A pal & I a ranch in CO Sat eve-Sunday. We did some late eve calling after I finished up on making his coyote basket for his reciever. It was still in the 90s at 630pm & the coyotes were nice enough to howl back at us and be seen out in the fileds we have been hitting.
I felt they were saying hey dummy its way to darn hot & humid to move from here in the nice cool drainage area and the ones you see & hear are staying put till it cools down.
We call to about 1215 am in different spots around the ranch. Had counted 7 sets of eyes with the green laser nite lite, but they also stayed 300 yards off. They were pretty vocal though & the day ended with no shots. I was tired/hot/drained & thirsty and didnt think I'd wake up at 4am for our next day.
Sunday we are up at 415 am & set up glassing and had 1 come up behind us about 10 min into a set making no sounds yet, it winded us & busted out. We circled a 1/2 mile to where they feed up into the other ranch and caught one in the open at 200 yds in which someone who aint me nicely shot a tad over its back down in the gully. That was maybe 5am. We decided to move into the drainage areas where they seem to like after we saw 3 in a bit earlier. As we decided to do that we saw 2 coyotes harrasing an Antelope that we thought had a fawn close by as it had not move from that area in a week. They sure had it going and may have had it down, but a Buck came in and as we walked our way to them they dissappeared.
We called very sparsely and hung out there for about an hour as the sun came up and just about cooked us. Glad we both brought water this time. We said lets get out of here & drive the ranches 2 tracks for spot & stalk.
Yea as soon as we got back to the Jeep we saw a coyote trot off about 80 yards from it...darn it!
The rancher was coming up one trail and we were at a finger and saw a nice coyote at 100yds trying to decide where to go as it looked back & forth at both trucks, it walked off slowly.
We got out to stalk it and coming up a deepish arroyo we see a coyote skylined at about 200 yards but it lookes like ol Mr Mangys (I shot last month) twin as its not the same one we just saw. As we are standing with just our heads over the crest I look to my right and sure enough see the other one laying next to a large yucca shrub in the shade. I crawl to the lip of the crest and of course its all cactus in the spot as I crawl & get stuck a ton. DDW stayed behind me poking me with his shooting sticks sayin keep going as he watched it.
I was to low to see it then and as it stood up and I shot it at maybe 120 yds with my 6x45 at 750 am, it spun 3 times and ran over the crest it was on and rolled over dead running it was. Its 90* or more at this time but felt like 120*. We should of walked back to the jeep & picked up some water right then.
When we got back to it with my camera at 11am it was already cooking & smelling bad.
We stalk 2 others in the same area, DDW missed a running coyote another at 200yds and we decide its to hot/humid to bother wasting our energy on any more Sunday & we are burning up with thirst and the heat bearing down on us. We did not take any water on this "short" stalk that turned into a 3 hour walk & stalk/call.
NEVER leave the water in the vehicle thinking you will back shortly when its this hot out!!
By noon I had drunk a gallon of water and 6 sodas and was still drained!
We spent a couple of hours driving the ranches 2 tracks exploring some of the areas we have not even called on as of yet.
The smoke from the fires over in Ft Collins was still blasting smoke all the way to the area we were at & that did not help.
I may be done for the year...maybe!
I felt they were saying hey dummy its way to darn hot & humid to move from here in the nice cool drainage area and the ones you see & hear are staying put till it cools down.
We call to about 1215 am in different spots around the ranch. Had counted 7 sets of eyes with the green laser nite lite, but they also stayed 300 yards off. They were pretty vocal though & the day ended with no shots. I was tired/hot/drained & thirsty and didnt think I'd wake up at 4am for our next day.
Sunday we are up at 415 am & set up glassing and had 1 come up behind us about 10 min into a set making no sounds yet, it winded us & busted out. We circled a 1/2 mile to where they feed up into the other ranch and caught one in the open at 200 yds in which someone who aint me nicely shot a tad over its back down in the gully. That was maybe 5am. We decided to move into the drainage areas where they seem to like after we saw 3 in a bit earlier. As we decided to do that we saw 2 coyotes harrasing an Antelope that we thought had a fawn close by as it had not move from that area in a week. They sure had it going and may have had it down, but a Buck came in and as we walked our way to them they dissappeared.
We called very sparsely and hung out there for about an hour as the sun came up and just about cooked us. Glad we both brought water this time. We said lets get out of here & drive the ranches 2 tracks for spot & stalk.
Yea as soon as we got back to the Jeep we saw a coyote trot off about 80 yards from it...darn it!
The rancher was coming up one trail and we were at a finger and saw a nice coyote at 100yds trying to decide where to go as it looked back & forth at both trucks, it walked off slowly.
We got out to stalk it and coming up a deepish arroyo we see a coyote skylined at about 200 yards but it lookes like ol Mr Mangys (I shot last month) twin as its not the same one we just saw. As we are standing with just our heads over the crest I look to my right and sure enough see the other one laying next to a large yucca shrub in the shade. I crawl to the lip of the crest and of course its all cactus in the spot as I crawl & get stuck a ton. DDW stayed behind me poking me with his shooting sticks sayin keep going as he watched it.
I was to low to see it then and as it stood up and I shot it at maybe 120 yds with my 6x45 at 750 am, it spun 3 times and ran over the crest it was on and rolled over dead running it was. Its 90* or more at this time but felt like 120*. We should of walked back to the jeep & picked up some water right then.
When we got back to it with my camera at 11am it was already cooking & smelling bad.
We stalk 2 others in the same area, DDW missed a running coyote another at 200yds and we decide its to hot/humid to bother wasting our energy on any more Sunday & we are burning up with thirst and the heat bearing down on us. We did not take any water on this "short" stalk that turned into a 3 hour walk & stalk/call.
NEVER leave the water in the vehicle thinking you will back shortly when its this hot out!!
By noon I had drunk a gallon of water and 6 sodas and was still drained!
We spent a couple of hours driving the ranches 2 tracks exploring some of the areas we have not even called on as of yet.
The smoke from the fires over in Ft Collins was still blasting smoke all the way to the area we were at & that did not help.
I may be done for the year...maybe!
