I got my snow camo coat on, got my Pac-Nor barreled .17 Remington out of the case and took off the thread protector and screwed on the suppressor. I locked the doors on the pickup, I chambered a round and put the safety on. I slung my backpack over my left shoulder and my rifle over my right shoulder and I was soon walking to the SW to make my first stand.
The wind was blowing out of the SE under 5 mph and the temperature was about 20º. The first stand found me sitting along a fence line about 100 yards north of the edge of a steep bank that leads down into a big creek bottom to the south. I couldn’t see down into the creek, but I have called coyotes up out of the creek bottom from this spot before. I set the FOXPRO about 40 yards to the south of me. I didn’t like the fact that the grass was quite tall, but I figured I should be able to get a shot at any coyotes that came into my calling. I was using a baby cottontail rabbit sound and also used a sound called Young Lonesome Howl. At about 10 minutes into the calling on this stand, I had just started the FOXPRO on the Young Lonesome Howl and spotted a Gray Ghost’s face peering through the frost-covered weeds off to the right of me about 150 yards SW of my stand. Only its head and neck were visible through the frosty weeds. I immediately muted the FOXPRO and sat very still. The coyote started towards the FOXPRO and I lost sight of the coyote because of a slight depression on the south side of where I had the FOXPRO sitting, plus the vegetation was quite tall too. I could see its ears once in awhile, but then completely lost sight of it. When the coyote appeared again it was to my left and SE of my stand. I needed to shift my shooting sticks, but by now the coyote was coming toward me and even though I moved very slowly, he spotted me moving. He turned around and started a fast walk away from me. I had a bulb squeaker in my left hand and as I was maneuvering my shooting sticks, I squeezed the bulb squeaker a couple times and got my scope to my eye. The coyote slowed way down, but now all I could see through the weeds in the scope was the coyote’s head as it continued to move quartering away from me. I got the crosshairs just in front of the coyote’s nose and squeezed off a shot. I could hear the WHAP as the bullet hit. I got on my Critr’ Call and did my best imitation of a wounded coyote in case this one had a partner that might come in for a look see. No other takers, so I walked out to see the coyote. It was a BIG male and had a nice silky coat. The 30 gr. FB HP Nagel T-000 bullet had entered the coyote’s head just below the right ear and exited out the left ear. Lucky Shot!!!
Here’s a look at the teeth this monster had. It wasn’t the heaviest coyote I have ever shot as it only weighed in at 30.4 pounds when I got him home tonight, but he was in excellent shape. I took some time to do my thing with the camera and snapped a couple photos.
Then, I found a piece of barbed wire and wrapped that around his back legs and hung him upside down on a tall wooden corner post and then started hiking off to the WSW to do some more calling. I planned on making a big circle hike and come back and get my coyote on the trip back to the pickup.
I made three more stands with no takers and got back to my pickup around 2:45 p.m. I was hungry!!! I ate lunch and then drove on some more back roads and through some fairly deep snow to my next stand. That one was a blank too. I drove on some more tough-going roads and made it back to some better, more well-traveled roads. I made one last stand south of a producing oil well from a little ridge above a big stock dam and got skunked there too. I guess I could just as well have packed it up after bagging the first coyote, but I was pretty sure I’d call in a couple more—WRONG!!! The fog did lift completely around 11:30 a.m. and it was a very nice day for a loooooong walk.
Here’s the hero photo:
