Friday morning , I had the pleasure of hunting with Rustydog (aka John Brody) and Yellowhammer (aka Sean Willis). I had an area all picked out for us to try and tatrget Mt.lion. As we pulled off the main highway onto the dirt road, It wasn't long till this rock floor desert boy decided that the wet clay roads were more than i wanted to risk. Be back tracked and decided to head for the high country and try our luck there instead. Half way up the mountain, this dry ground desert boy decided that the 8+ inches of frsh powder over ice was more than I wanted to risk. We put the teuck sideways in the middle of the road and got out for some pics.
Yellowhammer and Rustdog.


Scenery.

We then headed back for drier ground. Our first stand was a beatuful one. Sun at our backs, wind in our face. Purfect, except I forgot to turn on the speakers on my foxpro. I winged it with outh calls but no takers. Headed to the next area we spotted 2 coyotes off the side of the road. They didn't hang around long while I glassed them over. We made a few more stands , taking turns calling. This included a stand i did in hopes for a lion. It started off with 15 minutes of springhare which called in about 30 screaming jays and 2 beautiful redtail hawks. I thn folowed up 15 more minutes of lion vocals that would make the hair on the back of your neck stand up and kid goat cries. But no takers.
On the way to our next stand , Rustydog says , whats that running over there. Yellowhammer and myself look over and shout "Javalina"! I threw the truck in park and asked Rusty for my foxpro. I set the call on the hood of my truck , scrolled the sound dial to javalina distress and let her rip. they made a U turn and headed straight for us. I was able to keep them close by for nearly 5 minutes I would guess. Some as close at around 30 yrds.









More to come in second post

Not far from here was our next stand. We hiked over the hill and sat downon the open prarie. No bushes to use for break up and you could see for miles. Rustydog was up to bat on the hand calls. We started with a group howl na Rusty took over form there. After a howl and a series or two from the mouth calls, Yellowhammer signaled he saw a coyote . I look over to see a coyote several hundreds of yards out , but it didn't seem to be paying much attention to Rusty's calling. I just don't think it could hear him, so i gave a couple of notes on a TT yote smoker and here it came. As it got to the bottom of the hill we were on, we alllost sight of it. Yellowhammer got up and moved to get a better look. This is where he found out it was a double. He fired and missed then swung and shot at the second coyote hitting it. 2 more shots at a runing coyote at now 300 yrds. Yellowhammer than looked back to see the first one getting up. He was out of rounds. He motioned to me that it was getting away . But by the time I got to see it, it ws up and running. I flung 3 at it but never connected. I watched it run for atleast a mile till it was out of sight, never to be recovered. this double was called at high noon.
On the way to our next stand, this lil guy didn't want to get out of the road.


The rest of the day was dry stand after dry stand.

Lance, it was a real pleasure to get to hunt with you again. Rustydog, I was also glad to meet you and get to hunt with you.

This is kind of what it looked like at that high noon stand:



If any of you ever have a chance to hunt with either of these guys, don't pass it up. Lance was a great guide for guys who have never been there.

Nice, Sounds like all of you had a blast! Great scenery.Thanks for the pics.

Lance and Sean,

Believe me, the pleasure was all mine. I can't remember a day passing so quickly, too quickly for that matter. Although we only actually called in two coyotes, we really gave it our best shot and that's what really matters.

I think the biggest problem we all faced was the wet, greasy back roads on the Rez. If we could have gotten off the pavement, safely, I believe all of us would have had much better success. They coyotes WERE there, the terrain perfect, we just couldn't risk straying too far from a hard surfaced road. There's always next year.....

If any of you members who were thinking about attending the Hunt next year need any encouragement, just read the Posts from those who attended this year. Enthusiasm, friendship, and a great time!

Rustydog

Rustydog,it really is a shame the weather kept a lot of you from the high ground around point of pines.The Dry Lake area behind point of pines is where the world record elk was taken.Lots of antelope also up there on the Big Prairie.Hopefully next year mother nature will cooperate and will give you access to some of the rez you might not have seen yet.Take care,daveyboy

P.s.And they are all correct in saying if you have never been to a PM hunt you don't know what your missing.A better group of guys you will never meet.

I definately want to get up around Point of Pines next time. I was disappointed we couldn't this time.

Yeah, maybe next time will find Daveyboy camped out there, too.

One thing cool about Point of Pines, the tribe is talking about opening up the firefighters cabins for rent after the fire season ...... Hmmmm now wouldn't htat be a cool place to rent out during our PM Hunt? Now that's a good idea, I'm going to have to look into that for the future ..... Yeah that's a great idea......

Nasa,you are always welcome up there.I enjoyed the time you spent at the campsite.If I told people we saw as many turkeys as we did at one time,they would never believe it,except Jholley saw them too,so I got witnesses .I think I have bearmanrick talked into coming early and camping at bobcat tank.Or,like Michael said those cabins are pretty nice and you don't have the long drive back into town.We always liked going up on Monday and then getting a room at the casino for Friday-Sunday.The San Carlos is nice,there are lots of options for everybody.Those cabins have been out of service for a while,they said they are undergoing renovations.I looked into it last year and they were pretty reasonable.take care,daveyboy