I thought I'd go out this evening to do a little coyote calling just to see what I could see. I do it every now and again, usually without any luck, but tonight was a whole different story!
I started up an old road that winds up a canyon and does a switchback around a ridge from where one can get a pretty good view of about a mile of sage brush covered hillside. It was getting dark pretty fast so I decided to stop at a point on the road that offered a fairly good view of the adjacent hillsides. I got my shooting sticks setup and did about a 30 second call sequence on the 'ol rabbit squealer. I sat there for about 5 minutes listening to a flock of chuckar cackling about a half a mile away when suddenly I heard a yipping sound coming from a good ways up the canyon. As I paused to make sure my ears weren't playing tricks on me, I heard it again. It was definitely a coyote!
There was a little knoll back the way I came that was positioned between me and the coyote. I knew that from atop this knoll I would have a bird's eye view down into the entire canyon from where this yipping had come from. With that, I hoofed it to the top of this knoll as fast as I could.
Nearly out of breath as I reached to top, I was excited as this was the first time that I had ever known a coyote was nearby before he came in. My hopes were high as the adrenaline began coursing through my veins. Suddenly about 1/2 mile away I spotted two coyotes coming down the old road in the bottom of the canyon. They were making good time as they began side hilling it around toward the knoll that I was now on top of; stopping every now and again to scan the terrain in front of them. As they got to within about 150 yds, they split up. One headed back down low (out of my line of site behind the knoll) and the other kept side-hilling around the mountain straight to me. This was the coyote that I decided would be the first, and probably only coyote, to give me a good shot opportunity.
At about 100 or so yards, the coyote headed straight towards me stopped and was watching the other one down over the hill just out of my sight. He had stopped just before getting to the ridge that I was on so I opted to take the shot here before he got too close and out of my line of sight due to the thicker cover that was between him and me. As he sat there watching his buddy below he had no idea that my crosshairs where settling in straight across his chest. I took one deep breath, relaxed and touched off the trigger. BOOM!! He goes down, yelping as he tumbles down the hill. I ejected the shell from my .243 Remington Model 700 and quick slammed another one into the chamber as I sprinted to see if I could get a shot at the other coyote down over the hill.
As I crested the knoll to the point of seeing everything below me, I spotted the other coyote. To my surprise he was not jetting out of the area as I had expected him to do. Instead, he was running straight towards his yelping buddy over on my side of the hill. As I waited for him to clear some brush I noticed another coyote coming down the canyon road at a full run. They both seemed very interested in what seemed to be the problem with their pal. I sat back and waited for a clear shot on another coyote. Neither one had paid any attention to my first shot. I knew at that point there was a good chance I could get a triple kill.
As the other coyote reached his fallen brother he seemed ready for a fight. He nosed the snow where the other coyote had been when I shot and appeared to be searching for whatever had brought harm to his friend. Unable to find the culprit, he sat down, through his head back and gave out several challenge sounding yelps. Poised for another shot I lined up my crosshairs once again. BOOM!! He drops. The third coyote did exactly what I expected. He spun 180 degrees and tore out back the way he came. I lined up my crosshairs for one last shot as he reached the road in the canyon bottom. I gave him my best guess lead and squeezed the trigger. As the rifle sounded off he didn’t even slow down! He hit the brush and that was the last I saw of him.
