This is topic NO rain and Fires, welcome Texas spring! in forum Member forum at The New Huntmastersbbs!.
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Posted by ATexan (Member # 6799) on March 10, 2018, 03:26 PM:
Got up this morning at 4:30. Had my backpack and gun waiting by the door. Start the my way down the road for todays adventure. Where I am headed is an hour and half south of where I live. Planned on calling coyotes in the morning and maybe find a wild hog or two laying in mud somewhere on the river during the day. Driving along not 10 mins from the bridge I use for access and looking across the river valley as far as the eye can see, is smoke. I have to say we have had .2 inch of rain in the last 130 somethings days. Its dry no scratch that, its BONE dry. So there ends my day on the river before it even starts. At sunrise for the past 3 months the coyotes have never failed to howl about 30 mins after sunrise, this morning, nothing. Walk 3 miles in and make 3 stands. nothing. Never could see the fire, could only smell smoke and see the haze.
Driving home I got to thinking about how a coyote would react in this situation. Would one hole up or head out? Its mating season, how would this affect this years established territory. When a wild fire comes through is this a reset, and everything is thrown out the window for survival?
Anyway, about to head out the door for a night hunt. My wife has been on my but to take her out and get her a hog so thats what we plan on doing this evening. Cheers Fellas and send rain my way!
Posted by earthwalker (Member # 4177) on March 10, 2018, 03:33 PM:
What part of TX?
To dang early for fires! If we hadnt started receiving storms and building up the snow pack we could have started having forest fires by May.
Good luck on the hog hunt.
[ March 10, 2018, 03:33 PM: Message edited by: earthwalker ]
Posted by NeilA (Member # 6789) on March 10, 2018, 07:42 PM:
So, what rifle and caliber are you using on the coyotes and hogs?
I just spent a couple of hours at the range with my CZ .17 hmr. Nice time, sunny, in the 50’s, and only four guys there all with rim fires.
Good luck tonight!
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on March 10, 2018, 10:23 PM:
Neil, you failed to disclose that 17 caliber information in your application. I might have to give you a time out?
Good hunting. El Bee
(Just kidding)
Posted by Paul Melching (Member # 885) on March 11, 2018, 04:13 AM:
ATexan
In my experience the coyotes are generally quiet this time of year as they are denning and don't want to give up their location. Hope the best for the fire situation and good luck with the hog hunt. Last time I was in Texas I came home with two coolers full great in the smoker!
[ March 11, 2018, 04:14 AM: Message edited by: Paul Melching ]
Posted by NeilA (Member # 6789) on March 11, 2018, 08:46 AM:
Leonard, the .17 and .22’s are especially handy when suppressed. The .22 provides a bounty of entertainment without drawing the slightest suspicion from the neighbors that we may be doing something fun. chipmunks, bushy tails, calling crows, all from the comfort of the deck.
Posted by Eddie (Member # 4324) on March 11, 2018, 09:46 AM:
My oldest son is a fireman up at Bartlesville on the east side of the Osage nation. They were fighting a fire on the tall grass prairie about this time of the year last year. He watched a coyote dive in a hole in a cut bank joust as the fire rolled over the bank. Then wind was blowing around 20 mph, they were sitting at a fire break along a road when he saw the coyote jump in the hole. After the fire had passed he watch the coyote come back out. You get to thinking coyotes are kind of like a cockroach they can survive almost anything .
Posted by TRnCO (Member # 690) on March 12, 2018, 07:28 AM:
wonder if that smoke was from what they are calling the borderline fire which is located at the New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma borders? 23,000 acres as of yesterday.
Had a grass fire just 7 miles from my place a week ago. Guess it's a Gods blessing that we've been really dry and the buffalo grass is easy to fight fire in, beings as how it's so short. They got that fire out after it burned 4 houses and a few hundred acres, which was kind of amazing seeing as how the winds were kicking up to 30 mph gusts that day.
Posted by Leonard (Member # 2) on March 12, 2018, 07:34 AM:
Yes, and come Armageddon, the coyote will eat the cockroach. You know, certain times of the year and certain places, I have noticed coyote scat consisting of munched grasshoppers, 100%. Cockroaches would be accepted with relish. Or, hot sauce.
Good hunting. El Bee
PS That's something that always amazed me. How often coyotes will eat nothing but Mesquite beans, or watermelon or grapes. Total survivors.
Posted by Paul Melching (Member # 885) on March 12, 2018, 07:54 AM:
Up here they eat juniper berries by the bushel !
Posted by ATexan (Member # 6799) on March 12, 2018, 02:34 PM:
NeilA We were using my Weatherbee Vanguard II, chambered in .308 win. My wife has taken to that gun, she was very timid at first but now that is all she likes to use. I use that gun for Deer, Hogs, and Coyotes if i feel like being real mean, lol. Yea its overkill.
Earhtwalker I live up in the panhandle, A hour NE of Amarillo. Where I was hunting was south on the prairie dog town fork of the Red River, maybe 10 miles north of Turkey, Tx. If looking at a map its the southern part of Palo Duro Canyon.
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