A rancher called me on the phone today at noon and said he had a coyote right in his yard this morning and had also seen three of them in a slough about 1/4 mile east of his house later that morning. I told him I'd be out there this afternoon. Well, I went out there and there is only one place I can set up with the wind from the SW to call that area. I set up overlooking a wide valley with a stream that runs through it. I set my FX5 FOXPRO on a fence post about 40 yards to the SW of me and got back on a little spoil pile from a gravel pit and started playing the bunny rabbit blues. All of a sudden, here comes the biggest, blackest critter I have ever called in!!!
I was afraid this huge bull might start head-butting my FX5!!! He did eventually stick his nose right up to the FX5 and I could hear him sniffing it. He stood around like this by the FX5 for about 20+ minutes. Eventually, I got up enough nerve to use some coyote vocalizations and was really worried he might attack the e-caller, but he didn't. I'm sure any coyotes that might have looked over my way, were very reluctant to come in with this big bruiser in the road!!! Just over the top of the bull, you can see the banks of the stream that runs through this land here. There were some people ice fishing about 3/4 mile south of here on the little stream and I think that the noise of their approaching vehicles and the other people-activity probably spooked the coyotes out of there. I quit calling after about 30 minutes on that stand.
I drove to a spot where I had called in and shot a coyote about three years ago. I walked in about 1/2 mile to the WSW and I called for 35 minutes with no takers. I walked back out of there and drove about 1 1/2 miles SSE of that spot and walked in to the SSW about 100 yards. This was the spot where I had my son with me two years ago and I called in a nice male coyote and managed to bag that one. Today, I tied the FOXPRO to the top of a wooden fence post on a fence line that runs north and south. The wind was still out of the SW and blowing very slowly. I set myself up with my back against a fence post about 60 yards straight north of the FX5 so I was looking to the west. The sun made it hard to see when I first started calling there. Eventually, the sun disappeared behind the hills to the west of me. I heard a coyote answering my howling out west of my position at about 18 minutes into the stand. We talked back and forth every once in awhile and I mixed in some Lightening Jack sounds from the FX5 too.
Finally, the howling from the coyote sounded quite a bit closer. I scoped the hill side to the WSW and was making a sweep to the north, when I spotted the coyote just sitting on the hill side. It sat up on the hill for quite a while. I played some Lightening Jack sounds on my FX5 and after about 3 minutes it started down the hill. When it got to the bottom of the hill, I spotted a second coyote. I checked my chronograph and noted that I had been on this stand for 33 minutes now. Both coyotes began wandering in my general direction, but a wee bit to the north. They disappeared behind a hill, but finally they topped out on a hill due west of me and stood up there surveying the situation. I turned the volume down on the FX5 and played some more Lightening Jack and finally one of them started down that hill and the other one stayed back. It was getting real hard to see and I was hoping at least one of them would show up soon or it would be too dark to see them. I was using my scope to see if I could detect where the coyote that started down the hill had gone to. When I looked back up to the top of the hill, the other coyote was gone too.
I turned the FX5 to one of my presets, Goldfinch Distress, and turned the volume up a bit. That sound is really almost like a mouse squeak, and it is a good sound for coaxing those coyotes in the last few yards. Finally, I spotted the head of one of them bouncing through the tall pasture grasses. It stopped at about 200 yards away. I had my rifle up on my shooting sticks ready to pull the trigger, but the grass was too tall. I didn't want to risk the grass deflecting the bullet. I turned off the FX5 when the coyote was about 150 yards away. Instead of continuing to head for the FX5, which would have put the coyote to the SW of me, it started to angle a little bit to my right, but it was still headed almost right straight for me. It was looking in the direction where I had my FX5 hanging. It got to 75 yards from me and kept walking in--still too much grass. It hit about 50 yards, then 40 yards. I was following it in the scope all the way and finally when it got to about 30 yards I lip squeaked. It took a couple more steps and luckily it stopped in an opening in the grass with its chest right straight toward me and I squeezed the trigger and I could hear the familiar WHAP as the bullet hit and down it went. I picked up my cow horn howler and started with the wounded coyote sounds for about 3 or 4 minutes, but the other coyote didn't come in. I had been on that stand for just about 40 minutes! I used my Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger and 39 gr. Sierra handloads.
I I stepped off the distance from where I was sitting to where the coyote laid dead and it was 25 steps!!! About that time, I began to hear the other coyote doing the old warning bark-howl and I headed up to the top of the rise to the NW of where this coyote laid dead to see if I could get a shot at the other one. Nope, it was over the crest of the hill and out of my line of sight, but still bark-howling. I used my Bill Austin howler to make some wounded coyote yelps to try to coax it back in, but after about 5 minutes of coaxing, that coyote wasn’t coming in.
I headed back to the dead coyote, snapped some photos and dragged her back to the pickup. I loaded her up and called my wife on the cell phone. It was about 6:30 when I called my wife and told her I was about 16 miles outside Williston on some rough back roads and would be home in about 45 minutes. It was 1º above when I started driving back to Williston. My wife had a nice dinner salad ready, had a glass of wine poured for me and had made a spaghetti and meat sauce supper with garlic toast. It doesn't get much better than that!!!
When I took the coyote out of the back of the pickup and hung it up, I hung it on the scale and she weighed 26 pounds. I always hang them up by their hind legs and when I got her up on the scale the blood began pouring out of the small hole in the middle of her chest. No fur damage though. This one isn't rubbed and is a very nice pale color. I might get enough money to pay for my gasoline out of this one. The fur buyer will be in Williston on Saturday, February 2nd, so we'll see what I get for her then.
Here's what the sunset looked like looking to the west southwest and it was almost this dark when I pulled the trigger on that coyote, but not quite. The hill way off in the distance and a little left of the center of the photo is where I first saw the one coyote sitting. The sharp hill with the steep incline on its left side on the horizon and on the right-hand side of the photo is the hill where the two coyotes came and stood for a while before coming in to the call.
It was a good afternoon hunt indeed!!!!
Thanks for sharing! My brother and I are going to make a couple stands this morning. I hope we see more than just fox 
.
Hold 'em & Squeeze 'em
