Another Silverfox ADC Hunt on 5-13-2008--Pictures Too

[Silverfox]

I headed out west of town around 5:45 Tuesday afternoon, May 13, 2008. The drive to the rancher’s house was about 23 miles and I wanted to try to get in three stands before it got dark. I stopped at the ranch house, but no one was home, so I headed south of the buildings in my pickup. The wind was supposed to be coming out of the southwest, but when I got to the ranch, it was coming out of the southeast. I drove to the SSE until I found a spot to park my pickup behind a hill close to my first calling stand. I got my gear together and hiked up to the SSW to the edge of a dry creek bed where I set my rifle and gear down. I took the FX5 out of my backpack and started down the creek bank to set the caller up in a tree in the creek bottom. About halfway down the bank I realized I had forgotten to take the remote out of the backpack, so back up the hill I went to fetch the remote. I finally got the caller set up in the crotch of a tree, got back to my rifle, and settled in for some calling. There were lots of cattle off to the northwest, west, and southwest of my stand. I’d have to be real careful if coyotes came in and cattle were in the background. My plan was to call this stand for about 20 minutes and if nothing came in, I’d walk to the southwest about 3/4 of a mile and call again. I just used the Lightening Jack sound on this stand instead of both prey sounds and howling. I wanted to save the howling for the next stand where there was a big coulee to the west and lots of coulees off over the hills to the south and southwest. No coyotes came in during my 20 minutes on that stand, so I called it quits, gathered up the caller and walked across the creek bottom heading to the southwest.

There were cow-calf pairs and lots of yearlings all over the pasture as I walked to my next stand. I crossed the creek bottom one more time and there was some slightly wet ground in the bottom, but no water. There was a big stock dam just to the west of where I crossed the creek. When I got up to where I could see into the dam, there didn’t look to be more than a hundred gallons of water in the bottom. It is really dry around this part of the U.S.

I kept heading to the SW of the dam and found what looked like a good spot to set up. There was good visibility to the ESE and all the way around to the north. I set the FX5 up on my homemade tripod and got back about 50 yards to the NE of the e-caller. Before I could even start the call the cattle were milling around and giving me the eye. When I started out with the female invitation howls, the cattle started heading towards my FX5!!! About 15 head of cattle got to about 30 feet from the FX5 and stood sniffing and snorting and bellowing!!! Some of them were pawing up dirt and had their heads down like they were ready to charge the caller!!! I switched to some cougar growling sounds to see if they would back off, but they weren’t budging. I spent about 50 minutes on this stand and was constantly worrying about whether my FX5 would get stomped into the ground or not. There was a constant parade of cattle coming from every direction to check out the sounds from the FX5 during the whole time I was on stand!!! I got no takers other than about 75 head of cattle!!

I packed up my caller and tripod and headed back to the pickup, which was about a little less than a mile away. I drove to the east southeast and went through a gate and up a little hill almost to the top of the bench land there. I stopped the pickup and got out and took a walk to the south so I didn’t expose the pickup to the land to the south. I could see a large valley stretching out to the south and decided to back my pickup up into a low spot and park it completely out of sight of that area and try calling one more time before it got dark. It was about 8:30 p.m. and the sun would soon be disappearing. I could feel a chill in the air as the sun went behind some clouds.


Since I didn’t have a lot of daylight left I decided to leave the FX5 in the pickup and just use mouth calls because it takes extra time to set up the tripod and get the FX5 set up. I set up so I had good view to the east, southeast, south and southwest and it was about 8:45 p.m. by the time I was ready to start calling. I used my SlyDog “Clasic” II deer antler call that I bought from Rick Gipson of Raven’s Idaho Youth Hunter, Inc. back in 2004. This call is voiced with a cottontail reed and has been effective for me in the past. I used that call for the first 5 minutes, using a calling sequence where I call for about 30 to 45 seconds and then go silent for about 45 seconds and then call again. I went silent for about 3 minutes and then took out a high-pitched coyote howler and did some female invitation howls for the next minute or so. I listened for answering howls for a minute or so and then hit the female invitation sounds again for a minute. Still no answering howls. I took out my Bill Austin Howler and did some male challenge howls and mixed in some wounded coyote sounds with the high-pitched howler and then used the SlyDog “Clasic” II call for some rabbit sounds. I wanted the local coyotes to think invading coyotes had captured a rabbit and were fighting over it. At the 14 minute mark, I could hear several coyotes howling back at me from east of my stand. I howled back, trying to imitate some of the howls they were making. I went silent for a few minutes and then used the rabbit call again for a couple minutes.

I checked my watch and I had been on stand for almost 20 minutes. There were still no coyotes showing up on the east horizon. I wondered if they were circling around to the north of me out of sight behind the hill. They could stay out of sight until they caught my scent and be gone without me ever seeing them. I used the high-pitched howler again for some more female howls, but this time I cupped my hand so the sound was aimed to the south, hoping to make the coyotes think this female was south of where I was set up. At about the 24 minute mark I finally spotted a coyote coming over the hill to the east and then a second coyote came into view. My old heart started to beat a little faster, but then I took a few deep breaths and got the initial rush of excitement settled down so the heart beat rate went back to normal. One of the coyotes was a real light color and the other was very dark. They were probably 500 yards away when they first topped the hill. They moved in a WSW direction and were coming along the opposite side of the little valley in front of me on the side of the hill to the SE of my position. The direction they were headed would eventually take them way south of my stand, and they were taking their time. They would move about 25 yards and stop to look and listen, move another 25 yards and stop to look and listen again. I imagine they were looking for the other coyote or coyotes that had invaded their territory.

They got to a saddle about 250 yards SE of my location and stopped. I slipped the safety off on the Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger. I turned the power ring up to about 12x hoping I’d get a standing shot of about 100 to 150 yards. However, if they kept going southwest, they would be out of my line of sight in just a few steps, so I decided to see if I could change their path and get them coming more towards my hiding spot. I lip squeaked a couple times. Both coyotes homed in on my squeaks and the front one started coming right to me like it was on a string. It was coming way too fast for my liking! The other one soon followed the lead coyote, but the back coyote was about 50 yards behind the lead coyote. I reached up and turned the power ring back down to 6.5x in case I couldn’t get them stopped before they hit the end of my gun barrel!!! I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t like shooting at moving coyotes—I have missed more than my fair share of coyotes when they are on the move.

I had the crosshairs on the lead coyote and when that coyote got about 100 yards away I used my voice to bark a couple times. The coyote didn’t stop, but did turn sideways while still moving. After a couple more steps it finally stopped standing broadside to me with its right side in my direction. I had the crosshairs settled in right behind the right front shoulder and squeezed off the shot. CLICK!!! NO SHOT WENT OFF!!! I could see in the scope that when the firing pin hit the primer and made the CLICK that the coyote I was aiming at must have heard the CLICK or got nervous and it started to shy away again. I carefully ejected that shell, trying to make as little noise and movement as possible and chambered another round. Both coyotes were doing a slow trot away from my stand. The back one was headed SE and the lead coyote was headed south. I barked a couple times again and the lead coyote stopped and turned broadside to me again. I had the crosshairs on a spot right behind the right front shoulder again and squeezed the trigger one more time. This time it went BANG—WHAP!!! The coyote went down. I chambered another round and spotted the other coyote just as it disappeared over the hill—no chance for a quick shot! I got on my Bill Austin Howler and did my best imitation of a wounded coyote for the next couple minutes, but that other coyote was not coming back for a look. I checked my watch and I had been on stand for almost 30 minutes.

Since I didn’t have my backpack along, I had no camera. I decided to drag this coyote back to the pickup for the photo opportunity. I stepped off the distance to the dead coyote—125 yards. The bullet entered just behind the right front shoulder and exited the left shoulder area. There was a small entrance wound and a small, bullet-sized exit hole. Once again, the 39 gr. Sierra worked just great.

The sun was setting as I dragged the coyote back to the pickup and it was getting kind of dark for photos, but I had to take photos anyway. I figured I could use the flash if nothing else was working. Here’s the dark coyote from the pair with the gun that did the deed.



The photo below is a wide shot view of the coyote with you looking to the southeast. The coyotes came from over a hill quite a ways left of the left side of the photo.



Here’s the obligatory “Hero Photo” in living color!!! The “Hero” looks tired!!!



By the time I finished up with the photos and got back to rancher’s house, it was close to 10:00 p.m. The rancher was very pleased and invited me in for a cup of coffee, which I politely refused because I was bone tired and ready to take a bath and get some sleep. Too much fresh air and exercise for an old man like me makes me sleepy!!!

[foxwhistler]

Another great hunting story.Thanks for sharing.Feels like i`m there with you.

[Ryan S Albright]

Thats a healthy looking coyote. I have to ask what are the black things on your barrel?

[Silverfox]

Ryan--The little black things on my barrel are velcro tabs to hold my mirage shield onto the barrel when I shoot prairie dogs in the summer.

This first photo obviously isn't my Savage, but this shows how I use the velcro tabs. I use the thin metal slats from Venetian blinds. They are easy to cut with a scissor and help keep the heat mirage from the barrel from messing up your view through the scope. An added bonus is that these mirage shields also keep the hot, beating sun off your barrel as well. I have been out walking around in prairie dog towns many times without shooting a shot from my rifle and just the sun beating down on the barrel makes it too hot to touch. Anyway, here's a photo of my Pac-Nor barreled .17 Remington with the mirage shield on the barrel and being held in place by the velcro dots. The wind will make the shield vibrate a little bit when it is wafting at 15+ mph. I think I could solve that problem by using one more velcro dot



Here's a photo of the mirage shield in place on my Savage 12VLP taken from the shooter's perspective.