I went out this morning to a place that has had a lot of pressure on it this season. It turns out someone else is hunting coyotes in the area and has been calling the back side of the bush I am hunting here. So figuring this place has had a lot of pressure and these coyotes have heard a lot of calling all season they would be a little call shy my plan of attached work out just as I hoped. I setup first thing in the morning and waited until it got light and placed my ecaller about 30 yds out and to my right. I normally call pretty aggressive with my hand and ecaller but knowing this place has had a lot of attention this season I thought I try and go the quite route. With my ecaller about 30 yds away I set it to play injured woodpecker. This is not a very loud or aggressive call but more of a curiosity call. My thoughts, if any coyotes were in the area they would be hard pressed not to come into the field for a look at this non aggressive sound. I played the sound for 20 minutes or so before I couldn’t resist using my dying rabbit hand call. I played it for 15 secs only and stopped. I waited another 5 mins and played it again for 15 secs and stopped again, but kept my woodpecker distress call playing all the time. At the 30 min mark I notice a light coloured stump out in the edge of the bush/field. I glass and sure enough a coyote, I turn the ecaller down a bit and watch him make his way. The wind was very light and not constant so was very worried the wind would change. I started to get nervous as the coyote took his time milling around the field. I tried my best to get him to commit but he looked like he didn’t want any part of it. So after about 5 mins I decided to take the shot, he looked like he might be leaving so waiting for him to go broadside I held steady, pressed my shooting sticks up tight against my knees, and slowly squeezed the trigger. At the shot it looked like I hit him but he ran out of sight and I thought maybe another grazed coyote? I played pup distress for about 10 mins before going over to look for the coyote. I reached the area of impact and could not find any blood or fur, started to make my way toward where the coyote ran and notice a lot of blood on the grass and see him laying there about 30 yds away. It turned out to be a really good hit, one of my longest kills ever using my shooting sticks; laser range finder said it was 180yds….. Enjoy the pics…
This is probably the last time I go out intentionally for coyotes this season, with this warm weather the hide was in pretty bad shape…
This is probably the last time I go out intentionally for coyotes this season, with this warm weather the hide was in pretty bad shape…
