we say "sure". After opening the back doors and looking in the back, they let us get back on the road to the town.
We arrive back for the meal and seminars again that evening and visit with the members. Again, as we listen to the tales of the days hunts we figure out that most had the same slow hunting that we did. We decided to head down toward El Paso on Friday morning to see if we can fare any better. The forecast is for high winds, so we think that the sand hills may offer some protection from the wind, allow us to get in closer to the coyotes.
We get to the out skirt of El Paso, and the wind is much less than expected. We spot a coyote right beside the road was we hit the edge of the pavement so it looks promising. We drive down a way and move out to make our first stand of the morning. At the one minute mark of bird distress I see a coyote come running in to my left between two sand hills. I bark him to a stop and drop him at about 25 yards. Boy, that was quick! Maybe our luck is turning around.
We have really high hopes as the coyote sign in this area is much more than we have seen the last couple of days, but after calling until 11:30 am we see nothing else and the wind that had been calling for showed up.
Before that, I was expecting a coyote on almost every stand. I snapped this picture on one of those stands.
Both of these last 2 pictures were lifted from the PM facebook page by the anti-coyote hunting protesters and put on their facebook page.
We checked out a few other spots on the Texas side of El Paso since the wind was so high and got back to the motel early to take a nap and get ready for the evening events again.
This was to be our last hunting day since the egg shoot and banquet were Saturday. Venatic did well in the egg shoot again this year placing 2nd and I popped a few steel after the shoot was over. See my post on the egg shoot to see the pictures that I took there, and the facebook page to see some pictures I posted of the banquet. Every year I saw I am going to take more pictures while out hunting but get caught up in the hunting and don't end up getting as many as I would like too.
After the banquet we tried to say good byes to as many as we could since we would be leaving early to make the 13 hour drive home.
We got up early Sunday morning and rolled out of the parking lot at 6am. I pulled into my driveway at 8pm that night. It was a good trip again this year, and I really enjoyed getting to see some of you again, and getting to meet a few others for the first time.
Hopefully, things will work out for me to make the hunt again this coming year. Hope to see you there.
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