So went out for yotes again this morning. Went to a river I call at, called for a couple hours in a couple different spots. Nothing. I then decide to go down the road to a farm I have seen dogs at, I also got permission from the neighbour to hunt his property, as that's where I keep seeing the dogs when on the farm beside his.
As I'm driving away from the river property something catches my eye in the distance, lift up the binos, sure enough. Dog, coming more or less towards the road. I turn around and park the car at the edge of the property behind a clump of trees running out into the field in the direction of the dog. I creep through the trees to the end of the row. I find the dog again, he is now going 90 degrees across my front, towards where I was sitting on the river. Of course. I start on my hand calls, it catches his attention, he stops and sits and watches for a bit, he was about 700m out. I keep calling, he eventually runs around and starts coming towards me, more or less. I get settled behind my rifle and wait for him to come out of the low ground. Nothing. I wait some more, then I start to get up and try to figure out where he went. Then I hear the neighbours dogs losing their minds about 400m down the road. I don't know if he was going to try and cut the wind but the dogs scared him off or what. I never saw him again. I pack up my junk and drag my now pissed off self back to the car. I could have made the shot at 700m if I'd just taken it. I'm pretty damn sure of it.
I get back in the car and drive to the next property, the new one I got earlier in the week. I drive up behind the barns, its a pair of barns that are separate from the main farm by about 750m or so, the farmer is putting new sides on them and doing some work, I look in the doors as I drive by, no sign of the farmer. As I pull up behind a snow bank to sort of hide the car I look out into the field to where I'm going to set up. WTF is that? DOG, about 450 out on top of the hill. I turn the car off and literally slid onto the ground beside the car, open the back door and pull my rifle out onto my lap. Pull my mag out of my pocket and load it up again. I crawled up the snow bank (its not very tall at all) in front of the car. The yote is very pre occupied by 4 dogs at the neighbours that are losing their minds, probably at him. As I get set up he turns and walks away from the neighbours but towards me sort of, into a bit of low ground. I get set up, he comes out of the low ground 350m in front of me, I give him a couple sharp barks. He stops and starts to turn towards me. I line the cross hairs up on his chest, he starts to lower his head to sniff the ground. I let one fly from my 243AI. I hear the distinct thud of a hit and catch his back legs fold up under him in the scope. Pretty pumped. I stand up and look around, turns out the farmer was in the barn behind me, he was wearing ear muffs with a radio in them so he didn't hear my until I took the shot. He comes out, I point out the dog, we chat for a few minutes. I go out to get him. Pretty decent sized male. 45lbs or so I figure.
Like I said, he was putting his head down in front of his chest
I decided to go take a walk up to the top of the hill that was behind the dog, its the highest feature around, to get a better look. I discovered why I see so many dogs up on this hill. I found their den.
I then failed to follow the #1 rule in life. Don't be SH*T. As I was looking at the den I looked down the back side of the hill to where 2 big clumps of dogwood type shrubbery (yah I made that word up) was growing, I said to myself "I bet there is a dog in there" Any ways I keep walking. I look over and sure enough not even 1 minute later a dog comes busting out of the shrubs, I turn around and drop, I forgot to turn my magnification down, my bipod drops through the snow, I fight to find the dog in the scope, shoot. MISS. I look to my right and there is another dog busting out of the 2nd clump of shrubs. Instead of taking a 2nd shot at the first dog, I spin almost 180, and same thing struggle to find this dog in my scope. There he is, send a round, he's probably 175 out or so, see a tuft of fur go flying off his back. He lights the afterburners, I watch him go over the top of the next hill. Then a minute later, way down the hill and into some standing corn. I go over to where I shot at him, no signs of blood. Just took a little off the top I guess. Needless to say I was pretty mad at myself for how I reacted to the situation as well as not following my gut instinct to check out the clump of shrubs.
There ya have it, that was my morning. I'm about 50% sure the dog I shot is the dog I saw down the road by the river. The 2 farms are only about 5km apart.
As I'm driving away from the river property something catches my eye in the distance, lift up the binos, sure enough. Dog, coming more or less towards the road. I turn around and park the car at the edge of the property behind a clump of trees running out into the field in the direction of the dog. I creep through the trees to the end of the row. I find the dog again, he is now going 90 degrees across my front, towards where I was sitting on the river. Of course. I start on my hand calls, it catches his attention, he stops and sits and watches for a bit, he was about 700m out. I keep calling, he eventually runs around and starts coming towards me, more or less. I get settled behind my rifle and wait for him to come out of the low ground. Nothing. I wait some more, then I start to get up and try to figure out where he went. Then I hear the neighbours dogs losing their minds about 400m down the road. I don't know if he was going to try and cut the wind but the dogs scared him off or what. I never saw him again. I pack up my junk and drag my now pissed off self back to the car. I could have made the shot at 700m if I'd just taken it. I'm pretty damn sure of it.
I get back in the car and drive to the next property, the new one I got earlier in the week. I drive up behind the barns, its a pair of barns that are separate from the main farm by about 750m or so, the farmer is putting new sides on them and doing some work, I look in the doors as I drive by, no sign of the farmer. As I pull up behind a snow bank to sort of hide the car I look out into the field to where I'm going to set up. WTF is that? DOG, about 450 out on top of the hill. I turn the car off and literally slid onto the ground beside the car, open the back door and pull my rifle out onto my lap. Pull my mag out of my pocket and load it up again. I crawled up the snow bank (its not very tall at all) in front of the car. The yote is very pre occupied by 4 dogs at the neighbours that are losing their minds, probably at him. As I get set up he turns and walks away from the neighbours but towards me sort of, into a bit of low ground. I get set up, he comes out of the low ground 350m in front of me, I give him a couple sharp barks. He stops and starts to turn towards me. I line the cross hairs up on his chest, he starts to lower his head to sniff the ground. I let one fly from my 243AI. I hear the distinct thud of a hit and catch his back legs fold up under him in the scope. Pretty pumped. I stand up and look around, turns out the farmer was in the barn behind me, he was wearing ear muffs with a radio in them so he didn't hear my until I took the shot. He comes out, I point out the dog, we chat for a few minutes. I go out to get him. Pretty decent sized male. 45lbs or so I figure.
Like I said, he was putting his head down in front of his chest
I decided to go take a walk up to the top of the hill that was behind the dog, its the highest feature around, to get a better look. I discovered why I see so many dogs up on this hill. I found their den.
I then failed to follow the #1 rule in life. Don't be SH*T. As I was looking at the den I looked down the back side of the hill to where 2 big clumps of dogwood type shrubbery (yah I made that word up) was growing, I said to myself "I bet there is a dog in there" Any ways I keep walking. I look over and sure enough not even 1 minute later a dog comes busting out of the shrubs, I turn around and drop, I forgot to turn my magnification down, my bipod drops through the snow, I fight to find the dog in the scope, shoot. MISS. I look to my right and there is another dog busting out of the 2nd clump of shrubs. Instead of taking a 2nd shot at the first dog, I spin almost 180, and same thing struggle to find this dog in my scope. There he is, send a round, he's probably 175 out or so, see a tuft of fur go flying off his back. He lights the afterburners, I watch him go over the top of the next hill. Then a minute later, way down the hill and into some standing corn. I go over to where I shot at him, no signs of blood. Just took a little off the top I guess. Needless to say I was pretty mad at myself for how I reacted to the situation as well as not following my gut instinct to check out the clump of shrubs.
There ya have it, that was my morning. I'm about 50% sure the dog I shot is the dog I saw down the road by the river. The 2 farms are only about 5km apart.
