Another nice female!

[Grayfox]

Well I managed to bag #4 this morning around 3 A.M. I had tried 3 other spots with no luck and decided to try one of my new ones. I was trying to save our good ones until this weekend when Mitch can hunt with me but decided to give this one a try. It was an 80 with the road on the East side and a 1/2 mile deep. The field had been plowed and had a pretty thick grass strip on the North side. The wind was out of the WSW. I set the caller a little SW of me and started with some low calls, on and off. I had ramped the volume up and down several times then shut it off. Nothing showed so I gave a few howls and sat back and watched. It was about 10 minutes later when I looked back toward the road and thought I saw one running West. I got the Bino's on it and could see it was a single.

I got the gun on it as it stopped 100 yards out and squeezed the round off.

She started to spin and stumbled off about 20 yards before she went down. Here she is as I found her.

Beautiful coat on her. Real heavy and no rub marks or mange. I was going to try one more but couldn't keep my eyes open. I'm going to head out and skin her and head to bed. I'll be out the next few nights hitting it hard and hope we can add a couple more to the pile. Good luck out there.

Rob

[Gordie]

Now thats a great pay off

[x1957x]

Gray fox. Awsome job! What are the things to look at when going after nite time coyotes? I only have mouth calls and how do you set up with the wind directions. I hunt in s.w. minn. and have a lot of localized groves and 50 plus acre grass patches that I know have coyotes and fox in them. You can e-mail me at [email protected] to if you would like. Thanks Jeff

[RayG]

Rob - Great Job! Just wondering how extensively do you hide yourself while calling? I know some people say as long as you have something to break your background it's enough. Is that your experience, or do you want something in front of you as well?

[certified jumbo]

As usual, awesome job and great pics. Thanks for sharing. Now that muzzleload is winding down, i'm excited to get out and give it a whirl.

[Grayfox]

RayG and x1957x,

I don't worry about getting any cover in front of me. I try to pick my spots with the location of the moon in mind as well as the wind direction. You don't want to be sitting out in the open with the moon right in your face. You might as well have a spotlight on your location in my opinion. The moon rises in the East so early in the night I try to have spots picked out that I can setup on the East side of a North/South field or East side of a East/West field. Same for later in the night as it starts setting. I'll switch over to the West sides to stay hidden in the shadows. The only other option is if you can get back farther from the field into the cover.

The other thing that will help is putting a decoy out there for them to see. It doesn't have to move. Just something that will catch their eye and distract them long enough for the shot. Predators will notice the little black blob in the middle of the white field at night and probably try to skirt it on the downwind side.

As far as setting up. When I'm calling to a piece of cover where I think they will come from, I try to give the animal an opportunity to get down wind of the decoy. I think they're a little more comfortable knowing they have a chance of useing their nose.

I'll try an example but there's a lot of variables that come into play.

Say you're hunting an 80. The open field runs North and South with woods on three sides and the road or entry is on the South side. With a NW wind and late in the night(moon going down). I'd walk in along the West side in the shadows,go to my setup location, which I've already located from scouting in the daytime and then go NE of that location and put out the decoy and caller about 30 yards out. That way they can see the decoy and have plenty of room to circle to the downwind side of it and still be visable to me in the field where I can get a clear shot.

Like I said,there's a lot of variables. If I have only a day left to hunt I'll push it and maybe hunt more with the wind at my back to make something happen. If I screw it up I won't be back for at least a month so no big deal.

Hope this helps and sorry to ramble.

Rob

[Gordie]

We need some snow up here

Gray fox have you ever set up on a lake or even thought of it?

[x1957x]

Thanks Grayfox for the pointers!! Have to give it a try.

[tunrevir]

Rob, Have you hunted the new spot yet? There are 3 for sure over there just for the picking.

Tunrevir~

[Grayfox]

Nutrevir,

Mitch and I tried it this morning around 3 A.M. and didn't have any luck.

I heard some barking and howling but they were at least a mile or so NW of there. Saw some tracks crossing from your field heading South through the little road going to the field to the South of yours. Looks to be a good spot but maybe they were all bedded up last night as we didn't see anything at any of the spots we went. Not even an answer back. Supposed to be warmer tonight so we'll be back out somewhere but thanks agian for the opportunity.

How was the deer hunting?

Rob

[tunrevir]

The hunting was good but the shooting was not. Maybe this evening:)

Tunrevir~