Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

It's been windy and cool with rain the last couple of days. We needed to do a little traveling Friday and Saturday, around thirty miles from home I saw a heavy female coyote hit on the highway. I didn't stop to see how many pups she was carrying. She is another late pupping one and I suspect that had I checked her she would have been one of last year's pups from what I have seen in the past. The high country has been still getting snow as we are running close to twenty-five degrees colder than normal, It's been several years since I have seen it doing this, probably around 1968 or 1969 on the 15th of June when we turned the bulls in with the cows in the mountains it was snowing hard up there and we had close to 12 inches before I got up and back from there to the low country. I'm always amazed by how much 2500 feet in elevation makes in the temperatures and weather. Memorial Day is one of the days that I typically took a den or two, most of the pups will be getting out of the den, most of the pups will answer you if you do a locator howl series, but don't get aggressive toward them, and mashing the grass down by now some aren't old enough to yet here. The red fox should be pretty old by now and you normally can smell their dens from a distance at this time, and the grass will be mashed down pretty much making them stand out to be seen. So many of the control guys will be pretty busy at this time as the coyote and fox are killing young to feed the kids now. Lambing started around the 12th of May here and the smell and sounds of that is like a flame to a moth they just can't resist it. I'm so glad that I don't need to put in 12 hours plus days seven days a week now the younger guys can do it now when it's needed. Yesterday it was windy and cool with rain, so I helped my neighbor. He asked me to show him how to mount a new scope so that it wouldn't move on his 300 Win Mag. . I took the bolt out of it, set it up in the vice, leveled it and put the bottom of the rings on the action and torqued them to spec., I put my lap in them and checked their alignment to each other and only had a little misalignment to take care of. I set the scope up and leveled it just snugging the top ring halves. I had him pick it up close his eyes shoulder it then open his eyes and see if the eye relief was set for him. We got it set up for him then set it back up level and torqued the screws. I explained what and why I was doing everything as I was doing it. When we were done I again had him shoulder it and double check the eye relief. Then he said I have to move my head back and forth on my other rifles to get a clean sight on the scopes now I know how to fix that, and I don't think I will need to have the gun store mount my scopes now. He's a small guy and most of the people mounting his scopes are bigger than he is so that all made sense to me. We will get them fitted to him using my stuff with him doing the set up so he can become proficient at it, as that is the whole point of doing it. As I told him there are many ways to get it done and as time goes on, I will show him other ways to do the same thing and he will find other ways to do things on his own.
 
It's been pretty warm here and the pups are getting out and about. I saw some bobcat kit tracks near a water hole this morning, so they're out with the adults too.
I've seen several coyote pups road-killed in the last week.
I was up in the mountains today, above 8,500ft and the cooler air sure felt nice.
No precipitation at all in this area and a mean look can light it off.
I saw a really nice Pronghorn buck this morning. He was following a couple of older females around as if they were in season.
Didn't see much coyote sign where I was but really didn't expect to. This is more lion country than coyotes up here.
It was nice to just sit on a high ridge and glass the canyons and draws and enjoy the sounds and smells.
I'll be back down on the river tomorrow, scouting for feral pigs and looking for sites to place my big corral traps.
I broke out my .243 today and verified my dope with the 105gr Scenar-L bullets over Retumbo.
I'm good to go out to 500 yards just using my holdovers.

Ed
 
As we are taking time to observe the Memorial Day weekend, I hope we all are healthy and safe at this time. Take a few moments to reflect on those that have gone before us and what they have done for us while they were with us. So many that gave all in the past for us to have what we have today, that we never knew. For me it's a time to quietly set and reflect on how far we have come in such a short span of time. Looking back on the way life in the world was just a few short years ago, at the time of WW2, Keora, Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. So many technological advancements in less than one hundred years as compared to the span of time that we have had written history. To all fair winds and following seas as we observe Memorial Day in our own special ways with our family and loved ones, may you be healthy, happy and safe!
 
For sure a time of reflection and thanks. Everyone in thier own way, some to attend a service, and some like myself to just do it alone with my own thoughts. I'm working straight through as we've been drowned by storms last few days but hope all stay safe and enjoy thier time this weekend.
 
I went out looking around one morning back in 1989 on a new ranch to me. It was near the end of May, gray cloudy day with snow showers and some wind gusts. My little black dog was tagging along with me, he was a mixed bread blue healer and who knows what else but a good dog and companion. We looked over a new pasture figured out a good place to set up and do some calling, hid the truck got my cold weather cloths on and hiked to a large rock pile. We sat up in the rocks with good visibility of most of this pasture. I did a couple of series of locator howls at around 9 AM. and was just setting looking when Hunter did some low growls. Knowing that was his way of telling me he had seen a coyote or fox I started glassing the direction he was looking. Sure, enough downhill and about 400 yards was a coyote laying in the old dry grass on the edge of a draw. I did another set of locator howls, but it just laid looking at us. So, I gave it some injured coyote squeals it stood then ran our way, hunter barked at it when it was about 100 yards from us, and it stopped it dropped with one shot. We went down after several minutes of just looking and watching to find it was a wet female, looking at her uterus told me she had eight pups. The way she was acting told me that she had been close to her den hole when Hunter alerted me to her presence, so we walked down to where she had been laying. I got down on my knees when we got there and could see her den from that height it was just twenty feet from where she had been laying. I wired them out took her and them back out of the area with me. At daybreak the next morning Hunter and I were back in the rock pile waiting and listening, he started talking on the next ridge over in another pasture. I answered him with higher pitched female howls and barks the same as he had done. He was talking and moving toward us and in less than ten minutes he was standing almost in the same place where the female was when I shot her. Having my dog with me has been more help than I could have ever thought it could be, they didn't have to even go out to play with them, just letting me know about their presence when they had snuck in and were just watching not moving except to quickly look at their den or partner has given me a lot of extra coyotes that so many other people would have said weren't there and went back to the truck and changed calling stands thinking they hadn't called in any. It taught me a great deal about not being in a hurry to leave the stand and to set quietly after I thought I was done and had a dry stand.
 
For around four years in a row, I took a red fox den in the same draw, and a couple of times from the same hole. So, I checked it again and didn't find anything except some tracks. Around two weeks went by, and I had to go by that same draw but this time I was going the other direction. An 1/8 th of a mile from the draw on a small hill side setting in the sun were five fox kits. I had nearly always taken the vixen with her kits and the year before wasn't any different I took her and the kits, but the new vixen chose to move in and den in just a slightly different location. A reminder to me not to get set in my ways and go the same way change up your routines, one that I had learned in the 70's but I allowed myself to get lax and careless. Don't always go on the same route out and don't always come back the same way. The world looks different from different directions in different light.
 
Amen to that! An old explorer's trick was to constantly look back at the way he came to see the path he had taken since it looks very different than the one he was continuing on .
We are creatures of habit, just as our prey is and we tend to follow the same paths as our prey does.
When we are accustomed to a certain area, we will choose our favorite spots to search from and rest at. A few yards to one side or further away from our normal spot can make a great difference in what we see, hear, and smell.
Even traveling in a different way due to the changing light of the different seasons can open up a new perspective on a given territory.
While we are always trying to make the best use of our time, it is never a mistake to slow down and take the time to reexamine our surroundings and environment.
We can become complacent with our surroundings and cause us to miss the small changes that signals a newcomer or a change in the patterns of our quarry.
We are not the only predators that hunt other predators and we cannot know what events occur when we are not around that can, and does, change our quarry's behavior.
When we are truly hunting, not just wandering around with a weapon, we must use all of our senses, all of the time, as if we are the hunted.
In short, keep your head out of your butt and never assume that things are going to be the same as they were.

Ed
 
DSheetz said:
Yes sir very well stated Ed !
Click to expand...
Thank you, Dave.
My current situation is a perfect example of changing environments.
I'm currently working along the Rio Grande River in West Texas, searching out feral swine for multiple disease sampling.
I'll also take coyotes, bobcat, gray fox, and mountain lions for rabies sampling if I encounter them.
The illegal immigrants coming across the border are pushing the animals around and disturbing the normal rhythms and patterns, making it difficult to find them to get the samples I need.
I can only imagine what the disturbance is causing for the denning animals that are trying to raise their young right now.
I know I've found a lot of abandoned dens, more than normal.
It's pretty disturbing to the folks who live around here too! 😡

Ed
 
Our world is in a constant state of change and always has been. Today's world is one in which we all need to be more observant than most have ever needed to be in general, here in the United States. We all have needed to be vigilant of threats in our lives just not as often in as many places as in our world today. Doing predator work I needed to observe the health of the animals I was working with, eliminating skunks you needed to be aware of them as they are known carriers of rabies and a few other diseases that are zoonotic. Swine are another animal that are carriers of zoonotic disease. People are carriers of diseases and people coming from other areas transmit them as they move from area to area. The threats in the world of today are more varied and well-hidden than at any other time in most of our lives, people in some occupations have needed to be highly aware of their surroundings but for the average American citizen we were allowed to be relaxed and laid back most of the time. When you are dealing with predators you need to be alert and keep in mind that they make their living by being able to bring great amounts of harm in an instant. One of the guys that I worked around got lax and was going to turn a bobcat loose that was in a leg hold trap out of season. He had a catch pole but had turned a few loose without using it. This time the cat decided to stand and fight him instead of running off when he let the spring tension off of its foot it balled up around his arm and then his head. I don't know how many of you have had a house cat grab you, but you can't hardly get them off of you. Multiply that to the size of a bobcat then think about the shock and awh factor of being attacked. He had his pistol and got it killed but ended up with some bad cuts, bites and stiches as well as some injections. Do your best to be aware of your surrounding and what some of the things are that can happen as well as some of the things we are exposed to in our everyday lives as we go about our business of living our lives and enjoying our families, yes we can be relaxed yet aware of our surroundings.
 

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