ceedub
01-01-2012, 05:02 PM
I've been toying with the idea of buying an electronic caller but wasn't sure if calling coyotes was gonna be my thing. Through a couple of pm's some members here suggested just using a mouth call and see what happens. I had a call downstairs in a drawer on my reloading bench that my wife had thrown in my Christmas stocking a few years ago, a Knight & Hale dying Rodent so I took it out of the package, give it a few blows and decided to give it a whirl. After some thought, I elected to give the new Savage Axis in 204 Ruger a try rather than my pet 17 Fireball.
I headed out on foot from the house into my neighbors pasture, sat down on the bank of the creek where I had a good line of site and give a series of the most convincing calls I could (considering I had never done it before). About a minute later I had magpies flying all around me, and before you knew it a coyote appeared like a ghost in the short silverwillows about 125 yards to my right. I could only see a portion of his back so I waited for a better shot but he soon got my wind and took off running hard through the tangled creek bottom.
I moved to a different spot just a 150 yards away where any approaching yote was unlikely to catch my wind, and sat down and gave a series of calls. Magpies again, then some movement in the creek bottom, here comes 2 yotes from the west and I can see a distant third one on the bank about 100 yards behind that pair! I waited until one stopped to check things out, put the crosshairs on him and squeezed. He was about 180 yards out and he did the circle dance before folding up. I could have taken a hail mary at his partner but I elected to pass. All I could think of was, why haven't I tried this before? I was about 1/2 mile from the house so I walked back for the quad.
Here's a couple of pics of my afternoon adventure and my first called in coyote, a good sized male.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/ceedub/Coyote%202012/027.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/ceedub/Coyote%202012/030.jpg
I headed out on foot from the house into my neighbors pasture, sat down on the bank of the creek where I had a good line of site and give a series of the most convincing calls I could (considering I had never done it before). About a minute later I had magpies flying all around me, and before you knew it a coyote appeared like a ghost in the short silverwillows about 125 yards to my right. I could only see a portion of his back so I waited for a better shot but he soon got my wind and took off running hard through the tangled creek bottom.
I moved to a different spot just a 150 yards away where any approaching yote was unlikely to catch my wind, and sat down and gave a series of calls. Magpies again, then some movement in the creek bottom, here comes 2 yotes from the west and I can see a distant third one on the bank about 100 yards behind that pair! I waited until one stopped to check things out, put the crosshairs on him and squeezed. He was about 180 yards out and he did the circle dance before folding up. I could have taken a hail mary at his partner but I elected to pass. All I could think of was, why haven't I tried this before? I was about 1/2 mile from the house so I walked back for the quad.
Here's a couple of pics of my afternoon adventure and my first called in coyote, a good sized male.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/ceedub/Coyote%202012/027.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v517/ceedub/Coyote%202012/030.jpg