Thought I would share a few pictures of the results of a coyote hunt from last Friday. The other coyote thread running that is asking about tips for calling coyotes made me want to share my experience. This dog was without question the smartest (and judging by his teeth the oldest!) I have ever taken. I hand called this dog a month ago where he and another coyote hung up on me over the facing hill presumably some 800 yards away where he would only challenge bark and challenge howl reply to my rabbit distress call and even a pup distress sound. This time I had my e caller with me and called the area with different sounds than I created with my hand calls a month ago. I also set up in a slightly different location about 50 yds away due to light and wind conditions. The result? He came in to about 800-1000 yds away again and proceeded to challenge bark and howl again....only this time I could see him! I watched him on 18 power through my scope for nearly 5 minutes as I engaged him with different vocalizations, hoping something would set him off. I concluded that this coyote was obviously married as he found the most visible joy in arguing back and forth with my female challenge barks and howls lol. Nothing seemed to bring him closer. Then I inadvertently by mistake used a pup scream on my e-caller that I had never used before. This absolutely set him off and here he came wide open over the facing hill over the next 60 seconds, barking and raising hell with my pup screams the entire way. No question this coyote was looking for a fight! I expected him to come north of me as I was working with a 10 mph south wind. And he did...barking like crazy the entire way. He got straight upwind from me about 150 yds and I only needed about 5 seconds to get the crosshairs on him and squeeze. The whole process took a little over 45 minutes, over half of which was spent in a test of wit with an animal I have a tremendous amount of respect for. Any time one can outwit one of these critters humanely, there is a great deal of satisfaction I draw from that.
Upon inspection of him, I was immediately drawn to his mouth that revealed a dog that had been around a lot of winters. My guess is this coyote was at least 7 years old and no doubt had an encounter with me before in this area, thus why he was so against coming in to a rabbit distress. He weighed just over 37 pounds and I am getting the hide tanned to remember this hunt by. In addition, I tried my first hand at preserving the skull from him and wanted to share the results. I believe I saved him an expensive bill at the dentist lol. Cavity on front lower canine and front teeth worn down to the nubbins. Thanks for reading, hope you enjoy.
