Not Wile E. enough

[Toby Bradshaw]

Today was a good reminder of how tough coyotes are, even the pups. I was on my first stand 15 minutes before sunrise, with my Bog-Pod set up at full height in the soon-to-be-shadow of a juniper, looking down a gentle slope into some light sagebrush and cheatgrass cover.


It was cold (20F) and clear, with (unfortunately) a gentle downslope breeze that was sure to have the coyotes circling the call downwind. I was situated so that I could shoot them from either approach direction before they crossed my scent cone. I started off with 4-5 minutes of "adult cottontail", then "raccoons fighting" (seems to attract coyotes thinking that the fight is over the rabbit they heard squealing), then old reliable "coyote pup distress". As usual, the coyote simply appeared out of nowhere, as though he had sprung directly from the earth. He was only 36 yards away, upwind of the call (dumb pup), staring straight at the FoxPro and never even glancing in my direction. The 40gr NBT hit a rib going in, fragmenting explosively and completely destroying the coyote's heart. Yet he ran another 34 yards, spraying blood and leaving chunks of heart and lung tissue the full length of his trail.


I tried another stand 1.5 miles away with no luck, other than having 2 different packs of coyotes barking and howling at me.

I took the dogs for their usual morning run, spotting a lame coyote pup in a pivot about a half mile away. He's been limping around that pivot with a gimpy front leg for the past several weeks. I moseyed on back to the truck, put the dogs in the back seat, and took the 22BR and Bog-Pod down the 2-track the half mile to where I had seen the coyote. He had moved a couple of hundred yards, but was still only 150 yards from the edge of the pivot. I was able to stalk him by crouch-walking and keeping taller sagebrush between me and him. When I was 50 yards from the edge of the pivot, I waited for the coyote to put his head down to catch a rodent, then quickly set up the Bog-Pod beside a tall sagebrush for a broadside shot. The first shot broke the humerus of his near leg and dropped him momentarily, but after hitting that heavy bone the 40gr NBT didn't penetrate to the vitals. The coyote spun towards me, weakly, and a second later the next shot hit him left of center in the chest and exited his left side abdominal cavity -- an unusually large amount of penetration. Even then, he was still alive (though not for long, and not able to move) when I got to him a minute later. I examined his legs and feet but couldn't figure out why he had been limping for the past few weeks.

Are coyotes tough? You bet they are.

 

[Huntschool]

Toby:

Thanks for the info on the BR loads.

Bruce A. Hering
Program Coordinator/Lead Instructor (retired)
Shotgun Team Coach
Southeastern Illinois College
SCTP Collegiate Coaches Chairman
NSCA Level III

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

A local guy to whom I give my coyote carcasses showed me a few of his secret calling spots yesterday and introduced me to the landowners. I will trade coyotes for access anytime! He assured me that one of the spots was a "10 out of 10", so needless to say I was standing there under a juniper just before sunrise this morning, looking down a gentle slope with light cover for 200 yards and thick sage between there and the alfalfa pivot to the west.

It was a crisp 18F, clear, not a breath of wind. The sound of a FoxPro carries a long way in those conditions. I started with "bay bee cottontail" for a few minutes to get anything close, then went to "jackrabbit distress" for some extra range. Nothing. I heard 2, 3, and finally 4 different packs of coyotes greeting the dawn. I switched to "raccoon fight", and heard 1 or 2 of the packs coming closer. I saw a couple of coyotes sneaking furtively through the sagebrush 200-300 yards out, but neither of them showed themselves further. I dialed up "coyote pup distress 3" and put the remote in my pocket, because action often comes quickly when those e-pups are squealing and I wanted my free hand on the Bog-Pod to steady it in case I had to take a hurried shot.

Within a minute I saw 3 adult coyotes porpoising over the sage 250 yards out, charging the call at maximum warp. I tracked the largest, whitest one in my scope. When I whooped he hit the brakes at 74 yards and the 40gr NBT impacted him square in the chest, killing him instantly. I racked the bolt to try for a double but the other two coyotes had lit the jets. They went 500-600 yards out and then turned around and barked at me from the safety of the sagebrush! I'm not the greedy sort, and I had hawks to fly, so I picked up my prize and delivered him to my benefactor.

Just one of those (rare) mornings when everything went according to plan. You can see the dot of an entrance wound on this large male -- a 1-stitch job for my buddy.

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

It's been windy the past several days, so I've used the early morning (relative) calm to fly my hawks instead of calling coyotes. And even though the morning temps have been well below freezing, the afternoons have been in the high 70s, which is not ideal for coyote hunting.

On the way to my hawking spot this morning there was a coyote in just about every alfalfa pivot, and 6 coyotes in one pivot. That stoked my coyote fever, so I tried to make one coyote stand in the same section where I was going to fly my hawks, but I hadn't scouted for a good place to set up and never did find a spot that I liked -- just a waste of 30 minutes of walking. A good reminder that I should always have a plan ...

My young Harris's hawk, Blitzen, is coming on strong now that she has a couple of months of experience chasing jackrabbits. She caught a monster jack by the back leg and cut its femoral artery, spraying her with blood.



After I put the hawks away I ran the dogs at my usual spot. I could see 2 coyotes in a pivot a half mile in the distance, so after their exercise I put the dogs in the truck and grabbed the 22BR and Bog-Pod. I hoofed it down the 2-track parallel to the coyotes's line of travel in the pivot, but the wind turned from westerly to northerly and gave me up. It's amazing how far away the coyotes could catch my scent! I'm not sure whether that says more about a coyote's nose or my personal hygiene.

Not to be deterred, I decided to scout the pivot on the south side of the road so I could approach any coyotes with the wind in my face this time. Sure enough, there was a coyote in the south half of that pivot. I dropped the dogs off at home and got the backpack with my calling gear, which includes the Leica rangefinder that I thought I might need for shooting in the pivot. I parked a half mile south of the pivot and stalked through the sagebrush. When I carefully approached the fenceline I expected to see the coyote, but it was gone. I walked slowly westward along the fenceline, scanning the pivot as I went. When I was almost to the western edge of the pivot the coyote stood up a couple of hundred yards out. It had been lying in a small depression in the hayfield, which is why I hadn't seen it during my stalk. I was busted, and the coyote loped out of the pivot.

Since I had all my calling gear with me, and wind was not too bad, I decided on the spur of the moment to set up a calling stand in the sagebrush near the pivot. The cover was thick, but there was a little hill where I placed the Bog-Pod, with a small patch of open ground visible 100 yards out. I put the FoxPro at the upwind side of the opening. Normally I don't put the caller as far as 100 yards from my stand, but when there is a breeze I like to give the coyotes a chance to circle downwind of the caller while still being upwind of me.

I played "nutty nuthatch" for no more than 3 or 4 minutes before a female pup appeared. I had the FoxJack decoy on the caller to distract the coyote and keep her from looking towards me. She was staring at the decoy when the 40gr NBT hit her square in the chest at 126 yards -- instant kill. The FoxBang on my caller is set to pup distress, and before I could even cycle the bolt I saw 3 more coyotes on the move! One was running out of the adjacent pivot towards me, another crossed behind the coyote I had just shot, and the third came to a stop off to my left, quartering towards me. I chambered another round, swiveled the Bog-Pod to his position, put the crosshairs just left of center on his chest, and touched the Jewell trigger. I could hear the sound of the impact at what later proved to be 129 yards. The coyote spun once, creating a dust cloud, then gave the classic tail flip and hit the deck. The exit wound is just behind his left leg. Probably an older pup from this year, or perhaps a yearling. A nice double taken at high noon!

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

It was right nippy this morning -- just the kind of cold to make a coyote's stomach growl. I saw 6 coyotes in the alfalfa pivots on the way to my first stand, which wasn't as many as I was expecting given the numbers I've been seeing lately.



I set up my Bog-Pod under a big juniper in an open stand of cheatgrass, with scattered sagebrush. There was a pivot a half mile east. "Nutty nuthatch" didn't bring a coyote, but did attract a real red-breasted nuthatch, a few robins, and a beautiful family of mountain bluebirds. "Raccoon fight" got 2 or 3 packs of coyotes howling. "Pup distress" brought them closer, but no coyotes made it all the way to the call.

I drove east a couple of miles and spotted 4 coyotes huddled together in a pivot, warming their bones in the first rays of morning sun. I didn't slow down -- didn't want to spook them -- and pulled into a 2-track below a basalt rim in some widely-spaced junipers adjacent to the pivot. I considered stalking the coyotes, but the cover was fairly thin, so I decided to call instead. I haven't had tremendous success calling coyotes from pivots into cover, but these coyotes weren't mousing, so maybe they would respond to some vole squeaks on the FOXPRO. Even though the coyotes were 300-400 yards away, I thought that they would be able to hear vole squeaks, but no response. I upped the ante to "bay bee cottontail", which is louder. Within 2 minutes a male pup came bounding in to the call. He stopped 24 yards from the call (59 yards from me) and took the 40gr NBT in the chest, putting him down with authority.



At the rifle's report the FOXPRO automatically switched to "pup distress", bringing an adult male within a few seconds. He circled around the caller, and I had to use every bit of my (limited) self-control to wait for him to give me an unobstructed shot. He paused at 76 yards to study the moving decoy on the caller, and that proved to be his undoing. At the bullet's impact he spun once and made a frantic 10-yard dash before skidding to stop in a cloud of dust.



Another double!

 

[thekriebles]

Congrats on another successful hunt and on the double! Your detailed summaries are always enjoyable as are the photos! Thanks for sharing.

 

[Capt. Oblivious]

Very nice, thanks for sharing

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

I saw 6 coyotes in 6 miles of driving to my first stand. One of them was hunting in a pivot next to the juniper-clad hillside that I planned to call. All the better!

Because I knew there was a coyote close by, I started with "bay bee cottontail" at half volume. After 3 or 4 minutes I cranked it up to maximum, and here came an adult male straight for the caller. When he was 60 or 70 yards out he climbed uphill above the caller and stopped, with a blowdown juniper between him and me. I could make him out through the branches, but I've had too many wasted opportunities trying to thread a frangible varmint bullet through cover. I expected him to ease on down towards the caller and decoy, but instead he turned around and circled the caller by climbing the hill right towards my position in the rocks. I was afraid to swivel the rifle around because he was so close. The whole time he was circling he was looking down at the decoy, and before I knew it he was 10 yards away and about to stumble right into me. I eased the rifle around, but of course my movement caught his eye. I got the full "Oh, $hit!" look from him. He did a 180 and lit the afterburners, hurdling over rocks and downed trees like an Olympian. I whooped to stop him but he wasn't having any of that.

Nothing but lots of coyotes barking and howling on the next stand in a similar habitat, so for my third stand I decided to put the caller and decoy out in a pivot while I set up along the edge in some tall rabbitbrush. There was a coyote pup about 600 yards out in the pivot, mousing. I turned up my scope to 10x and for the next 10 or 15 minutes I watched the coyote's reaction to various sounds -- nutty nuthatch, bay bee cottontail, pup distress, vole squeaks. After the time lag for the sound to reach it, the coyote would raise its head at every change of sound. Only the vole squeaks made it come closer, and then by only a few dozen yards. Too many real mice and gophers to be attracted to the call. Suddenly, another coyote went across my scope's field of view, only 150 yards out! I swiveled my rifle in the Bog-Pod and managed to pick up the loping coyote. I whooped, but it did't faze him. I led him about 3/4 of his length and touched one off, missing completely but getting a chance to see how fast a coyote can run when properly motivated.

Back at home, my dogs were ready for their morning run. A half mile down the 2-track with the Brittany motoring around the high desert in search of quail and jackrabbits I looked to my left in the pivot 500-600 yards away and saw the same (probably) coyote that had winded me a couple of days ago. I took the dogs back to the truck and grabbed the 22BR -- same old routine. This time the wind was fairly strong but very much in my favor, preventing the coyote from scenting me and masking the noise of my stalk through the dry grass and sagebrush. I got almost the edge of pivot, set up behind a large sagebrush, and tried to guess at the range to the coyote -- 300 yards plus or minus. That little 40gr NBT gets blown around quite a bit in the wind, and the coyote was broadside to me facing directly into the breeze. I don't like holding in empty space, but I put the crosshairs a few inches in front of his chest and let fly. Luckily I missed by so much that the coyote wasn't even that scared. I tracked him in the scope until he stopped at about the same distance he started -- pups can be stupid! This time I held about 6 inches in front of him, and got a loud impact sound, sending the pup into a spin. He wasn't dead but couldn't run, so I assumed that I had broken his back. He sat up and the wind lessened briefly, so I was able to put the followup shot into his ribs. I walked out in the pivot to recover him. It was 339 long paces from my shooting position. It turned out that the first shot had hit him in the near side knee, almost ripping his hind leg off and causing tremendous blood loss.

Bad shooting on my part with a better-than-deserved outcome.

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

It's been almost 2 weeks since I've had a chance to call coyotes, and this morning wasn't too promising for curing my withdrawal symptoms, with heavy fog that muffles the sound of the caller. A coyote would have had to be within shotgun range to be visible in the fog, anyway. I made a couple of stands without seeing or hearing a coyote, then gave up and took the Brittany for a long run.

By early afternoon the fog had cleared, with a gentle north breeze. I set up under a lone juniper and put the caller, with the Jack Attack spinner, on a small knoll at the top of a shallow draw that coyotes like to use for the approach. Because of the wind I started with "jackrabbit distress," a loud prey sound (but not the "lightning jack" that every coyote has probably heard by this time of year). In less than 10 minutes a coyote came loping in from the east, rather than using the draw. As the coyote got closer my view was blocked by the knoll until the coyote was literally on top of the caller. I wasn't quick enough on the mute button to stop her. She leapt on the spinner, knocking the caller out of the sagebrush. She instantly realized that she'd been fooled, spun 90 degrees, and took off running. Fortunately I had anticipated where she would appear at the top of the knoll, and had my scope on her. I swiveled the rifle on the Bog-Pod (a big advantage of using the Bog-Pod standing up), put the crosshair in front of her chest, and touched the Jewell trigger. The sound of the impact coincided with a full-length endo. I found her 92 yards from the juniper. The 40gr NBT broke her near shoulder, jellied her vitals, and didn't exit. An adult female nicely furred up. You can see a couple of drops of blood at the bullet's entrance.

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

This morning I had 2 coyotes slam into the caller to bite the Jack Attack spinner, and didn't get a shot at either one of them. There's no doubt that the spinner is attractive, and keeps the coyote's attention away from me, but the problem is that many (maybe most) of the coyotes never stop moving -- they run to the caller, get spooked when they jump it, and blast off. So for my third stand I took off the spinner and went back to old-school sound-only.

I was calling a big area, so I started with "jackrabbit distress", working up to full volume over a few minutes. After giving the coyotes 10 minutes or so to arrive, without any takers, I switched to "raccoon fight" for a couple of cycles, then to "pup distress 3".

As soon as I spotted an incoming coyote, I hit the mute button. She stopped behind a large juniper, facing directly at the caller and giving me a head-on shot. Fortunately, the only branches between her and me were big ones that I could see easily in my scope, so I was able to put the bullet between the limbs. I aimed for the center of her chest but the bullet impacted about an inch and half to the right, breaking her left shoulder and wreaking havoc on her lungs. She spun once and then gave the tail flip. A nice adult female taken at 113 yards. You can see the entrance wound in the photo.

This Kelbly Atlas Tactical 22BR walking varminter is the cat's a$$ for called coyotes. I've already ordered another Krieger barrel blank, since the throat has moved 0.007" in the first 100 rounds.

 

[Brians356]

I've got an older FoxPro but not (yet) a decoy spinner. Do you suppose stopping the decoy motion as soon as you spot an interested coyote would keep them coming in but deter them from charging the spinner? Or is the spinner not independently controllable?
-

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

I've got an older FoxPro but not (yet) a decoy spinner. Do you suppose stopping the decoy motion as soon as you spot an interested coyote would keep them coming in but deter them from charging the spinner? Or is the spinner not independently controllable?
-

My FOXPRO (Wildfire) has a control on the remote for the AUX function, which the spinner plugs into. But it doesn't work. My spinner is either on or off.

If I was shotgunning the coyotes I would always use the spinner. For rifle hunting -- I'm on the fence. I'm sure that the spinner brings in some coyotes that would otherwise hang up, but it also makes the coyotes less likely to stop.

 

[Brians356]

Seems, then, like a working AUX channel is a premium feature. I hope mine works when and if I order a spinner.
-

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

I had coyotes come in at 2 out of the 3 stands I made this morning, but they were wary, and eventually downwinded me in cover too thick for shooting. So this evening just before sunset I went looking for coyotes in alfalfa pivots, since it was windier than I like for calling. [But I carried my calling gear just in case.] I glassed a pivot and spotted 3 coyotes. To get downwind of them I had to drive around the pivots and make my stalk from the adjacent sagebrush. I parked my truck in the sagebrush next to a freshly plowed pivot south of the pivot that held the coyotes. I walked straight to the east, intending to reach the edge of the plowed pivot and then stalk north along a barely discernible 2-track to the coyotes. Having the setting sun at my back would make it more difficult for the coyotes to spot me.

When I was almost to the edge of the sagebrush I saw a coyote in the plowed pivot. I don't think it knew I was there, but it was 250 yards out and angling away slowly. I eased a little closer to the pivot, trying to decide whether to try and stop the coyote with a whoop, risking spooking the other 3 coyotes in the pivot to the north. Now able to see more of the plowed pivot, I almost face-planted when I stopped in my tracks -- there was a coyote sleeping in the field less than 200 yards away! I could see the full length of her body, with her back to me. I set up my Bog-Pod, turned the Leupold up to 10x, and put the crosshairs right between her shoulder blades. The 22BR barked, but the coyote never moved. The 40gr NBT took a chunk out of her spine right where the neck joins the body, severing the carotid artery and leaving a substantial pool of blood. The adult female was 166 yards out.

 

[Brians356]

"The Big Sleep".
-

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

Dense fog made this morning's first stand a bust. I could see the silhouette of a coyote about a hundred yards away, melting in and out of view. It would have had to come another 25 yards closer to give me a shot.

I drove north a few miles where the fog had burned off. As I was cruising by a large tract of state and BLM land, with coyote scat on the road every 100 yards, I saw a small clearing in the sagebrush. Unfortunately, the area was perfectly flat, so my truck couldn't be hidden without driving a long way. I pulled off into the sagebrush, realizing that a coyote coming from the west would see my truck and likely be spooked. However, I was expecting the coyotes to come from the east, so I set up my Bog-Pod only 50 yards from the Tacoma, something I would normally never consider doing.

In less than 2 minutes of "nutty nuthatch" a handsome adult male coyote came galloping in from behind me (west), crossed the dirt road within 30 yards of my parked truck, and breezed by me 58 yards to my left, never looking my way. He was so focused on the FOXPRO that when I hit the mute button he hit the brakes. His body was behind a sagebrush, but his head and neck were exposed. The 40gr NBT hit him where his neck joins his body, killing him instantly.

A large adult male with a beautiful white belly, mane that goes all the way up between his ears, and a pelt in prime condition.

Sometimes even an adult coyote will make a mistake in judgment.

 

[Brians356]

I've sometimes wondered why a coyote would necessarily pay much attention to an inanimate object like a parked truck. When someone reports "My parked rig spooked him." I wonder how often it was actually scent that would have been present anyway. How often does a coyote tell you just what busted you?
-

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

I've sometimes wondered why a coyote would necessarily pay much attention to an inanimate object like a parked truck.

Around here, a stopped truck usually means a rifle barrel out the window. That's how the locals hunt coyotes. By this time of year every coyote that lives near a road or 2-track knows this. They will spook if you even let off the gas as you drive by on the highway.

When someone reports "My parked rig spooked him." I wonder how often it was actually scent that would have been present anyway. How often does a coyote tell you just what busted you?

Usually it's pretty easy to tell how you were busted, as long as you can see the coyote (or its tracks). When you see a coyote trotting around the call a couple of hundred yards out, then rocketing off as soon as it is downwind, you've been downwinded. If you can see the coyote circling you have to stop it and shoot it before it downwinds you.

Similarly, if a coyote crosses your inbound track, you're done. Shoot it before that happens. Many times I've watched a coyote coming straight to the call (from a direction I didn't expect, obviously) cross my track and instantly light the afterburners in the opposite direction.

When there's snow on the ground I've found tracks of coyotes that downwinded me or cut my track without my ever having seen them. Some of them would even backtrack me to see where I had come from. Their tracks would be on top of mine all the way back to the truck.

Everyone who hunts a lot of coyotes has been busted by movement or noise, too.

Coyotes know their habitat intimately and anything that's out of place makes them suspicious. Their senses of sight, smell, and hearing are excellent, and they use all of them all the time if they can.

Then there are the few coyotes that break all the rules, and could probably be called in successfully even if I was sitting on the hood of my truck wearing a clown suit.

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

Fog again this morning. I ran Theo at dawn since I couldn't call coyotes. He got a little frost on his eyebrows.



I drove to the north end of the valley, which seems to have less fog. I found a nice calling spot near where I killed a double a few weeks ago. Nothing happening today, though.

I made two more stands that looked absolutely perfect. The ground was peppered with coyote scat. Tracks everywhere. I got one coyote to bark at me, but that was it.

Well, if I can't call one, I'll try to find one in a pivot. I sneaked through the sagebrush to the pivot where I saw 3 coyotes a couple of evenings ago. When I got almost to the edge of the sagebrush I set up the Bog-Pod, turned the Leupold up to 10x, and scanned the field -- jackpot! There were 8 coyotes in the pivot, 2 of them less than 300 yards away. There was a barbed-wire fence between me and one of the coyotes. With my luck, I would hit the wire. The other coyote was broadside on a little knoll in the pivot, partly obscured by sagebrush, but with enough body showing to give the 22BR a go.

She hit the deck at the shot, but the impact sound wasn't quite right for a chest shot. I kept looking at her through the scope with my right eye, watching the pivot with my left eye as 5 of the coyotes blew out of the field, while 2 others just stood there looking back in my direction from 500+ yards. After a couple of minutes the coyote I had shot raised her head and tried to get to her feet, but clearly couldn't. I waited for her to hold her head still and put a finisher into her from 233 yards out. When I picked her up I saw that my first shot had hit about 1/2"-1" too low, breaking both of her front legs at the elbow but just grazing the bottom of her chest without hitting the heart. An adult female.

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

Yesterday morning was far from ideal for calling coyotes, with a 10-15 mph south wind and temperatures above freezing at dawn. But I was passing through good coyote country and decided to attempt one stand, anyway. I sat down on the north face near the top of a hill, 50-60 feet higher than the sagebrush flat below me. I hoped that I'd be able to see any approaching coyotes before they winded me, given my height and panoramic view. I placed the FOXPRO much closer than usual, only about 10 yards in front of me.

After 8-10 minutes of "jackrabbit distress" without any action, I switched to "bay bee cottontail." In less than a minute this ratty male pup appeared just below the caller, trotting up the hill. I had to shoot quickly before he reached the caller and spooked. I hit him on the move at 35 yards, with the 40gr NBT taking out a 2-inch section of the spine in his neck. I doubt that he weighed more than 15 pounds, but it was still a chore to carry him and my gear the 3/4 mile down the hill through the sagebrush to the truck.