A few months back I called in two coyotes here, but was not able to kill one. At that time I was watching downhill (due east) and they came directly behind me. The only reason I saw them was I gave up early due to the lack of viewable territory out in front. They were not too far from getting my wind and if I had not gotten up early I would have never known they were there.
I went back today with a different plan. It is a tough spot to hunt by yourself, especially when I know that they are likely to come from the downwind side again but I also did not want to completely give up the upwind side. This time I set up to watch a small part of the best viewable area but where I could see some of the downwind area as well.
I set up near the intersections of two old logging roads and a 4x4 trail. I left the call above me about 10 yards (offset by about ten yards as well) and I tried to hunker down in the tall grass and brush.
I started with a rodent distress at medium volume for a couple minutes. The wind was whipping pretty hard so I switched to a high-pitched rabbit distress for almost a minute and then back to the rodent distress but this time I maxed the volume on the Scorpion.
I had a tough time watching nearly 180 degrees of brushy and hilly terrain and I moved more than I liked, but I really needed to watch both upwind and downwind.
At about the six-minute mark I saw movement downhill about twenty yards to my right. It was a coyote and it was dancing around uncertain like. Then I saw the second coyote. I am sure the first one had already seen me, but wasn’t quite sure what I was. As I turned to reposition for the shot the coyote bugged out fast. The second coyote never saw me and I could tell it was not sure if it should bail or not but it was behind some brush and I couldn’t get a shot. After a few seconds it decided to bail and I lost site of it as it went over a little hill. When it popped up at about 80 yards I gave a loud woof and it stopped nearly broadside. But I didn’t really have a shot through all of the brush and I had to adjust to my right. That made the yote nervous and just as it started to turn I fired.
Bang, Flop!
The .243 55gr Balistic Silvertip made a nice little entrance hole, but blew a big hole in her neck upon exit.
Entrance
Exit
