ND Coyote Hunt on 12-9-2011--Photos

Talk about hunting the hunters and their prey.
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Silverfox
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ND Coyote Hunt on 12-9-2011--Photos

Post by Silverfox »

I left Williston around 8:00 a.m. I was hauling my ATV along today and my doggone trailer lights were not working. They worked when I hooked up the trailer and loaded the ATV last night, but not today. A big truck with a flatbed loaded with oil field supplies pulled out onto the highway ahead of me at a city intersection and proceeded to drive about 30 mph all the way to the road where I had to turn off. There is so much traffic that there’s no way to pass these slow-pokes. Then, as luck would have it, he turned onto the same road I had to travel and drove 20 mph all the way to the next turn. I arrived at the spot where I wanted to unload the ATV at 8:40 a.m. and got the heavy duty cover off the machine. I lowered the ramp, got up on the ATV, put the key in the ignition and turned it and all I got was a grinding click. The battery was near dead. I looked at the headlight switch and the low beams were on!!! I guess I must have inadvertently turned them on when I was tying down the front of the ATV with the winch and they were on all night!!! BONEHEAD PLAY!!!. So, I unhooked the trailer from the pickup and drove alongside the ATV and used my jumper cables between my pickup battery and the ATV battery and got it started. I figured the battery would charge up as I rode the ATV and I felt I wouldn’t have a problem starting it later.

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.

Image

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.

Image

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.

Image

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.

Image
Catch ya L8R--Silverfox
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ryutzy
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Re: ND Coyote Hunt on 12-9-2011--Photos

Post by ryutzy »

Nice! I Always enjoy your adventures
It's hard to detect good luck, It looks so much like something you've worked hard for and earned.
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Re: ND Coyote Hunt on 12-9-2011--Photos

Post by imhntn »

Good job Leroy! We have been down to 17 degrees here but no colder. That seems cold enough to me though. Glad you are still sacking them up.
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Re: ND Coyote Hunt on 12-9-2011--Photos

Post by Song Dog »

WTG! Always love the pics!
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DarkNight
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Re: ND Coyote Hunt on 12-9-2011--Photos

Post by DarkNight »

Fun hunt! If it was someones dog, I'd say the vet didn't get his dewclaw totally removed and it was coming back! That looks like an ooooold coyote by the looks/description of his teeth! Maybe has evaded a lot of coyote hunters....until he came across you! Thanks again for the story.
:mrgreen:
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RUD
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Re: ND Coyote Hunt on 12-9-2011--Photos

Post by RUD »

Great pics. and story as always! Thanks for sharing. Rudy
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Re: ND Coyote Hunt on 12-9-2011--Photos

Post by Dennis81082 »

Great story and pics. The last pic makes my teeth hurt and the coyote with the red face makes me cold. :)
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Silverfox
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Re: ND Coyote Hunt on 12-9-2011--Photos

Post by Silverfox »

Thanks to all of you for the nice comments on the story.
Catch ya L8R--Silverfox
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Re: ND Coyote Hunt on 12-9-2011--Photos

Post by Melvin Eades »

Silverfox,

Thanks for taking us along with you but you can keep that cold up there!
Enjoy it while you have it, because things will change.

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Silverfox
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Re: ND Coyote Hunt on 12-9-2011--Photos

Post by Silverfox »

Melvin Eades--Glad you enjoyed the post. One thing you have to remember about this somewhat cool weather we have up here in NW North DaColder is that it tends to make the coyotes respond more readily to prey sounds. Coyotes need a lot more food to keep their boiler running when it is cold and they are eager to find an easy meal.
Catch ya L8R--Silverfox
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Re: ND Coyote Hunt on 12-9-2011--Photos

Post by Melvin Eades »

Silverfox,

I understand what you're saying about the cold weather making them respond better. We've had some warm weather here for this time of year and I haven't had much luck with getting them to come to the call. It's usually better when we hit late Dec. and the ground gets frozen. The coyotes can't dig for mice and the rabbit sounds pretty good to them.
Enjoy it while you have it, because things will change.

“Never trust the veracity of anything you read on the internet. That’s how World War I started.” — Abraham Lincoln.
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