Got some information about some ground with groups of four coyotes sighted. It took me a couple of trips to connect, but it was epic.
Got there just before dawn, and set up about 150 yards from my rig. Hadn't called long, when they started singing...two groups, in different locations. One group was on ground that I didn't have permission to hunt, the other group was fair game.
I was using my e-call, with motion decoy, which I am still learning to use properly, and hiked in toward the coyotes, when I got to where I was worried about bumping them. There was about sixteen inches of hard snow....hard enough to walk on, so it was noisy.
Found a likely, but not ideal, location, set the call out about forty yards in front of me, and put out a couple of howls, then went to pup distress. In about two mimnutes, all hell broke loose! At about 250 yards, a coyote was racing my way...then another...then another...then another...then another! That's right, five of them in a line!
I think I might have peed a little! Well, they absolutely over-ran my position before I could pick one to shoot. The lead animal broke off about three feet from the decoy, heading to my left, and the others followed more or less the same pattern. They obviously werent going to stop, so I took the running shot on the rearmost animal. and managed to break a leg.
When he tumbled, I went on to the next, and missed that shot. Then I had to go back and settle the cripple.
Looking back, I should have shut down the call entirely the second that I saw incoming, then one might have paused to give me a stationary shot.
The first thing that I noticed was the great color of all of these coyotes, they all looked the same, and were nice and dense
I went back a week later, and called in and killed a single. I will write that one up at a later time.
It's gonna be a long time until next season, because on my last visit to this site, I had four groups of coyotes howling at me from four directions!
.222 M 70 Win. 50 gr SP handloads
