Well Hung Is A Good Way To End The Season

    March marks the end of my coyote hunting season.  I usually out solo a couple times during the month after a snow storm to clean up any mangey or aggressive dogs during calving season.  While remodeling a kitchen out of town, I decided to make the most of spent fuel and head out early for one last solo venture before switching my AR to an Uglystick in the back of my truck.  My first set felt wrong with the wind and the view, so after about eight minutes I headed back to the truck only to spot a coyote that had winded me (as I expected would happen) heading for the hills.  I didn't take a shot, but I was glad I didn't waste any more of the morning in a spot that wasn't stellar.  My second and final set of the year was right from the start.  I had a beautiful view with a crosswind and it just felt right.  I've said it before, but you can't plan the good ones, when it looks and feels right, it usually is.  After only calling about three minutes on my trustee open reed rabbit call, I saw Wiley trotting in from about 400 yards away.  I kissed him up to 69 yards and let the sweet sound of a .223 early in the morning ring across the prairie.  I was out of fancy v-max ammo, so I was shooting good ole re-loaded FMJ 55grain bullets that I had been told would leave a pencil sized hole in and out of the dog and usually not drop them.  I decided to give it a shot since it was all I had, and in this instance, one shot meant one kill.  I plan to try using this ammo to get a census of my own on results because it is cheaper to get, and I have had plenty of dogs run off hit with high dollar Hornady rounds.  I went and claimed my prize, he was healthy with no rub marks, or mange, and I was proud to end the season with one last trophy.  I hung him over the fence as I climbed over the gate and couldn't resist taking a selfie of us titled "well hung" to give me positive vibes to dream about until next October.  I will continue this blog throughout the spring and summer covering experiences on horse back, fishing the Colorado and Nebraska waters, and whatever other man things I find worthy of putting on paper.  For now, I believe in giving the little doggies a break, let them breed up, and next fall I will go back to doing my duty of predator control for the locals.  In the off season, check me out at predatormastersforums #prairie ghost, and follow Black Wolf Emergency Prep on facebook and twitter to see other man things I'm involved in.  Thanks to all of my supporters and land owners, I'll be in touch with more man things in the very near future!

First Big Competition

          January 11 marked my first real competition hunt as I teamed up with my good buddy to try and win some cash and prizes in the Midwest Calling Competition.  As I wrote about previously, he had some great ground along with some really cool toys that gave us all of the potential in the world to be in the money.  We checked in Friday afternoon with plans of knocking down double digit counts of fur with the possibility of winning a plethora of door prizes, big dog, small dog, and even possibly winning the professional Frontier class. We knew we would have to be on our A game, as this hunt only gave a full day on Saturday and a half day on Sunday for hunting before the 2 p.m. check in.  As the calcutta dinner finished up, and guys purchased their raffle tickets, bought new calls, and heard the rules, we headed home with victory on our minds.
             Saturday morning was perfect.  The air was cold and still, and we set out for our big day.  Two minutes into the first set overlooking some CRP grass, here he come.  We quietly counted to three and let our AR's lay him down at about 50 yards.  We decided to keep calling, and shortly after breaking the silence with our first successful shots, we spun around and dropped another pup on the same set.  2 for 2 and not even seven a.m.! We knew it was gonna be a good day.  By noon we had seen ten yotes and shot at seven.  Two of these dogs drew blood, but we couldn't find them.  These two dogs were the difference of about five hundred bucks.  One dog pulled a sneaky move working her way behind us and I took a tough shot that possibly missed the sweet spot.  As we watched one come in from 800 yards we saw him hold up as suddenly he was attacked by a more dominant dog and we never saw either of them again.  I knew this happens in the wild, but I had never experienced it first hand.  On one double that we called in, we shot one coyote, and the other disappeared before we ever re-set.  We decided this was due to poor communication on our part and that it wouldn't happen again.  Well, it didn't because we didn't see another yote the rest of the day until dark.  We went home with four dogs in the truck thinking if we could snag a few more on Sunday morning, we would still be in the running.
             Sunday brought winds close to 40 mph, and it made for very rough calling.  By 1 pm we decided to check in with what we had and see if it would be enough to place.  After the tallies were taken, we came in tied for 14th out of 57 teams in the professional class, and 21st out of 112 total teams.  This left us one coyote out of winning our money back, and two from making a little cash.  We didn't win any door prizes, but we decided this was God's way of making us pay our dues so we can clean up next year.  What an intense weekend, we will definitely be back next year with a vengeance!  I wanted to post the summary while it was fresh on my mind, but I will post some video I made after a few of our successes and some pictures of the total fur gathered at the hunt here shortly.  Bobcat season continues for another week, so I plan to go out a few more mornings and see if I can't land kitty #1.  Stay tuned for pictures and video.... Happy New Year!