Just retuned from my first summer coyote hunt, tired, dehydrated and smiling. I’ve been a trapper and fur hunter for over 50yrs and this is the first time I’ve hunted a coyote in the summer.
The WPHA was looking for a place to hold our eastside of the state meeting and one of the ranchers offered his place if we would hunt coyotes there as he was having a serious problem.
I’m a coastie, any one living west of the Cascade Mountains is a coastie, I’m more than a coastie more like a beachie. I live on the north coast of WA about a mile from the Pacific Ocean, seventy degrees is a HOT day for us and we seldom see the sun as marine layer fog is more common than sun in the summer and we get around 80 inches of rain in the winter. 95+ degrees and blazing sun are a real shock to my system.
One of the first comments was “you should have been here last week” boy haven’t heard that before. I guess the coyotes hadn’t left just shut up, he’s killed ten off of his porch already this year.
We went out for a quick stand Friday night up where the canyon narrowed overlooking the wheat field and creek bottom. Not a few minutes into the stand a coyote popped up on the rim rock above and behind us and spooked as my partner tried to turn for the shot. Only coyote we saw there.
Next morning we headed down the canyon and set up on a rock out crop me looking up the valley and him down. Not long into the stand my partner got into a pissing match with a coyote across the canyon. I was about a hundred yards away and was thinking man he can make that RR howler sound like two coyotes mixing it up, until I hear three shots. I sat for a few seconds and saw a coyote booking across the pasture dust puffing up every time his feet hit the ground. By the time I got swiveled around he’d ducked in to the creek bed and popped out again 300+ yards so I sent a hail mary and lead him by just a bit too much and he turned into the brush and disappeared. Turns out my partner hit him with the first shot he started to spin so he shot two more times and the coyote went down and he laid his rifle down and was going to call again when the coyote got up and fell down into a dry creek bed, he thought I’d shot at a second coyote, We never found his coyote or blood.
Before lunch I took a walk to see what the rest of the area looked like and found a nice stand spot and went back to the ranch house for the meeting and a nap before dinner.
After dinner I partnered with a different hunter, we hunted the sage flats above the canyon and on the second stand at the mouth of a sage filled draw. We set with me looking up the draw and him watching the flat below the draw. About the secod breath on my call a coyote squirted out from under a patch of sage about 100 yards away and came through the bottom of the raw and up my side. When he got to the bottom of the draw he disappeared below the curve of the hill and when he reappeared he was considerably to the left of where I expected him and had to shift position and wait for him to clear the sage I was sitting next to and had a perfect broadside at 30 yards, sight picture was perfect and he disappeared from the scope at the shot. I lifted my head of the stock and watched where I had shot and nothing was moving and I saw nothing running away. Nothing, we search the area for 30 min and couldn’t find a thing other than a rattle snake. Pretty sure I hadn’t cleared the sage bush an clipped a branch just beyond the muzzle that I couldn’t see in the scope. I think between the recoil of the rifle and lifting my head off the stock he had just enough time to drop back below the curve of the hill. Needless to say I had to go back to the ranch house and bent over in front of the rancher and told him he was allowed one swift kick. I heard about missing two that day all evening.
Sunday morning I partnered with another of the club members and we set up on a spot I’dscoped out the previous morning and we called in a coyote to forty yards and this time everything went right and I dropped a big male in his tracks.
I had a great time and hunted with a couple of really nice guys which is kind of different for my as I’m usually a loner.
Would I summer hunt again, probly not unless it was the same type of situation. After killing that coyote while cutting off his ears for proof all I could think of was in a few months that would have been a beautiful pelt as the guard hairs were already a couple inches long and pretty pale.
Does the rancher have a coyote problem? You bet, four coyotes called in in seven stands on ground I’ve never seen before, I’ll say.
All in all it was a great club weekend. Thanks Randy,
Sorry no pics.
Equipment
Guns Bernardelli 2000 12ga/5.6x50R Leupold 1x4, Rem 722 22-250 LVSF barrel 700 ADL stock Burris 1.5x6 Signature Select
Calls Minaska M-1 Bandit, TT Red Howler, Sceery Bite call and RR close reed and howler
Decoy Whirling Woody
Cc; Hunt Washington
