I took this past Thursday and Friday off from work to go coyote hunting in North Dakota. Unfortunately it was so windy on Thursday all I did was drive around and get permission to hunt on some new land.
The weather on Friday was sunny and calm. My first two stands in the morning were uneventful, so I took advantage of the calm weather and did some long range target shooting with my 25-06 and 100 grain Barnes TSX bullets. As luck would have it, this would come in handy on Saturday.
Around noon on Friday, I set out in some rolling hills that went on for miles. The wind was from the SW so I headed on out with the wind in my face. The first set was about 400 yards from my vehicle, nothing. Walked in another 3/4 of a mile and started seeing more sign along with snowmobile tracks. People are running the coyotes with snowmobiles and ATV’s out there. (Don’t get me started) Anyway, I found a nice looking spot over looking some real choppy hills that dipped down into some low swamp land. I set the caller out about 120 yards to the SW and started with a pup howl followed with a rabbit distress mixed with some of my own pup yips on my Bill Austin howler. After waiting about 5 minutes I started the rabbit distress and my pup yipping. Around the 15 minute mark a coyote appears about 300 yards to the west. Some soft distress sounds on the caller got her to come in another 60 to 70 yards. It hung up around 225 yards and was looking nervous. Because I was feeling confident with my recent target shooting, I took the shot. Bang flop. One down. Sorry no pictures, I was very dehydrated by the time I got back to the vehicle and getting water was my first priority.
Friday evening was uneventful. I did have some coyotes answer my howling but no coyotes showed.
Saturday morning I tried sitting in a tree that overlooked some CRP between two tree rows. I saw nothing. Now I’m feeling discouraged, this was a very good spot. On my walk back to the vehicle I glance to my right and way out in the field I see a coyote trotting parallel to me 400 to 500 yards away. I hit the dirt, or in this case, a snow drift. As I’m crawling to the nearest fence line, I hear a coyote barking and yapping at me. Damn I’m busted. She didn’t see me but the big male that was following her did. The female is just standing there looking back at the male probably wondering what all the fuss was about. Because the male coyote busted me, trying to call them in closer was out of the question. So I take my fanny pack and lay it down to support the rifle. This is where Fridays target practice came in handy. I turned my Leupold 4.5-14 to 11 power, with this setting, the first Mil-Dot was right on at 400 yards. With a right to left wind around 10 to 15 mph, I hold mid body on the female coyote with the first mil-dot slightly over her back. At the shot, I see her tip over right before I hear the muffled "pop" sound of bullet hitting body. I walked back to the vehicle and grab my Leica 1200 range finder. I had to drape my wool jacket over the fence so I had something to range back to when I was out in the field collecting the coyote. It ranged right at 464 yards. This is my farthest shot I ever made on anything. The shot center punched her shoulder.
Here is the picture. The big cottonwood trees are 300 yards away. I shot her on a rise just to the right of my big head.
Saturday evening I set up over a cattail swamp where I heard a bunch of coyotes howling the night before. This time I just used all pup howls and pup distress sounds on the e-caller, at the 15 minute mark a coyote peeks out of a small opening in the cattails about 75 yards away. At the shot, I hear some yipping and silence. Right about this time it starts raining so I get out of the tree to find her in case I made a bad hit. When I located the cattail opening, there was blood everywhere. She was piled up about 7 yards into the cattails. It was a small female pup. I hit her a little low and the 25-06 opened her up big time. Most of her entails were out of her when I finally got back to the vehicle. I didn’t take pictures because of the rain and the gore. Three down.
I planned on making two sets on Sunday morning and deliver the coyotes to the fur buyer before I left for home.
Sunday morning there was a stiff northwest wind. My favorite. I decided to hunt out of a tree I brushed out a week earlier. This tree is located in the middle of the nastiest cattail swamp around. The swamp covers about 3 to 4 sections of land. At first light, deer are running all over in the cattails as I make my way out to my distance tree. I set the e-caller out about 60 yards to the NW. Because I alerted so many deer on my approach, I decided to wait awhile and let things cool down.
While I’m waiting, off to the north about 500 yards away I see deer running back and forth. Through my binoculars I see two coyotes appear from the cattails close to the deer. In a scene reminiscent of something out of Africa, I watch as one of the coyotes makes a mad dash for the closest deer. The chase lasted about 100 to 150 yards. Then the coyote that was doing the chasing stopped and looked like it was planning it's next move. I hit the pup howl followed by a rabbit distress. The pair either didn’t hear me, or they didn’t care. About 5 minutes after the first calling, just as I’m bring down the binoculars from my eyes, I catch a glance of a big coyote only 10 yards north of my tree. My 25-06 was hanging on a tree step on the left side of the tree and the coyote was almost on the caller. He was doing this dancing prancing thing as he was nearing the caller. Something wasn’t right and he made a quick move to the right, I barked, he stopped. Bang flop.
I hit the ki-yi. Nothing showed. Because I was having good luck using pup howls mixed with coyote distress sounds I went back to those. After about 15 minutes, I spotted a coyote coming in from the east, by the looks of it she would pass about 10 to 15 yards to the north of my tree. When she was 15 yards away I stop her with a lip squeak. bang flop.
Here is the picture back at the vehicle. The male was beautiful, the female was a dark reddish
pup.
Thanks for reading. Paint
The weather on Friday was sunny and calm. My first two stands in the morning were uneventful, so I took advantage of the calm weather and did some long range target shooting with my 25-06 and 100 grain Barnes TSX bullets. As luck would have it, this would come in handy on Saturday.
Around noon on Friday, I set out in some rolling hills that went on for miles. The wind was from the SW so I headed on out with the wind in my face. The first set was about 400 yards from my vehicle, nothing. Walked in another 3/4 of a mile and started seeing more sign along with snowmobile tracks. People are running the coyotes with snowmobiles and ATV’s out there. (Don’t get me started) Anyway, I found a nice looking spot over looking some real choppy hills that dipped down into some low swamp land. I set the caller out about 120 yards to the SW and started with a pup howl followed with a rabbit distress mixed with some of my own pup yips on my Bill Austin howler. After waiting about 5 minutes I started the rabbit distress and my pup yipping. Around the 15 minute mark a coyote appears about 300 yards to the west. Some soft distress sounds on the caller got her to come in another 60 to 70 yards. It hung up around 225 yards and was looking nervous. Because I was feeling confident with my recent target shooting, I took the shot. Bang flop. One down. Sorry no pictures, I was very dehydrated by the time I got back to the vehicle and getting water was my first priority.
Friday evening was uneventful. I did have some coyotes answer my howling but no coyotes showed.
Saturday morning I tried sitting in a tree that overlooked some CRP between two tree rows. I saw nothing. Now I’m feeling discouraged, this was a very good spot. On my walk back to the vehicle I glance to my right and way out in the field I see a coyote trotting parallel to me 400 to 500 yards away. I hit the dirt, or in this case, a snow drift. As I’m crawling to the nearest fence line, I hear a coyote barking and yapping at me. Damn I’m busted. She didn’t see me but the big male that was following her did. The female is just standing there looking back at the male probably wondering what all the fuss was about. Because the male coyote busted me, trying to call them in closer was out of the question. So I take my fanny pack and lay it down to support the rifle. This is where Fridays target practice came in handy. I turned my Leupold 4.5-14 to 11 power, with this setting, the first Mil-Dot was right on at 400 yards. With a right to left wind around 10 to 15 mph, I hold mid body on the female coyote with the first mil-dot slightly over her back. At the shot, I see her tip over right before I hear the muffled "pop" sound of bullet hitting body. I walked back to the vehicle and grab my Leica 1200 range finder. I had to drape my wool jacket over the fence so I had something to range back to when I was out in the field collecting the coyote. It ranged right at 464 yards. This is my farthest shot I ever made on anything. The shot center punched her shoulder.
Here is the picture. The big cottonwood trees are 300 yards away. I shot her on a rise just to the right of my big head.
Saturday evening I set up over a cattail swamp where I heard a bunch of coyotes howling the night before. This time I just used all pup howls and pup distress sounds on the e-caller, at the 15 minute mark a coyote peeks out of a small opening in the cattails about 75 yards away. At the shot, I hear some yipping and silence. Right about this time it starts raining so I get out of the tree to find her in case I made a bad hit. When I located the cattail opening, there was blood everywhere. She was piled up about 7 yards into the cattails. It was a small female pup. I hit her a little low and the 25-06 opened her up big time. Most of her entails were out of her when I finally got back to the vehicle. I didn’t take pictures because of the rain and the gore. Three down.
I planned on making two sets on Sunday morning and deliver the coyotes to the fur buyer before I left for home.
Sunday morning there was a stiff northwest wind. My favorite. I decided to hunt out of a tree I brushed out a week earlier. This tree is located in the middle of the nastiest cattail swamp around. The swamp covers about 3 to 4 sections of land. At first light, deer are running all over in the cattails as I make my way out to my distance tree. I set the e-caller out about 60 yards to the NW. Because I alerted so many deer on my approach, I decided to wait awhile and let things cool down.
While I’m waiting, off to the north about 500 yards away I see deer running back and forth. Through my binoculars I see two coyotes appear from the cattails close to the deer. In a scene reminiscent of something out of Africa, I watch as one of the coyotes makes a mad dash for the closest deer. The chase lasted about 100 to 150 yards. Then the coyote that was doing the chasing stopped and looked like it was planning it's next move. I hit the pup howl followed by a rabbit distress. The pair either didn’t hear me, or they didn’t care. About 5 minutes after the first calling, just as I’m bring down the binoculars from my eyes, I catch a glance of a big coyote only 10 yards north of my tree. My 25-06 was hanging on a tree step on the left side of the tree and the coyote was almost on the caller. He was doing this dancing prancing thing as he was nearing the caller. Something wasn’t right and he made a quick move to the right, I barked, he stopped. Bang flop.
I hit the ki-yi. Nothing showed. Because I was having good luck using pup howls mixed with coyote distress sounds I went back to those. After about 15 minutes, I spotted a coyote coming in from the east, by the looks of it she would pass about 10 to 15 yards to the north of my tree. When she was 15 yards away I stop her with a lip squeak. bang flop.
Here is the picture back at the vehicle. The male was beautiful, the female was a dark reddish
pup.
Thanks for reading. Paint
