Met Charlie at a restaurant with nice big truck parking lot 6:30 AM. I throw my gear in his truck with the 243 this time also. Ask if he had breakfast, he answered in the negative. We go in and order breakfast, discuss a hunt strategy for the day.

It is nice to not have the bone chilling cold to deal with, my truck had showed 20F, the big screen TV in the restaurant showed a 11F wind chill.


Charlie said Eric had asked him if we would hit a dairy farm as they had called and reported seeing a pair of coyotes slinking around the barn.

I had never hunted there before, so I had to rely on Charlie who had.
We arrive at the Linquist farm at 10 to 7:00, it is just barely light but the scope will work fine plus by the time we hike back and get the decoys out along with the callers it will be even lighter.


Charlie leads me down a lane between fields as this farm they don’t use loafing pens so much in the 3 warmer seasons. So have travel lanes between crop fields back to a big wood lot.They have cut some logs for lumber stacked where we set up on some high ground. Set the callers out along with the decoys about 125 yards up just out side the woods.


Was about to think we had got a dry hole when a coyote pokes it’s nose from some taller grass to eye the decoys. It is in my zone and finally sticks more of the body out where I can get a shot. I miss how’d I miss a 125 yard shot I heard a rifle crack and a coyote drops, Charlie had got it.


I shrug and hold my rifle out and shrug again. Charle points to a stub of a tree branch sticking out about 100 yards away and triggers it. I set the rifle back in the cradle of the shooting sticks and fire. The stub splinters with the hit of the hollow point boat tail. Had to have been me.

We gather our gear then go check Charlies coyote, a male with a few years on it by the looks of the teeth. Wrap it in the plastic and head back to the truck.


It has warmed to 25F by Charlies truck and the snow is really mushy, the road looks real wet slick as we turn out of the drive way. But the center is gravel so keep the left in the center of the road out to the paved road.


We are going east then make a swing down the along the west coast of Lake Huron. Well about 5 miles or so in from the coast. Along the way Charlie asked if I had pulled the shot. Told him I didn’t know what happened. I had checked the tightness of the scope before putting it in the case.


We make it to another dairy farm owned by a 3d generation Lambart. They have a wet land area and it is choked with Pampas grass. Lots of critters love this thick choke out just about every thing that try’s to grow there.


This time I pull out the Remington 700BDL 243. I have owned this rifle since July 1973 bought it used. Dealer was our favorite gun shop in Cadillac Michigan who gave me two boxes of shells for it and told me to try it out. If I liked it to stop in and pay him and if I didn’t just return it Monday morning.
Needless to say I liked it. I did how ever have a problem finding a load I liked to shoot in it. Took me about two years before I finally found one.


I have hunted this farm before so knew the lay out and had even walked around the wet land to see how big it was and good spots to set up.
We set the callers out and the decoys only about 75 yards out here. Wind in our face felt damp but warmer. Do the piglet in distress to start out then kicked in with a Yappy little dog on the other call.
This time two coyotes responded and both fell to the shots. After thre gear was packed we go to look at the two female coyotes and wrap them for the drag out.


We drive south another 5 miles to reach a sheep farm, Had been a dairy farm just two years before but they switched when milk prices kept dropping. Nothing showed to the calls there.

As we are driving south to another dairy farm Charlie asked if I was going to the brunch Sunday. I said yes and he asked if I would hunt with him another two weeks and if so we just wouldn’t put our name in the hat or draw from the hat just be a team. Told him that would be fine with me.

The next dairy farm was a dry hole again. When we left there we decided to stop at a small family diner in a small village, has a post office restaurant and gas station and a big Case IH dealer.
Is Just after 12 when we left the diner and hit the road to a crop farm. They also have a wet land filled with Pampas grass. They had gotten in trouble in the 1970’s when they were attempting to dry the place out with drainage ditches. There are still a couple bit dirt piles where they had not finished filling in the ditches.


We set up on one of the dirt mounds where Charlie and Bret had made a make shift blind with Pampas grass stalks a couple of years before.

We called in 6 coyotes here but only managed to get 3. When we checked it looked like we had gotten last springs pups .


We worked some more places till we got to a road they would take me back to my truck near dark.
We got 4 more coyotes between the two of us. We figure a good haul for the day enjoyed the company of each other.


I now have a rifle I need to shoot a bit to get comfortable with again and try to figure out why I missed an easy shot?

Al