So I went out this morning to an area my buddy has dubbed "the land of no animals" every time he is with me, we don't even see squirrels. I have shot a couple of yotes and a few turkeys from this area. But my buddy thinks I am full of it.
So any ways after moving in to my first set a little after shooting light I was certain it was going to be a waste of my time, the snow has a super crunchy layer on top I could hear echo off the tree lines as it crunched under my feet. I went to my first stand and set up my caller and decoy and called off and on for 30 mins and nothing.
The wind was doing some funny stuff and I debated abandoning the area for a few minutes as I thought the wind had switched, I decided to push to the next call spot any ways. Turns out the wind didn't switch it was just swirling around a bit where I was sitting. By the time I made it to my next stand about 800M away it had picked up and I had a pretty good right to left, slightly in my face wind. The snow was a bit harder in the next field and I was making marginally less noise.
I set my caller out a bit (stupid turbo dogg has literally about 15-20 ft of remote reception) and the decoy out about 100ft or so up wind of me. I settled in and fired up the "cottontail set" that is pre programmed. It ran all the way through and then it switches to yote distress for a few minutes at the end. As the first set of yote distress turns on I have pretty much decided nothing is coming and I am wasting my time. I stretch my legs out and look over my left shoulder, I turn back and there they are. A pair of yotes came out of the woods about 150M in front of me. They move out into the open a bit, then the sound stopped and they paused and started looking around. I wasn't in a shooting position as I was about to quit that set. 30 second pause ends and the sound starts up again. they both come running pretty much right at me, trying to cut the wind of the decoy. I bark a few times,wont stop. I hammer the male right in the chest at 43M, the female doesn't really know what just happened, she slows down and takes a look at the male that just hit the ground. I manage to squeeze a shot off at the female, terrible shot, right in the back leg. She starts jumping and spinning so I give her another, that's the end of that. I look up and there is a 3rd dog back at the tree line, a little over 200M.
I had ranged the area when I sat down, for some reason I though it was at 300M I held a bit high and missed. Into the woods it goes...
I hit the pup distress for a few more minutes trying to get it to come back out. Didn't work.
Oh well it was my first double so I was pretty pumped any ways.
Male was shot at 43M and the female at 60M
No exit on the male, blown up rear leg and big exit on the female. I will definitely be switching to a 22 250 for next season.
Can see both dogs down here, the call and decoy are just out of frame to the right, they came out of the woods right at the right edge of the picture.
As he lay after the shot.
Another of the male
As she lay after the second shot.
Together, I started dragging them back to my gear then took this picture, you can see the exit int eh side and blown up rear leg. The snow was ver slippery and my bipod was giving me a hard time, sliding all over the place, maybe that was part of the reason for the bad shot???? Maybe I just suck... More likely.
So any ways after moving in to my first set a little after shooting light I was certain it was going to be a waste of my time, the snow has a super crunchy layer on top I could hear echo off the tree lines as it crunched under my feet. I went to my first stand and set up my caller and decoy and called off and on for 30 mins and nothing.
The wind was doing some funny stuff and I debated abandoning the area for a few minutes as I thought the wind had switched, I decided to push to the next call spot any ways. Turns out the wind didn't switch it was just swirling around a bit where I was sitting. By the time I made it to my next stand about 800M away it had picked up and I had a pretty good right to left, slightly in my face wind. The snow was a bit harder in the next field and I was making marginally less noise.
I set my caller out a bit (stupid turbo dogg has literally about 15-20 ft of remote reception) and the decoy out about 100ft or so up wind of me. I settled in and fired up the "cottontail set" that is pre programmed. It ran all the way through and then it switches to yote distress for a few minutes at the end. As the first set of yote distress turns on I have pretty much decided nothing is coming and I am wasting my time. I stretch my legs out and look over my left shoulder, I turn back and there they are. A pair of yotes came out of the woods about 150M in front of me. They move out into the open a bit, then the sound stopped and they paused and started looking around. I wasn't in a shooting position as I was about to quit that set. 30 second pause ends and the sound starts up again. they both come running pretty much right at me, trying to cut the wind of the decoy. I bark a few times,wont stop. I hammer the male right in the chest at 43M, the female doesn't really know what just happened, she slows down and takes a look at the male that just hit the ground. I manage to squeeze a shot off at the female, terrible shot, right in the back leg. She starts jumping and spinning so I give her another, that's the end of that. I look up and there is a 3rd dog back at the tree line, a little over 200M.
I had ranged the area when I sat down, for some reason I though it was at 300M I held a bit high and missed. Into the woods it goes...
I hit the pup distress for a few more minutes trying to get it to come back out. Didn't work.
Oh well it was my first double so I was pretty pumped any ways.
Male was shot at 43M and the female at 60M
No exit on the male, blown up rear leg and big exit on the female. I will definitely be switching to a 22 250 for next season.
Can see both dogs down here, the call and decoy are just out of frame to the right, they came out of the woods right at the right edge of the picture.
As he lay after the shot.
Another of the male
As she lay after the second shot.
Together, I started dragging them back to my gear then took this picture, you can see the exit int eh side and blown up rear leg. The snow was ver slippery and my bipod was giving me a hard time, sliding all over the place, maybe that was part of the reason for the bad shot???? Maybe I just suck... More likely.
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