Hellgate
Active member
I sure hope no one's been holding their breath on this one.
We got to the abandoned ranch on foot through over a foot of deep, wet snow after a 1/4 mile trudge. The ranch road was impassable. No cattle (later on that). Set up at the juncture of 3 draws near a long abandoned farm truck along a shallow draw. It was snowing heavily. Did a female invitation howl, fawn bleat, jackrabbit distress and finally coyote pup distress. Not even a raven showed. We had a 270 degree field of view and everything was snow covered. Got back to the rig (slow going Napoleon retreat from Moscow slog), drove down the road a ways and found the cattle feeding/calving open barn. It was right on the county road across from an occupied ranch house (different owner). There was a dead heifer just off the road which was dragged out of the cattle pen by the ranch owner. The hide and a couple chewed on leg bones were all that was left. We did not enter the fenced area with all the cattle bawling but went about 50 yards upslope and found a spot with a good view of the field, uphill draws, and the cattle. All side roads/trails/paths were through deep snow or bermed up by snow plows. We did a call and got the neighbor's dogs to barking. This was mid morning. We did see two ravens fly off when we started up the hill but that was it. Got back to the rig and saw tracks where the neighbor's dog circled our rig and peed on my tire. How fitting.
We then headed to other ranch areas we've called before but couldn't get off the county or state roads due to the snow that was too deep to drive through. We got bogged down on one attempt but were able to back down & turn around. We called one more time in a wide open draw (interestingly named Shotgun Hollow) where I knew there were coyotes but the dense snow was up to just below our knees. We had snow camo on so we just laid down in the snow on white plastic garbage bags and set up out in the open. We were in wheat country and no real cover nearby. This was about 2 PM when I figured they'd be bedded down. The female invitation howl got us about 3 coyotes yipping and howling back at us across the canyon 1/2 mile away but we never saw them. We had good visibility in their direction. Threw the kitchen sink at them and nothing came after about 25 minutes of calling. Again, the snow would have been easily up to their bellies and I believe it was too far for them to go out in the open. We death marched back to the just unstuck rig and headed out.
I had about 5 prime stands planned but could not get near them with the rig (Toyota 4Runner). We'll be back at them after the snow melts and the ground firms up. We were so tired and ringing wet from sweatty hiking that we said to [beeep] with any night calling and headed to the motel where we had a couple whiskey & 7s and watched Pawn Stars. Exciting life.
We got to the abandoned ranch on foot through over a foot of deep, wet snow after a 1/4 mile trudge. The ranch road was impassable. No cattle (later on that). Set up at the juncture of 3 draws near a long abandoned farm truck along a shallow draw. It was snowing heavily. Did a female invitation howl, fawn bleat, jackrabbit distress and finally coyote pup distress. Not even a raven showed. We had a 270 degree field of view and everything was snow covered. Got back to the rig (slow going Napoleon retreat from Moscow slog), drove down the road a ways and found the cattle feeding/calving open barn. It was right on the county road across from an occupied ranch house (different owner). There was a dead heifer just off the road which was dragged out of the cattle pen by the ranch owner. The hide and a couple chewed on leg bones were all that was left. We did not enter the fenced area with all the cattle bawling but went about 50 yards upslope and found a spot with a good view of the field, uphill draws, and the cattle. All side roads/trails/paths were through deep snow or bermed up by snow plows. We did a call and got the neighbor's dogs to barking. This was mid morning. We did see two ravens fly off when we started up the hill but that was it. Got back to the rig and saw tracks where the neighbor's dog circled our rig and peed on my tire. How fitting.
We then headed to other ranch areas we've called before but couldn't get off the county or state roads due to the snow that was too deep to drive through. We got bogged down on one attempt but were able to back down & turn around. We called one more time in a wide open draw (interestingly named Shotgun Hollow) where I knew there were coyotes but the dense snow was up to just below our knees. We had snow camo on so we just laid down in the snow on white plastic garbage bags and set up out in the open. We were in wheat country and no real cover nearby. This was about 2 PM when I figured they'd be bedded down. The female invitation howl got us about 3 coyotes yipping and howling back at us across the canyon 1/2 mile away but we never saw them. We had good visibility in their direction. Threw the kitchen sink at them and nothing came after about 25 minutes of calling. Again, the snow would have been easily up to their bellies and I believe it was too far for them to go out in the open. We death marched back to the just unstuck rig and headed out.
I had about 5 prime stands planned but could not get near them with the rig (Toyota 4Runner). We'll be back at them after the snow melts and the ground firms up. We were so tired and ringing wet from sweatty hiking that we said to [beeep] with any night calling and headed to the motel where we had a couple whiskey & 7s and watched Pawn Stars. Exciting life.
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