Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

[DSheetz]

Hunting on fresh powder is a blast, hunting on crusted snow not so much. The animals can run on it where we still break through, and it takes us a lot of energy to work through it. It's hard digging out of it when you get your truck stuck in it as well. I was in Orlando in the early 70's, when it got cold down there it was a penetrating cold with all of the humidity. I did enjoy the Spanish moss it was interesting to me. It's hard on the farmers when it drops below freezing down south and hard on the rest of the country that depends on the crops that they raise. I wasn't a fan of ice storms at all, they left a lot of beautiful shinny ice all over, but the downed power line and broken trees weren't very fun to deal with, the roads weren't much fun to navigate either and even walking was a challenge. I enjoy hearing about other projects and reloading or building projects that people do as well as their experiences with developing loads, finding their seating depths, bullet weights and powder combinations. As well as hearing of the ways that they do their trapping, snaring, calling, hunting and tracking it's all fascinating to me and an opportunity for me to learn as well. I really still enjoy learning new things from different areas .

 

[Airedale56]

We have snow falling hard, 24 mph winds and reduced visibility up here now. Weatherman is predicting below zero temps for next couple of days.
Coyote calling may be good if the weather breaks clear and calm on Monday.
Hungry bellies make for hard chargers..

 

[JiggyIi]

January 7th I flew into Boise and drove my new to me truck home via 84,15,41 to Bozeman, then 90 94 back into Mn,I was amazed by the lack of snow in 1500 miles. At pit stops I always chat with locals and I listened to many stating the lack of moisture even to the extent of eastern Montana and western ND having bans on ATV usage and substantial fines if caught driving them last summer/fall.
We don't have enuf snow to use snowmobiles and last year was snowless

 

[DSheetz]

We reached our high for the day by 6:30 of 38 degrees and it's been dropping since then and started snowing hard since 8:00. The winds are mild at 13 mph and gusts to 20 mph. they predict highs of 12 for Sat. and Sun. clearing skies and a high of 5 degrees on Monday here but Tuesday a high of 32 so I expect it to be windy here on Monday afternoon, but we are windy a lot here. The shape of the country causes us to have a lot of thermals, bare open hill sides, rolling hills and tapering to the foothills all come together to create up and down drafts. But that is part of why I love it here so much. We get a lot of sunny days and being at a higher altitude gives us some really bright blue skies. Awhile back, two weeks ago, I saw a couple sandhills cranes that hadn't left here yet out on the harvested grain fields, but hundreds of Canada geese and antelope. I think they packed up and left a couple of days ago except for the antelope that have moved off to somewhere that the wind won't bother them. Stay warm, dry and safe this artic front will pass and as Airedale56 said the predators and other critters will be hungry and feeding making some interesting calling. With breeding season being here or starting you should be seeing pairs responding and having some responding to the vocalizations of females in heat, some dominance calling but also my favorite just the locator calls not too aggressive sounds and in short duration but repeated after a minute or two breaks between them to make them curious about who's in their area wanting to talk, and then coming to investigate. Let the rest of us know what works for you in your areas at this time of the year please.

 

[M1A1ABRAMS]

I have watched coyote, fox and bobcats lay on the downwind side of a hill out of the wind curled up in the snow absorbing the heat from the sun sleeping. Just a darker spot in the white snow, the spot and stalk predator hunters on here often take advantage of that this time of year. I have watched bobcats lay on the south facing rock bluffs in small patches of dry dirt sunning themselves and just looking down in the draws below them. their whole body still except for their tails, they just don't seem to be able to keep from moving it. I spotted one doing that one morning and decided to see how close I could get to him. I circled around so that I was down wind and behind it slipped up the back side of the rise that was on the northern side of the bluff. moved in on him and quietly slipped up to the top of the rock ledge, it was lying about five feet below me in the sun when I looked down. He never knew what hit him and I got 350.00 for his pelt. That was my game that I started playing when I was a kid to see how close I could get to bedded deer before I spooked them. Then I started with predators to see how close I could get to them. I worked with a guy one time that said he wanted me to take him deer hunting, so I told him I would put him on a nice buck in its bed so he could shoot it before it knew he was there, he said that's not being a sports man, I said no that's being a hunter. A few days later he said I've been watching you; you don't make hardly any noise when you walk, you don't brush up against things, you pick your feet up to step, but you put them down gently and don't make noise as you do and you make it look like you aren't putting any effort into being quiet as you do. A lifetime of practicing to be quiet as I move like the hunter- gathers did. Exposure to the little people all played into it, conscious effort leads to unconscious doing it.

So how does one stay quiet on frozen snow that is thawing ? You know, the every time you take a step, it sounds like you just stomped on a pile of dry leaves & sticks. lol I tried sliding my feet that just creates more noise. Tried the slow motion. Tip Toe, etc. Unless I can walk on air it's just impossible to keep quiet. The deer sure have it down though. Staying stealth. So I just sit still and quiet. lol

 

[JiggyIi]

So how does one stay quiet on frozen snow that is thawing ? You know, the every time you take a step, it sounds like you just stomped on a pile of dry leaves & sticks. lol I tried sliding my feet that just creates more noise. Tried the slow motion. Tip Toe, etc. Unless I can walk on air it's just impossible to keep quiet. The deer sure have it down though. Staying stealth. So I just sit still and quiet. lol

Skis? If the snow isn't too soft & sticks to the ski,
Once had a coyote that would avoid boot prints when I'd hang a snare where he went. An old boy told me to put skis on. That did the trick

 

[DSheetz]

Snowshoes also quiet your steps you need to spread your weight out over a wider surface area or like the deer do they have smaller surface area, so their feet pierce the surface and don't crush the icy surface. I was out one morning in February It had been warm and no snow for several weeks before when we got an artic front come in and dump a foot or more of fresh powder then the creeks froze and were the most open travel routes. I sat up on a cut bank and howled a locator howl series and the coyotes answered me, they were probably a mile out, so I talked back at them. They got quiet and I figured they were coming before I could see them, I could hear the thin ice crunching under their feet as they used the creek to travel on instead of busting trail in the powdery snow. The snow was soft and squeaky for me to walk on but would have been harder for them to travel in than on top of the creek. The creek had frozen but had a thin layer of ice on top of a thicker layer where water had broken through it and then formed a thin ice sheet on the top of the thicker ice below it. It was well below zero that morning, I dropped one of them at about 100 yards and got on the howler doing an injured coyote squeals and yips as the other two broke and went into the snow, one turned around and was standing on its hind legs looking for the injured coyote when I dropped it the third one got away. They are quiet on frozen snow and ice, but they aren't silent either, they do make noise as they step, we just don't hear it as we have adrenalin rushing. All we can do is to spread our weight out over a larger area and move the best that we can to not sound like a two-legged human moving slow and steady as Jiggli said. We will always sound like a bull in a China shop to ourselves because we are at the center of the sounds that we make but out at a short distance it will be quieter because some of the sound is absorbed by the world around us.