Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

They ran husky wolfs built over in Star Valley Wyoming here at that time they had plenty of horse power but for awhile they didn't have enough of an oil cooler and would run hot in warmer weather . but the company fixed that problem with new bigger oil coolers . They had real good landing gear and good tires for landing on dirt roads and grass strips and would take off on a short strip .
 
After the plane left that morning I collected the coyote they had shot laid them out where the land owner could see them and headed out to check a couple of other places that I had snares set on . Around 3:00 that after noon I was back up there and circled around behind where the plane had seen the pair run and then lay low . I was pretty sure they had a den in a draw out in the flats and that they would be back to it by now . I climbed up into a good rock pile that had a couple of pine trees growing in it got settled in where I could see the flats well and be concealed in the shadows , sat watching the flats and some antelope wandering around out near where I thought they would be . After several minutes I let out a long howl and saw the pair appear out of a draw in front of me around 400 yards out . They stood looking my direction , then at each other and came running my way . When they were maybe 100 yards I barked twice the small one was in my scope when she stopped . The shot was made she went down the other one turned and was running full out back toward the draw . I got on my call and did the injured coyote screams he stopped turned broadside and fell in his tracks . I sat there for maybe 10 minutes just looking and listening to see if any body else was around then went back to my 4 wheeler and gathered them up went out to where they had been bedded down . She showed that she had 5 pups so I needed to find them and the place to start was where they had been . What she showed me said they were only around 3 weeks old the lumps from the attachment points were still nearly the size of golf balls . In the bottom of the draw was a well defined trail mostly made of gumbo type soil , instead of the normal gravely ground at this altitude , there were plenty of coyote tracks coming and going up and down the draw . As is normal I went the wrong way and walked up the draw for a couple of hundred yards till the tracks weren't very plentiful . I then walked back down the draw past where I had started and maybe a hundred yards down the draw I found the den hole . The opening was well worn from her going in and out of it . There wasn't any puppy scat around it as they were still pretty young and hadn't been wandering around much yet . By the time I finished up with the den and got every thing done it was too late in the day and getting dark again so I left the other coyote for the next day .
 
Buck , The hammer bullets I ordered came Saturday ( 308 / 124 gr and 308 151 gr ) My starting point that I plan on following is to start with the same seating depth that I have on my Nosler 125 and 150 loads with IMR 4350 around 10 percent less powder at first run 3 rounds to see how they do and work up to around the same MV watching how they group then fine tune the seating depth to tighten the grouping . I have quite a bit of 4831SC so I might try some of it but so far my 30-06 that I will be using has liked the 4350 . How did you and the wife like Devils Tower ? I s your hunt going to your hopes ?
 
Buck , The hammer bullets I ordered came Saturday ( 308 / 124 gr and 308 151 gr ) My starting point that I plan on following is to start with the same seating depth that I have on my Nosler 125 and 150 loads with IMR 4350 around 10 percent less powder at first run 3 rounds to see how they do and work up to around the same MV watching how they group then fine tune the seating depth to tighten the grouping . I have quite a bit of 4831SC so I might try some of it but so far my 30-06 that I will be using has liked the 4350 . How did you and the wife like Devils Tower ? I s your hunt going to your hopes ?
Mr Dave it is good to hear. The hammers have been great. I have been able to go up a grain at a time to find pressure and then back down a grain and it is usually good. I have found they were very good all through the increments but did find better spots but seating depth did not have much change.

We did not get to see Mount Rushmore As the fog poured in the mountains and it was dark by the time we got over to Wyoming. Maybe on the way home

Me and Angie are having a great time. The weather has turned bad so we are sitting out this morning and letting the body recover a bit. We have put in no less than 8 miles a day and yesterday it was the most at 24. It has been very demanding and awesome trip so far. We have hunted both sides of the continental divide.
We got to meet up with Reemty and have dinner before we went up in the mountains. More proof of the quality of people on this forum. It is always wonderful to meet fellow Christians and Longrange hunting members. He drove 30 minutes over to meet us and bought us dinner. Thanks @Reemty J

Thanks

Buck
 
Thank You Buck , there are some very good people here . I'm glad that you and your wife are having a good trip and hope that you do get to see some of the things in the Black Hills area Mt. Rushmore , Custer Park ect . are worth while if you get the chance . This time of the year the weather is unpredictable in our part of the world . We had freezing rain last evening and the bridge decks were icy this morning . It is to be around 55 today with winds gusting to 50mph . Snow and rain mixed by Saturday .
 
I went back up the following morning after the plane had taken the older coyote dog and the single female coyote . I drove in close to a rocky ridge hid my truck from view of the long valley leading to the tree covered rocky hill side where the pair had answered the morning before . Slipping through the trees and rocks I found a good set up place where I had a view of the valley with it's willow covered floor and just sat listening and watching the world for several minutes probably around 20 minutes . I let out a long lone howl then gave it 2 or 3 minutes and did a set of my interrogation howls waiting and looking . A cross the valley laying low and just looking my way I saw just the head and ears of a coyote . I gave her a couple more interrogation calls she just laid there over 500 yards away so I just sat and waited for 5 or 10 minutes . Then I gave a few hurt coyote puppy screams on my call her ears looked like satellite dishes as they turned my way she jumped up rigid her back bristled then she ran my way disappeared into the willows . The next I saw of her she was only maybe 50 feet out glairing my way in the edge of them . I did get her shot . She showed 5 pups so I went over to where she had been laying watching my way laid down where she had been and looked around . From where she had been at her eye level I could plainly see the den she had been guarding it and still keeping an eye on the intruder . Once again I had taken advantage of the coyote and their parenting desires to take care of a problem pair .
 
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I loved doing my job to the best of my abilities and had no desire to cause animals to suffer because of my actions . Every animal deserves a quick death not laying around suffering . I have talked with many ranchers and producers that felt the same way and have been asked to tell them if I saw any of their stock or wildlife on their property injured or sick . Sometimes they have asked that I put livestock down for them when I would call them from the field after I got my cell phone .
 
Buck , how did your trip go ? Did you get your self an elk as well as take time to see some of the interesting things in our part of the world ? Reemty J. did you get to go out with your new elk rifle and test drive it on an elk ? Have you been putting the stalk on any of those coyote in your area ? I was talking with a couple of guys that I used to do control work for the other night . It's interesting some of the things they have to say . Things have changed for them they sold their sheep a few years before I retired and are just running cattle now . When I was out there working for them I would see an elk now and then on them but now they have a small heard of them full time . They said there are around 20 cows with calves and 8 to 10 bulls . The first bull I saw on them I was watching a heard of deer going through a saddle one morning and a bull was with them . I was in disbelief at seeing it where it was . A couple of years latter I saw 3 bulls running together . I told them of seeing them at first they didn't know what to make of me telling them of their presence . We talked about how I haven't seen any deer to speak of on them . I asked what disease were in the deer herds at this time . We had chronic wasting disease and hemorrhagic disease running through the deer herds in the last few years but this year with the amount of moisture we had they had a bumper crop of deer ticks . The little blood suckers were passing on a few diseases of their own as well as draining the life out of the deer weakening them for other disease to take it's toll . In nature it's feast or famine live or die and at times there is a lot of the dyeing we have little to no control of . We can only hope that the disease isn't a zoonotic and jumps from animal to human with the mutations they make to over come the mutations in their hosts bodies made to defeat the new disease . To all not just the Veterans take the time to have a moment of silence for the Veterans of past and present as well as those still serving on this Veterans day , as we see that they are there watching over us at this very moment so we have the freedoms that we still have and enjoy . It's time for me to get out and about some more to see what is going on . Take a few moments and let the rest of us know how your lives are going as well as your hunts . Thank You Dave
 
Lifes been a bit crazy for me these last few weeks. With the wet spring we had the crops are late this fall and have been stuck in machinery or semis and not much time for much else. Been out bowhunting deer a couple times. Between that and a dear friend of the family, pretty much my wifes second mother, dieing of liver cancer and helping care for her and husband. Haven't had much time to have any fun. Been seeing a few coyotes now that crops are getting out and will get on them as soon as possible. Hope everyone is haveing more fun out there than me lol and as DSheetz said thank a veteran, without them and God none of what we do is possible.
 
Well we had a wonderful time. Angie loved the little town so much she wants to move there. I don't think that is God's will for us right now but it sure is fun to think about. I did not get a elk but a wonder time in the Rockies and a nice mule deer. Got to finally hunt in the snow. A long time wish. It makes tracking so much better! I can see why y'all like to hunt the coyotes too. Much better in the open country. We got to me Reemty hole there and that was a highlight of the trip. Wonderful people on this forum. We did get by to see devils tower on the way home. Just before dark at sunset it is always beautiful. We can't wait for another trip out west

I included a pic of deer and me and the fine young man who was my guide it was his first successful hunt and as you can tell he was as excited as I was. We had the best time


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Thanks

Buck
 

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One morning in May I went out on one of the ranches that I worked for . It was supposed to be a nice day clear not much wind and in the mid 70's for a high . I got there before it got fully daylight parked my truck in a slight low spot by some rocks and walked about a quarter of a mile to the west where I knew there was a cut bank that was five feet or so tall for me to set up and call into a large valley that merged into some rough hills and deep draws where from past experience I knew the coyote denned . I sat there for 20 or 30 minutes waiting for shooting light and listening for coyote to talk if they were in the mood to . The only sounds were meadow larks singing to the sun rise when I let out a long howl waited a few more minutes and did a series of interrogation howls . As I sat there waiting for an answer I saw a shadow appear on the ground in front of me . A coyote had come in from behind me and was standing on the rim of the cut bank directly above me . It jumped off of the bank maybe 3 feet to my left saw me and made a run for it . I shot and missed it then it was gone . Later I found that they had denned down the draw where I had parked about half a mile forward of where I had parked . They never cease to amaze me .
 
I got a call one evening from one of the ranchers that I worked for . He was telling me that as they were moving cattle from one pasture to another his daughter had seen a bunch of coyote pups setting at a hole in such and such draw in this pasture . I told him I would get out the next morning and recheck it I might have missed some coyote sign but that the sign I had seen in there was Swift fox and I had left them alone . The next morning I got out to the pasture sat and waited for any coyote to talk not a sound was heard . As the sun came up I was glassing the draw he told me they were in and yup there were puppies playing in the sun on a hole at the base of a cut bank . Six little puppies that looked like small adult coyote were having a ball play fighting in the warming sun both adults lay on the top of the bank a few yards from them also enjoying the sun rise . They looked like coyote for sure if you didn't know what they really were you would think that they were coyote from a distance . Two adult swift fox with six puppies they eat a lot of rodents and birds , will eat dead lambs and such living close to prairie dog towns ect. . I called him and told him of my findings he laughed said after I talked to you I got to thinking about it and realized that she had never seen any swift fox and may have not known what they were from a distance but I wanted you to make sure for me better safe then sorry . I had a good morning watching and listening to the world wake up seeing the little life enjoying their new world and knowing for a fact that I hadn't made a mistake and let some coyote den in with the calving cattle .
 
We all have our own terms for things that mean the same thing but are called by differing names that will very from one area of the country to the next . When I may call a bedding area a bedding area someone else may call it a denning area . When I speak of a denning area I am talking of the area where the coyote or other animals have their puppies and raise them till they are old enough to travel with them to other areas and then bed down in a draw or some brush and weeds . What I call howls aren't the same as others do they may call what I call kiyies and yipps , howls to me they aren't the same things but then I live here in my area and they live in a different area and have different names for things . It's all a matter of how we perceive things and how we describe them depending on where we live and have been told about them as far as the descriptions we use goes not me right and them wrong or them right and me wrong it's the same things just called differently and may take me awhile to figure out what is meant . I'm a slow learner hopefully not a no learner .
 
There was a company called GEO Mapping that if you gave them GPS readings they would make you a satellite photo map of that area with any way points that you ask them to include on it . I had them make maps of the ranches that I worked on with X's on the den locations as well as an F or a C for fox and coyote dens I had taken over the years . Then I could add to the locations each year with my own marks and GPS readings and marks . When I retired I gave them to the respective ranchers so that they then had that information about their ranches and could pass it along to the new control worker or what ever they wanted to do with it . For a new control worker that information would be worth a ton in time savings alone as they then would have a good idea of where the next bunch of predators would be denning and a place to start their spring search for dens . The Federal , State and county agencies that I was involved with , once we got GPS units would issue you one but when you stopped working for them they would ask you for the unit back so that information could be passed on to your replacement . Most of the time they were wiped clean before being returned as these people didn't want to help others replace them out of spite . Treat me as you want me to you and I will do you the same , most of them didn't like to be treated the way they treated others I know because I used to return their ways to them and watch them get upset over it .
 

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