Hal and I met at o-dark hundred this morning and headed for my honey hole. That one place where I almost always see coyotes.
Every visit there shows me something new. They now have several hundred head of sheep near the house, and more importantly, a family of "sheep dogs". Thay have a pair of Great Pyrenees and five pups. The male stayed about 100 yards back of us and barked incessently at our first stand. We were, after all, close to his herd. The female (yes, bitch) roamed around in front of us as we called. We weren't expecting much anyway, as the wind was behind us and pretty much killed the stand. We hunt anyway...
As we moved to our second stand, further from the sheep, the male Pyrenees stayed with his flock. We visited the dead pile, that had two well-chewed sheep and two yet to be consumed. Moving to our second stand, Hal spotted a retreating coyote from about 400 yds out, with no time for a shot. We nestled up to some center-pivot wheels overlooking broad, clear corn stubble to fields holding hundreds of cattle. There has to be a coyote in there somewhere.
As we gazed intently at our killing field, Hal was being romanced (licked, actually) by the bitch that wouldn't leave him alone. It was comical. Now, some of you toll for coyotes with your curs, so I wasn't completely despondent over the otherwise pleasant company of this great... Pyrenees. It did occur to me that this bitch is the sworn enemy of my quarry, and was big enough to dissuade the hungriest of coyotes. Our prospects weren't good with the "assist", and nothing came to our calls.
A couple of stands later it started to sleet. We broke for lunch when the rains came. We dropped by a cattle ranch we had been communicating with and visited with one of the top hands (sons). He granted us permission, and gave us some advice on where to hunt. He is most cooperative with those who would reduce the coyote numbers on his property. He had taken a dead cow and placed it in an open field, rather than drag it to the usual dead pile. An ADC hunter was able to harvest a couple of coyote off it so far. We visited a site where Jerry Malbeck had taken me earlier in the month. We kicked out a coyote as we approached, and didn't get a shot off. I was again humbled, noting that Hal (as does Jerry) spots these dogs better than I. I have much to learn.
After a bit more scouting (it was raining) we packed it in. Both our hunts together (Hal and I) were cut short by rain this month. Better weather next time!
