Morning began with coffee and finishing up cleaning a rifle. I wanted to be out early but, my daughter was home from school due to exams this week and I promised we would enjoy bacon and eggs when she rose. My days of being able to enjoy such things with her are growing less frequent by the month it would seem as she gets older so, seldom do I choose otherwise when opportunity presents. With the dishes licked up, I was off!
Set #1
This is one of my regular spots seasonally. It’s a good producer but hardly ever will it produce multiples. Still, it’s a good one to have in the pocket. Normally I set up on the side of a dugout mound where I have commanding view to the west and south. The sun was quite bright with little cloud cover, so I tucked into the north edge of an isolated clump of trees that was connected to a small slough bottom with lots of young, Red Willow. This is normally where the coyotes will appear from when calling from my normal hide. Shotgunning hopes were very high. Starting with coyote vocals, the silence was shattered. After a few minutes with no answers, I threw out some distress calls. 17 minutes in now, I was considering doing some pup distress when movement caught my eye to the left of me. I could see the head and neck of a coyote just above the young willow. I was well screened from it, so I readied the shotgun. Gave the decoy a flick and the coyote broke into kill mode. Covering the last 30’ or so quite quickly, my quarry was in front of my looking intently at the decoy. With the bead nestled on the coyotes neck at 18 yards, I gave a soft lip squeak. As soon as two yellow eyes and a black nose were in front of the barrel, 27 pellets of #4 buck found its mark. “Right on! Big male down!” I’m pretty sure I blew this coyote out a couple weeks ago leaving a stand about a mile away.
Set #2
I went back to a spot I killed a double on my 3-2-1 day. It had plenty of time to cool off from my last intrusion. Again, I’ve never been blanked here and usually it produces multiples. It just might be my favourite spot. I parked the truck and started down my normal route in. Again, with the sun being so bright, I opted for a slightly different hide so as not to be lit up like a Christmas tree and given how the coyotes came last time, this position not only provided shadows, but an excellent kill alley for the shotgun. Started once again with coyote vocals but different than the last time, I once again had no answers. Not overly concerned, I broke into a series of distress, again, different sounds than the last. 20 minutes into the set, I was starting to get concerned that this would be my first blank ever in this spot. I’m not overly familiar with what anxiety feels like, but I think I was feeling it. Movement! More movement but in a different spot. More! I’m pretty sure there are three. They are in the edge of some old willow and I still can’t confirm. I gave a couple coaxes on the caller and I’ll try to describe the next few moments in a manner it deserves. It was as if I was watching warriors on horseback, rallying in the trees before they charge onto a battlefield. It was absurd. They all did probably 3 or four circles with each other before two and then the third broke into the open. I had the caller only 20 yards away from me. Another squeak of a coax and they all started coming hard. “OH BOY!!!” At 50 yards I started lip squeaking which caused a shift in the two lead coyotes’ course of approach to DIRECTLY AT ME. There was about 30 yards of distance between them. “You guys are dead already. You just don’t know it.” This is going to be very up close. With the lead coyote only 10’ from me, death from the shadows descended upon them. In a smooth motion, I rose and shouldered the shotgun. The lead coyote got low and wheeled but my head had already found the chest of the follower. At the report of the shotgun, it crumpled at 30 yards. Finding the now fleeing lead coyote on the path it had approached from, a quick double tap stoned it only feet from the first. Seeing the third coyote now hauling for the trees, I was unable to get on it with the rifle before it made cover. Quickly firing up pup distress, I let the cadence echo through the trees and creek bottoms. What seemed like only seconds later, I caught streaking movement through the trees and the coyote materialized. It started closing on a bit of an angle and I followed it in the scope as it progressed. Coming to a stop behind a snow bank, I could clearly see its head and neck. I probably could have waited for a body shot, but, at 75 yards, it was all over but the crying. BOOM! CHOP! The 40gr Berger found its mark. “Triple Baby!”
This was how far apart the double died. Big Male and his b****.
Set #3
This spot, I bat around .500 from. It’s weird. Only once, have I ever had a coyote come really hard here. There’s some nuance to it that I just haven’t sorted out as of yet. I called it once about a month ago. No traffic had been down the road for days and abundant coyote tracks cross crossed every couple hundred feet it would seem. Hiding the truck in an old shelter belt and getting geared up, I was inbound. I wasn’t overly hot with my hide as I was blind to the south but, I needed to stay in the shadows. Placing the caller 20 yards away, I tucked into the edge of the trees and vanished. The songs I had been playing were garnishing dance partners so, more of the same. At about 11 minutes, I noticed a pair of Magpies bombing and chattering at something to the west of me. Seeing this many times before, I knew something was inbound. Watching intently in that direction, to my delight, I picked up a pointy set of ears moving just above the stubble about 200 yards away. Giving a coax, I now had a coyote standing head on about 150 yards from me. Pondering getting on the rifle and taking it there, I opted to be a pig and try to suck this one in close too. I brought my hand up and started squeaking as loud as I could muster. True to form in this spot, it started closing but, ever so slowly and I mean slow. There were a half dozen instances I almost got on the rifle but, it did continue closing the gap. At about the 50 yard mark, it looked to the south several times. I can only assume there was another coyote but I could not see that direction. At 22 yards, I couldn’t contain myself any longer and delivered another load of #4 Buck into a fuzzy face. My fourth shotgun coyote of the day.
I was really hoping to be able to share more but, my last two stands for the day were blanks. Work called and I am going in tomorrow, so I hope to be out again on Thursday but, we shall see. Anyway, hope you enjoy the read and pics once more. Happy calling.
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