Wednesday night I hunted with my bud Jake and his former commanding officer on a WMA not far from my home. We had coyotes howling, but we could not coax them to come in. I think these coyotes see a lot of pressure, and I want to go back when it is really cold and give then a very stealthly and patient try using just prey sounds. I'm pretty sure we know where their den is and I think we can sneak in close.
Saturday night we went to a property we hunt regularly. In fact, Jake had already taken a coyote right after the night season opened on the 15th. Fox came in on the 1st as well. We started off on the down wind side of a really long field and managed to call in a couple of fox. We were spread along a ridgetop and Jake had the only opportunities. And missed, which is not that common for Jake.
We moved into the wind making a couple of stands. We had to cut through some standing beans on the way to the third stand and we kept smelling fox. When we came out of the beans we saw the fox sitting on his haunches about 100yds away looking at us. I managed to get my rifle on my tripod before he spooked and connected.
While calling on the third stand another fox came in looking for the source of the call. He came from down low and I think he sky lined me. As he turned to go he stopped to look back. I think in retrospect a little lip squealing might have got him to come in, at a least give a better shot, But I tried him as he was looking back and missed. Missed a couple more as he was hauling a--.
We moved by truck to another part of the farm and the wind was swirling a bit, but we made a plan to approach an area Jeremy had been predicting all night would produce a coyote opportunity. Aw we crested a hill in a big winter wheat field we spotted a couple of heat signatures lower and partially obscured by a slight rise. We guessed a couple of hundred yards away, with a thick grown up hedgerow/windbreak another 100 behind. The batteries in Jake's clip on died and as we were stopped to allow Jake to swap out one of the critters moved toward us a bit. He was looking at us at a funny angle and Jeremy and I were about 99.9% sure it wasn't a deer, but we couldn't sure. But then it turned it's head and barked and we knew it was a coyote. Jeremy beat me to the trigger. At the shot every critter put it's head up and it turned out there were five coyotes in the field. We wasted a lot of ammo trying to nail another, and I'm pretty sure I hit one but it was entering the hedgerow as I shot and we couldn't find it afterward.
We tried some howling to see if we couldn't get a curious member of the pack to come back to take a look. We had responses from every point of the compass, which is really unusual for MD. We heard a different pack calling from the end of this section of the farm and we moved about 3/4 mile to be nearer where they called from. We set up next to a barn and had no action. It was beginning to lighten in the east and we were beat, so we called it quits. Jeremy and I walked to the other side of the barn where the truck was, but Jake, who never stops hunting spotted a critter come out of the woods and lip squeaked a fox. He managed to miss a couple of shots, but made a nice running shot to anchor the fox.
Jeremy's coyote.
Jake's fox:
I didn't get a photos of my fox.
JPK
Saturday night we went to a property we hunt regularly. In fact, Jake had already taken a coyote right after the night season opened on the 15th. Fox came in on the 1st as well. We started off on the down wind side of a really long field and managed to call in a couple of fox. We were spread along a ridgetop and Jake had the only opportunities. And missed, which is not that common for Jake.
We moved into the wind making a couple of stands. We had to cut through some standing beans on the way to the third stand and we kept smelling fox. When we came out of the beans we saw the fox sitting on his haunches about 100yds away looking at us. I managed to get my rifle on my tripod before he spooked and connected.
While calling on the third stand another fox came in looking for the source of the call. He came from down low and I think he sky lined me. As he turned to go he stopped to look back. I think in retrospect a little lip squealing might have got him to come in, at a least give a better shot, But I tried him as he was looking back and missed. Missed a couple more as he was hauling a--.
We moved by truck to another part of the farm and the wind was swirling a bit, but we made a plan to approach an area Jeremy had been predicting all night would produce a coyote opportunity. Aw we crested a hill in a big winter wheat field we spotted a couple of heat signatures lower and partially obscured by a slight rise. We guessed a couple of hundred yards away, with a thick grown up hedgerow/windbreak another 100 behind. The batteries in Jake's clip on died and as we were stopped to allow Jake to swap out one of the critters moved toward us a bit. He was looking at us at a funny angle and Jeremy and I were about 99.9% sure it wasn't a deer, but we couldn't sure. But then it turned it's head and barked and we knew it was a coyote. Jeremy beat me to the trigger. At the shot every critter put it's head up and it turned out there were five coyotes in the field. We wasted a lot of ammo trying to nail another, and I'm pretty sure I hit one but it was entering the hedgerow as I shot and we couldn't find it afterward.
We tried some howling to see if we couldn't get a curious member of the pack to come back to take a look. We had responses from every point of the compass, which is really unusual for MD. We heard a different pack calling from the end of this section of the farm and we moved about 3/4 mile to be nearer where they called from. We set up next to a barn and had no action. It was beginning to lighten in the east and we were beat, so we called it quits. Jeremy and I walked to the other side of the barn where the truck was, but Jake, who never stops hunting spotted a critter come out of the woods and lip squeaked a fox. He managed to miss a couple of shots, but made a nice running shot to anchor the fox.
Jeremy's coyote.
Jake's fox:
I didn't get a photos of my fox.
JPK
