Saturday morning was windy, but I saw from the Weather Service that the wind was going to die down in the afternoon. Combine that with cold weather and some fresh snow, and it was GO time.
Papapete had to work until 1:00 and I wanted to spend some time with the kids, so we hunted from 2:00 until sundown and got in 3 or 4 stands.
Stand #1: This draw just calls out "coyote". Papapete has killed one there, and last year we ended up kicking one up on the walk in. It is a great stand but it is hard to hunt, because you are up close and personal with any wildlife that is in there. We saw some deer but nothing else.
Stand #2: We call this stand "The Beehive". It is one of our honey holes, but things always seem to go wrong there and so it's like a beehive in that the honey is there but hard to get. We set up with Papapete and I on seperate hillsides. He put the Johnny Stewart PM-4 in between us. When I sat down I thought "hmmm...I hope my remote can reach the caller", as it was pushing the maximum advertised operating distance. Hit the rabbit distress and it works fine. After one series I am looking around and don't see anything.
I am laying back against the hillside and I rock to the side and BINGO! A big white coyote was on the edge of the cattails. I hadn't seen him because he was DIRECTLY behind the forearm of my rifle, as it was rested up on my bipod. Of all places for him to make his entrance!!!
I try to hit the button on the caller...NOTHING. I start fiddling with position of the remote, scared to lift it too high that he would see motion. Thought about hand calling but I wanted him to go directly to my calling partner. FINALLY they connect and the rabbit starts...the coyote runs like a bullet to the speaker. I can tell as he is running that he is fully furred and a big solid animal. He crosses a little creek and I see him stop about 200 yards to my right. I see snow fly, a spinning coyote, and hear KABOOM! The yote yelps and runs aways, and Papapete makes another shot.
Papapete does have an alibi here. He borrowed his rifle to his brother to use in the badlands on a hunt, so he was using my 243, and had never used the rifle before. His shot was not up to his expectations, and after walking up to the coyote, he needed one more piece of lead.
There will be some sewing lessons for Papapete this time around.
Here is Papapete clowning around for the camera!
Stand #3: I learned a great lesson yesterday! NEVER, EVER, put your electronic call down in tall CRP and forget to turn on the damn machine! We spent about 20 minutes after our third stand looking for my PM-4 becuase I set it out, forgot to turn it on, and then couldn't identify the exact piece of grass I set it by (go figure) and we couldn't turn it on and follow the sound. What a dolt!!! :eyeroll:
