Coyote Hunt 2 Aug 17

Larry R

Old Mossy Horns
Long post but I'm known for that. LOL. Also read or ignore, your call.

I know I have been seriously lacking in my coyote hunts and I apologize. I posted that my son was struck by an auto driven by, to say the least, an inattentive driver. He has had both shoulders operated on since Feb 17 and is now looking at knee surgery. So I have been spending time with him. Also my daughter came for a visit from Mexico City with her beautiful little 14 month girl. Do I need to say that the happiest little baby I have ever seen stole my heart completely? :D:D

So last Tuesday my friend who allows me to coyote hunt from his condo called and said that he had recovered a road killed deer and dropped it off where I often bait for coyotes at his condo. Wednesday evening my older brother called and said due to events he wouldn't be able to go groundhog hunting Thursday so I decided to go night hunting for yotes. Got my stuff and headed out. As I walked over the top of the ridge, still daylight, above the condo I saw something in the hay field. At first I thought deer but it just didn't look quite like a deer so I got on my day time binocs. Luckily I had taken them to check on the location of the deer before dark. Confirmed that it was a yote and snacking on something. I thought OH Heck I'm lucky it hasn't seen me yet because I was practically in a clear line of sight to the yote. I thought if I try to get my 35 lbs back pack off standing up it surely will spot all that movement.

I slowly sank to the ground in the dirt two track road thru the woods and crawled backwards and over to the side of the road where there was a big Wild Cherry tree to use for a rest. Peeped over and the yote was still there. Got the rifle up and cross hairs on the yote, facing directly at me. I put the cross hairs on the base of the throat, steadied the hairs and squeezed the trigger. My rest was so good the hairs barely moved as the rifle fired and I saw the bullet knock the coyote completely backwards into the tall grass. I lost sight of it in the tall grass but kept the scope on the spot. I never saw the first piece of grass move the coyote was definitely killed instantly.

I continued on to the condo and got set up before dark. Using my daytime binocs I was unable to locate the deer carcass but I could see where it had been. I could also see 3 or 4 trails down thru the grass what I thought (the next morning confirmed) was trails where parts of the carcass had been drug down the sloping hay field. The grass was matted down. I decided that this was a good conclusion because at the end of one of the matted grass was where I had seen and shot that coyote. I also knew it was gonna be more difficult to locate any yote that came in since my night vision "ring of light" would only cover very small spots in comparison to the wide spread of the matted grass trails. But I had already declared the hunt a success so I was optimistic and continued the hunt.

During the night I heard one lone coyote howl at least a dozen different times off to my right across the property fence and that impenetrable fence row of briers but also so far to my right I couldn't get the NV binocs far enough around to see that field. After each howl I got an adrenaline rush, got the rifle up and began to sweep the field with the NV binocs. Nothing showed up after any of the howls???? Oh what the heck it's already been a good hunt and they are right close by. The moon was almost full and I could see the major portion of the hay field enough to detect anything that came into anywhere in the field that I was able to see. Only problem is that as the moon moved across it began to cast a dark shadow over the hay field from the trees behind the condo. This caused me to have to sweep the field with the other set of NV binocs while I kept the mounted binocs on the best/biggest looking trail of matted grass and check it ever so often. It didn't take long for the binocs to get heavy with no way to support my arms but I kept sweeping the field every minute or so.

It had been some time since I had heard the coyote yelp and as I swept the field I picked up eyes that looked familiar but the grass was so tall I couldn't make out the animal for sure. I decided it was a coon so just watched it. Man that's a big coon and it's awfully dark. It didn't don on me that this is the same location where I had shot a completely black coyote before, tracked it by blood for about 200 yards and never was able to find it. After maybe 20 minutes it began to wander off up the hill and eventually crossed into a small opening that my friend had made for a deer food plot. Oh crap it's a coyote and before I could get the rifle up and on it the yote had gone out of sight. I was upset with myself because I had not put the thermal scope on it while I was watching it. The thermal will clearly show the body, even thru the tall grass.

After it left I again scanned the hay field and further down one of the matted grass trail I saw eyes amd a big dark body. This time I eased the rifle up with the thermal scope and BINGO another yote. Eased the safety off, steadied the cross hairs again on the throat as this one was also facing me. Squeezed the trigger, thank goodness for sand bags in a condo, the rifle was so steady I never lost sight of the bullet striking the yote knocking it backwards and out of sight in the tall grass. I saw one leg kick a couple of times as I kept the scope on the spot. No more movement so I was sure it was a good one.

Not five minutes later I heard another lone howl from a coyote right beside the condo in the two track dirt road I had walked in on. So close it made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. LOL But again nothing showed up. Hunted until about 7 a.m. as I started packing up my stuff. Went to check on the two dead yotes and found them both shot square at the base of the throat, exactly where I had held the cross hairs. Drug them back to the condo and left them as I went to get my pickup. The dark one was a male, the light one and bigger one was a female but completely void of any signs that she might have ever had young. As I went to get my pickup I saw tracks in the sandy dirt where the coyote had walked down the same road I had walked in on and where it had turned around and walked back up that same road and crossed the ridge over into an adjoining hay field. So I know there is one more out there and I'm convinced more than one. LOL.

Went to Photobucket to upload the photos and what I found shocked me. They want you to login in thru your Facebook. No biggie there but when I read all the "fine print" I discovered that the agreement to use gives them your e mail, all of your contacts and THEIR contacts. Basically ever time you have been to the bathroom in the last year. LOL. I have nothing to hide but I'm definitely not going to give them access to all of my contacts and their contacts. WTH? So I'm looking for some other sites that host uploads. Would appreciate any info.

Hope to get in some more yote hunts before 9 Sept. Picked up two SD Cards at my lease in Allegheny County and had 5 or 6 videos of coyotes. To far to drive then drive back home after an all night hunt and also no condo there. Maybe they will show up while deer hunting. Also have gotten three different bears on videos. Not happy with them showing up but would enjoy watching them if they did show up. Don't really want to kill one, no place to put any more mounts, don't really like bear meat and don't have room for a bear rug, besides Shorty would probably attack it and tear it all to pieces. LOL.
 

lasttombstone

Kinder, Gentler LTS
Good to see you are still on the job, haven't lost your touch and above all, are alive and well. I keep up with some things.......... LOL. Understanding all that you had going on but you hadn't posted since June 7th. That'll get some folks attention. Welcome back and I hope your son is improving.
 
Top