17cal Fan
Silver $$ Contributor
My coyote hunting buddy called me and said he had been asked to work on the coyotes on a friends property. "Coyotes are driving us nuts". The Gal got us set up with MDOC for shooting at night so we felt inclined to give it a try. He went over and took a quick look at the property in daylight and we headed over there the next chance we got, which was a week ago. He had scribbled out a sketch of the property so at least I had an idea of what to expect.
Of course the barn lot light not visible or noticed in daylight killed the 1st planned stand. We walked a little further to the the first available shadows. Set up the tripods and I snuck another 25-30 yards to place the call, still in shadows. Back to the shooting position and taking a quick look around with the thermal scanner. I spotted the back fence maybe a hundred yards in front of me. He's running night vision and was also checking out the situation.
I fired up the call with a rabbit squeal and within a minute spotted one just the other side of the back fence. Excited, I whispered "fire in the hole" and shifted myself into position behind the scope. That yote either heard me or saw me but vanished back into the brush beyond the fence. Maybe another minute passed and I spotted one running away from the call and toward the back fence. He stopped to look back and paid the price. Not sure where he came from, either from our right or from behind us but pretty certain he ran within inches of the call.
We got quite for several minutes and fired up the call again. A third yote appeared in front of us and never stopped moving. Could not get him to stop for more than 1/2 a second so as a last resort I threw lead in front of him. He did a 180 in mid air, headed left at high speed cleared the side fence and vanished.
A little more quiet time then here we go again. The 4th yote appeared out of nowhere but stopped long enough for my buddy to plug him. It kept getting up and scrambling a few feet closer to the left fence. I was on him when he paused at the fence so I ended him there.
We tried again last night and she had the barn lot light off. At least it was easier for us to stay out of site. Scanning, we had 4 deer in there with us. 2 of them eventually walked up to the call and remembered they had somewhere else to be. Never saw a coyote but did get a distant response to a serenade call.
Of course the barn lot light not visible or noticed in daylight killed the 1st planned stand. We walked a little further to the the first available shadows. Set up the tripods and I snuck another 25-30 yards to place the call, still in shadows. Back to the shooting position and taking a quick look around with the thermal scanner. I spotted the back fence maybe a hundred yards in front of me. He's running night vision and was also checking out the situation.
I fired up the call with a rabbit squeal and within a minute spotted one just the other side of the back fence. Excited, I whispered "fire in the hole" and shifted myself into position behind the scope. That yote either heard me or saw me but vanished back into the brush beyond the fence. Maybe another minute passed and I spotted one running away from the call and toward the back fence. He stopped to look back and paid the price. Not sure where he came from, either from our right or from behind us but pretty certain he ran within inches of the call.
We got quite for several minutes and fired up the call again. A third yote appeared in front of us and never stopped moving. Could not get him to stop for more than 1/2 a second so as a last resort I threw lead in front of him. He did a 180 in mid air, headed left at high speed cleared the side fence and vanished.
A little more quiet time then here we go again. The 4th yote appeared out of nowhere but stopped long enough for my buddy to plug him. It kept getting up and scrambling a few feet closer to the left fence. I was on him when he paused at the fence so I ended him there.
We tried again last night and she had the barn lot light off. At least it was easier for us to stay out of site. Scanning, we had 4 deer in there with us. 2 of them eventually walked up to the call and remembered they had somewhere else to be. Never saw a coyote but did get a distant response to a serenade call.
