Redneck Coyote Hunt; Bullet Proof Zombie Dogs...

The second annual Redneck Coyote Hunt was a huge success!  Johnny D. and myself organized this hunt last year, and this year it doubled in size and funds raised for Giving Hands of Yuma County and the local FFA.  We would like to thank Joe's Liquor, Predator Xtreme magazine, and the local businesses of Wray, CO for donating prizes so that all of the money raised could go to the causes.
   Now, down to business.  Our team, Prairie Death Squad, took third in the competition with 6 points (coyotes are worth 1 point, and all other legal fur bearing critters are worth 1/4 point).  We had 5 coyotes, 3 rabbits, and a porcupine (We picked the porky up already dead on the side of the road, but there will be more about legal critters in my next blog).  We missed second place by 1/4 of a point.  The first place team had 10 points and 7 of them were coyotes.  During the course of the three day hunt we saw eleven coyotes, shot at eight, and got 5 in the truck.  Once again, too many dogs are getting away.  Coyotes are tough! One of the dogs that ended in the truck almost got away after Johnny D. smoked him with 12 ga. 00 buckshot at 15 yards!  He did a triple front flip, got up and took off.  I shot him at 82 yards with my rifle to make sure he stayed there.  We are sure that we hit 4 'yotes that were within 100 yards, and we never saw them again.  I was shooting my .223 with some custom ballistic rounds that were just too hot.  I am convinced that I was burning holes right through them, and they ran off to die in the pasture, which is no help when your collecting fur.  I am planning to switch back to a hollow point round in order to create an exit hole no critter will shake off.  This year proved to us that mapping out your sets along with being efficient and organized definitely leads to more sets, resulting in more dogs. The biggest change we made with our equipment was adding a borrowed Fox Pro Fury e-caller.  It is hard to justify a $400 call when a mouth call is about $25.  I have called a lot of dogs with my open reed call, but the variety of 100 different sounds, along with the advantage of setting the point of attention 20 yards away from you was huge!  Honey, if you're reading this, you now know what I want for Christmas! We dealt with some warm weather but were still able to call dogs in the middle of the day.  This reinforced my theory that having the sun at your back is one of the most important factors in being successful, no matter what the wind is doing.  I also carried a shotgun for the first half of the hunt, but I felt that it hurt me because a lot of dogs held up at 65 yards, and caught me in transition back to my rifle as they decided they didn't like the situation.  This lead to shooting at a few dogs on their way out.  However you look at it, the bottom line in competition hunting is getting dogs to load up in the truck, and there are a lot of things that have to go right from your set up all the way down to locating your kill under a yucca several yards from where you thought they died.  I think I love this sport so much partially because every hunt is different from successes, to failures, equipment, confidence, stories, and lessons along the way.