Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

It started snowing here at 12:45 horizontal as usual. The temperature dropped about 3 degrees when the snow started, I think the high for the day has been here and gone.
Windy here also. Can't tell I shoveled anything already. Lol. Have about a foot.
Pooche's like it when I let them out 😉
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Too windy here to call, or even run a trapline in the sand dunes areas.
Yesterday the winds were running 45mph+ sustained with gusts over 70mph on the plains and the Guadalupe Mountains were seeing 60+ sustained and gusts to 90mph. My house lost a bunch of shingles, so I called the roofing company (along with a bajillion other people) and I told them to not bother coming out until the wind died down, probably the first part of next week. Houses here are just not built like they are in Alaska!

Today it has calmed down to 25 mph sustained and gusts to 45mph, and so I'm putting in an equipment day, cleaning guns, tuning traps, and thinking about straightening up my gun room which looks like a bomb hit it. 😳

In this kind of weather, with temps getting down around 20F and these winds, the coyotes here will "brush up" and not move, so getting out and calling is just a lesson in futility.
They will be plenty hungry and moving to find food as soon as the wind drops! I plan on being on the move too!

Ed
 
Ed; Here with the gusty swirling winds, it's tough we might have three different wind speeds and directions in 300 or 400 yards depending on your location and the terrain you are in. You might be out on the flats with your target near the base of a steep bluff, where you are the wind may be coming flat and out of the southwest farther out there might be a slight rise so then you have an upward wind, as you get closer to the bluff you can have a hard down draft due to the wind hitting the base of the bluff then moving upward rapidly and rolling back on its self so it gives you a rotating effect back aways from the base of the bluff with a hard downward wind but within a few feet you have the hard winds moving upward and or to the sides where it hits the bluff . We get swirling winds because of the way the sun heats the earth some being bare and darker ground, some being grass covered and not heating as fast as the bare ground. Deep draws and steep upward sloping hills facing different directions cause different wind speeds and directional changes. The shape and different BC's have helped, bullet weights as well as the burn rate of the powders, barrel length and twist rates all have been improved on in the last couple of decades making life better for shooting in the varying terrains, altitudes, temperatures and shifting winds along with the availability and access to handheld wind meters giving us temperatures and altitude as well. It is rocket science! I am so glad to see the changes for the better that have been made in the shooting sports.
 
Ed; Here with the gusty swirling winds, it's tough we might have three different wind speeds and directions in 300 or 400 yards depending on your location and the terrain you are in. You might be out on the flats with your target near the base of a steep bluff, where you are the wind may be coming flat and out of the southwest farther out there might be a slight rise so then you have an upward wind, as you get closer to the bluff you can have a hard down draft due to the wind hitting the base of the bluff then moving upward rapidly and rolling back on its self so it gives you a rotating effect back aways from the base of the bluff with a hard downward wind but within a few feet you have the hard winds moving upward and or to the sides where it hits the bluff . We get swirling winds because of the way the sun heats the earth some being bare and darker ground, some being grass covered and not heating as fast as the bare ground. Deep draws and steep upward sloping hills facing different directions cause different wind speeds and directional changes. The shape and different BC's have helped, bullet weights as well as the burn rate of the powders, barrel length and twist rates all have been improved on in the last couple of decades making life better for shooting in the varying terrains, altitudes, temperatures and shifting winds along with the availability and access to handheld wind meters giving us temperatures and altitude as well. It is rocket science! I am so glad to see the changes for the better that have been made in the shooting sports.
D,
I was hoping for a story from you today. Laying here in the hospital bed . Had knee replacement about 5 hours ago 🙄🇺🇲
 
WYO300RUM,

You should be up and walking by now!

Doing laps around the nurses' station by tomorrow morning!

Hope you have some good drugs!

WyoWind
I'm going to be in a few minutes the just informed me. Rehab already! The drugs are working now. Two doses of morphine in recovery didn't do anything. Was hurting some. The pills they gave me about an hour ago helped a lot 😉
 
A couple of years after I retired, I got a call asking me if I would take a guy's son-in-law out and show him some calling tips. I said that I would and arranged to meet them the next morning. When I met them there were 4 sons-in-law and the landowner, we went out did a couple of dry stands, moved to a location where I have had really good luck in the past. I got them all set up out of sight but where they could see and shoot from their locations. The owner said you don't even have your rifle with you don't you think we are going to have any luck. I looked at him and said let's see there are five others here with rifles I don't think I will need one unless you forgot how to shoot and nobody else can. I got set up with the one that had a new fox pro call with him asked him if I could use his call sat it down and got my hand-held howler out and let-out one long lone howl then sat and waited. After a couple of minutes, I got the caller and turned on a jackrabbit sound I think it was called lightening jack, off to my right I saw some movement. Out nearly a mile there was a coyote trotting towards us. I sat and watched it till it got closer and stopped, I shut the rabbit sounds off it perked it's ears up and started coming again dropped into a slight draw then popped out in front of us. At around a hundred yards I barked at it, it stopped and just stood there looking in my direction. It stood there for several seconds and I'm saying to myself somebody shoot the thing please. After what seemed an eternity, a shot rang out it dropped, and the landowner says why didn't any of you guys shoot. They all had the same thing to say we couldn't believe that one really came in that close. I asked them haven't you ever called one in before. The guy with the fox pro said yeah but not that close. My friend the landowner and I about fell over laughing and he said to me see why I asked you to come show these guys a few tips. I still have the picture of them holding the coyote they have gotten better at it.
 
Ed ; have you been using any of the female coyote in estrus sounds this year? chirps, whines, whimpers and quick sharp barks with short howls. I usually started using them in late December or the first part of January and stopped using them around mid-March. At which time I would start using other more challenging coyote vocalizations under the right circumstances or lesser challenging vocalizations in most cases just to tell the homebodies that I was in their territories to see if they wanted to come visit or tell me to leave. I had to figure out what my password was just now and sign back in that hasn't happened in a year or so.
 
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