Monday night was a great night to be out. Temps were moderate. Humidity wasn't bad. The wind was up at times, but not too bad most of the time. On this property, I usually set up on a high ridge on the east side, but have been seeing hogs on the neighbor's place to the west, so this time I set up on the west side and hoped the hogs would come across the fence. I had a great spot to hunt. And for most of the evening I saw nothing but raccoons in the lake.
Not seeing any hogs in the huge field to the west I tried calling coyotes using various rabbit calls. After 10 minutes, gave it a rest, but scanned for a couple more minutes with rifle. Nothing. Rested the rifle against a tree and sat on the camp stool I brought and scanned by hand. Then I saw this rabbit running. No, wait, it was a coyote way off in the distance. So I got the caller up and going with some tortured rabbit sound and got my rifle up and watched the coyote come in the last 100 yards or so where it was standing down wind of me and I didn't have the recorder turned on....
Turned on the recorder and counted to 10 (apparently fast) not believing the coyote was still there and pulled the trigger and the coyote disappeared. Uneven ground and varied levels of grass made the search difficult and that is when I spied the hogs and ran to get the caller going to draw them in from the neighbor's property.
They seemed to head my way...and then ran away. No idea why they ran. Looked to maybe be a group of bachelor boars, but who knows?
Searched for my coyote for another hour before finally finding it, the hogs still on the neighbor's place.
Not seeing any hogs in the huge field to the west I tried calling coyotes using various rabbit calls. After 10 minutes, gave it a rest, but scanned for a couple more minutes with rifle. Nothing. Rested the rifle against a tree and sat on the camp stool I brought and scanned by hand. Then I saw this rabbit running. No, wait, it was a coyote way off in the distance. So I got the caller up and going with some tortured rabbit sound and got my rifle up and watched the coyote come in the last 100 yards or so where it was standing down wind of me and I didn't have the recorder turned on....
Turned on the recorder and counted to 10 (apparently fast) not believing the coyote was still there and pulled the trigger and the coyote disappeared. Uneven ground and varied levels of grass made the search difficult and that is when I spied the hogs and ran to get the caller going to draw them in from the neighbor's property.
They seemed to head my way...and then ran away. No idea why they ran. Looked to maybe be a group of bachelor boars, but who knows?
Searched for my coyote for another hour before finally finding it, the hogs still on the neighbor's place.