Yotarunner
CGN Regular
- Location
- Eastern Alberta
so the weather for today was forecast to be awesome with -30 and only 5km winds.
even though i probably should have hunted the morning the snooze button was pushed and i elected to hunt the afternoon.
the area for todays hunt was a middle of nowhere chunk of land the boss owns but being so far away i have never scouted it so i was going in blind
On the walk to make the first stand hopes were high as i looked at all the coyote tracks on the trail.
plans quickly changed when the wind switched from north to south east. frustrated i turned to the east and setup in a less than ideal location that at least still commanded a fair view around me.
After 20 min of howling and playing the jackrabbit blues this stand was chocked up to be a dud but my last scan of the area showed a coyote just off my left shoulder. for a painstaking minute that coyote and i stared each other down as i waited for an opening to move the rifle into position.
At the sound of a far off coyote howling this small male turned his head and gave me the time to move the rifle into position and within moments the 40Vmax had him dead at 114 yards.
on my walk back to the truck i marveled at how great this country looked and so the decision was made to keep moving down the 2 track to see what could be found.
1/4 mile from my first stand the truck was parked behind a small hill and i planned to move 300 yards or so and find a spot to sit and make a stand.
as i crested the hill i realized the only good spot that covered my downwinds was the hill that was hiding the truck. not wanting to backtrack and knowing not much noise was made on my approach i plunked myself down in the snow and started calling.
after the second series of rabbit squalls i caught movement up on the hill to my left. "$%#^ that dog is moments from catching my wind!" was the only thought going through my head as i tried to mix frantic and slow in my efforts to get the gun turned into position.
just as this first dog was seeing me get my bipod caught on a silverwillow another dog crested the hill and immediately bolted.
the only thing that saved me was both dogs stopping to look at each other in confusion as to why the other was leaving. Bipod finally untangled i settled the crosshairs on the second dog and at 212 yards dog#2 was down.
to my surprise the reason this coyote had bolted was he had been slightly higher on the hill and had seen my truck only 175 yards away! just goes to show you dont need to walk a mile to kill coyotes.
2 more stands were made with plans for one more but as the sun went down -30 took a toll on my toes coupled with the risk of my moustach snapping off i decided to call it a day.
even though i probably should have hunted the morning the snooze button was pushed and i elected to hunt the afternoon.
the area for todays hunt was a middle of nowhere chunk of land the boss owns but being so far away i have never scouted it so i was going in blind
On the walk to make the first stand hopes were high as i looked at all the coyote tracks on the trail.
plans quickly changed when the wind switched from north to south east. frustrated i turned to the east and setup in a less than ideal location that at least still commanded a fair view around me.
After 20 min of howling and playing the jackrabbit blues this stand was chocked up to be a dud but my last scan of the area showed a coyote just off my left shoulder. for a painstaking minute that coyote and i stared each other down as i waited for an opening to move the rifle into position.
At the sound of a far off coyote howling this small male turned his head and gave me the time to move the rifle into position and within moments the 40Vmax had him dead at 114 yards.
on my walk back to the truck i marveled at how great this country looked and so the decision was made to keep moving down the 2 track to see what could be found.
1/4 mile from my first stand the truck was parked behind a small hill and i planned to move 300 yards or so and find a spot to sit and make a stand.
as i crested the hill i realized the only good spot that covered my downwinds was the hill that was hiding the truck. not wanting to backtrack and knowing not much noise was made on my approach i plunked myself down in the snow and started calling.
after the second series of rabbit squalls i caught movement up on the hill to my left. "$%#^ that dog is moments from catching my wind!" was the only thought going through my head as i tried to mix frantic and slow in my efforts to get the gun turned into position.
just as this first dog was seeing me get my bipod caught on a silverwillow another dog crested the hill and immediately bolted.
the only thing that saved me was both dogs stopping to look at each other in confusion as to why the other was leaving. Bipod finally untangled i settled the crosshairs on the second dog and at 212 yards dog#2 was down.
to my surprise the reason this coyote had bolted was he had been slightly higher on the hill and had seen my truck only 175 yards away! just goes to show you dont need to walk a mile to kill coyotes.
2 more stands were made with plans for one more but as the sun went down -30 took a toll on my toes coupled with the risk of my moustach snapping off i decided to call it a day.
