Got busy in the morning fixing my breakfast, cleaning up after. Never thought to turn on the TV and see what the weather guessers were saying. The weather station had 35F so I dressed light for the day.


Out my driveway the ice was slick but is expected when it gets this warm and there is a layer of snow/ice on the drive. Our road I had told Kare Thursday was down to dirt but at 6:15 AM seemed void of traffic.


Met Dean at his office threw his gear in my truck then headed out on the route he had worked out yesterday. He said the first place we were going to hit was one where we have hunted a lot over the years our second place in fact that called for help. The Allhards had called Eric’s and reported the coyotes were once again being seen near the home during the day.


They raise some prime Herford cattle of course they all die of old age on the farm as every hunk of Beef meat consumed by humans is Angus.

Truth have you ever seen a sign at a restaurant, they serve Herford Beef, or the label on a tray of beef in a grocery store that didn’t say Angus?


We arrive get parked and get our camo on heading out to a area where they have parked used equipment to be parted out. It is near the sloth and woods, about 30 acres with the woods included. We go set the decoys out then back off about 10 yards and set the callers out.


We had decided we would wait till a bit later to try the mating sounds. We started with the piglet sound on one caller. After about 5 minutes we ran the coyote party sound for a stint.

The coyotes in the woods got vocal when the party started, doing challenge howls back and a few barks. Could tell they were coming our way. Started the piglet going again on top of the party sound then after a minute just quit all sounds.


Took them 10 minutes to appear all spread out . Use the piglet again very low volume to try to pull them together all six of them.

They are to my right a difficult shot for a right hander, Dean has them right in front of him. I take the swift and roll when I think the coyotes are not looking my ways I am on my side but quickly on my belly.


Deans signs which ones I should try for and I call the shot. I settle the cross hairs on the first coyote signal to Dean and fire quick trying to acquire another target I’ve heard 2 shots from Dean as I acquire another coyote running. I hit the ki yi on the caller sound and my coyote does a quick stop as I squeeze the round off.

They are scattered out in front of us 5 out of the 6 coyotes remain. We gather the callers and decoys and go look at the coyotes, all females all about the same age.

We decided to just drag them up to the lane and drive the truck back to get them as it is still frozen despite the warm temps and little bit of rain that fell during the night.
Fixed the Allards coyote sightings problems we think.


Next is the Bulllock place, again a beef operation no one has been here in 3 months so should be in use once again. The wood lot here is about as big as any in SE Michigan a full 80 acres. They cut saw logs from the place for their own use and use the tops for fire wood in two out side boilers, one for the farm house of the 1930’s and one for the work shop and another building.


We head out and call a full 20 minutes and see nothing more than a couple of hawks circling near by, a few crows and 3 deer coming off the hay fields.
Gather our gear and head for the truck.


Back on the road Dean looks in a note book and said Charlie and Bret had last hunted that farm end of Oct. had seem and gotten two coyotes there.

I never knew any one recorded who had hunted where and how they had did.

Dean said that Erics answer girl does the record keeping and he calls her and gets the information. That way we don’t end up hunting a place some one else had hunted just a few days ago. Guess that is why I rely on my partners to plan our days.
Yes Erics girl does get paid for doing this as well as setting up appointments with agents.


We decided to head north west about a hour away. Since it is aways out of the way, the farms we hunt in that area are not hunted as often. We hit a crop farm where the wife has chickens ducks and turkeys and sells eggs and live animals to local people.

We walk back to an drainage ditch that runs from fields to a sloth marsh area surrounded by brush and trees.


We decided to do the yappy dog sound and the chicken in distress sound together. It was nearly the 30 minute mark before a lone coyote comes down the drain. Deans zone he waited for what I thought was forever before he fired.


Gather the gear and go down and get the male coyote. Drag it back to the truck just as the rain started. Dean told me that he waited so long hoping the coyote would come up out of the drain. If you have seen the ditches in the Saginaw valley you would under stand not wanting to go down then back up.

You could hide a Semi in many of them they are so deep and narrow.


We decide to drive to a Restaurant for a quick snack and hope the rain would let up or change to snow. St Charles Mi Tonys restaurant a steak sandwich is just the thing for a snack with piping hot coffee barely having time to cool before some one is wanting to top you off. Let me tell you about the steak sandwich in case your every in the area. Real steak ground, fried as you like it with Mushroom and melted Swiss cheese on garlic bread.

I got my lap top out of my gear bag and sent a E mail to Kare that I would probably be home soon since it started raining.

She asked didn’t you turn the TV on this morning? About three quarters of Michigan schools are closed some saying due to transportation dept. and some saying icy back roads.

Ya we experienced icy gravel roads but if you stayed on the edge instead of the packed centers, they were passable.

Kare said the forecast for the remainder of the day was rain till you got up north of Houghton Lake.
We decided to pack it in, I was home by 1:30 PM with two coyotes to skin.


Al

Very good story, thanks for sharing your hunt!