Started the ball, got one this evening.....

GC

GC

Well-known member
I was walking past the big windows in my living room and noticed an adult coyote in the field across from me. There isn't another house within a half mile of me on either side and directly across from my house is a 100 acre field. The backside of that field has a fair woodlot with a pond and a sizable family pack owns the terf there. The backside of my place has the same lay of the land (two ponds and a spring creek)and another pack owns this side of the gravel county road. I think I'm sitting on the edge of three packs territories as I can often hear the pack across the road, the pack behind my place, and another to the east of me a fair little distance challenging each other last winter. Last winter was our first here so this may take a little more research, but that's the way it seems right now.

Anyway, the owner had cut the hay off the field in front a few weeks ago and now had a fair herd of cows and little calves on the new growth. The other night a calf was bawling hard over there and I felt maybe something was going on. I know when we first moved here that same guy and another fellow down the road lost several calves to coyotes. Some new folks moved in the first place to my east and brought several housecats. Not anymore! Evidently, they underestimated Wiley Coyote's taste for kitty.

Back to the story. This coyote was mousing in the field and seemed content to hang out there for awhile. I grabbed some camo bib's and a 3-D parka, a hat that has a built in facemask, the Benelli and a squirrel distress whistle I had in the gun safe. I sneaked out to the corner of my three bay garage along the gravel road. This is about fifty yards from the house. The wind was blowing out into my barnlot. This was good as there was a nice dip in the field across from me that had a little scrub growth. I figured that if something approached it would come into that low spot and use the scrub to conceal it so it could quickly cross the gravel road. Crossing there would put the coyote in my barnlot and downwind once it got out about forty yards or so into the barnlot. That dip was around 35 yards from me.

I started rodent squeaking with the distress whistle, short, sharp little puffs of air. Immediately the adult coyote across the road from me (150 yards) sat down to size up the situation. Suddenly from behind this adult coyote and from the backside of the field another coyote came busting in on the run. This was a young of the year pup. When this coyote came across the field the older coyote turned and trotted away from me and sat down on the top of the field edge. The pup never veered and ran straight toward me loping in hard. I decided a coyote in the hand was worth two in the bush and would take the young one when it got within range. The adult seemed to be set-up and not willing to move. I was wishing I had a howler right then, and/or an open reed to make some puppy whines and squeals. It would have been nice to drag the old dog over. I don't know if it would have happened, I was siting against my garage and only fifty yards from my house. As it was I had the pup on a string. It crossed the road and loped out into the barnlot looking around to get it's bearings. At 35 yards the number Four Buckshot pretty much tore it up.

Not bad for a hunt in the front yard thrown together in about a minute or two! Last weekend a spotted fawn got caught in the fenced in back yard and I had to untangle it and shoo it away into the creek bottom below the house. I love country living!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
I'm in the southeastern part of the state and the northeastern edge of the Ozark Mountains.
 
Hi GC,
I grew up in the southeastern part of the state, on the southeastern edge of the mountains. Ever get down to Clearwater or Wappapello Lake? I spent a lot of time on both of those lakes fishing with my dad.
Jim

Originally posted by GC:
[qb]I'm in the southeastern part of the state and the northeastern edge of the Ozark Mountains.[/qb]
Click to expand...
 
JimT,
I do fish both of those lakes. I'm a little north of there (1hr) but have had some good days on the water there. I used to deer hunt west of Clearwater Lake over in Reynolds County in the Deer Run State Forest. I've also called some coyotes in there too. A few years ago a Conservation Agent responded to a farmers call of a calf killed by a varmint of some sort. While scouting around they came upon a Mountain Lion feeding on an adult doe deer. They video taped the big cat for awhile, then slipped out. As the crow flies that was about a mile from my deer stand. I recently met a guy who deer hunts in the Corp of Engineers land around the big Wapp. He swears that every year he and his deer camp see a half dozen bobcats where they hunt. He wants to show me where they are and hopefully I can get down there and score a cat or two. Beautiful country!
 
The great thing about that area is that the Corps of Engineers bought up so much land because of the lakes, then they made it public! I didn't know how good I had it until I moved to Indiana. Public land is sparse here. I can get to National Forest in about 25-30 minutes, but that's it for public.
I'm getting wound up for season, I've been seeing a coyote a day all week, driving to and from work. I guess it's the cool weather.
Jim
 
JimT,
Between the Missouri Department of Conservation, The U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Wildlife Service, National Park Service, and Army Corp of Engineers, there is a ton of ground to hunt in Missouri. It's great to be able to roam around at will in the big timber of the Ozarks. That's the really great thing about predator hunting, especially after the general firearms deer season is over, you never see another hunter. Just the wind blowing through the forest and a slowly sifting snowfall..... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
GC, I want to talk to you about that dadgum squirrel distress whistle I've heard you mention a couple times now.Tell me more about it.

By the way,the BAR is doing fine!

catrunr@aol.com
 
Pruson,
The model I have is a Faulk's brand. It's a small wooden tube type call that you manipulate by sucking air through rather than blowing like most calls. It's supposed to imitate a young gray squirrel in distress and it sounds exactly just like one. I do a lot of squirrel hunting and have occasionally wounded a young squirrel and heard them scream. Also, while bowhunting deer I had a big redtailed hawk grab a young gray squirrel about 40 yards from my tree stand. That big old hawk grabbed that squirrel and pinned it to the ground and sat like he was proud as all get out of his accomplishment while that little squirrel screamed in short sharp whistles. Every squirrel within earshot immediately ran up into the trees and started carrying on. I actually bought the call to help locate squirrels when the woods are quiet and little seems to be moving. Trying to be proactive and make something happen on an otherwise dull day as a last resort sort of thing.

Of course, you can make any sort of sequence on it just as you would any other predator call. Short hard little puffs make for an excellent rodent squeaker. A short series (6-7) of abrupt screams makes the squirrel sound. Longer screaming and wailing imitates some other sort of smallish critter in distress. This call has a little more volume than a pure rodent squeaker and that can be handy on windy days. One of the best features for me is that I can tuck it in the side of my mouth and keep the gun mounted and cheek weld correct, then use it as a coaxer to draw something that last few yards for the shot. Makes it hands free and I control the air easily.

Last night I was working in the yard and saw the groundhog that's burrowing under my barn and making a nuisance of himself. I grabbed the CZ .22 Magnum and put an end to him from about 110 yards. Shortly afterward, just at dusk I heard a lone howl from the corner of my hayfield beside the house. This morning my daughter was leaving for work and called to tell me she saw two coyotes in the corner of the yard that joins the hayfield. My yard is T shaped with a loong leg running in front of this field. There are four apple trees in this corner that have small apples a few of which have been knocked off the tree. Rabbits and deer have been eating these little apples. I found a rabbit kill there a week or so ago, there has been coyote crap in that corner of the yard recently. Looks like a good calling season ahead!
 
sheesh GC what you trying to do, get a predator masters hunt going here? grin, grin. i aint figuered out dem der face thingies yet. it is getting worse now since one of the big logging comp. sold there lands and the new owners are trying to lease it out like up north.the yotes have been pretty scarce here about lately. hoping this fall they start being more visible. vx
 
i aint figuered out dem der face thingies yet.
Click to expand...
varmintx,
Try as I might, I ain't figured out what you mean by that statement? You lost me. I don't hunt any of the big timber holdings, there is so much public ground I've just never needed to. There is one tract in Iron County that I drive through to some Forest Service ground that looks good. I should modify that, it looks as good as the public ground. I don't really know if it would be any better or not. In my neck of the woods predator calling is virtually non-existant. I've never seen or met another caller. In one place I hunt I have met up with some hound hunters. But that's it for predator hunting pressure, other than deer hunters sniping at critters during the firearms season. I've heard that you can write for permission to hunt and/or pay a nominal trespass fee to hunt some of these properties. I guess that wouldn't be a big deal if a guy needed a place to hunt, or the timber company had some particular piece of prime country you really wanted to hunt. As for leasing, count me out. Where are you hunting at in Missouri?
 
GC - squirrel distress whistle, sounds like something my 'yotes haven't heard before. At least not made by me. I'm expanding the sounds I can create, and the squirrel distress whistle sounds like another good one.

I'll have to try to find one.

Good hunting, Sleddogg
 
Thanks for the response/info GC, that is what this place is about ain't it.

Sleddog, I would try "Allpredatorcalls.com" if I were you. Yes sir, I sure would!
 
GC sorry that i aint answered quicker but been busy. i was referring to the smily faces that everyone's always putting in there post. thus the grin grin remark. ellington, next to the old deer run state park that some genius decided to rename current river state park, i think i got that right. as for the leasing you are absolutly right we dont need it with the state land and stuff available. my budies lease land up north and i go and hunt public land but dont see the deer that they say are running in droves up there. heck i see more here in a day then i do in 2-3 days up there, and have yet to see a really good "northern buck" while up there. oh well the main reason for going is to see my budies from st. luise since i moved back down here. VX
 
varmintx,
I've hunted alot in the good old Deer Run State Forest. I can't quite figure out the naming system there either, Deer Run until you cross the Current River, then it was Paint Rock, then Paint Rock ran out and the next contigous block across the road was called something else entirely. All those names for basically one huge block of forest ground, yet depending upon which end you drove into you were supposed to be in a different forest.

Anyway, I've killed some real nice bucks in there. My Dad, Son, and I have hunted quite a bit from town to the gun range. Roads 5, 7, 9, 11, ect... I've also called quite a few coyotes in there too. There is a long ridge around the gun range that has a good pack on it. We've seen them chasing deer down that ridge several times, and I've called several coyotes on it over the last few years I hunted there. There is also a good creek bottom there that always had cat sign in it. Beautiful country full of some of the wildest critters in this state to include mountain lion and black bear.
 


Write your reply...
Back
Top