I didn’t get on my way until about 9:30. The temperature was 2 below zero at 8:00 a.m. and eventually warmed up to about 20 above. The wind stayed pretty constant between 6 and 10 mph out of the SW. I was not familiar with the country I was riding in so this was a exploration trip, but I was also going to try to call in a coyote or two while I got to know the lay of the land. I made only three stands and didn’t get any takers, but now I have a good idea about where to make my stands in the future. I got back to the pickup around 1:30 and got the ATV loaded and the heavy-duty cover on it a got that fastened down tight. I headed back toward the highway, but decided to stop at a spot where I could glass the downwind sides of some hills and have lunch. After lunch, I took a 45 minute power nap!!!
I decided to make one more stand before heading back to town with my tail between my legs. The spot I chose to go to has been good to me over the years. I have called there on three occasions and have bagged a coyote every time I called there. I set the FOXPRO down in the bottom of a bowl and got back up a hill to the ESE of the FOXPRO about 75 yards. I started the FOXPRO with the Lightening Jack sound at low volume and ran that for about 4 minutes. Then I used my Randy Anderson coyote locator sound at about half volume for one series and then went back to the Lightening Jack, but a little louder. At the 18 minute mark I cranked up the volume on the locator sound to almost top volume and then when I went back to Lightening Jack I cranked that up to near top volume for one series. I muted the call. At the 20 minute mark a magpie came flying over the hill to the NW of me and landed on a rock about 200 yards west of me. After a minute it flew to some bushes to the SE of me and started screeching. I cranked my head around to see if any predators were over that direction—nothing. I scanned the area out in front of me and there, as if by magic, I spotted a coyote head at the 23 minute mark. I turned the volume way down on the FOXPRO and played the Lightening Jack sound. The coyote did not move. I muted the call again. Then he looked over his shoulder and I quickly moved my rifle into position. I figured he was about 150 yards away and the wind was quartering on my line of sight. He sat down and was looking toward the FOXPRO so he had his left front shoulder closer to me than his right, but I could see his chest between his front legs. I cranked the scope up to 12x, steadied the crosshairs just left of his left front shoulder and squeezed off the shot. I could see him just crumple in the scope!!! Twenty-five minutes had passed since I first started calling on this stand. I used my howler to do some wounded coyote sounds and fumbled with the remote and got that playing wounded coyote sounds too. After a minute or so, I figured nothing else was going to show up so I got my camera out and took a photo from where I had been set up. I used my Leica 1200 rangefinder and determined the coyote had been 145 yards away from my stand when I shot.
Here’s the way he laid when I found him. His head was in a hole by a rock. It was a nice big male coyote. When I weighed him back in my garage, he tipped the scale at 32 pounds. He hadn’t missed too many meals. I was using my .17 TAC & 30 gr. Kindler Gold bullet.
I dragged him back to the pickup, got him loaded into the topper and headed home. My “lucky calling spot” made what had been a crappy day turned out to be a pretty good day!!!
Here’s the obligatory hero photo. My face is red because it was cold and windy. And yes, that is the best smile I could muster.
The coyote had a weird growth on the inside of his right rear leg. It almost looked like he might have had another foot back there and it got broken off?? It was a strange appendage. He was a pretty old coyote from the looks of his teeth. I think a visit to the dentist should have been on his schedule—too late now!!! The top and bottom canines on the right side were worn down and the bottom one was a decayed stub.
