I met Seth at his grandpa's at 6:00 am and we introduced ourselves to each other and made a plan. We drove north of the house and part way down a field road and parked the truck. We walked in from there to a small creek bottom to the east where I set up Bob, my coyote decoy, on a small levy so if anything came along they would see him easily. My plan was to set the FoxPro down with Bob since the wind was from the south and we could sit up on top of a hill to the north by a tree to keep our scent from blowing up the bottom. Seth had his Savage M12FV in 22-250 and I had my CZ 527 American in 204.
We sat quitely as we waited for enough light to shoot before starting to call. Due to the set up I planned to use the FoxPro so all attention would be directed toward Bob and not on us sitting in the open by the tree. Bob was about 80 yards away down at the bottom of the hill and south of us where if anything came from the north we would be back far enough to not get scented.
Well....things don't always work out the way one plans. I started the FoxPro with some lonesome howls and noticed right away it wasn't sounding right. It's always clear and this time I heard a little breakup in the howl. I knew then the batteries were going dead. I waited awhile and tried the rabbit distress and it wouldn't make a complete cycle. We sat and waited for a few minutes and then I used a handcall a few times and waited. Where we were sitting, I couldn't see the bottom of the hill in front of us but I had planned on anything coming would be headed for Bob with the FoxPro.
Still didn't see anything so I gave some pup distress and waited. The sun was about to hit us so I rose up on my knees slowly to see over the edge of the hill and just as I did, I saw a pair of ears coming up the hill to my front and left. I squatted back down and got my rifle up to my shoulder and slowly raised back up on my knees again. The coyote was looking around for the sound and I took a quartering in shot at about 45 yards. There were a few weeds between me and the coyote, but if I didn't take the shot now I was afaid it would come up the hill and get our scent.
I heard the "whack" of the 39 gr. SBK and the coyote turned and disappeared around the hill. I was hoping that the bullet didn't hit a weed and start breaking up before it hit the coyote. Seth and I tracked the coyote down to a fence through the snow where it crossed and it's tracks mixed in with other coyote tracks. I went south and Seth went north along the creek. He found it shortly laying dead just over the creek bank. It was a 29 lb. female with a very light, reddish blonde coat.
Seth and I.
