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| The Hay-Yard Coyote
I'd hear yipping in the pre-dawn
light whenever I tried to set up
on the coyotes, but they would
never show up at sunrise. Even
when I moved deeper into their
territory for surprise setups I'd
lie greeted with silence or
suspicious stares from coyotes
glaring at me from beyond
high-percentage shooting range.
Any retreats were led by a
light-colored coyote.
Despite discouragement, I was
gathering intelligence. I knew
the coyotes liked to hunt along
a small riparian zone (river bank
area), occasionally bedding in
the thickets when the weather
was blustery, but on sunny
days they'd retreat into distant
pastures to bed well beyond the
Sometimes calling in an old, educated
yote isn't an option. In a last-ditch effort
the author employed spot-and-stalk
techniques to put the ol' dog down.
bustle of the lowland agricultural buzz. With the forecast for wind
and snow squalls I opted for an early-morning setup and instead of
arriving at dawn I set my alarm for a jump start to sneak in under
cover of darkness.
My destination was a hay yard brimming with stacks of large round
bales. In the dark I silently crawled to the top of a pile, propped my
rille on its Harris bipod, then napped until shooting light arrived.
My plan was loosely set, but I was squarely in the travel route of the
coyotes and I'd use rodent squeaking, not blaring distress, to pique
the curiosity of any coyote within earshot. With my elevated perch I
had ample visibility to tip over any coyote approaching.
Shooting light had arrived when, to my astonishment, a coyote
had mimicked my plan. In a haystack not 80 yards away a frostcovered
coyote stood, stretched and looked around. I slowly swung
my rille towards the target, checked light levels and dropped it before
it could leap from the stack. At the report two other napping coyotes,
one light in color, bailed from the hay yard and dashed to thick
cover before I could make it a double morning.
Lesson learned: Hunt travel routes when coyotes ignore distress calls or
coyote vocalizations.
I The Loud Mouth
Twice prior I'd sat in this
long draw trying to call in a
coyote using subdued coyote
vocalizations. Twice before a
hoarse, deep-sounding coyote
answered aggressively, but
would never close the distance.
It conversed from the rim
of a rugged canyon offering
the perfect escape hatch to
disappear in a flash. Halfway
through the winter I decided
to try the draw again and
without disappointment the
deep-toned coyote answered
my howls. This time I shut
up and waited, but as before,
he was a no-show. Instead
of moving on to greener
coyote-calling pastures, I had
the crazy notion of trying to
spot and stalk this antisocial
canine.
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Using terrain, I kept low and moved toward the canyon
rim. It was a risky move since I surmised the coyote was
likely bedded high and on alert. Hopefully it was busy
hunting. When I reached the mesa near the canyon rim 1
kept low and crawled to a nearby yucca plant to camouflage
my surveillance. I was in the motion of pulling my Nikon
binocular out to glass when I spotted a coyote peering at me
from the other side of the small mesa. It had seen me, but
wasn't sure of the threat. To get a clean shot I had to crawl
another 10 yards to a small rise. Staying low on my belly and
pushing my rifle ahead, I inched forward with the coyote
clearly watching my slithering backside.
I knew it was a long shot, but when I edged up the coyote
was still there, but now he was obviously leery and slinking
away. I barked to stop the coyote and it looked over its
back for a now or never moment. My .204 cracked and the
coyote took off. Had I missed? Rushing over to the location I
immediately spotted blood and a short trailing job revealed a
giant male coyote crashed permanently in a thicket.
Lesson learned: You can spot and stalk coyotes, but it takes a slow,
invisible approach to get within rifle range.
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