Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
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I worked for ranchers at first until I learned what I was doing and to get the problem makers. Then I worked for the county for awhile . I got subed out to the feds they did a lot of things that I hadn't done before . Some of the guys just wanted to fly for coyote . My whole goal was to get where I could identify the problem and take care of it as fast as I could because I grew up with ranching and farming and knew that so many farmers and ranchers couldn't afford to loose livestock . I ended up going back to working for ranchers and getting paid per coyote . I did that during the day and worked at a power plant at night so I could hunt coyote . When you end up having to go get the problem coyote that others have educated it can be frustrating and hard work but when you get them it's very rewarding . I've had coyote that others had worked on for weeks that I got lucky and got the first day and I've had some that took a week or more . One or two that I hoped would die of old age soon , and some that the pups gave away when they were young but old enough to start hunting .
I liked to use a 22 lr revolver mostly as that's what I had and you could get ammo at a low cost . It didn't take up much space and wasn't as loud as a larger caliber . I made a holster and belt for it that also had a fixed blade knife on it as well as a good pair of pliers in a holster as well . That way I had most of the tools in one place for running snares and traps . I kept my trap setting tools in a square bucket with a separate container for lures and baits . When I started I could buy 100 rounds of 22 lr for less then $2.00 . I would buy 4 or five bricks at a time . I had an overhead gun rack that was made in Montana for the pickups I ran . It sat right behind my head out of sight and not in my way with easy access . It was padded and the full with of my truck cab and 6" wide with a vel-crow strap to hold the rifle in place the ulpolstry matched that of the truck .
DMP25-06
Well-Known Member
Back in late February , 2008 , I was hunting on a large ranch in the brush-country of south Texas , just north of Rio Grande City . My brother-in-law , his son , his son-in-law , and I were invited to hunt in a special deer cull hunt , that the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. allowed land owners in that area to reduce the number of does and cull-bucks , to improve the quality of deer on their properties .
I asked the land owner's permission to hunt varmints , since I really had no desire to shoot deer at that time , let the other 3 shoot deer if they would like to do so .
I was put into a tower deer-blind , overlooking 2 senderos ( ranch roads cut through the heavy thorn brush that makes nearly in-penetrable cover that the animals live in , and can't be seen , except when they are in the senderos ), that ran out away from the blind for 500 yards in a V shape , with the blind being at the bottom of the V .
I had an electronic call that I set out at about 100 yards away from the blind , along with an electric powered , motion decoy that would spin a raccoon tail on a flexible rod , and a large bird with spinning wings ( more on this later ) , mounted on a tall pole/spike , to make it look as if a bird-of-prey was attacking a rodent .
After setting everything up , back into the blind I went . Some 30 minutes later , I began calling .
About 10-15 minutes into calling , I saw movement at the far end of the sendero , began looking through my binoculars , and found , much to my surprise , a large bobcat , very slowly and cautiously moving in toward the call and decoys . At 450 yards , he was too far to shoot with my .223 AR , so I continued watching him and monitoring his progress toward the call set-up . He was a very large bobcat and probably old , because in 30 minutes time he had only moved some 50 yards closer , and was always staying inside the edges of the thorn-brush . He disappeared for a few minutes , and when I could not find him again , I made a visual sweep on the sendero , back towards the call and decoys . When I visually reached my caller and decoys , I was totally surprised to see a coyote , about 5 feet away from all of my electronic gear , sitting there with his head tilting from side-to-side ( looking just like the RCA-Victor Trademark dog looking at and listening to the Grammaphone ,in the picture on old record labels ), as he listened to the squalling of the call , acting as if he was dumbfounded , wondering what in H..L would make a Mallard Duck want to attack a small rodent . My spinning wing decoy was a Mallard Duck because no stores yet stocked the MOJO Hawk decoy . HEY , you improvise , adapt , and overcome , with whatever tools are available .
I shot him , and he fell next to the Mallard . I have no idea as to how long he had been sitting and watching the show .
Before getting out of the blind , I looked out to the sendero to my right , and there was a cottontail rabbit in the middle of the 2 track road at nearly 200 yards out , so I shot his head off , thinking that I would pick him up after retrieving the coyote . I dropped the coyote under the blind , and went to retrieve my rabbit . He was not there , only blood and fur .
I returned to the blind , resumed calling , and some 15 minutes later , another coyote showed himself , very near where the rabbit had been taken , in the brush . I shot through a small opening in the brush , but probably deflected slightly because I hit this one in the mid-body and gut area . It began spinning around and around , biting at it's side , and then vanished . I dropped out of the blind and went to where I had shot the coyote . There I found lots of blood , and about 4 feet of intestines on the ground where the coyote had chewed off the dragging intestines . I followed the blood trail to a dug-out hole in the ground , possibly it's den . However , not having any tree branch or tool to stick into the hole to try to retrieve the coyote , I decided to not reach my hand and arm into the hole , this IS Rattlesnake country .
I asked the land owner's permission to hunt varmints , since I really had no desire to shoot deer at that time , let the other 3 shoot deer if they would like to do so .
I was put into a tower deer-blind , overlooking 2 senderos ( ranch roads cut through the heavy thorn brush that makes nearly in-penetrable cover that the animals live in , and can't be seen , except when they are in the senderos ), that ran out away from the blind for 500 yards in a V shape , with the blind being at the bottom of the V .
I had an electronic call that I set out at about 100 yards away from the blind , along with an electric powered , motion decoy that would spin a raccoon tail on a flexible rod , and a large bird with spinning wings ( more on this later ) , mounted on a tall pole/spike , to make it look as if a bird-of-prey was attacking a rodent .
After setting everything up , back into the blind I went . Some 30 minutes later , I began calling .
About 10-15 minutes into calling , I saw movement at the far end of the sendero , began looking through my binoculars , and found , much to my surprise , a large bobcat , very slowly and cautiously moving in toward the call and decoys . At 450 yards , he was too far to shoot with my .223 AR , so I continued watching him and monitoring his progress toward the call set-up . He was a very large bobcat and probably old , because in 30 minutes time he had only moved some 50 yards closer , and was always staying inside the edges of the thorn-brush . He disappeared for a few minutes , and when I could not find him again , I made a visual sweep on the sendero , back towards the call and decoys . When I visually reached my caller and decoys , I was totally surprised to see a coyote , about 5 feet away from all of my electronic gear , sitting there with his head tilting from side-to-side ( looking just like the RCA-Victor Trademark dog looking at and listening to the Grammaphone ,in the picture on old record labels ), as he listened to the squalling of the call , acting as if he was dumbfounded , wondering what in H..L would make a Mallard Duck want to attack a small rodent . My spinning wing decoy was a Mallard Duck because no stores yet stocked the MOJO Hawk decoy . HEY , you improvise , adapt , and overcome , with whatever tools are available .
I shot him , and he fell next to the Mallard . I have no idea as to how long he had been sitting and watching the show .
Before getting out of the blind , I looked out to the sendero to my right , and there was a cottontail rabbit in the middle of the 2 track road at nearly 200 yards out , so I shot his head off , thinking that I would pick him up after retrieving the coyote . I dropped the coyote under the blind , and went to retrieve my rabbit . He was not there , only blood and fur .
I returned to the blind , resumed calling , and some 15 minutes later , another coyote showed himself , very near where the rabbit had been taken , in the brush . I shot through a small opening in the brush , but probably deflected slightly because I hit this one in the mid-body and gut area . It began spinning around and around , biting at it's side , and then vanished . I dropped out of the blind and went to where I had shot the coyote . There I found lots of blood , and about 4 feet of intestines on the ground where the coyote had chewed off the dragging intestines . I followed the blood trail to a dug-out hole in the ground , possibly it's den . However , not having any tree branch or tool to stick into the hole to try to retrieve the coyote , I decided to not reach my hand and arm into the hole , this IS Rattlesnake country .
DMP25-06
Well-Known Member
You wear Snake boots , or gaitors made out of heavy ballistic cloth , and be very careful to watch where you sit-down .
Airedale56
Well-Known Member
Hello, men.
Thought I'd join in if you don't mind.
A little history, an uncle gave me an Olt T-20 predator call when I was about 15. I learned how to blow it and started calling predators in 1972. Since then, I've studied up on coyote behavior and listened to men more experienced and smarter than me, not always older.
Trial and error, observation and learning from my and others mistakes and success, I got pretty good at calling coyotes and eventually the word got around and started getting calls from folks with coyote problems. Got educated by some pretty smart coyotes, too.
I later graduated to open reed calls, Major Boddicker's Crit'r Call Magnum, Standard and Peewee and the Tally-ho by Tal Lockwood. I messed around with different materials for reeds, made my own cow horn howler and made Dan Thompson's acquaintance and spent many hours on the phone and at his house, called with him a few times before he passed, too.
He had the biggest dang badger (Fed on dry dog food and meat) I had ever seen, raised as a pet and walked on a leash when it was little by his daughter, Estrella. Dan told me about taking "Bear" with him, setting him out to walk around and do his Badger thing while Dan called. Incoming coyotes would see Bear and fixate on the Badger, to their demise.
He was still turning his own fixed-reed and open-reed call bodies and making the open reed sound boards out of PVC when I bought my first of several calls from him.
Finally got an electronic call, FoxPro FX3, in 2006. The biggest advantage I saw was getting the sound away from me and focusing the attention of incoming predators elsewhere. I still always have an open reed call around my neck when calling.
I got so hooked on calling coyotes in my early fifties, I trained up an Airedale female pup to go with me and added a male Mountain Cur/ Plott Hound cross two years later. Those two made calling pretty easy. In large open country, I didn't even really look for coyotes. That Cur would find the highest spot whether it was a pile of rocks or a leaning tree and he would see one coming and fire out on him. Lots of chasing back and forth and then hit the tone on the e-collar to bring him back to me with the coyote in tow. He learned how to kill a coyote from my Airedale. She was one bad (female canine) when it came shaking the stuffing out of a coyote. The Cur would trail a cripple and bay it until I would catch up. We had lots of good times together.
Work got in the way, years went by and now both of them are pretty satisfied to spend their last days just hanging out with me. The Cur still goes hunting with me but my Airedale doesn't have the hips/legs to go anymore. I stopped hunting her when I almost had to carry her to the truck. She has the will but not the legs, like Tig in the movie Open Range. She'll be 13 in a few months.
I am by no means an expert and never did paid work, but killed a lot of problem coyotes if I got the call and could make time. In doing so, I, like several of these other guys, came out with some great stories.
I'll share a couple later.
DSheetz, we may have some mutual friends/acquaintances.
Thanks for reading.
John
Thought I'd join in if you don't mind.
A little history, an uncle gave me an Olt T-20 predator call when I was about 15. I learned how to blow it and started calling predators in 1972. Since then, I've studied up on coyote behavior and listened to men more experienced and smarter than me, not always older.
Trial and error, observation and learning from my and others mistakes and success, I got pretty good at calling coyotes and eventually the word got around and started getting calls from folks with coyote problems. Got educated by some pretty smart coyotes, too.
I later graduated to open reed calls, Major Boddicker's Crit'r Call Magnum, Standard and Peewee and the Tally-ho by Tal Lockwood. I messed around with different materials for reeds, made my own cow horn howler and made Dan Thompson's acquaintance and spent many hours on the phone and at his house, called with him a few times before he passed, too.
He had the biggest dang badger (Fed on dry dog food and meat) I had ever seen, raised as a pet and walked on a leash when it was little by his daughter, Estrella. Dan told me about taking "Bear" with him, setting him out to walk around and do his Badger thing while Dan called. Incoming coyotes would see Bear and fixate on the Badger, to their demise.
He was still turning his own fixed-reed and open-reed call bodies and making the open reed sound boards out of PVC when I bought my first of several calls from him.
Finally got an electronic call, FoxPro FX3, in 2006. The biggest advantage I saw was getting the sound away from me and focusing the attention of incoming predators elsewhere. I still always have an open reed call around my neck when calling.
I got so hooked on calling coyotes in my early fifties, I trained up an Airedale female pup to go with me and added a male Mountain Cur/ Plott Hound cross two years later. Those two made calling pretty easy. In large open country, I didn't even really look for coyotes. That Cur would find the highest spot whether it was a pile of rocks or a leaning tree and he would see one coming and fire out on him. Lots of chasing back and forth and then hit the tone on the e-collar to bring him back to me with the coyote in tow. He learned how to kill a coyote from my Airedale. She was one bad (female canine) when it came shaking the stuffing out of a coyote. The Cur would trail a cripple and bay it until I would catch up. We had lots of good times together.
Work got in the way, years went by and now both of them are pretty satisfied to spend their last days just hanging out with me. The Cur still goes hunting with me but my Airedale doesn't have the hips/legs to go anymore. I stopped hunting her when I almost had to carry her to the truck. She has the will but not the legs, like Tig in the movie Open Range. She'll be 13 in a few months.
I am by no means an expert and never did paid work, but killed a lot of problem coyotes if I got the call and could make time. In doing so, I, like several of these other guys, came out with some great stories.
I'll share a couple later.
DSheetz, we may have some mutual friends/acquaintances.
Thanks for reading.
John
I the summer here , when I go to make a calling set up if it's by sagebrush I'll use my rifle to shake the brush and see if it rattles at me . I also watch for ant hills and cactus when walking or setting up as well as rattle snakes .
We may at that have common friends . Dogs are a big help when they do the right things . They have to be smart enough to do it on their own for me I'm not a good dog trainer . I really like the curs both mountain and black mouth . Not much on the Airedales though .
I for darned sure am not the best coyote man that has ever been . But I sure have had a lot of enjoyment and experiences doing it over the years . And am still willing to learn from others no matter their age . I really enjoy hearing others experiences as well there are some great people with different experiences out there and I want to hear them as well as share some of mine that's why this thread was started all are welcome to share their stories that they find interesting to them .
Airedale56
Well-Known Member
You guys and your stories made me recall one.
I was in eastern WY at my GFs house. She was studying for college and I was sitting next to her on her couch facing East. The sun was way low and through the window I could see two shining white spots come off the rim to the East and start down the hillside. I excused myself and grabbed my .243, shooting sticks and Dan Thompson closed reed jackrabbit call from my pickup. The sun was behind me with my shadow pointed straight at the coyotes when I let out the first call.
They were about 700 yards out, heading north about midway up the hill between the rim and the flat ground between us. The dog stopped and looked into the sun at the call. I had him on 14 power looking right back at him. I blew another short squall, he looked back at his mate and turned left toward me and the call. She dutifully followed along behind him.
Down the hill they came, straight toward me like they were on a string. I had him centered in my crosshairs and he was steadily closing the distance. At about 500 yards I was looking right at him when he stopped and looked back over his left shoulder at something in the air above and behind him. I raised my head to see what it was he was looking at.
I watched in amazement as the Super-cub slipped over the rim right behind him. Silently it dove down toward the pair, it's left wingtip dipping and a moment later I saw the lead coyote fall and then heard the report of two shotgun blasts.
The female lined out at high speed headed North for an apparently forgotten urgent appointment she had in Niobrara County, the next one north. She was really digging as she went. The Super-cub throttled up as it leveled out, circled tight to the left and headed North coming up behind her on her right. The throttle dropped, the wingtip dipped again and she rolled in a cloud of dust and buckshot on the way to join her mate. Again I heard two reports follow.
The plane again throttled up as it climbed and turned right, headed back East over the rim and out of sight.
That was the only time I have ever had a plane kill two coyotes out from under me.
I ran into the guy in the backseat of the plane a few days later at a local restaurant and recounted the story to him. He was the local government trapper for Wildlife Services. We had a good laugh out of it.
DSheetz probably has already figured out who was the gunner.
I was in eastern WY at my GFs house. She was studying for college and I was sitting next to her on her couch facing East. The sun was way low and through the window I could see two shining white spots come off the rim to the East and start down the hillside. I excused myself and grabbed my .243, shooting sticks and Dan Thompson closed reed jackrabbit call from my pickup. The sun was behind me with my shadow pointed straight at the coyotes when I let out the first call.
They were about 700 yards out, heading north about midway up the hill between the rim and the flat ground between us. The dog stopped and looked into the sun at the call. I had him on 14 power looking right back at him. I blew another short squall, he looked back at his mate and turned left toward me and the call. She dutifully followed along behind him.
Down the hill they came, straight toward me like they were on a string. I had him centered in my crosshairs and he was steadily closing the distance. At about 500 yards I was looking right at him when he stopped and looked back over his left shoulder at something in the air above and behind him. I raised my head to see what it was he was looking at.
I watched in amazement as the Super-cub slipped over the rim right behind him. Silently it dove down toward the pair, it's left wingtip dipping and a moment later I saw the lead coyote fall and then heard the report of two shotgun blasts.
The female lined out at high speed headed North for an apparently forgotten urgent appointment she had in Niobrara County, the next one north. She was really digging as she went. The Super-cub throttled up as it leveled out, circled tight to the left and headed North coming up behind her on her right. The throttle dropped, the wingtip dipped again and she rolled in a cloud of dust and buckshot on the way to join her mate. Again I heard two reports follow.
The plane again throttled up as it climbed and turned right, headed back East over the rim and out of sight.
That was the only time I have ever had a plane kill two coyotes out from under me.
I ran into the guy in the backseat of the plane a few days later at a local restaurant and recounted the story to him. He was the local government trapper for Wildlife Services. We had a good laugh out of it.
DSheetz probably has already figured out who was the gunner.
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Airedale56 that's a great story! I can see why that one would be so memorable. Duckhunters like myself call that shooting your swing. When you're working a flock of birds and the hunters next to you shoot at them when they swing downwind to come back to you. Your experience just took that to a whole nother level!
I think I called them in one day in the early spring a few years ago . I was out locating one morning and they were supposed to be flying another area I let out a few howls and was waiting a few minutes when I heard the siren start up . I howled back and some other coyote answered me and the siren . Then I heard the plane coming they came in right on line with me I stood up and they tipped a wing and went after the real coyote . I worked with those guys a few times out of Niobrara county . I was sad to see Jim retire when he did but glad for him . I've lost track of Mike but he had some good dogs . Jim used to tell me about flying B-17's and spraying crops down south .
I was out one morning in 1987 calling . As I walked in to where I wanted to make my stand I saw 10 or 12 lambs with just their soft parts eaten so was pretty sure I had a den close by . I got set up and let out my first howls and got an immediate reply out a few hundred yards . As it was early in the morning , about 8:00 it was the old male . I waited a few minutes and started some puppy squeals . Out of no where comes this supper cub right down the draw in front of me , It was Burger and Dale . Two shots and my calling was done I put my stuff back in the truck got my pistol belt on and headed out . I got to the dog he was out about 200 yards from where I had called from . I went on out where he had first howled from and found the den it had 8 pups in it . When I got home I had a call on my answering machine from the predator board asking if the plane had messed up my morning by shooting my coyote but they would pay me for it any way .
