Couple more dogs down, 21 and 22!

[Grayfox]

Got number 21 a couple weeks ago. Called for about 45 minutes when I saw two enter the field from the South and walk to the top of a hill 250 yards out. I lowered the volume on the caller and they lit up. That's the first time I've ever had them howl like that within site of me. Sounded like a dozen of them out there. I tried a few things to coax them closer but they wouldn't budge. So I lined up one and shot, looked like a hit but I didn't hear the bullet hit so I chambered another one and as it was trying to get away I sent another down range. I thought I could see it on the side of the hill but drove out there and sure enough the big female was down.

Then #22 fell to a daylight set up North. A buddy had wanted me to come up to his cabin and try a little day calling this weekend and I've never put much faith into it around here but decided it would be a good time to get away for a day or so. We drove up Thursday night and checked on a few of his properties before dark. Pretty thick country with some rolling hills. We gave it a shot Friday morning at two spots but nothing showed. We tried again Friday night and had a female howl back but she stayed in the spruce swamp about 400 yards to the South and wouldn't show herself. The wind picked up pretty good and it had been snowing off and on. We saw a few tracks at one spot and made a plan to try it this morning and them get home before the temp and wind really picked up. We got set up before daylight and as soon as I could see I started the caller. I let it play for 15 minutes and saw one coming in from the NE. It came in fast and I was waiting for my buddy to shoot as he's never got one before, when he tells me to take it if it stops. It ran a little down wind and stopped for a broad side shot. I hit it a little high and back but it didn't make it 30 yards before going down. Tiny little hole on one side and no pass through. That's what I love about those 17 Remington's and taken with my first reloaded round!

He saw a second bug out when I shot and due to the thick cover we/ he never got off a shot. Turns out he went to crank up his scope power and he cranked up his elevation setting on his scope, the last time I took him he had a similar issue. I'll get him one, one of these days.looking forward to hitting the March moon hard then the guns will get put away.

[minky]

Great write up and pictures!

[123fish]

Congrats Grayfox. When you say you heard a female howl and not show herself how do you know it was a female?

[K_Josh87]

Mr Fox, I have always enoyed your detailed posts... thanks! Are you typically using yote vocals for your calling sequences? I notice you seem to do 1 hourish sets... are you pulling them out of thickets into wide open fields? Just curious, I have done some night hunting but usually when i get the chance the snow, clouds, or bitter cold/wind are not cooperating, but ths year i have a but more time, and actually have a trip to my sisters place in iowa planned for a weekish from now... they have some snow, with more forecasted next week, so hoping it sticks long enough for use to get there and do a little night hunting... these are prime area to find them... seen regularly just driving, or while they are tending to cattle, and they are starting to calve right now... so they tend to move in tight to the calving farm...usually see several during a day hunt, and kill a couple... last year called in 6 in one stand on the calving farm, only whacked 2... missed one other shot... we got 2" of snow here last night, i might do a little scouting to see if there is enough snow in a couple spots to get after some here around home as well... good luck to ya! Hope you hit 30+ this year!

[Grayfox]

123fish,

A Female coyote has a higher pitch howl and bark than the males. After a while you can tell the difference.

Rob

[Grayfox]

K_Josh 87,

Most of my sets are in open fields and an hour is pretty much a given on stand length. I've found, for me, that the coyotes don't necessarily come charging in. Not sure why but more times than not they will either answer back and still take their time coming in or they will come in silent to investigate the sounds. I'm not sure if it's from others calling and educating them or just the way they respond in the areas I hunt. When I check my records most sets are 45- 80 minutes in length. Because of my set length I can only get in 2-4 sets a night, depending on the driving distance between the spots. As far as sounds, it's about 50/50 for what I use. Sometimes I start out with howls and use mostly vocals and others I use more distress and toss in some vocals between them. It really depends on the response or lack of response I get at the set. Most if not all of the spots I hunt I'm confident that there is a coyote within earshot so it's just a matter of going with gut feelings on which sounds and how long it will take me to figure them out but being patient seems to work a lot better than the run and gun method for me. I use up far less spots and educate fewer animals this way.

Rob

[leech~~]

I know it's a lot of hard, cold work.

But thanks for doing your part to "Take out the Trash"

[K_Josh87]

Rob,

We did 1/2 hour sets this past week in Iowa... And we had to hunt day light, and had plenty of great ground to cover... the first farm wed morning on our second stand, we called one in picture perfect, and my friend took him at about 80 yds, a small male, came into the distress calls...

the 4th stand on that farm, after a half hour I hit the pup distress and had 3 come in hard, from the worst possible spot they could for us to see/get a shot, and they stopped at about 250 and turned.... this farm has ben hunted hard, and several shots taken in the last couple weeks, (Ours made number 5 in about a 3 weeks time) but they are calving on the farm so they want it hunted hard to keep them pushed out.

Nothing the rest of the day...

Thursday hunted hard with a 15-20 MPH wind and 70 degrees... nothing... had one on a stand that appeared to take the very easy route to wind us.... (the road) and ran right to the truck and turned and burned... ( found tracks when walking out...) other than that no sign of a coyote.

yesterday morning, beautiful stand, yotes could come from every direction so split and watched to ways, ( but couldn't stay close enought to communicate... or didn't think of it at least, our bad) but buddy had two that he saw right away at beginning of call sequence at 300 yds, and they never once lifted a head or ear to the call... they went about there business as normal and eventually split and dissapeared... hoping they where moving in, the only way they'd catch wind we would have seen them... but no go... we gave them an hour and never caught glimpse... beautiful lad to hunt down there... we can to the conclusion they where not hungry, they where lazy in the warm weather, and they are bred up already... so very enjoyable few days... wish we would have knocked a couple more down though...