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!

Even zombies can't shake a headshot!

Gruesome, isn't it.  Out here in Northeastern CO, we have beautiful hunting and wildlife, but the epidemic known as "mange" is hurting our coyote population.  My research shows that "mange" is a parasite that gets under the hair follicle of canines,eats and breeds, eventually killing the fur hair by hair.  As winter strikes and cold sets in this makes it hard for coyotes to stay warm, and as it gets worse so do they.  In a short matter of time they don't think straight, they are prone to other sicknesses, and they die a slow, ugly death.  Mange doesn't affect humans, and if your domestic dog shows signs a shot from the vet will fix them right up.  I did this dog a favor, but I wish I would have had the tools and thaw ground to bury him so that other dogs don't come rub on him and eat him resulting in the spread of this nasty bug.  I have heard all kinds of rumors regarding where mange has come from, or why it's growing, but I don't believe anyone actually knows.  This poor critter was coming to my mouth call at 94 yards, and had no idea that I was even in the area, leading to a very sound head shot.  I'm glad to put him down, but the idea that this parasite is killing more and more coyotes is very concerning.  I will continue to research and consult the DOW on what we can do to help continue controlling coyote populations, while keeping them healthy.  This just goes to show once again that hunters truly do see what goes on in the wild, and care a lot more than the tree huggers who rally together to stop the "bad guys" think we do.  I'll be your bad guy, I hope P.E.T.A. puts on a rally to stop mange.

Bobcat fever!

Last Sunday night we finally got some decent snow, so my household new what was coming first thing Monday morning!  I decided to dedicate the morning to chasing bobcats since the season ends Jan. 31st here.  My first set was on the edge of a river bottom along some brush and trees.  The viewing area was very small for what I'm used too when calling dogs, but it looked like cat country.  I called with a injured woodpecker for 15 minutes, then switched to a bobcat in heat.  After 35 minutes, the cold was setting in, and I decided no kitties were coming, so I switched to a jack in distress and cranked the volume hoping to bring a dog in.  Just before 38 minutes I glanced over my shoulder (as dogs have snuck up on me in the past) and there was a small, dark cat 27 yards away with only me keeping him from coming any closer.  We sat like we were both frozen to the landscape for about 5 minutes until I decided to try and roll out and get a shot before he knew what was happening.  Unlike coyotes, this cat had an escape strategy and vanished instantly.  I never took a shot, but I followed his tracks to see where he came from.  He followed my tracks down the trail to my set!  When I got back to the truck, I could see that he passed ten feet in front of my pickup, and picked up a buddy coming in.  I never saw the second cat, but I didn't disturb them too much, so I will be back this week to see if I can build some good fur money to buy a new foxpro!  The excitement combined with a great climate day led me to hunt unproductively the rest of the day stopping only for lunch.  Kinda bummed I didn't get a cat for Christmas, but it was worth the time and effort!

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.

Luxurious Coyote Calling

                 With a new baby girl in my family, and coyote season in full swing, it has become extremely difficult to post once a week as I originally planned.  Anyways, let's get down to business.  I went on a weekend hunt with my buddy Jessie and changed some things.  First of all, he lent me a Harris 24" bi-pod to replace my mono-pod.  This is conducive to calling with an e-call because it frees your hands up to be in a ready position with the rifle.  The 24" part is important because at 6'1'' I need a tall setup in order to sit on my butt and get the rifle up to eye level.  These bi-pods allow each  leg to be independently set to specific heights and swivel in place to follow the target.  Then we took self-cling camo tape and the gun wrap (burlap) that came with our gillie suits and decked out our rifles.  This takes away all of the glare that the sun creates off of the rifle and the glass on the scope.  This cling wrap is amazing!  It doesn't leave a residue on your toys, it is reusable, and it works great!  It costs about 20 bucks per roll through Black Wolf Emergency Prep.  The next piece of gear we added was a stadium seat.  These are designed to clip onto bleachers for sporting events or concerts, but are great for coyote hunting because they allow you to sit flat on the ground and still have the luxury of a backrest, arm holders, and even a cup holder (extra mags?).  These seats fold up, are light weight, and sling right over your shoulder going in and out of sets.  Last but not least, I was spoiled with Jessie's 4-wheeler set up.  This allowed us to park the truck on the county road, drop the trailer gate, and cruise into the deep pastures. We used a camo cover to throw over the machine, walked over the next hill and called in dogs. Jessie's home made hitch basket on the front made taking fur back to the truck a breeze! This allowed us to do several more sets without getting tired walking in and out.  We saw six 'yotes in two days, but only got two in the truck, which leaves plenty of room for improvement.  Jessie called yesterday and registered us in the Midwest calling competition in the sniper class, I suppose we better up our game now!

A tough day hunting is better than a great day working...

After harvesting my first dog of the year, the fever has set in and the forecast called for three or more inches of snow.  I make it an effort to make sure I hunt the first snow day of the year every fall because animals are generally a lot more active directly before and after a snow storm.  The chilly morning offered no wind, along with a solid cloud cover which lead me to believe it was going to be an epic morning for calling in hungry dogs and I was very confident in encouraging Johnny D that these factors would almost guarantee success.  After four solid sets and calling in every animal on God's white covered Earth except a legal predator, I was glad I hadn't bet the farm on what I thought was a sure thing.  We decided that it was time to scout a few areas that we have been wanting to hunt and haven't had the chance.  As we warmed up in the truck, I was reminded that homework is a very important part of becoming better at this sport.  I am always interested in a new hunting ground, but I always hesitate to bother a home owner early in the morning to push for last minute permission to play in their backyard.  I prefer to call days before I plan to hunt with a "no big deal" low pressure approach, and generally have better luck getting a hold of them along with the answer I hope to hear.  As the morning moves into the day and life goes on, it's tough to remember to make those calls until the next time you drive by at 7 a.m.  This is also another huge time factor when you are trying to utilize every precious moment of your calling time.  My goal for this week is to try and make some of these phone requests to expand my repertoire of hunting grounds. After work, I tried two sets as the sun went down and had the same results... No fur.  Although I couldn't believe it, I did get to spend the morning with a great partner, we called deer within ten yards (which is the closest I've ever been to a muley in the wild, and it was a rush), we spotted some new possible honey holes, and I got to watch a full moon rise over a Colorado prairie in the middle of nowhere, which reminded me of two things.  First, coyotes love to hunt at night and if there is a full moon after a warming day of snow melt, then hunting dinner treats becomes easy enough that there is no need for a daylight meal.  Secondly, I had a great productive day that ended with both a rifle in my hand and a call in my mouth; A tough day calling beats a great day at work any day.