Well, got up a 3am and spent a very enjoyable and productive day with Rusty today. Rusty has some large tracts of land that he has permission to hunt to the south of the Dalles, I mean lot's of land!
The first yote we saw today was a road dog, he was standing about 100 yards up the hill from the road, of coarse he didn't stick around for us to take his picture.
But, we knew where to look later on! We made a set and just as we were finishing up, I spotted a dog about 1,000 yards out on the horizon line. Rusty continued to call to him, but no dice.
We could see the coyote look our way on the calls, we think there was a den over there.
We eventually ended up where we had seen the road coyote trot off too. We set up in a steep draw with a decoy and Rusty's Fox Pro. We went through the motions and decided to bag it. I stood up and racked the shell out of the chamber, then turned around to gather my stuff and happened to look up hill. Of coarse there stands a coyote about 60 yards out, head on. Ok, rack a shell back in and of coarse the dog runs out of sight!
Looking at the terrain, I skirted to the left and started up the hill at a run. I knew it would flatten out up on top, but didn't know if I could make it. Rusty saw the commotion and got back on the caller. I made it about half way to the top and then a coyote skitted out of the sage brush and stopped, about 60 yards out. Well needless to say I was breathing hard, but made the shot, well sort of.
The coyote started doing the break dance on the ground and eventually got up on his feet and started down the hill through the sage. About this time a second coyote came streaking by the cripple and the thought passed through my head to take a crack at that dog, but common sense won over and I started throwing lead at the cripple. That darn thing was hard to hit, but eventually it piled up. I then took off towards the top but ran out of wind.
So, I finally broke the jinx!
We were exploring new ground that Rusty just secured yesterday so poked our way on up the main draw and then came back to where I got the yote. There was a road that went to the top of the hill and we worked our way up there and then broke over trying to get a view of the next draws bottom. Across the draw was a big grain field and of coarse a dog took off out of the middle of it and never looked back. Busted!
We went and ate lunch and then returned to the same general area and started exploring some more. The first set we were about 3/4 of the ways through the set and we both suddenly noticed a coyote across the main canyon and out in a fallow grain field. We were hoping that it was coming in, but it worked it's way over to a side draw and disappeared. We worked it for quite a while but the dog never came out. While glassing the draw, big holes were obvious in the side hill, again this was probably a den situation.
So it was a great day, nice weather (little too warm), great company and lots of dogs to work. The coyote I shot was a male. I didn't get any pictures, except for what Rusty took on a disposable camera, I forgot to put a tape in the camcorder!
Thanks for the good time and company Rusty.
Rank Amateur
Coyote clipper- No more! or Running with the Dogs
Nice Work Rank/Rusty!!
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