ND Coyote Hunt on 10-20 & 10-21-2011--Photos
Posted: Mon Oct 24, 2011 6:15 pm
My hunting buddy from Bismarck came up to Williston late Wednesday night and on Thursday morning he came over to my place for a visit and some morning coffee and cookies. He wanted to take me out coyote calling. I was supposed to be taking care of my daughter’s young Golden Retriever pup, so I regretfully said I’d have to take a pass for the day. He went to where he was staying and got changed into his hunting duds and headed out to do some calling. When my wife got home from bowling around noon, I asked her if she would take care of the dog the rest of the day so I could go hunting and she said she would. I called my buddy and he said he had already called in two places with no luck, but he would head back to Williston and pick me up.
We got headed back out of Williston around 1:00 p.m. for a little bit of coyote calling up north of Williston. Man is there ever a lot of water up there!!! Many roads still have water over the top of them so sometimes we had to drive maybe 6 or 8 miles from where we were to get a mile or two east or west of where we were. It was real windy and we didn’t call anything in until the last stand of the day. With the sun setting and it was getting dark, my partner was doing the calling and just as he was about to call it quits, he spotted two coyotes on the south side of a big slough we were sitting by. We were on the north side of that slough and wondered if the coyotes would try to come across. They found a narrow spot and both crossed the slough. It was so dark we really had problems seeing them, but my partner did some lip squeaks and got one to come to within about 50 yards. He was having problems seeing the coyote in the scope, but when he pulled the trigger I could hear the WHAP of the bullet hitting the coyote. The other coyote was running away and I flung a shot at it and that sounded like it hit too. We did a very thorough search for the coyote my partner shot, but never found it in the dark. I did a quick search for the one I shot at and never found it either. I had my flashlight back in the pickup about a half mile away and decided to give up on finding those coyotes.
Today, Friday, October 21, we left Williston around 7:20 a.m. and headed back up north again. On the first stand of the day, we had bird hunters about a mile away and walking towards our setup from the east. They were shooting at birds and talking fairly loud. My partner didn’t think anything would come in with all the commotion going on. I told him that I’m going to call the area to the west anyway. It was a pasture area with lots of sloughs and good places for coyotes to bed down out of the wind. I was doing the calling and started out with some dying jackrabbit sounds for about 8 minutes and nothing was stirring except about 20 Black Angus cows, calves and one great big Black Angus bull!!! They pretty well had me surrounded, but weren’t attacking me. Eventually, they trotted off to the south of me and now I finally had a clear view of the land out to the SW and west of my stand. About 15 minutes into the stand I spotted a coyote about 300 yards to the SW of me. I had my FOXPRO set up and turned on the Goldfinch sound at very low volume. The coyote stopped, stared towards the caller and started trotting in. I was not in a very good spot as I was in some fairly tall grass and weeds. The coyote came to within 25 yards of me, but there were lots of weeds in the way and when I shot, my bullet must have deflected off the weeds and the coyote trotted away.
My partner had spotted another coyote off to the south of his position and when I shot that coyote started to trot away so my partner started doing some wounded coyote sounds and I did wounded coyote sounds too and my partner later told me that both coyotes started to come back. I could not see either coyote, but one came close to him and because of the tall weeds all he could see of the coyote was its head so he took the shot. I could hear the WHAP as the bullet hit the coyote right in the head from a little over 100 yards away. I kept on doing the wounded coyote sounds and the other coyote was now to the SW of me about 100 yards away and jumping up and down trying to see the wounded coyote. I decided to turn on the Goldfinch sound on the FOXPRO and the next time I saw that coyote it was running away. That must have been the same coyote I fooled with the Goldfinch sound earlier and shot at and missed. It was running away pretty fast and I got on my coyote howler and did some wounded coyote sounds again and the coyote stopped and looked back. I estimated the distance was about 300 yards and I sent a shot at the coyote and heard the good old familiar WHAP as my bullet hit home. It was a lucky shot! I hit the coyote right in front of the left ear, as shown in the photo below. The bullet exited just below the right ear.
My partner shoots an M77V Ruger in .22-250 and he put a pretty big hole in the head of the coyote he shot. When we loaded it up onto the tailgate of my pickup there was about a half cup of brains that fell out!! Here’s a photo of my partner with the nice big, light-colored male coyote.
Here’s a photo of those two coyotes. The one in front is a very nice colored, fairly big male and the one in the back is a scruffy, brown colored female. That’s my Savage 12VLP .204 Ruger with a 1 in 11 twist barrel in the photo. I am using hBN coated 40 gr. V-Max bullets and they have been fairly fur friendly as long as I don’t hit the shoulder bone.
After lunch we were driving on a trail to get to another calling spot and ran into a flooded road. We turned around and headed back out of there and spotted a coyote off to the east of the road about 150 yards. We just kept on driving by. After we got completely away from that coyote, we turned around and decided to drive right back down the trail again to get to the down-wind side of the coyote. We parked the pickup well to the southwest of where we saw the coyote and sneaked in over the hill to the east. My partner spotted a coyote bedded down in the shade of a big round hay bale. We tried to find a way to sneak around to the down-wind side of her, but the country was too wide open and she probably would have spotted us. We decided that I would sneak up to the south side of a big round hay bale almost straight west of the coyote and lie prone while my partner went way back to the SW of where I was lying in wait and use his Tally-Ho to do some dying rabbit sounds. My partner started to call and the coyote immediately sat up and in a flash it was running towards the dying rabbit sounds. I had to shift my position rapidly to get my gun on her and I did a couple of barks and got her to stop about 75 yards away and shot her, but I hit her behind the right elbow/shoulder area and the bullet blew out her left elbow and shoulder area. It didn’t kill her instantly. I had to fire another shot to put her down. I tore a fairly large hole in her left armpit!!! She was a fairly nice colored coyote, but nothing real special.
My hunting partner had to be back in Williston around 5:00 p.m. so we couldn’t call during one of the most productive times of the day. Oh well, there will be other days to hunt.
We saw 5 coyotes in a day and a half, shot one that we couldn’t find and hauled three home. Not a bad take for a couple of amateurs.
We got headed back out of Williston around 1:00 p.m. for a little bit of coyote calling up north of Williston. Man is there ever a lot of water up there!!! Many roads still have water over the top of them so sometimes we had to drive maybe 6 or 8 miles from where we were to get a mile or two east or west of where we were. It was real windy and we didn’t call anything in until the last stand of the day. With the sun setting and it was getting dark, my partner was doing the calling and just as he was about to call it quits, he spotted two coyotes on the south side of a big slough we were sitting by. We were on the north side of that slough and wondered if the coyotes would try to come across. They found a narrow spot and both crossed the slough. It was so dark we really had problems seeing them, but my partner did some lip squeaks and got one to come to within about 50 yards. He was having problems seeing the coyote in the scope, but when he pulled the trigger I could hear the WHAP of the bullet hitting the coyote. The other coyote was running away and I flung a shot at it and that sounded like it hit too. We did a very thorough search for the coyote my partner shot, but never found it in the dark. I did a quick search for the one I shot at and never found it either. I had my flashlight back in the pickup about a half mile away and decided to give up on finding those coyotes.
Today, Friday, October 21, we left Williston around 7:20 a.m. and headed back up north again. On the first stand of the day, we had bird hunters about a mile away and walking towards our setup from the east. They were shooting at birds and talking fairly loud. My partner didn’t think anything would come in with all the commotion going on. I told him that I’m going to call the area to the west anyway. It was a pasture area with lots of sloughs and good places for coyotes to bed down out of the wind. I was doing the calling and started out with some dying jackrabbit sounds for about 8 minutes and nothing was stirring except about 20 Black Angus cows, calves and one great big Black Angus bull!!! They pretty well had me surrounded, but weren’t attacking me. Eventually, they trotted off to the south of me and now I finally had a clear view of the land out to the SW and west of my stand. About 15 minutes into the stand I spotted a coyote about 300 yards to the SW of me. I had my FOXPRO set up and turned on the Goldfinch sound at very low volume. The coyote stopped, stared towards the caller and started trotting in. I was not in a very good spot as I was in some fairly tall grass and weeds. The coyote came to within 25 yards of me, but there were lots of weeds in the way and when I shot, my bullet must have deflected off the weeds and the coyote trotted away.
My partner had spotted another coyote off to the south of his position and when I shot that coyote started to trot away so my partner started doing some wounded coyote sounds and I did wounded coyote sounds too and my partner later told me that both coyotes started to come back. I could not see either coyote, but one came close to him and because of the tall weeds all he could see of the coyote was its head so he took the shot. I could hear the WHAP as the bullet hit the coyote right in the head from a little over 100 yards away. I kept on doing the wounded coyote sounds and the other coyote was now to the SW of me about 100 yards away and jumping up and down trying to see the wounded coyote. I decided to turn on the Goldfinch sound on the FOXPRO and the next time I saw that coyote it was running away. That must have been the same coyote I fooled with the Goldfinch sound earlier and shot at and missed. It was running away pretty fast and I got on my coyote howler and did some wounded coyote sounds again and the coyote stopped and looked back. I estimated the distance was about 300 yards and I sent a shot at the coyote and heard the good old familiar WHAP as my bullet hit home. It was a lucky shot! I hit the coyote right in front of the left ear, as shown in the photo below. The bullet exited just below the right ear.
My partner shoots an M77V Ruger in .22-250 and he put a pretty big hole in the head of the coyote he shot. When we loaded it up onto the tailgate of my pickup there was about a half cup of brains that fell out!! Here’s a photo of my partner with the nice big, light-colored male coyote.
Here’s a photo of those two coyotes. The one in front is a very nice colored, fairly big male and the one in the back is a scruffy, brown colored female. That’s my Savage 12VLP .204 Ruger with a 1 in 11 twist barrel in the photo. I am using hBN coated 40 gr. V-Max bullets and they have been fairly fur friendly as long as I don’t hit the shoulder bone.
After lunch we were driving on a trail to get to another calling spot and ran into a flooded road. We turned around and headed back out of there and spotted a coyote off to the east of the road about 150 yards. We just kept on driving by. After we got completely away from that coyote, we turned around and decided to drive right back down the trail again to get to the down-wind side of the coyote. We parked the pickup well to the southwest of where we saw the coyote and sneaked in over the hill to the east. My partner spotted a coyote bedded down in the shade of a big round hay bale. We tried to find a way to sneak around to the down-wind side of her, but the country was too wide open and she probably would have spotted us. We decided that I would sneak up to the south side of a big round hay bale almost straight west of the coyote and lie prone while my partner went way back to the SW of where I was lying in wait and use his Tally-Ho to do some dying rabbit sounds. My partner started to call and the coyote immediately sat up and in a flash it was running towards the dying rabbit sounds. I had to shift my position rapidly to get my gun on her and I did a couple of barks and got her to stop about 75 yards away and shot her, but I hit her behind the right elbow/shoulder area and the bullet blew out her left elbow and shoulder area. It didn’t kill her instantly. I had to fire another shot to put her down. I tore a fairly large hole in her left armpit!!! She was a fairly nice colored coyote, but nothing real special.
My hunting partner had to be back in Williston around 5:00 p.m. so we couldn’t call during one of the most productive times of the day. Oh well, there will be other days to hunt.
We saw 5 coyotes in a day and a half, shot one that we couldn’t find and hauled three home. Not a bad take for a couple of amateurs.