mikegranger
Active member
It’s that time of year, the last Bubba story of the 2008-2009 coyote season. We’re stopping a little early as work has me traveling to Florida and Washington D.C. over the next 3 weeks.
We had a great year, lots of interesting stories, stuck way more than I would like to admit: Matter of fact, my last “stuck” episode was a duzzie! What do you think?
The lesson I had to relearn was: Don’t believe everything you hear about being able to drive a pickup on ice!
I’ve been checking the forecast and predictions were for light winds and clear skies at the beginning of the week. That’s all I needed to know and after the Super Bowl me, Bubba and Whitey headed to the hinter lands. For the unenlightened, sleeping in a 19 foot trailer with a single catalytic heater when temps drop down to zero, is rather chilly. Come morning the 5 gallon water jug inside the trailer was half frozen! No need to turn on the fridge as we were already an “ice box”! But, as my lovely wife says, I like the cold!
Most of northern Montana still has a foot of snow. Our first stand of the day was easy as I called right off of a plowed gas well access road. That was by far the easiest walking of the entire hunt. No coyotes but it sure felt good to be outside enjoying a beautiful winter day.
I’d had enough of getting stuck this year (7 times if anyone is counting) and with the snow now having a hard cap of ice, instead of driving off of a plowed road, figured walking was in order. Unfortunately, I left the snow shoes in the truck for the next stand figuring the frozen cap would allow for easy walking. WRONG! I’d walked too far from the truck by the time I admitted to myself how stupid it was for trying to walk without snowshoes through so much snow. The 1/2 mile walk had me overheated and questioning my sanity. We finally arrived at a good calling spot and as you can see by the video, overlooking a large flat. After the first series of howls, a group of coyotes responded with quiet the serenade! I kept up with the howls and finally got a glimpse of the 3 coyotes to our north 3/4 mile away. They looked interested so we responded back and forth until they’d had enough and decided it was time to whip the intruder! There was a 5-8 mph breeze from my right (north) to left (south). The following two video’s explain the situation much better so click on the picture and enjoy the ride.
Of course, the coyote ran away from the truck another 200 yards before dying!
We got the one circling down wind and that was it for the day. Calling was tough, getting around was tougher. Believe me though, the snowshoes were on my feet every time we got out of the truck!
Vintage 1943 military snowshoes. Just because they’re old doesn’t mean they don’t work!
We saw four more coyote during the day but nothing responded to the calls.
That night, while sitting in the trailer listening to the local radio station, the forecast called for light and variable winds, sunny and temps in the mid-teens. Perfect calling weather. Little did I know how true my prediction was to be!
We had a great year, lots of interesting stories, stuck way more than I would like to admit: Matter of fact, my last “stuck” episode was a duzzie! What do you think?
The lesson I had to relearn was: Don’t believe everything you hear about being able to drive a pickup on ice!
I’ve been checking the forecast and predictions were for light winds and clear skies at the beginning of the week. That’s all I needed to know and after the Super Bowl me, Bubba and Whitey headed to the hinter lands. For the unenlightened, sleeping in a 19 foot trailer with a single catalytic heater when temps drop down to zero, is rather chilly. Come morning the 5 gallon water jug inside the trailer was half frozen! No need to turn on the fridge as we were already an “ice box”! But, as my lovely wife says, I like the cold!
Most of northern Montana still has a foot of snow. Our first stand of the day was easy as I called right off of a plowed gas well access road. That was by far the easiest walking of the entire hunt. No coyotes but it sure felt good to be outside enjoying a beautiful winter day.
I’d had enough of getting stuck this year (7 times if anyone is counting) and with the snow now having a hard cap of ice, instead of driving off of a plowed road, figured walking was in order. Unfortunately, I left the snow shoes in the truck for the next stand figuring the frozen cap would allow for easy walking. WRONG! I’d walked too far from the truck by the time I admitted to myself how stupid it was for trying to walk without snowshoes through so much snow. The 1/2 mile walk had me overheated and questioning my sanity. We finally arrived at a good calling spot and as you can see by the video, overlooking a large flat. After the first series of howls, a group of coyotes responded with quiet the serenade! I kept up with the howls and finally got a glimpse of the 3 coyotes to our north 3/4 mile away. They looked interested so we responded back and forth until they’d had enough and decided it was time to whip the intruder! There was a 5-8 mph breeze from my right (north) to left (south). The following two video’s explain the situation much better so click on the picture and enjoy the ride.
Of course, the coyote ran away from the truck another 200 yards before dying!
We got the one circling down wind and that was it for the day. Calling was tough, getting around was tougher. Believe me though, the snowshoes were on my feet every time we got out of the truck!
Vintage 1943 military snowshoes. Just because they’re old doesn’t mean they don’t work!
We saw four more coyote during the day but nothing responded to the calls.
That night, while sitting in the trailer listening to the local radio station, the forecast called for light and variable winds, sunny and temps in the mid-teens. Perfect calling weather. Little did I know how true my prediction was to be!