3-2-1 Day of Calling
Let me start this by saying, I very recently stated to another forum member, that I always take my shotty with me, as well as a rifle when calling. Well today, I found myself at the end of the driveway upon departure and realized that I didn’t have my scatter gun. Not wanting to sacrifice the 5-7 minutes, like a rookie, I pulled out and got on the road.
Set #1
This is one of my, if not my favourite place to call with a south and or south west wind. It’s perfect. I’ve never not been successful here. It always produces and more often than not, doubles or triples. I set up a touch different seeing as I was without shotgun. After about 9minutes or so, I notice a coyote slinking through some scrubby brush along the creek about 200 yards away. I lose sight. After 5-6 minutes of some intermittent coaxing, it still hasn’t committed. Here we go, it’s either going to bust wide open or be my first blank here. After only seconds of pup distress, I see a coyote break from cover, dipping and diving towards me. As I’m waiting for it to appear again, I see another standing on a mound looking my direction. About 150 yards I figure. Bird in the hand…. So I thump it. The close coyote had wheeled back around to where it had come from originally and proceeded to come in again while I’m still wailing pup distress. Almost on the same path. I glance back to where I dispatched the coyote on the mound and there’s another standing close to the same spot. Two birds? BOOM THWOP! Coyote three departs for parts unknown. Okay. Good start. Doubles are good. 155 and 153 yards were the shot distances and they died about 12 yards apart. Both big males.
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Set #2
So, this one stings. A friend had asked me to try and clean up some coyotes around his home place. I’ve called there before. It’s a tough spot and normally benefits greatly having a partner. I’m solo so here goes. Set up in a skinny tree line so I can see up and downwind. I was leery about where I places the caller, but what are the chances they will come from that direction? I should know better - Murphy. Start with some distress. Roughly the 7 minute mark, I notice a pair 500-600 yards downwind of me. They are making a big loop. Maybe they won’t wind me. Caller still going and like a fool, I’m not paying attention to that direction while watching the pair. A flash of movement catches my eye. 40 yards away I see a coyote wheeling and running away. His ears must be blown out for how close he came to the caller. “WHY DID YOU NOT BRING THE SHOT GUN?” I woof at it several times expecting it to stop. It doesn’t. Probably should have just put one in his rear but I’m hoping that I can still pull the pair in. I let it depart. Let’s make this happen. Pup distress again. I see the pair break cover about 400 yards away and they are closing fast. Like fast fast. “YOU FOOL. THE SHOTGUN!” About the hundred yard mark I start trying to stop them with my woofing. Nope. They are not stopping. May as well let them get close. At about 30 yards they catch my tracks as they’ve blown right by the caller. Chaos ensues as I put forth one of the most poor displays of running shooting I’ve ever put forth. I empty the rifle - and don’t tickle a hair. “Why are you so dumb sometimes? You’d think that the older you get, you’d be smarter. At the very least be better.” Oh well. How often could a guy get a shot gun triple? Geeze. I guess we all need reminders about lessons previously learned. I’ll see you guys again in about three weeks.
Set #3
Another farming friend had mentioned the coyotes were bad at his home place. Off I went. This is another favoured spot. There’s opportunity for every wind situation and it normally holds a good population of resident coyotes. For today’s wind, I set up prone on a little roll in the field on the half mile line. There’s always a strip of weeds and tall grass there to tuck in, so this I did. I’m not sure exactly why, but in this spot, the coyotes seem to respond better to coyote vocals. I normally just skip any distress type stuff here unless it’s a dirty cold snap. Let loose with a female yodel. In less than 2 minutes, I see three coyotes coming up the tree line opposite my position. I’m just going to stay quiet and see how this plays out. Once again, I’m cursing myself for not having the shot gun. A big male closes to about the hundred yard mark and stops, facing me. The other two are within 30 yards of him. God! I could suck all three of them in tight! I know I could! No shot gun! Screw it. I’m taking this one and see if I can get another as they flee. BOOM! THWOP! Big male drops. The other two scatter. I couldn’t get what I felt was a good lead on the coyote I selected to try for and it gets over a rise. Coyote three has made the bush. Let fly with some dying coyote. Coyote two comes charging back over the rise and is closing hard and fast. I need not say what was going through my head again. Woofing is not stopping this one either. After my last spectacle of shooting fast movers -oh no. At the 20 yard mark I pop up and onto my knees to swing on this thing. It grabs road gear as it wheels and gets low, with eyes as big as saucers. I miss the first shot, settle myself as I get another round in the chamber and I fall into a smooth lead. This feels better. BOOM! THWOP! Followed by a cartwheeling, snowplowing coyote. Okay. You redeemed yourself a bit here. Second double of the day.
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Set #4
A friends step mother has been having coyotes in the yard. Asked if I could swing by. I meant to get there yesterday but didn’t. I hate calling this place. There isn’t really any great places to set up. It’s tough to get anywhere without skylining yourself. I’ve called it numerous times despite the difficulty. There is a coyote that lives there, I refer to as “The Mensa Coyote”. He’s the smartest I’ve ever encountered and the stories I have trying to kill him, that’s for another thread.
So I slink in, staying as low as I can. I’m going to play this a bit different. There’s a big ball of waste straw on a hill top. Yup. We’re doing this. So I stay low and get the caller set up in a little swale in the field about 70 yards away from where I will hide. This will be a prone situation again. I tuck into the straw and get comfortable. On the edge of a small willow patch about 250 yards away, I spy something that wasn’t there before. Sure enough, there’s a coyote there staring holes through me. You’ve got to be kidding me. Debating just shooting it right there, it decides for us and disappears. About a minute later, it lights up with some challenges. It obviously didn’t make me out as a human. Just saw something it wasn’t sure about. This could still happen. So I let it challenge me for another minute or so. I challenge back. We do this for the better part of 5 minutes and it didn’t sound like it was getting any closer. A quick blast of pup distress. 30 seconds later, said coyote is standing, facing me about 120 yards away. BOOM! THWOP! Coyote folds and I immediately get on the dying coyote with the caller. I catch movement to the south west of me and there’s another coyote running and bounding towards me. I start turning myself to get ready to shoot this one when at the base of the hill, not more than 40 yards away, another coyote goes blazing in towards the caller. “You’re serious? Again?!” Now I’m flustered. I shoot at the close one twice. Man, you’re running shooting is really handicapping you today. Pop once at the other one. No dice. Well let’s challenge again and see what happens. I hear them light up behind a hill at the tree line. They’re not done yet! Give it 30 seconds and pup distress. They come charging back over the hill then both wheel and go back over the hill. Then light up again. After several more minutes of challenging back and forth with more pup distress, I spy something immediately north of my position along the tree line. I adjust myself to view and just peeking over the small rise of the hill, I can see a coyotes head and neck. It continues vocalizing challenges but I can tell, it’s not coming any closer. As I’ve said, I have hunted this place before and am quite familiar with the distances of things. About 375ish yards I figure. So I hold on its head with my 350 hold over. I’m either hitting or missing clean. BOOOOOM! THWOP! But I catch glimpses of the coyote running west and it vanishes. Guess I missed but that really sounded like a hit. Now you’ve got to walk all the way over there and check genius. So I walk out and snap a photo of the coyote I dropped. Another big male. That’s 5 for the day. Then proceed over to where I poked at the peeker. Sprays of blood all over the snow. This is not just a glance either, for the spray is profound. I follow the trail into the trees and about 60 yards from impact, I find my 6th coyote of the day. A female.
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The shot was in the neck and it was in fact, a bit of a grazing impact but caught enough meat to open things up. Shot distance was about 385 yards. Tried to keep the photo as clean as possible.
So that’s my first time, killing only doubles and doing it three times in a day. I guess I probably could have added a zero to the title for my blanked stand. Or called it 1-2-3. But whatever. Any day I can call in a dozen is great action. And I mean it this time. I will never, ever, leave my shotty at home again. I’m quite confident this could have been a 9 or 10 coyote day. It should have been anyway, but I’m obviously rusty on the runners. I hope you enjoy the read. And I hope the pictures are suitable. Tikka250’s photos have inspired me to be a bit more tasteful with the captures.
