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Author Topic: Lick'n my wounds Gerald Stewart Knows what it's all about Member # 162 posted October 04, 2005 04:59 AM                   I have been whuped. I just hunted the most difficult circumstance on a ranch in recent memory and came away simply scratching my head. I have my excuses lined up, but the reality is that it could not have come at a worse time. I met Al Morris, one of our other Pro Staff at Hunters Specialties, on a Ranch located just north of Rotan Texas. It has several miles of the Double Mountain Fork of the Brazos river running through it. Al is shooting video for our next predator video. He also happens to be a very experienced coyote caller(1st place 1997 World Championship). The two of us should have been able to tear up the coyote population on this "virgin" Ranch. I had scheduled a visit to the ranch two weeks ago for some scouting that had to be canceled due to a scheduled trip to Arizona for a legal deposition. Had I been able to see the ranch then, I would have pulled the plug on the use of this ranch because it was absolutely horrible for video purposes. "Thick" is an understatement. "Virgin" is about as far from the truth as could be. To make a long story short, in hind sight I fell victim to the mistake of not asking the right questions of the right people. I will take the monkey on my back on this one because the friend who got me access to the ranch was trying to help and is not a coyote hunter. His perceptions and exposure to the realities of the ranch was not the problem. My failure to investigate this opportunity was the problem. I know better and simply dropped the ball for HS. The result was that we beat our brains out for three days and came up with two coon kills on video. We called three coyotes that we saw, but yet heard a gazillion howling at various times. We threw and incredible array of sounds, mixtures and creative effort at them only to see fleeting glimpses of them heading down wind. We drove a couple of hundred miles on the ranch to never see one standing in the distance, cross the road in front of us and to see only two piles of dung in the roads. We got howled at on a number of stands and could not pull any in with coyote vocalizations. We were told the ranch was covered in hogs and we saw an impressive amount of hog sign, but never saw one hog. The ranch had recieved 12 inches of rain in August and the growth was incredible. Three of the four river crossings were unpassable with our vehicles which caused us to have to drive 45 minutes to get to a very good area only a half mile from our cabin. The road system on the ranch was very weak and much of it very poorly maintained which made travel slow and at times dicey . My 51 year old body takes that jostling a little differently than twenty years ago. Anybody have a spare kidney they want to loan me. I have never had to do so much thinking and rethinking in my life to try and figure out where we could call next to try and salvage the trip. We found ourselves sitting in the cabin the last morning staring blankly at each other wondering if any more effort was worthwhile. We happened across the Ranch Formen's wife and the straw boss(who happen to be brother and sister) and engaged them in a conversation. My friends perception was that the land owner called for coyotes with the Ranch formen only two or three times a year and that nobody else was doing it. Well the straw boss told me that he and his teenaged son do it weekly. That trip is one that I would like to forget. It cost me over a $1700 to get vehicles rigged and ready. All I got out of it was a set of tires full of thorns, red sand in all of my gear and a bruised ego. Al Morris simply found out that this Stewart is a mere mortal. [ October 04, 2005, 02:39 PM: Message edited by: Gerald Stewart ] Posts: 419 | From: Waco,Tx | Registered: Mar 2003  |  IP: Logged Rich Higgins unknown comic posted October 04, 2005 07:29 AM              Gerald, sorry that this was an expensive business loss, but I believe that it was a portent of things to come in the calling business, even in Texas. Twenty years ago I could guarantee a coyote on the majority of the stands I picked. No longer. Two or three times a year we get blanked for a whole day of calling. Unheard of in the not too distant past. These coyotes will adapt very quickly to increased calling pressure, and the pressure is sure to increase rapidly due in large part to the information so readily available to beginners from you and your company, your competitors, the members of this and other boards, and some very good predator magazines now available. We need the strength of numbers for our sport to survive management by initiative ballot but it is a double-edged sword. I'm afraid that in much of the country the glory days of virgin ears are pretty much behind us. IP: Logged Leonard HMFIC Member # 2 posted October 04, 2005 08:41 AM                       Two words: Kansas! -------------------- EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All. Don't piss me off! Posts: 32368 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged Bryan J Cap and Trade Weenie Member # 106 posted October 04, 2005 09:24 AM                    Leonard, Kansas is one word, would the other be Utah? LOL Gerald, in my few conversations with Al, I know that he is accustomed to when the cameras come on the coyotes turn off. If you would have left the camera in the cabin one day I think you would have knocked the snot out of them. Thanks for sharing. Posts: 599 | From: Utah | Registered: Feb 2003  |  IP: Logged Jay Nistetter Legalize Weed, Free the Dixie Chicks Member # 140 posted October 04, 2005 12:52 PM                    I feel your pain. Finding camera friendly coyotes is much harder that people think. -------------------- Understanding the coyote is not as important as knowing where they are. I usually let the fur prime up before I leave 'em lay. Posts: 1006 | From: Arizona | Registered: Feb 2003  |  IP: Logged Leonard HMFIC Member # 2 posted October 04, 2005 01:10 PM                       No, Bryan. The other word is extreme eastern central Colorado. I would never have believed how shell shocked the coyotes are in that area. I could easily call more coyotes in Upland city limits; just can't shoot them. And, that's the difference. Around St Francis, Kansas, the coyotes run the opposite direction from a call! Unbelievable, never seen anything like it! Good hunting. LB -------------------- EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All. Don't piss me off! Posts: 32368 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged 2dogs Knows what it's all about Member # 649 posted October 04, 2005 01:18 PM                   Gerald, Tough go on the hunt. --------- If you ever decide to come up central Iowa way[won't cost you as much money/grief]. Let me know. Nice gravel roads, wide open rolling cropland. It's perfect for filming & killing coyotes. I have quite afew farms to hunt. Farmers like coyote hunters here....No Charge to hunt . Snowfly time is best, as they are much easier to see. Posts: 1034 | From: central Iowa | Registered: Apr 2005  |  IP: Logged Gerald Stewart Knows what it's all about Member # 162 posted October 04, 2005 01:40 PM                   Thanks for the offer 2dogs. I can not tell you how hard it was to see a coyote there. Even with a camera, you still should see dogs pop up and duck away fast. I forgot to mention earlier the 2 inch rain we got on Friday night which made some of the few roads available unusable for a day. This was a contemplative moment while the compressor was filling up a tire after a good shot of fix a flat. Al was very impressed with the size of our thorns. Their grass burrs were about three times the size of those I encounter in Central Texas. Al got stung by a wasp that got trapped between him and the car seat. He had a wonderful time in Texas. No coyotes, wasp stung, sticker stuck and me singing the Hee Haw song to him daily. The only thing good about the trip was the viewing of Todd, Cal and Byron's DVD's in the cabin at night. [ October 04, 2005, 01:42 PM: Message edited by: Gerald Stewart ] Posts: 419 | From: Waco,Tx | Registered: Mar 2003  |  IP: Logged Cdog911 "There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell. Member # 7 posted October 04, 2005 01:59 PM                       Keep talking, Leonard. Every time you say the word "Kansas" like that, another dent comes out of my frail ego. Ya know what's really sad? Wetsern KS is what we call the "good calling". Gonna spend tomorrow out talking to more landowners so I can get cranked up callin' and killin'. Have 14 signatures thus far with only 26 more to run down and talk to before I'm set for the season. -------------------- I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do. Posts: 5440 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged TRnCO FUTURE HALL OF FAMER Member # 690 posted October 04, 2005 04:58 PM                    We've all been there, done that.....haven't we... I know I have more than once!! Leonard, last year I was lookin' seriously about getting into the contest held in St. Francis. I took two weekends driving eastern CO. talking to land owners, looking for the sweet spot that is needed to do some good in the contest. Well, I was shell shocked at the number of land owners that told me that they already had teams with permission to call thier land for the contest, heck most of them also said there were guys calling before the contest on thier land. I didn't find what I was lookin' for, so no contest entry for me. It is getting harder and harder to find the sweet spots!! -------------------- Is it hunting season yet? I hate summer! Posts: 996 | From: Elizabeth, CO | Registered: Aug 2005  |  IP: Logged DAA Utah/Promoted WESTERN REGIONAL Hunt Director Member # 11 posted October 04, 2005 05:43 PM                       "Around St Francis, Kansas, the coyotes run the opposite direction from a call! Unbelievable, never seen anything like it!" I started seeing that occasionally here in Utah maybe six or seven years ago? Not everywhere, and not all the time. But I HAVE seen it on more than one or two occasions out in the West Desert. It can get pretty brutal out there by February, LOL! - DAA -------------------- "Oh yeah, they're gonna talk to you, and talk to you, and talk to you about individual freedom, but they see a free individual, it's gonna scare 'em." -- George Hanson, Easy Rider, 1969. Rocky Mountain Varmint Hunter Posts: 2676 | From: Salt Lake City, UT | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged Gerald Stewart Knows what it's all about Member # 162 posted October 04, 2005 06:02 PM                   Oh , I have experienced it before. The first was when I was a kid with Dad. Three days in prime coyote country in South Texas. Not a single coyote called. I called thirty two times in a two and a half day span in Kentucky once and only called two coyotes on the last stand of the last day. Humbling it is I tell you. Posts: 419 | From: Waco,Tx | Registered: Mar 2003  |  IP: Logged Jrbhunter PAYS ATTENsION TO deTAIL Member # 459 posted October 11, 2005 07:01 AM                      That's Kentucky for ya'! Posts: 615 | From: Indiana | Registered: Dec 2004  |  IP: Logged Krustyklimber prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee Member # 72 posted October 11, 2005 07:07 PM                    Called 32 times and saw 2 coyotes, in ONE weekend... hell yeah, sign me up for some of that. That'd be a great weekend for me. When you're ready for a serious whuppin' come on up. Krusty -------------------- Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that! Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003  |  IP: Logged Sue and Mark Nami Knows what it's all about Member # 685 posted October 12, 2005 08:15 AM                   Would your tactics have been different if you weren't burdened with a camera? What would you have done differently in order to shoot instead of film coyotes and do you think you would have been successful? -------------------- All that's necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing. - Edmund Burke..1729-1797 Posts: 44 | From: east coast | Registered: Jul 2005  |  IP: Logged Gerald Stewart Knows what it's all about Member # 162 posted October 12, 2005 01:33 PM                   That is a very good question. There obviously are coyotes out there. We heard them and saw their tracks. Had I known the ranch people were calling heavily I would have at the very least scouted the place earlier and picked their brains better about where, when and how they were calling. The prep for use of the ranch would have been much more thorough. Scouting for sign, listening for vocalizations, looking for openings in the brush and terrain would have been critical. It was too late for very much of that after we arrived with a deadline for filming. Being on a ranch with a very weak road system to begin with, created even more difficulty. Access to much of the ranch would have needed to be via 4 wheelers. Filming for kills and simply killing are two very different things. In tighter brush we could have set up for shotgunning but that leaves the cameraman with much less time. We could have called exclusively at night and gotten some eyes to shoot at, but in that thick brush it would not have provived very good footage. Many of the spots would have been condusive to a pair of eyes popping up on an edge and dissappearing far too quickly, especially in light of the call shy dogs. Bear in mind that if I were in the exact same conditions with uncalled dogs we might have been able to overcome some of the negatives created by the terrain and the lack of familiarity. It was too little too late. Too little knowledge going in and too little time to overcome it. It kind of reminds me of a couple of calling trips in the east. Posts: 419 | From: Waco,Tx | Registered: Mar 2003  |  IP: Logged

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