Well, my calling partner from Bismarck finally got up here so we could go calling. We headed south of the Missouri River to avoid all the deep, crunchy snow that is all over up north of Williston. We called in 6 places before lunch and didn't see one coyote /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif
There wasn't much snow, but we did wear our white coveralls and tan masks and blended in pretty good. We ate lunch and headed over to a spot where I have called a couple of times, but never called in a coyote. It was my turn to call, so I posted my partner to the north of me (ENE wind) so he could see over a little rise to the north and east and I covered the south and east. I took out my Tally Ho and started the dying rabbit blues for about 1 1/2 minutes. Then I waited for about 1 minute and started again. At about the 4 minute mark, I mixed in some high pitched squeals and stopped. I looked out to the east and could see a coyote coming and it was about 400 yards away. I alerted my partner via the hand-held radio (he has ear buds and little push button lapel mics that work really good) and told him "Coyote to the east!" The coyote stopped, I gave a couple of low volume rabbit squeals and he started in again. My partner buzzed me and said there's two coyotes, but one is way behind the front one, so wait till the back one gets closer." I told him, "I'll wait as long as I can before shooting so we can maybe get a double." Finally, the back coyote started coming in. My coyote was about 100 yards away, but the back coyote was still 300 yards out. I cranked my scope down to 6x and put the cross hairs on the coyotes chest as it moved straight toward me. She was now about 50 yards away and the other coyote had moved to about 200 yards. I thought I'd better try to stop my coyote so I lip squeaked a couple of times and that didn't work!!! Now she's about 30 yards away so I barked and she turned sideways--perfect, standing still shot! My partner shot before I could pull the trigger and I could hear that he WHUMPED his coyote. My coyote started running away, but I got the crosshairs on her and put her down. We did the wounded coyote yelp for a few minutes, but nothing else showed up. I looked at my watch and we were only 8 minutes into the calling stand!!! Pretty quick action. We hauled the coyotes back to the pickup and I was so excited I forgot to take pictures!!!
We drove in on an old lease road that leads way back into some rough country. We got off on a little prairie trail and started heading south. The wind was still out of the east and that isn't a real good direction for the road we were on, but we continued and found a likely looking spot. My partner set up to call and I guarded the down wind side on this stand. About 8 minutes into the set I spotted a coyote coming from my partner's left hand side (I'm on his right so I can't shoot). He finally spotted the coyote and lip squeaked to get him stopped at about 100 yards away and shot him. Here's a photo of that coyote and the two hunters. I'm the good looking one on the left /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
We then drove back out of there and headed farther SE to some areas where we could call into the ENE wind. The wind kept switching all day. We stopped and walked in to the east side of the lease road and I set up on the down wind side and my partner called. This would be the last stand of the day as it was starting to get to the point where it was difficult to see. He started with the Tally Ho and after 9 minutes nothing had shown up so he did some howling and mixed in the Tally Ho too. Soon there was a coyote serenade resounding from the hills to the ENE of us. It sounded like maybe 3 coyotes and another coyote was howling softly to the east of us. I moved my gun over so I could scope the hills to ENE. At the 14 minute mark my partner shot his rifle!!! Surprised the heck out of me I looked out in front of him and I could see a coyote flopping on the ground. It was really tough to see with the salt and pepper look on the prairie. He hadn't seen it come across the 300 yard open flat in front of him until it was about 100 yards away! That was it for the day.
I guess we could have just as well slept in this morning and gone out in the afternoon. The last coyote we got was rubbed, but the others were in good shape.
Here's a photo of the four coyotes. The second one in is a 35 pound coyote. I didn't weigh the others, but they are all smaller than that second one.
There wasn't much snow, but we did wear our white coveralls and tan masks and blended in pretty good. We ate lunch and headed over to a spot where I have called a couple of times, but never called in a coyote. It was my turn to call, so I posted my partner to the north of me (ENE wind) so he could see over a little rise to the north and east and I covered the south and east. I took out my Tally Ho and started the dying rabbit blues for about 1 1/2 minutes. Then I waited for about 1 minute and started again. At about the 4 minute mark, I mixed in some high pitched squeals and stopped. I looked out to the east and could see a coyote coming and it was about 400 yards away. I alerted my partner via the hand-held radio (he has ear buds and little push button lapel mics that work really good) and told him "Coyote to the east!" The coyote stopped, I gave a couple of low volume rabbit squeals and he started in again. My partner buzzed me and said there's two coyotes, but one is way behind the front one, so wait till the back one gets closer." I told him, "I'll wait as long as I can before shooting so we can maybe get a double." Finally, the back coyote started coming in. My coyote was about 100 yards away, but the back coyote was still 300 yards out. I cranked my scope down to 6x and put the cross hairs on the coyotes chest as it moved straight toward me. She was now about 50 yards away and the other coyote had moved to about 200 yards. I thought I'd better try to stop my coyote so I lip squeaked a couple of times and that didn't work!!! Now she's about 30 yards away so I barked and she turned sideways--perfect, standing still shot! My partner shot before I could pull the trigger and I could hear that he WHUMPED his coyote. My coyote started running away, but I got the crosshairs on her and put her down. We did the wounded coyote yelp for a few minutes, but nothing else showed up. I looked at my watch and we were only 8 minutes into the calling stand!!! Pretty quick action. We hauled the coyotes back to the pickup and I was so excited I forgot to take pictures!!!
We drove in on an old lease road that leads way back into some rough country. We got off on a little prairie trail and started heading south. The wind was still out of the east and that isn't a real good direction for the road we were on, but we continued and found a likely looking spot. My partner set up to call and I guarded the down wind side on this stand. About 8 minutes into the set I spotted a coyote coming from my partner's left hand side (I'm on his right so I can't shoot). He finally spotted the coyote and lip squeaked to get him stopped at about 100 yards away and shot him. Here's a photo of that coyote and the two hunters. I'm the good looking one on the left /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
We then drove back out of there and headed farther SE to some areas where we could call into the ENE wind. The wind kept switching all day. We stopped and walked in to the east side of the lease road and I set up on the down wind side and my partner called. This would be the last stand of the day as it was starting to get to the point where it was difficult to see. He started with the Tally Ho and after 9 minutes nothing had shown up so he did some howling and mixed in the Tally Ho too. Soon there was a coyote serenade resounding from the hills to the ENE of us. It sounded like maybe 3 coyotes and another coyote was howling softly to the east of us. I moved my gun over so I could scope the hills to ENE. At the 14 minute mark my partner shot his rifle!!! Surprised the heck out of me I looked out in front of him and I could see a coyote flopping on the ground. It was really tough to see with the salt and pepper look on the prairie. He hadn't seen it come across the 300 yard open flat in front of him until it was about 100 yards away! That was it for the day.
I guess we could have just as well slept in this morning and gone out in the afternoon. The last coyote we got was rubbed, but the others were in good shape.
Here's a photo of the four coyotes. The second one in is a 35 pound coyote. I didn't weigh the others, but they are all smaller than that second one.