We finally ended up getting some decent snow here on Thursday night and I was chomping at the bit to get out after some coyotes. Last night I had the perfect wind to sit a ground blind set that we have in our food plots and what a great night it ended up being.
I got in nice and quiet, however, being a food plot set I knew I would spook some deer regardless. After waiting in the blind for 30 mins to let everything settle down, I kicked on the call with a quiet cottontail distress. As I reached to set the remote down and position my gun, the first coyote already came racing in! This dog must have been working through the area as it was no more than 10 seconds after I had hit the call. He entered the plot 45-50 yards cross wind from the call (the opposite side I was expecting) and was moving at a quick rate. Unfortunately he identified the fact there was no cotton tail almost instantly as he carried right through into the tree line 20 yards from the call.
I killed the call and waited for about 10 minutes to hit it again. After around a minute of cottontail distress, the second coyote came in from the exact same location. This time I was able to hit the mute button which stopped this yote in his tracks at 35-40 yards.
Thinking it had been a decent set I began gathering up my stuff and dragging out the gear/coyote. As I crossed through the plot, another coyote began barking and I could tell it was pretty close. I had around 80 yards to cover to get into a position to shoot towards the 2 downwind locations which would have made this set possible (coyote position to me and open sight lines). Once reaching this area, which is a corn row wind fence, I decided I would at least try a call even though the wind had me exposed and there was little hope. I selected a female coyote challenge and let it cycle though one series. I waited around and minute and repeated. After repeating one more time I spotted the dog breaking from the wind row trying to get directly downwind of the call. I hit the mute and this dog stopped in the chisel plowing, broad side, around 250 yards out. However, due to the snow bank in the wind row, I was left with a shot from a standing position and I did not connect.
All in all, it was a pretty fun night and I am happy to be able to at least get one coyote off the bowhunting land.
