tt35
New member
Since Verminator2 had President's Day off, we thought we better take advantage of the situation. We headed for a ranch we had only hunted once before. We were a little late getting there so it was full light by the time we headed for the first stand. We had called the first stand about a month ago in the wind and ended up opening with a howl and scaring the snot out of two coyotes that were bedded not 100 yards from where we set the Foxpro. Fortunately the male came charging back in when I got the caller switched to distress.
We set up and rearranged our positions to account for the wind. We spotted a herd of mule deer before we opened the stand and when I started the distress, the whole herd came up the slope to check on the intruder. They actually crossed our downwind to get to us and circled the call coming within 60 yards of V2. They hung around trying to figure out what was causing the commotion. While I was getting a count on them through my binoculars I noticed them check up and "point" with their ears. I quit the binoculars and, sure enough, a coyote had come into the basin and worked around the hill and downwind of the call. She may have gotten a whiff of Ben or she just got nervous but she turned and started to leave. I barked her to a stop and got the shot at about 70 yards with my .204 Predator Hunter. DRT.
The female was missing a large portion of her left hind leg. The foot was still attached but it had shrunk up to just under the "hock". It was mostly healed and she was in good condition. We wonderded if she might have been the female of the pair we scared/called the month before. You can see the short leg in the picture.
Stand number three was a blank but we could see some deer in the distance. They turned out to be on the two-track we were taking to our next stand and they were patient as we looked them over and took some photos. Here are a few...
The next stand is one of those places that just has to hold coyotes. We saw 10 more deer come into the call and spotted a herd of seventeen about a mile away. As Ben was looking at the far herd through his 18X scope, he noticed them all looking up the hill. Just above them on the top of the rimrock were three coyotes! We threw some howls at them and they came a little closer and stopped. The scenario repeated a couple more times and I finally put some pup distress on the Foxpro. They then started coming pretty steadily around the top of the rim but at about a half mile they turned and went away from us. Turns out that they could see the pickup from the top of the rim. Oh well, we'll work a different plan the next time.
One more stand came up empty and we left the ranch and decided to call our way towards home. The next stand was one I had had some luck on a before but Ben didn't like it. I told him his negative vibes weren't working for me. Since I was driving, I stopped anyway.
Each time we crossed another set of coyote tracks on the way to the stand, I'd whisper to him to keep his eyes open there were coyote tracks everywhere!
We set up where the sage opened up into grass from an old fire. I asked Ben whether he wanted to gaurd "Joe" (The highly original name we gave the MOJO Critter!) or to watch the downwind. He took Joe so I moved to the right to set-up and started with a couple Female Invitation Howls then went to Adult Jackrabbit. At around eleven minutess I hear Ben start woofing and look to my left and see a nice coyote swinging around the decoy. It looked beautiful with its dark coat contrasting with the yellow grass. He stopped and looked away from us totally oblivious to our presence. One 58 grain V-max from V2's .243 Ackley and he was down at 120 yards! Broadside shot and no exit. This was the first coyote V2 has shot with the 58 grain bullet and it performed perfect on this coyote anyway. He was a really nice colored coyote with very long, dark, unrubbed gaurd hair. And, he was a two-point!
Here's the pic.
The next stand had one coming hard at over a half mile and then he just shut down. I'm not sure if he saw a reflection off V2's binoculars or what but he went from running in to leaving in a heartbeat. It never did come in. We made one more stand and called it a day. Great day in the field with my son. Beautiful weather. We saw over seventy head of deer and six coyotes. Two coyotes ended up in the truck.
We set up and rearranged our positions to account for the wind. We spotted a herd of mule deer before we opened the stand and when I started the distress, the whole herd came up the slope to check on the intruder. They actually crossed our downwind to get to us and circled the call coming within 60 yards of V2. They hung around trying to figure out what was causing the commotion. While I was getting a count on them through my binoculars I noticed them check up and "point" with their ears. I quit the binoculars and, sure enough, a coyote had come into the basin and worked around the hill and downwind of the call. She may have gotten a whiff of Ben or she just got nervous but she turned and started to leave. I barked her to a stop and got the shot at about 70 yards with my .204 Predator Hunter. DRT.
The female was missing a large portion of her left hind leg. The foot was still attached but it had shrunk up to just under the "hock". It was mostly healed and she was in good condition. We wonderded if she might have been the female of the pair we scared/called the month before. You can see the short leg in the picture.
Stand number three was a blank but we could see some deer in the distance. They turned out to be on the two-track we were taking to our next stand and they were patient as we looked them over and took some photos. Here are a few...
The next stand is one of those places that just has to hold coyotes. We saw 10 more deer come into the call and spotted a herd of seventeen about a mile away. As Ben was looking at the far herd through his 18X scope, he noticed them all looking up the hill. Just above them on the top of the rimrock were three coyotes! We threw some howls at them and they came a little closer and stopped. The scenario repeated a couple more times and I finally put some pup distress on the Foxpro. They then started coming pretty steadily around the top of the rim but at about a half mile they turned and went away from us. Turns out that they could see the pickup from the top of the rim. Oh well, we'll work a different plan the next time.
One more stand came up empty and we left the ranch and decided to call our way towards home. The next stand was one I had had some luck on a before but Ben didn't like it. I told him his negative vibes weren't working for me. Since I was driving, I stopped anyway.
We set up where the sage opened up into grass from an old fire. I asked Ben whether he wanted to gaurd "Joe" (The highly original name we gave the MOJO Critter!) or to watch the downwind. He took Joe so I moved to the right to set-up and started with a couple Female Invitation Howls then went to Adult Jackrabbit. At around eleven minutess I hear Ben start woofing and look to my left and see a nice coyote swinging around the decoy. It looked beautiful with its dark coat contrasting with the yellow grass. He stopped and looked away from us totally oblivious to our presence. One 58 grain V-max from V2's .243 Ackley and he was down at 120 yards! Broadside shot and no exit. This was the first coyote V2 has shot with the 58 grain bullet and it performed perfect on this coyote anyway. He was a really nice colored coyote with very long, dark, unrubbed gaurd hair. And, he was a two-point!
The next stand had one coming hard at over a half mile and then he just shut down. I'm not sure if he saw a reflection off V2's binoculars or what but he went from running in to leaving in a heartbeat. It never did come in. We made one more stand and called it a day. Great day in the field with my son. Beautiful weather. We saw over seventy head of deer and six coyotes. Two coyotes ended up in the truck.
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