17cal Fan
Silver $$ Contributor
The weather has been weird and unpredictable the last few days. It's been a strange transition to "winter". I hunted late afternoon one day last week and saw nothing.
Late morning yesterday a buddy called and was planning to go out for a little while. So I drove over and went with him. Gray day, a light breeze from the east south east, which as a rule is not a productive pattern for us. It was in the mid 30's but felt like mid 20's. We were both surprised at how cold it felt.
First 2 stands we saw nothing. I don't even think we've ever hunted mid day together. We're both kind of bummed out, trying to decide if we want to try another stand. We pulled into a property that we have had success on before. It's one of those properties that are hard to get in without feeling over exposed and then stand choice is hard. Anyway were still in the vehicle talking and I decide I'm just going to go take a quick look to see if I can figure out a better place to set up at a later date. Didn't take the rifle or call, just walked and looked for options. Then he comes walking in packing his rifle. We're looking at options and walking all over in full view of a lot of the property.
We decide that we should give it a try so we walk back to his Jeep and get all our gear. Walk back to the spot we think could work. Wind is in our face and I set the call out in front of us 50-75 yards and slightly left. Started calling with a distressed rabbit and here came the crows. I cranked up the volume and then cranked it up some more until it was nearly full volume. He's sitting to my right close enough that if I could hear, I would have heard. He's moving his rifle, getting into position to shoot the coyote that just came blasting over the hill from our right and he said "mumble mumble got him mumble" I think. Which I took as, get ready to back him up.
When he got the yote to stop seconds from tackling my call, it's looking me, at least that's what I'm seeing through my scope, with the reticle in the proper place to end him. I'm waiting for my buddy's gun to fire, for like 3 seconds, 20 minutes, not sure which. And where the coyote stopped I was not positive my buddy could even see it. When my bullet made the thwap sound and the yote fell, I look over at my buddy and said "what were you doing?" he said squeezing the trigger. Well Sh?t, sorry, got tired waiting on that 30 minute squeeze. And we laughed because he knows I'm not a patient man.
Called some more, switched to a different rabbit, switched to distressed coyote, switched to coyote fight and here comes another yote over the same hill to our right. When the yote spotted the call it was pissed that it didn't see a coyote fight so it screamed/howled as it stopped at about 150yds. My buddy's bullet started the coyote spin and it headed for the timber. I had the yote just trailing my scope and I squeezed the trigger. It might have worked beautifully had I cycled the action and had a live round in the chamber. We found the yote dead in the timber without too much searching.
We've had a lot of fun hunting together over the last 15 years or so. Now I got him hooked on night hunting too.
Late morning yesterday a buddy called and was planning to go out for a little while. So I drove over and went with him. Gray day, a light breeze from the east south east, which as a rule is not a productive pattern for us. It was in the mid 30's but felt like mid 20's. We were both surprised at how cold it felt.
First 2 stands we saw nothing. I don't even think we've ever hunted mid day together. We're both kind of bummed out, trying to decide if we want to try another stand. We pulled into a property that we have had success on before. It's one of those properties that are hard to get in without feeling over exposed and then stand choice is hard. Anyway were still in the vehicle talking and I decide I'm just going to go take a quick look to see if I can figure out a better place to set up at a later date. Didn't take the rifle or call, just walked and looked for options. Then he comes walking in packing his rifle. We're looking at options and walking all over in full view of a lot of the property.
We decide that we should give it a try so we walk back to his Jeep and get all our gear. Walk back to the spot we think could work. Wind is in our face and I set the call out in front of us 50-75 yards and slightly left. Started calling with a distressed rabbit and here came the crows. I cranked up the volume and then cranked it up some more until it was nearly full volume. He's sitting to my right close enough that if I could hear, I would have heard. He's moving his rifle, getting into position to shoot the coyote that just came blasting over the hill from our right and he said "mumble mumble got him mumble" I think. Which I took as, get ready to back him up.
When he got the yote to stop seconds from tackling my call, it's looking me, at least that's what I'm seeing through my scope, with the reticle in the proper place to end him. I'm waiting for my buddy's gun to fire, for like 3 seconds, 20 minutes, not sure which. And where the coyote stopped I was not positive my buddy could even see it. When my bullet made the thwap sound and the yote fell, I look over at my buddy and said "what were you doing?" he said squeezing the trigger. Well Sh?t, sorry, got tired waiting on that 30 minute squeeze. And we laughed because he knows I'm not a patient man.
Called some more, switched to a different rabbit, switched to distressed coyote, switched to coyote fight and here comes another yote over the same hill to our right. When the yote spotted the call it was pissed that it didn't see a coyote fight so it screamed/howled as it stopped at about 150yds. My buddy's bullet started the coyote spin and it headed for the timber. I had the yote just trailing my scope and I squeezed the trigger. It might have worked beautifully had I cycled the action and had a live round in the chamber. We found the yote dead in the timber without too much searching.
We've had a lot of fun hunting together over the last 15 years or so. Now I got him hooked on night hunting too.
