posted November 11, 2005 11:35 AM                  

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Scruffy

Would you walk into a stand, with the wind in your face, and then do a 180 and sit down with the wind on your back and the cover that you expected a coyote to be in to your back? At least you would be able to see if someone was trying to steal your truck

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Yes, late in the season this has worked really well. One of my "honey holes" is a section with the south 1/2 of the section is a mix of corn and beans and the top north 1/2 of the section is timber. There's a fence that runs East/West seperating the two halves of the section. I walk in the 1/2 mile from the road to the East/West fence and sit down along the fence, facing south. I hunt this place when there is a north, north west, or north east wind. I'm looking over a bunch of barren rolling fields with terrices. There is one small timbered finger that comes out of the timbered half of the section into the row crop field. I setup 100 yards east of the finger. I watch this finger carefully. It extends 75 or so yards out into the field and runs SW into a terrice. The tip of the finger is 150 yards from my spot. Where I'm sitting, against the fence, I'm at a higher elevation as the finger. I call, wind at my back, looking to my right towards the finger, actually cheating a bit and facing the SSW. I'm left handed so this is my "strong side" with the rifle. Many of the coyotes, no matter where in the big area of timber, seem to make there way to the finger and use it to get them out into the field 75 yards undetected. At the tip of the finger they will poke out and stand there for a minute looking around and then cross over behind the terrice. They use it to get to my downwind side, only it ends before they get to my downwind side and they are exposed 70-80 yards SW of me. With wind out of the north, this was perfect! I've got them at the end of the terrice and back at the end of the finger. It's a very productive stand because it funnels the coyotes and leads them to my barrel using the terrain to put the wind and their instincts against them.

This is just one example of a few of my favorite spots that I call with the wind at my back. It's odd at first. I've had one coyote, a pup, sniff me through the fence once. I had called in a runt fawn (mom doe killed by car I imagine...) a few minutes earlier with some lip squeeks that I saw on the other side of the fence out of the corner of my eye so when something started sniffing me I assumed it was the fawn. It was at the end of my stand so I decided to turn around and say "BOOO" to the fawn. I turned around and had a coyote pup about 6" from my face and about browned my shorts! He quickly back peddled from his side of the fence back into the timber.

To complete the oddness of that moment I sat there for a few more minutes laughing at myself and saw a coyote, nose down, trotting along my path through the field. I readied the rifle on the sticks when he was about 150 yards out and at 125 yards the coyote looked up right at me and started to circle. When he was SW of me, 100 yards out, I lip squeeked and he stopped and I squeezed the trigger. End of story.

The only two coyotes that I know of (yea, I'm sure some came up from behind me but didn't sniff my neck) that didn't come from upwind and circle me came on the same stand a few minutes apart. One sniffed my neck from the upwind side, the other came from where I parked the truck and tracked me to where I sat. It was just one of those days I guess.

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Would you walk into a stand with the wind in your face and then do a 90 and sit down with the wind on your shoulder and the cover you expected to hold coyotes over the same shoulder? If a coyote tried to get down wind of you from that cover, wouldn't there be a 50-50 chance that he'd pass in front of you or behind you?

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Actually in the past I've done this alot more than with the wind at my back. Say with the wind out of the north and a big area of timber to my north I'll walk in from the south. I'll walk along a fence running North/South. When I'm a few hundred yards away from the timber I'll sit down along the fence with my body facing east or west and with the rifle facing NW or NE across my body. I switch hit in baseball and I also shoot both right or left handed. When facing east I shoot right handed if I expect a coyote out of the north so the rifle is naturally pointed to the NE.

Which side of the fense do I sit??? It depends. If the wind is NNW (or NW or WNW or even W) I'll sit on the east side. If the wind is NNE (or NE or ENW or E) I'll sit on the west side of the fence.

If the wind is directly out of the north I'll try again use the terrain to the coyotes disadvantage. If one side of the fence had thicker cover (more grass, more trees, etc) than the other I'll sit on the side with more cover. Or if the fence is visible from the road I'll sit on the side of the fence away from the road.

Basically I've never found a fence where one side wasn't atleast a smidge better than the other side for the coyotes approach and I sit myself on the side that's better for him.

Then when the coyote comes walking down the fence line, low and slow and using the cover I've given him as an approach, undoubtly stopping to check things out, he'll reach a point and start to circle. With a north wind, I'm sitting against the fense with my torso facing west, cheating a bit to the WNW maybe, but trying to "be one with the fence", shooting left handed, the rifle is pointed NW to NNW on the sticks across my body, I'm watching the field edge for him to break cover and enter the field, the coyote break cover and starts to circle 100 yards upwind of me I'll wait until he's infront of the rifle (I usually sit with it shouldered on the sticks ready to go), I drop my head down on the stock, bark or lip squeek to stop him, and squeeze the trigger.

The above describes the mid January 2005 morning at around 10:00am with a north wind and temps in the single digits. The fence line was north/south with a north/south road running parallel 800 yards to the east. The cover on both the west and east sides of the fence were the same. I setup on the west side, wind on my right shoulder, and called in a nice male, shot him right at 100 yards circling me after he broke cover. I figure he'd rather circle walking west away from a road, not towards it to the east, especially when the fence blocked view of him from the road.

On this fence there is enough trees and bushes and junk I couldn't see the coyote's 300 yard approach to me until he broke cover and started to circle me at 100 yards in the open harvested baren bean field covered with a bit of snow and ice (man it was loud walking in!).

Again, like above, I gave the coyote an approach, he took it, and exposed himself close to my location, out of my scent cone, I stopped him, and finally I shot him. Text book. You gotta love the occasional coyote that reads the text book.

But like I said, early in the season I hear alot of coyotes, or what I assume are coyotes, come straight in from my upwind side during the pre-gun-deer seasons. Which is why this fall I'm modifying my tactics to look upwind, keeping my downwind open as a deterant to circle, hoping that I'll have more pups and fearless coyote come straight in rather than circle. Later in the year however, and the later it gets, I anticipate most of the coyotes trying to get to my downwind side and I setup to funnel them to my downwind side with the opportunity to shoot them before they get all the way there. If a coyote doesn't circle I either don't see him because he stays behind me when the wind it at my back or if I'm looking crosswind and he doesn't circle and comes right in he ends up in my lap sort of speak, hopefully not litterally, but could happen depending on the cover I'm sitting in.

I hope this wasn't too long winded of an answer.

later,
scruffy

[ November 11, 2005, 02:25 PM: Message edited by: scruffy ]

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