The other day I pm'ed Bobcat to let him know that I was going to stay in town this weekend and for him let me know if he was going to look for bears with his uncle (so that I might tag along). Bobcat mentioned that his uncle might be busy, but that he would be up for some coyote calling and picture taking if we got a bobcat or bear to come in. We messaged back and forth about where to go, "how about here"; "remember where you called one when we were bear hunting" and we finally made a loose plan. Then things started to almost unravel. First my charger adapter blew up on me, then not sure where we were meeting, I had to log on at 4 am to check my messages. When I go to leave I notice how overcast it was and then at 5 am (meeting time) my cell phone rings. It's Bob calling to tell me he will be 15 minutes late. I left the truck running to charge my caller, opened a magazine and not a few minutes later Bob shows up. After transferring items from one rig to another we were off...and then we notice it is starting to rain.
We ran up the mainline to the highway and then ran up the highway a short distance before heading back up a logging road. I had never been down this far on this particular road system so Bob was navigating. He took us to an area where he had seen a coyote before. We parked and as we where loading up I noticed a doe walking down the grade towards us. Once she saw us she spooked and took off in the opposite direction.
It was only a short walk to a little point above a recent clear cut and I told Bob that we should each be on separate sides of the point with the caller and decoy in the middle. Bob points to the right side of the cut and tells me where and how he saw the last coyote and the direction that it came. Since this is Bob’s spot I asked him which side he wanted to watch over. He chose the left side of the point and I took the right.
After setting up the decoy and caller I tried to find a suitable place to sit, but I had to move farther and farther away to get decent visibility. Once I got situated I started the Scorpion up with some low volume fawn bleats, slowly bringing the level up. After a couple minutes I start in with a kid goat distress sound that I really like. A couple minutes into the goat distress I can’t take it any more. The darn “no see-ums” were eating me alive. I didn’t have my gloves available, but I did have a facemask and I quickly put it on.
At about the 12-minute mark I switched to a challenge howl, I let it cycle twice then I hit the hurt pup sound. I instantly heard branches breaking about 100 yards away. Here comes a yote! He is hauling balls up and over a little ridge at about 12 o’clock. He gets to about the 2 o’clock position and changes directions heading straight towards the caller and decoy (8 o’clock position).
I let him come a little closer and behind a couple stumps before I raised my rifle, but I couldn’t find him in my scope. It was raining a bit and it was a little blurry, but when he came up and out from the stumps I was on him. Problem was he wasn’t stopping. At about the third kiss he finally stopped to look at me from about 35 yards. Bang! But no flop. The coyote started spinning circles and biting at his front legs so I let him have it again. Dog down and no more movement or so I thought.
I hit the pup distress again and let it play for a minute before shutting things down and going to grab the yote. Since I left my rifle and pack on the point I have to admit that I was a bit shocked to see the coyote half alive only ten yards in front of me. As I headed back for my rifle I see Bobcat coming over the hill. I grab my rifle and put one more into the coyote before grabbing him for a quick picture.
Here is a picture of the caller and decoy from the last place the coyote stood.
We did make a couple more stands but the wind was always wrong or it was raining too hard so we spent more time driving and bs’ing then anything. Which was fine by both of us.
I want to thank Bobcat for his company and for his choice to take the left side of the point.
