1/8/12 Coyote
Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 6:05 pm
This morning I went out to a place I haven’t been since last season and I prefer an east wind when I hunt this area because I have to approach it from the west. I checked the weather while the coffee was makin’ and NOAA said it was calm and then an east breeze after day light. I walked out in the darkness across a pasture to a hill that overlooks a small CRP field down in front of me and another one across the creek to my front left and a corn field to the south. The only problem with this set up is that when the sun comes up, I’m sitting there shining like a diamond in a goats collar on the side of the hill in the open. Everything was coated with frost in the 25* air and when it started to get first light, the breeze came out of the north instead of the east.
About 15-20 minutes before the sun crested the horizon, I saw a coyote crossing the cornfield to the south of me around the 525 yard mark. I got on the howler and tried to give some high pitch female howls since distress calls haven’t been working. The coyote stopped and looked my way so I gave a few more howls but the coyote went into the creek bed out of site. I never did see it come out the other side so I kept watching and another coyote came from where this one had come from. I gave a couple howls and it stopped to look. I gave a few more and it just stood there looking. I decided that this was probably a pair and maybe this one was a male so I started throwing some female whimpers at it. I saw a male chasing a female in heat on one of Randy Anderson’s videos and tried to imitate her. It got the coyotes attention and it started coming.
The coyote came about 100 yards and stopped so I gave another series of whimpers and here it came. It got up to a narrow spot in the field and crossed the fence into the pasture and disappeared up a small draw. I was afraid it would circle down wind and pick me off but I kept watching and it popped up on top of a hill in front of another hill. I cranked the scope up and when I got it on the coyote, it was looking right at me so I figured I better take the shot before it spooked. The coyote was sitting down facing me so I put the cross hairs on its chest and squeezed of a 39 gain S.B.K at 214 yards. I heard the distinct whack of the bullet and the coyote rolled over and rolled all the way down to the bottom of the hill next to the fence. I looked back down the field and saw the other coyote high tailing it back the direction it had come.
Here's the view from where I was sitting.
Here's the view from where the coyote was when I shot it back to where I was sitting.
The coyote was a female instead of a male. I thought that the way it came to the whimpers that it was a male. She was very healthy looking and weighed 31 lbs.
About 15-20 minutes before the sun crested the horizon, I saw a coyote crossing the cornfield to the south of me around the 525 yard mark. I got on the howler and tried to give some high pitch female howls since distress calls haven’t been working. The coyote stopped and looked my way so I gave a few more howls but the coyote went into the creek bed out of site. I never did see it come out the other side so I kept watching and another coyote came from where this one had come from. I gave a couple howls and it stopped to look. I gave a few more and it just stood there looking. I decided that this was probably a pair and maybe this one was a male so I started throwing some female whimpers at it. I saw a male chasing a female in heat on one of Randy Anderson’s videos and tried to imitate her. It got the coyotes attention and it started coming.
The coyote came about 100 yards and stopped so I gave another series of whimpers and here it came. It got up to a narrow spot in the field and crossed the fence into the pasture and disappeared up a small draw. I was afraid it would circle down wind and pick me off but I kept watching and it popped up on top of a hill in front of another hill. I cranked the scope up and when I got it on the coyote, it was looking right at me so I figured I better take the shot before it spooked. The coyote was sitting down facing me so I put the cross hairs on its chest and squeezed of a 39 gain S.B.K at 214 yards. I heard the distinct whack of the bullet and the coyote rolled over and rolled all the way down to the bottom of the hill next to the fence. I looked back down the field and saw the other coyote high tailing it back the direction it had come.
Here's the view from where I was sitting.
Here's the view from where the coyote was when I shot it back to where I was sitting.
The coyote was a female instead of a male. I thought that the way it came to the whimpers that it was a male. She was very healthy looking and weighed 31 lbs.
