Whirling Woodpecker & coyote pictures, 12 called, 9 dead

derbyacresbob

Well-known member
I left the house about 6:30am and started calling at about 7:00am. The first stand I was laying down with my 243 and had DSG Cottontail going on volume 40, the call was about 50 yards out in front of me. From my left I see a coyote come up out of a deep canyon and stop in a small saddle on the ridge to my left. He was standing there looking towards the call about 125 yards away, so I moved the 243 with a bi-pod on it a little to the left and shot him. Around 5 minutes later a big male comes over the same ridge out of the same canyon and he is even with me on the hill side. He disappeared into a low spot so I muted the call. I knew he was only about 30 to 60 yards away on the wide open hill but I couldn't see him. I switched the call to Vole squeaks on volume 18, that is my number 1 preset. This big male walked out of the low spot back the way he came in. He stopped at about 70 yards and was looking at me just out of the shadow of the ridge, the sun was in his eyes real bad. Shot him with the 243. At the second stand only about a half mile away, I could see a long ways. I had lightning jack going on volume 40 with the call out about 70 yards away, on the side of a hill to my left. The call had only been going about 3 minutes when I see a coyote coming in fast about 500 yards away. When this coyote gets about 100 yards from the call, I see another coyote about 20 yards from the call. So I shoot the one that is 20 yards from the call. I tried to stop the first coyote I saw with preset 4 "coyote death cry" he did not stop. While coyote death cry is still going, only about 30 seconds after I switched to it, I see another hard charger coming in. I stopped him with Vole squeaks and shot him at about 150 yards. Now that I have 4 coyotes in the back of my truck after two stands I am thinking this is going to be a good day. When I got close to where I was going to make the third stand I saw a huge bobcat sitting under a tree on the skyline about 400 yards away. I made the next stand about 400 yards from where I saw this big bobcat go over the ridge. On this stand I was using my shotgun and the Whirling Woodpecker Decoy. I really want to get some pictures of bobcats with the decoy. At 2 minutes after I started luckybird on volume 40 a coyote came right up to the call and decoy through the scrub oaks. As soon as he cleared the call and decoy I shot him with a 1-1/2oz reload of lead T shot. I got my camera up and was taking pictures of the dead coyote in front of the call when I see another one on the way.
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I got some pictures of the second one on the third stand while he was busy looking at the decoy and then figured I better shoot him. Now I have had 3 stands and I have 6 coyotes in the back of my truck. At the fourth stand things started to slow down some. I only got one coyote with the decoy and my shotgun at the fourth stand. Stands 5 and 6 were blanks. At stand 7 I had the decoy out with luckybird going full volume. At around 10 minutes I see a coyote move out of the brush and cross over the ridge below me about 100 yards away and he was limping. About 3 minutes later another coyote does the same thing but he is looking at the decoy. I switched to the vole squeaks and this coyote started sneaking through the trees up towards the call and decoy. I lowered the vole squeaks volume down to about 10 or 12 and he tried to sneak in behind the call. I shot him at about 20 yards when he came around a juniper. Now I have 8 coyotes in the truck. At stand 8 I was using the shotgun and decoy again. I had luckybird going full blast again. At around 12 minutes I see a coyote sneaking by down the hill going to my right. I thought I would see him pop up by the decoy but he didn't. I lowered the volume on luckybird and then switched to vole squeaks at very low volume and he was not showing up. A few minutes of low volume stuff was not working so I put luckybird back on at full volume. A coyote popped up by the decoy within 20 seconds of putting luckybird back on at full volume. I took 18 pictures of this coyote before I decided I better shoot him. That makes 9 coyotes in the back of my truck. The most coyotes I have ever got by myself was 7. Hanging the Whirling Woodpecker on some fishing line or putting it on some low brush so the decoy is very close to the speakers works good! When I can take pictures and then set down the camera and grab my shotgun and raise it up to shoot and the coyotes don't even notice me, I know the decoy is working.
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Stands number 9 and 10 were blanks. It was about 3:30pm and I needed to get home, Dr Phil starts at 4:00pm. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Great job and sweet pictures Bob. I'm seeing a theme to your stands...down in the brush. You need to do a writeup on your stands and give landscape photos. I think a bunch of guys could learn from your tactics.

Thanks for sharing and Congrats.

Tony
 
Bob, you got a extra bedroom? I am movin in! What do you charge for rent? I'll cook and clean and pay for gas. Just let me go with you once, please please please!
 
WOW! what a day, or month for that matter. Sheesh, leave some for seed next time. (just kidding)
Would you attribute alot of the success on the luckybird placement, selection of calls, volume, or combo of all things?? Man, that is awesome.
 
callerofthesongdog, luckybird is a sound on my FOXPRO FX5 caller. The decoy is a Whirling Woodpecker. I think having the decoy as close to the speaker as you can get it, makes sense. I hunt in big country and have always used the volume as loud as it will go.

Jay, the camera I am using is a Canon Rebel XTi. This camera will take at least two pictures per second if I set it up for that.
 
Let me get this straight.......9 coyotes, during the day, toting both a rifle and a shotgun AND you are able to take awesome pictures too. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif Dude....impressive is a HUGE understatement. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowingsmilie.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowingsmilie.gif

If I tried that, I'd have tripods falling over, a camera strap tangled around my neck and I'd be trying to load .243 shells into the 12 gauge. All the while coyotes would be challenge howling at me from a distance after they easily busted me! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smiliesmack.gif

Awesome job!! Now.....KEEP DOING IT AND KEEP US POSTED! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif

Take care and God Bless,

Rusty
 
What a day /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/ooo.gif MAN!
Great pictures, I film every call, you never know when
something great is going to happen.
How many times has everyone said man I wished I had a camera
Great job again /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grinning-smiley-003.gif

Rich Fiore
 
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