With east winds hard to come by in these parts I was amazed to see that on one of my days off we had a south east wind!
first stand looked amazing and after a long walk to the edge of a massive dry lake bed with cattle behind me and rolling native grass hills in front I called my heart out with not even a chirp from a magpie.
Disheartened from the lack of movement I rushed to the next stand as I had realized that once again I had neglected to factor in the rising sun which would be glaring right in my eyes.
this stand was a bit of a wildcard as the lay of the land never let one see it from the road in any direction. All that was visible was that it was a steep Coulee with crop land on all sides. Crunching my way through the canola field I spied a few coyote tracks one of which was noticeably larger than most coyote tracks.
finally seeing into the Coulee my options showed to be limited if I didn't want to be staring right into the sun the whole stand. Rather than going to the bottom to gain full visibility I skirted behind a large hill which would shade me from the sun.
PXL_20231230_155351332.MP by
brad harder, on Flickr
Like so many of my stands there was not much to hide in where I wanted so I layed back on my elbows in a small patch of scrub brush and began calling.
I had only made my first Wah Wah wahhhhh on the jack distress open reed when It became apparent that I had not positioned my shotgun correctly. Putting the call down I reached for the shotgun and just as I pulled it to me a flash of movement came from behind the rising sun.
freezing in a rather uncomfortable twisted position I watched as a huge coyote came hobbling over the hill.
With barely any hesitation the grizzled old male slowly came over and down the hill with his injured right paw in the air. Finally seeing something was amiss he began to skirt around me and as soon as he turned his head to see where he was going I snapped up from my cramped position and pulled the trigger on the browning shotgun.
At this moment 2 things happened. The coyote dropped like being hit by a heavenly brick and my whole right side erupted in a sharp pain! I had forgotten in the excitement that today I was shooting 1-5/8 oz 3.5 inch hevi shot B which kicks pretty hard at the best of times and in a unconventional awkward position it straight up beat the crap out of me!
1000004216 by
brad harder, on Flickr
After getting up to him I knew right away he was the source of the big tracks I saw earlier he was tooth worn and big with long claws on his injured paw from who knows how long of a time without its use.
PXL_20231230_161008137.MP by
brad harder, on Flickr
After this I jogged over to a well known area of mine to find that a lot of my usual spots to sit required the cover of snow. After my first dry stand I decided to take advantage of the bare ground and got in 500 yards closer to the bush coyotes usually come from.
sticking to my theme of making bad cover work I layed down on my back using a clump of dried grass and fence line to break up my outline and began to call.
1000004193 by
brad harder, on Flickr
soon as I put the call down I spotted a coyote directly to my right coming fast down a game trail which turned out to line up directly with where I now lay.
with the fence to my right and too far to swing over as a right handed shooter I had no way to kill this coyote without giving my position away.
30 yards away she realized the person shape laying on the trail and ran behind me to get my wind. Waiting a fraction longer to let her get behind me I whirled to my left making an almost full 360 and got up on one knee. Sure enough by the time the gun was leveled she was putting on the afterburners but not fast enough. A swarm of hevi shot caught her and she fell to the dirt as another shot caught her again for good measure. Later ranged at 43 yards.
1000004201 by
brad harder, on Flickr
This was first shared on the predator masters forums and has more photos there for those interested.
Shotgun coyotes
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