In an attempt to work off about a few pounds of turkey, and several bottles of reasonable Bordeaux, my father and I went out to try to call some coyotes on Friday.
“Try” is the optimal word, because despite a pretty good effort over the past few years, success has been limited. As in limited to no success whatsoever. But very few people have shot a coyote while sitting on the couch, so out we went.
The weather wasn’t ideal, 19 F, gusty wind, and 4 inches of snow that blew like smoke. We hit 3 spots, but no response, so we went to see if the ranchers that own the property had seen any in the last few days.
They pointed us to a high ridge that forms the spine of the the “home farm”. There are low spots on either side of the ridge that have lots of willow and bramble patches, and therefore lots of rabbits. They said they had heard coyotes up there both morning and night.
Off to the ridge.
The problem with having no success is that I didn’t know enough to know what a perfect setup looks like. And the problem with that is that when you don’t know a perfect setup, you don’t know enough to be ready when it pays off.
We got out of the truck and walked upwind into a grove of oak trees on top of the ridge. On the downslope, the ridge fell away into rolling, low bushy areas. Most of the area was open because of the grazing cattle, but cattle don’t eat willow thickets and blackberry brambles, so the thick cover was entirely comprised of these thickets.
As soon as we entered the oaks, I spotted coyote tracks. The pad and claw marks were clearly visible, one hour old and no more considering the blowing snow.
As we walked, I spotted more tracks. They weren’t passing through, they were hunting the area for rabbits. I signaled to dad to find a clear spot where he could see the downwind approach, I speculated that the coyotes, wherever they were, would try to get downwind before they came in. Trouble smelled is trouble avoided, so goes the coyote’s motto. Or so I’d read, again that experience thing.
I moved off about 50 yards just below the brow of the ridge and there it was. A nice spot where I could see down the slope with almost 100 yards of clear thin large oaks and scattered bramble patches. I held my fist in the air and dad waved back that he had my spot marked so he wouldn’t shoot in my direction.
I examined the spot a little more and even better, there was a large blackberry patch that I could put to my back, thus the wind and that blackberry patch was behind me so nothing could approach from behind, nor should it. Everything should come from the sides or in front.
I placed the Foxpro on the downslope of the hill off to my left about 20 yards and then I took my place and hit the button. I started with a soft volume level and turned it up slightly, calling for only about 15 seconds. Then I waited.
Two coyotes appeared like ghosts. Just like that, they came around the end of the thicket that I had my back to. The first one bounded into view, and he had obviously never heard that there was no such thing as free lunch because he was headed straight for it.
Now I had two problems. First, the big dog coyote was about to disappear behind the the brush thicket where the call was. My brain flashed, “Get him now or he’ll disappear and wind you.”
So I found him in the crosshairs and touched off a round from the .223.
I missed. I don’t know where, I don’t know how, I don’t know why, but I missed. He was gone before I cycled the action. I swung on the second coyote and got off a poor going away shot, which hit brush. Like ghosts, they were gone.
I guess you have to start somewhere. I didn’t get a coyote, but I learned a lot. I should have had a shotgun across my lap, I should have yelped to stop the coyotes before I shot, we should not have split up in an active coyote area, and so on. It’s still disappointing as hell.
Next time, Mr. Coyote. Next time.
Grouse
I always figure that the first challenge is calling them in, making the shot is the next one. Now that you’ve seen how it plays out you’ll find that it’s easier to replicate the same scenario, even in different conditions.
