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Posted by scruffy (Member # 725) on November 27, 2005, 03:18 PM:
 
Everyone knows the old saying, "Live by the sword, die by the sword". Last August I called a farm at dusk and thought I saw movement a couple times infront of a terrice a few hundred yards out. I looked and looked, nothing. Then, after a bit too much movement on my part looking, a big male coyote popped up on the terrice, stuck his tongue out at me, I sent a .223 his way (dumb shot considering the long range), missed, and he laughed and trotted off. That coyote used that terrice to view me, conceal his movement because his silloette disappeared in the terrice, and in the end bust me before I could get him called in closer.

Since last August I've called this section atleast once every two weeks. Yep, it's rare I target an area for a particular coyote, especially when I don't know if he's still there, but I just had a feeling. Almost every time I called out there at some point in the stand I felt like I was being watched. Like something was cutting through me and actually got my heart pounding. But I never saw it. Like a ghost or evil spirit, I could feel he was there.

This afternoon I had a couple of hours before I had to go to a dress up wedding reception way out on a gravel road. I had taken the truck to town to wash it up since parking might take some creativity given the parking spots and the number of cars. So I jumped in the car, rubbermaid tote in the trunk (it's always in there just in case I need to bring something dead home ) and headed out to that farm.

I got there just before 3:00pm, the wind was out of the south say 10-15 mph. I usually hunt fence lines because it funnels the coyotes approach, but with a south wind and having to approach through the harvested fields from the south side of the section with the coyotes in the timber in the north part of the section, setting up on a north/south fence wouldn't work. The coyote would funnel into me, right into my scent, and leave long before I saw him.

I scratched my head. Hmmmmm. That coyote fooled me using the terrices. There are terrices halfway in the section running east/west as the field slopes down north to the timber. I could sit infront of one of the terrices 210 yards south from the timber edge fence. Sitting down below the top of the terrice, the wind would whip right over the top of the terrice, over the top of me, not carrying my scent to the coyote. The terrices are every 70 yards. I'd bet the coyotes would take the north/south fence down and then catch the 140 yard or 70 yard terrice to get downwind of the call, pop up, offer a shot. Hmmmmm, I have a plan.

I walked slowly north nearly a 1/2 mile along the north south fence between two open fields, the field on the west being terriced. When I reached the top of the hill sloping down to the timber I walked down below the crest, nelt down, and glassed the area, looking for bedded coyotes on the south side of the terrices or along the east/west fence along the timber edge. I made my way down the hill, along the fence, to where the terrice located 210 yards from the timber edge was located. I wanted to be far enough back that a coyote would walk the north/south fence I did long enough for me to spot him before he ducked behind a terrice to approach my downwind.

I walked west infront of the terrice and stopped and sat down at a couple of spots along the terrice I was going to setup infront of trying to find the spot that gave me a perfect view of the fence for an approaching coyote but also spots where the coyote would drop behind as he approached so I could shoulder and adjust the position of the rifle on the shooting sticks. After the third place I tried I had what I thought was the perfect spot. The top of the terrice was well above my head carrying the wind over the top of me, I was concealed, I could see the fence, and because of the rolling ground I had a couple places I could adjust the rifle.

I put the ecaller speaker 5 yards east of me at the bottom edge of the terrice facing straight north and had the gain turned all the way up. I velcro stuck the mp3 player to the side of the savage 11fl 22-250 sitting ontop of a set of scruffy stix I (design I of my homemade sticks, I have 3...).

I settled in, adjusted the air pressure in my butt pad, and looked the area over for a few minutes. I spotted a group of crows 1/2 mile north of me at the north edge of the section who happened to be flying my direction, sort of. The flew so they were 200 yards to my NW. I turned the caller on, it started on the silent track. I lowered the volume to 25%, which would be enough to get the crows attention and any close coyote but not spook them. I pushed the "next track" button on the mp3 to move to the johnny stewart "cottontail cries" (5 min). Withen a few seconds the crows got up and headed my direction. The flew in and right over me and started to fly away. I upped the volume to 50% and they came back. After a minute I upped it to 75%. The crows were going wild. I sat motionless, rifle on the sticks, my hand controlling the mp3 on the savages stock. The first 5 minute track ended and the MP3 went into the next track, Johnny Stewart "high pitched cottontail". I turned the mp3 to 100% volume. The cottontail, once crying in distress, was now louder, higher pitched, and more excited. The crows, which had flown off, returned. As Scotty on star trek would say "I'm giving her all I got Captain!" I was doing everything I could to get the call out, 100% with the wind also carrying it, and arranging the sounds to stir excitement.

Then a coyote appeared walking into the picked field from the fence. I spotter her at around 200 yards. She stopped and looked back at the fence. I also looked back at the fence. Hmmmm. She turned and started walking to the call taking the shortest route to the 140 yard terrice and disappeared. I shouldered the rifle while she was out of sight. I had my scope on 5x and could see a fair field of view. Then I saw ears just over the 70 yard terrice infront of me, but the coyote wasn't close to it, she was between the two terrices, maybe 100 yards from me. Her ears would be pointed at the speaker for a second, then turn as she walked west making her way downwind, then turn back to "look" at the call with her ears, and then every so often the ears would do a complete turn around and look back at the fence. Hmmmmmmm. I still didn't see nothing back at the fence.

When the coyote was directly downwind she, for the first time, made a visual on the speaker. All I could see was her head. The fact that she looked at the call told me should couldn't smell me. She had zero'd on the call with her ears, gotten downwind, smelled, didn't smell anything that spooked her, and then popped up her head for a look, still standing way back 100 yards from my location looking over the terrice 70 yards infront of me. I could have tried that shot, but my gut said she'd offer something better.

Then as quick as she popped her head up she dropped it back down. I looked over the scope to see where she would appear next. Since I knew this was going to be a long shot I turned the scope up to 9x. She continued west but also went north, now walking just infront of the 140 yard terrice. Every four to six steps she still looked back over her shoulder back at the fence, looking more at the fence and straight ahead than at the speaker.

As she walked I repositioned the sticks a bit to the left, actually hoping she'd key off the movement and stop, she didn't, she likely didn't see the movement. She was now in the middle of my "scent cone" but hadn't once looked at me or acknowledged me so the terrice was doing a good job or pushing the wind over me and protecting my scent from being carried.

I dropped my head down on the stock and barked. She now looked over right at me, not breaking stride, I barked again trying to get her to stop, and then barked again, and again. She wasn't stopping for that trick.

Then I moved my front hand off the 'X' of the shooting stick and hit "pause" on the MP3. She stopped like she'd been laso'd by a rope and did a 180 and looked right at the speakers location. A second later a 22-250 55 grain PSP whacked her side just behind the shoulder, she bit at it, spun, and fell dead on the entry wound.

While she was spinning I turned the pause off and restarted the caller at 100% to coverup the sound of me working the savages bolt. I called for another 10 minutes hoping what was back at the fence, possibly the big male coyote that had fooled me last August, would come out and see what all the camotion was. I tried 10 minutes of pup distress and shut the call down. Then waited another 10 minutes before packing my stuff up to retrieve the coyote.

He didn't come in, and I guess I didn't expect him to either. Whether it was the big male from last August, or another male, he stayed back and let his mate eat lead, well, he'll get his, probably the January full moon when he's in mating/territorial mode and hears another "coyote" on his turf and comes in to kick my butt and finds he's looking down the barrel of a reddoted 870 super mag with a load of #2 hevishot that'll break every bone in it's pattern circle.

But here's today's female:


That's the entry wound behind the shoulder, 140 yards. She layed on it for 20 minutes until I picked her up so she bled out it for 20 minutes, hense the blood on the fur. The entry would was smaller than a quarter and ripped by her biting it (dang coyote... ). The exit hole, which she didn't bite, was dime size. Her innards sounded mushy.

Oh, the pic is at home before I threw her up ontop one of the back tires on one of my tractors for the night. Since I had to cleaned up for the wedding reception I couldn't skin her tonight, I'll do it first thing in the morning before church.

I took my cheapy digital camera out with me and after the kill was going to take some pics of the setup and the coyote where she layed infront of the terrice but the cheapy digital camera wouldn't turn on....

Oh well, didn't matter. I drug her to the nearest fence and was going to throw her over and walk back to get the truck to come pick her up when I realized I drove the car, the truck was home in the garage all clean.... :roll: , so I drug the coyote 1/2 mile back to the rubbermaid tub in the car's trunk. Since the exit hole was smaller I put her in their exit side down.

And I tried a trip I used in Fur-Fish-Game to drag out the coyote. Take an old dog collar, put it around the coyotes neck, use it as a "handle" to drag the coyote out. If your dog has a big neck like mine remember to punch another whole in the collar to make it smaller for the relatively smaller coyote neck. Or do what I did and cut a slit in the colar with your knife in the field that fastens the colar tight enough around the neck it doesn't pull off over the coyotes head.

After a 1/2 mile drag I'd say it worked pretty well. The back of my truck would have worked a whole lot better, but hey, I'd rather drag a coyote back to the car than not be dragging a coytoe back to the car.

Live by the sword, die by the sword. Usually the coyotes use the terrices to live by, today I used a terrice and the coyote died by it.

later,
scruffy

[ November 27, 2005, 03:28 PM: Message edited by: scruffy ]
 

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Posted by Cdog911 (Member # 7) on November 27, 2005, 05:44 PM:
 
Great story, scruffy. I was just telling the guys in CO last week that I've spent more time this season targeting specific coyotes with who I've had prior run-ins, and been more successful in running the mangey bastards down and killing them like the dogs they are than ever before. There is a great sense of satisfaction in targeting and taking a specific coyote, versus just going out and killing them at random. Sure, I won't pass one up if it's offered, but getting even with one that showed you up before just makes you feel good.

Vengenace is MINE!!!
 

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Posted by scruffy (Member # 725) on November 29, 2005, 07:25 AM:
 
I agree 100%!!! It's like a very calculated game of chess. Every move is important, every mistake costly, but in the end one side gets checkmate. If the coyote wins the game it's game on another day. If the hunter wins the game it's game over.

later,
scruffy
 

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Posted by scruffy (Member # 725) on December 04, 2005, 08:09 PM:
 
Update -

August, missed huge dominant male with .223, 300 yards, missestimated range (badly...)

Nov 26th, killed female in same section who looked repeatidly back at something, likely her mate, possibly the big male

Dec 3 and Dec 4, big dominant male spotted by deer hunter in that section, same route each day, hunting.

Formulating plan. His days are numbered.

later,
scruffy
 

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Posted by Rangerclay (Member # 670) on December 06, 2005, 09:26 AM:
 
That's a great story!!!!! Good luck getting Mr. Big

Ranger
 

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