I had got an invite from Dean and Eric to do a coyote clean up at the Christmas tree farm.
The owner had called and said they were seeing some coyotes around the place as they were getting ready for the you cut crowd Thanks Giving till Christmas Eve.

Decided a morning hunt into mid day should work. We met at Deans house since he lives closer to the Christmas tree farm. Loaded all our gear into Deans SUV and headed out. We have hunted this place several times before and there are some good ambush spots to cover pretty much any wind direction except south. We can get around a South wind by setting up so it is a cross wind, no worry how ever as we had a NW wind during the morning. It changed too a W wind right about 1:00 pm as we were packing top to leave.

When we arrived it was 53F with a light NW wind and damp from the over night rain. We had discussed the first place we would set up on the way there if the wind was still as Deans weather station said.

There is a taller hill where two trails cross and out front and to one side they had cleared off to plant seedlings this spring about 10 acres square so seeing slinking coyotes should not be a problem.
We set the two decoys out about 5 yards apart out in the middle of the seedlings. Back tracked about 20 yards and set the caller out another 20 yards and set the second caller out.

Up on the hill we settled down started caller #1 with a distressed piglet about half volume waited about 10 minutes and set the second caller with the coyote pack having a party and turning up the volume of the piglet to about 3/4 volume.
That did the trick two coyotes stuck their snots out from under a couple spruce trees then their body about 120 yards out. It was Dean and Erics coverage area so all I could do was turn my head to see what happened. Couldn’t see much from where I sat with my back almost to Dean and Eric in the middle I could see a bit.

I heard two shots nearly on top of each other. I saw Eric give the fist jerk so I knew he at least had gotten one. We waited out the full 30 minutes with out seeing any more coyotes in that area. Was two females with fur that looked fairly good. Got them to the edge of the main trail in for later pick up by the SUV.

We moved to another area of the farm where they have the tall trees for those who want to erect 10 to 12 foot trees in their huge homes.
This area is a little tougher to set up in because of the taller trees and branches nearly scraping the ground.
There was a bend in the main trail and another T’d into it I got the middle so was looking down the tee. We set a single Decoy out at the top of the tee and the caller at the base of the tee, then decided to reverse the set up. Changed the sound out to a chicken having a distress fit and then joined in a yappy dog possible chase it. I had about figured we were going bust there when coyote crossed the trail I suspect to see if it could scent the decoy. When it crossed back and stoped to look I squeezed the trigger of the swift and watched the fur fly and another coyote down.

This one was a male and a young one by the looks of its foot pads and nearly clean teeth. Fur looked good on it also.
It also went beside the trail for pick up. It was decided to leave the area since we had made so much noise with the callers and shooting. At this time of year we don’t figure shooting bothers the coyotes to much as there are small game hunters out.


When we got the SUV and loaded up the three coyots on the carrier and the owner saw them he was happy. We told him if he heard any in the evening or morning to call and we would see if we could reduce the population more.

Dean said he would skin sew and stretch the hides but we were not having any of that. We did the skinning at Deans liking his set up with easy clean up. Sat down with neddles and dental flosss to sew the holes up. Mine only had that 244 di hole in, but the insides was a mess after the HPBT' bullet I use came apart.


Al

Very nice!

How many acres is this tree farm?

Good job

Tree farm is 420 acres.

Al