Saturday was the coyote derby for our area and with seldom getting full days to coyote hunt I planned a pile of stands and here's how it went. Not quite the photo quality as usual for me but figured it's still a fun enough story.
So right off the bat I had planned to hit 2 deadpits and baits near home (this contest allowed baits)
The first spot has a hole on top of a hill where deads are deposited so I seldom shoot it due to the difficulty in accessing without spooking coyotes everywhere.
As expected 70 yards from the top of the hill a coyote popped his head over the hill and upon seeing me turned to retreat. Tipped off by his buddy another coyote stepped out of the hole and made the mistake of stopping to see why he was supposed to flee. With no time to spare a offhand shot was taken and coyote#1 was down. A hard sprint later sitting on the hill i proceeded to prove over and over and over that running shots are a skill that I do not posses. With 7 pieces of brass and only one coyote I ran to the truck to head to the next spot.
PXL_20240210_143706033.MP by , on Flickr
Here was my home deadpit where I tend to overshoot and turn coyotes nocturnal so hopes were not overly high but upon cresting the hill I spied a coyote trying to leave. Not wanting to waste any opportunity I flopped down and made a 200 yard prone shot and then once again sprinted to the top of the hill to see only one more coyote fleeing the country. Sitting down deploying the bipod the coyote stopped at my vocal barks and at 350 yards jumped at the shot and made a 20 yard heart shot run before piling up.
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This coyote was one of my heaviest dogs. Not sure if he was the heaviest but the heavy dog was 37.02 lb
From here one more bait was setup and sneaking up to the strawbale setup as a hide I discovered not a single coyote to be seen. Not wanting to waste an area and knowing coyotes were around I set to wailing away with some pup distress on one of my handcalls. Sure enough out of the corner of my eye I caught movement to my right. Not having a chance to catch it's line of travel before it went below a hill I stood up and readied myself against the straw bale. Moments later it poked above the hill with just enough chest showing for the 50gr vmax to put it down.
PXL_20240210_153339107.MP by , on Flickr
From here I had plans to hit a new area the boss purchased this year with the hopes of getting into some untouched ground with fresh coyotes.
Well my untouched gravy spot turned out to be not quite as good as first hoped. From cows interrupting sets to bad setups and just regular dry stands.
On stand 5 I was standing up and folding up the bipod when a coyote darted across the clearing to my right headed to the downwind and where my truck was parked!
Creeping over the hill trying to sneak through the tangle of scrub brush I spied him turning to leave. A few gentle "wuf wuf wuuf" from me got him to stop and after a quick bob and weave to clear the bushes I made an excellent quartering away offhand shot and #5 was down.
Screenshot_20240211-111404 by
r, on Flickr
Photo taken from a quick video I took
From here the plan got a lot looser. There was no mapped out stands, just a general area that I have hunted before.
Upon reaching the hilled area next to a cornfield I found the wind to be a howling gale! The plan to call the cornfield was dashed and I began my windy hike to the back of the hills to hopefully call to the nearby bushes.
On the last stands my oncoming cold was making it difficult to blow a handcall with coughing fits interrupting each series so the foxpro was deployed and Mrs mccottontail was set to max and blasted through the hills.
8 min in and a coyote was spied blowing himself down the hill and at 70 yards was stopped to meet the resounding WHUMP of the vmax.
PXL_20240210_190943535.TS_exported_1766_1707675859 668 by
er, on Flickr
From here I went around the hills to find that the wind was only on the north side coming down and the south side was quite pleasant. If not for the coyote on the last stand I would have been pretty peeved.
Arriving to the next spot I was unsure how it would play out as it's a West wind location and the south wind today would make it a pretty harsh crosswind with not much time to catch downwind dogs.
With the caller down to my left to hopefully force them closer to me. I let out some more rabbit distress. After rabbit distress on the e call then the handcalls I proceeded to play some pup distress. After muting the call I looked one last time and sure enough there was a coyote circling for the wind to my right. Easing the rifle over I took aim. Seeing me move the coyote was tensing up to leave when the 220swift spoke and coyote 7 was dead in the snow. What happened next is hard to recall as it happened so fast.
Right behind the now deceased male had been his mate whom upon the shot took off to the left like her tail was on fire. Neglecting to remember the 7 missed shots earlier in the morning I cycled the bolt on the Tikka and swung and fired. Coming out of the scope I was mind blown to see nothing but a puff of powdery snow where the coyote had been. The shot had been as perfect as you can get and the coyote died on her feet skidding to a stop in the loose snow.
PXL_20240210_201052242.MP by
r, on Flickr
From here played out a set of fairly frustrating stands. Stand one spooked a coyote while setting up but responding howls revealed multiple groups of coyotes nearby.
Stand 2 had me howling back and forth to a single coyote with 2 separate handcall howlers and the foxpro. Finally in a last ditch effort I played pup distress and slowly the old male began loping in. At 200 yards he checked up, the 220swift spoke and he layed down right there.
PXL_20240210_213105301.MP by , on Flickr
Now going after the main group. 3 stands were made in the rolling hills each time with the pack seeming to move to a new spot each time and yet not coming in. Finally the last stand produced no howls back and given the fresh tracks on the road I had overshot my mark and spooked them off with the truck.
Really wanting to get to that double digit mark I was running out of time and energy but the coyote gods must have been watching me as I was about to leave the area to head in I spied a coyote sitting on its haunches watching me.
Parking behind a hill I darted to the top to see it running away. As it began to drop out of view I made a perfect Texas heart shot to bring my total for the day to 10 coyotes!
PXL_20240211_002937302.MP by , on Flickr
Being one of the event organizers and sponsors I had to leave an hour and a half early to go help setup the hall for everyone so 10 is all I managed.
Sadly for me others had a great day as well and with the ability to split 3 man teams the top team got 17 and another 2 got 14 which pushed me out of the money.
I did end up winning the cleanest shot coyotes side pot that the fur buyer put on winning me a nice fur hat!
If you made it this far thanks for reading. And if you are on Instagram I did a follow along post that's in my saved stories. @trophycountrycoyotes
For some of my older stories I have a website with a blog portion trophycountrycalls.ca
10 coyote day!
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