Went out calling on Saturday for the second trip of the year. The first outing we didn't do so well; the weather was "iffy" with some wind that made things questionable. We had a group come in that day, bark because I guess they saw us, and leave. We never saw them.

I went out alone on Saturday to an area close to town. Theres a lot of coyotes there. I always hear lots of howling in the morning from various packs, but we always have a tough time calling anything in. I think they're call wise.

Well, I drove up into a little draw above a full tank and parked at about the elevation I wanted to hunt. The plan was to go totally on foot that day. I got out of the truck to the serenade of a group howling all around me. Everything was wrong right there. I tried to make a stand, the sun came up in my face.... . Well I decided to start walking north and make stands as I crested each ridge. Just as I started off they started howling again so I glassed. I saw one dog sitting in the sage at 354 yards. The sage was too tall for a prone shot so I nealt with my tall sticks but couldn't a good rest. I let one fly and missed.

First stand over the ridge to the north yielded nothing. I continued on and came to a great open area with an arroyo at the bottom and made the second stand. My homemade ecaller was just finishing the second series of FoxPro-like jackrabbit screams when I saw him running on a beeline towards the set at about 400 yards. The wind was doing some strange things. He stopped at about 150 yards and did an about face back down into the arroyo. Damn! He winded me!

The caller went into some cottontail distress. He then appeared on the opposite bank of the arroyo as he was leaving but couldn't resist stopping and looking back for just long enough for my .243 WSSM with the 70 grain Nosler Ballistic Tip to connect with a wallop.....











I walked about 7 miles and was glad to see the truck. It was 1.8 miles away when I saw it around 2 pm. I couldn't have gotten to it any sooner! I was beat. I'm feeling the effect of all the birthdays.

Congrats on a connection with the little fawn killer...

great story!

r-c,

Waidmannsheil!

Good story and coupla photos. Looks like some nice country to be calling in - wide-e-e open!

WTG !!! . Does that bullet open up much on a coyote ??

Out of the .243 WSSM it's going about 3700. Forget the hides unless you have a frontal or going away shot!

ZOOM !!!!!! WWHHHHAAAAAAPPPP

Do you folks hunt mainly daylight hours out there? I have not had much luck at all here in NY hunting daylight hours. Best times for coyote here seem to be later in the evening, like 11 or midnight. Our best hour resulted in a triple between 3-4 AM.