Been working lots since my last posting. Not much time for anything outside of that, despite having some calls for people having coyote issues whilst calving.
I was off today and had taken a call from a friend whose FIL had 5 coyotes in and around his calving pen morning before last. After a nice chat on the phone with him, I had a plan in place and a warm welcome to call in a spot I had thought of calling on several occasions but, just hadn’t made the effort. While gathering up my gear, I received two text messages from another friend. He is also a farmer and the texts, were two videos of him in his calving pen last night. In the video, you can hear his side x side running, he’s is scanning around steadily with his spotlight and yelling at no less than 5 coyotes all around him. A couple were even advancing towards him. The lack of fear was concerning to him. Later this morning, his video camera recorded coyotes harassing a cow that had just calved. Three of them were darting in and out and nipping but the old girl had played a round or two of this game before by the looks and fended them off.
Long story short, I was off to call two spots.
Stand #1
I had killed 4 off of this 1/4 already this season and I didn’t want to stray much further from the outskirts of the calving pen as the offender(s) probably weren’t terribly far away. I opted to climb up into the bale borders of his silage pit to gain some vantage. With the caller 50 yards away, I loosed into a series of howls. I heard three answers - south, east and north west of me. Nothing overly close though. Keeping with coyote vocals, I had just started with some pup distress when I caught movement to the south east of my hide. About 250 yards away, there was no mistaking the outline of a coyote. I dialled down the volume and fired up a fight sound. Almost immediately, the coyote broke into a canter towards me. I had adjusted myself slightly but still wasn’t in a good position to shoot. It came to about 80 yards away. I muted the caller and knew I would have to let it do its thing before I’d be able to complete my move. It was pretty neat watching it over the next several minutes, trying to sort out why it couldn’t see what it had heard. It rolled in the grass once. Sat on its arse a few times. Losing interest, it started trotting away to the east. My moment had arrived and I completed my move. “WOOF”. Coming to a stop in the crosshairs at 157 yards, the writing was on the wall. BOOM! CHOP! and it folded up like a lawn chair as the 75gr V-Max went to work. I continued calling for another 15 minutes but, no takers. Oh well. I neglected to bring my phone with me on this stand so, no picture but, it was a mature Tom and #63 of the campaign. My friend was very happy to be one less.
Stand #2
Travelling to a pasture I could access from, I had a half mile hike in to where I figured I want to set up. I’d looked for sheds here years ago so I had some memory of how the hills rolled, low spots and such. I was able to stay extremely well hidden on my way in and came around the bottom of a shaded hillside to deploy the caller. As I was doing so, I noticed a coyote travelling and mousing a bit about 500 yards from my position. I let it do its thing and waited for it to get out of sight before getting up the hill and tucking in beneath the rise. A gopher mound provided a nice bit of support to lean into couple with my seat cushion. There were gophers sounding off all over the place on my walk in - when in Rome? I opened up with some Prairie Dog Distress. It had only been a few minutes since the coyote I had seen had disappeared. To my delight, maybe 4 minutes after starting to call, I saw it peeking around a hill side about 300 yards away. After about 2 minutes of it standing there, I figured it needed ti hear something else to be triggered. I hadn’t used Blue Jay at all yet this winter so I figured why not. Immediately, the coyote broke into a lope and disappeared into a low spot, I made a quick adjustment and was on the rifle, waiting for it to crest the knoll at 60 yards. Above the buck brush, ears, eyes, nose neck “WUFF!” Settling the crosshairs on the chest, the rest was automatic as the trigger broke. BOOM! CHOP! Let me just say this. A 75gr 6mm V-Max, doing nearly 3600fps at a distance of 60 yards, is not conducive to clean field photos. [emoji51]We will leave that one out. Honestly, I’m going to dial back this load. Kills were much cleaner down around the 3400fps area.
Calling again, as it hadn’t been overly long into the set, I proceeded with some howls, pup distress and fight sounds. I could hear magpies going steady back in the direction that I had accessed but, I couldn’t see behind the hill. I was debating getting up so I could peek over but figured I’d try some prey distress again as I was sure there was another coyote close. I opted for some Grey Fox and after 30seconds or thereabouts, another coyote came into view to my south. I switched to a coax and it started to close on a trot. When it hit a low spot, I made a shift and expected to see it crest the rise and stop. It must have still had line of sight to me because next I saw it, it came out of the low spot on the far side and was travelling up the hillside about 150 yards away. I made another quick adjustment and gave a long “WOOOOO”. The error was made as it slowed pace and came to a stop facing directly at me. BOOM! CHOP! With two coyotes down and a satisfied grin; “That was a pretty textbook double”, I thought to myself.
Apologies for only having the one picture but not having my phone for the first and the second one being a mess, one photo will have to do. I won’t be doing any more calling for myself until this fall. If I get a request from a farmer like today or something of that nature, sure but, for myself; that’s a wrap. Hope you enjoy the read. It’s been a great season and I’ve enjoyed sharing it immensely.
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