Done got busted.

By a coyote, that is.

Spent yesterday out calling. Took up a position on a wide fenceline with the call on the opposite side of the line from where we were sitting.

After about 15 minutes of calling and silence, I heard the slightest rustle behind me and SLOOOOOOOLY turned my head. When I got to about 80 degrees, out of the corner of my eye I could see something standing in the woods behind me. So I turned a little more.

Totally busted, dude. Mr. Coyote was standing right behind me, about 20 feet away. He probably got that close and then had an “Uh-oh” moment when he realized there was a big lump in snow camo sitting there.

He was gone about .005 seconds after I realized he was there.

That’s why they call it hunting, not shooting. In retrospect, I probably should have had the call down the line farther from where we were sitting, but shoulda, woulda, coulda, you only know that when you done get busted.

So far the score is 4 days of calling and 4 coyotes called in. 1 shot, 2 missed (I don’t wanna talk about it, my thereapist says I should get over it eventually), and one no-shot.

Grouse

I’m laughing with you!!

I absolutely had to reply to this, as I just went through a similar scenario myself.
A quick update, I just moved to Milwaukee for a new position about 4 weeks ago and have spent the last couple of weeks scouting different tracts of public land along with 1 small acreage that is owned by a co-worker on the edge of town.
Thats the good news, the bad news? I left all my rifles and shotguns with my dad for the time being. Being the bowhunter that I am, I brought my bow and a dozen arrows as well as a couple of pistols! So I trudged into the woods with a call and a decoy, and my bow.
I’ve had some funny results, and I don’t know if these coyotes are ten times more unpredictable than the average, or I am just getting another coyote hunting lesson. I’ve called them in on terrible set ups in poor weather conditions, and haven’t seen a thing on perfect days and set ups. After days spent driving around looking for something that resembled coyote grounds, and mind you, living near milwaukee has made that quite difficult.
I did finally get one within 25 yards, a young one, it was very cautious but did finally give me a quartering to shot.
I think Im a bit rusty as I overshot by about a half inch and brushed the top of the shoulder. I know I knicked it with the arrow, but had nothing except hair on the ground, and otherwise would be posting some pictures.
I’ve enjoyed chasing them around here, and especially so with a bow and arrow! If I get one with a bow, and I’ve gotten them in the past out of a stand, I think I’ll mount since the fur seems prime right now.
Good luck!

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I’m laughing with you!!

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X2 That’s what makes it fun. Sometimes anything can happen!

To BowhuntMN, I think it’s that lack of predictability that makes coyotes fun and interesting almost everywhere.

I took one of the guys from IDoFishing with me the last two times. KWP isn’t a big game hunter and had never hunted coyotes before.

There are two things that I think struck him as being very different about the predator hunting game:

1. There is no “prime holding cover” for coyotes like there is for pheasants, etc. Coyotes don’t “hold” anywhere for anything, so you can’t target so-called “high percentage” areas.

The closest you can come is by reading the tracks in the snow or using actual sightings to determine where and how coyotes have been moving. Now how much this actually helps is somewhat debatable depending on the situation.

But the bottom line, at least IME is that you cannot just cherry pick the “prime holding cover” and try to just do a milk run where you just hit the “hot spots”, because there aren’t any hot spots.

2. Tactics vary WIDELY from place to place. You really can’t just watch a bunch of TV shows or YouTube videos and do what they do.

For example, KWP was wondering why I don’t set up on hay fields and call the coyotes out into the open like they do on Predator Quest on on YouTube videos shot in Nebraska.

Well, the simple reason is that it doesn’t work. I has been my experience that coyotes in MN know that if they get caught in the open, they will get their @sses shot off. So they don’t go there.

But I wonder how many people there are out there in MN who are walking out into the middle of fields trying to get coyotes to come out into the open because that’s the way it’s done on YouTube?

Along the same lines, my father lives in AZ during the winters. I asked about where they see coyotes down there, do they see them when they are out on ATV trips in the middle of nowhere, etc. His observation was that there are actually far more coyotes where he did NOT expect them: Right in town. He said the golf courses are crawling with them at night because that’s where the rabbits are and, of course, in town you have garbage.

His conclusion in his area was that the best places to hunt are to work areas as close to town as possible. Seems, to me at least, counter-intuitive, but that’s hunting for you.

Anoter counter-intuitive one is that I know a guy out in western MN who calls fox and yotes and he says that his best spots are generally close to farm sites and buildings and NOT out in the middle of nowhere as I (and most people) would expect. Again, the theory is that people have lawns and birdfeeders and fruit trees and cats and poodles, etc. The prey is therefore centered near humans and so that’s where the predators go.

Grouse