Tax day Coyotes
04-16-2017, 03:32 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: MICHIGAN
Posts: 2,568
Tax day Coyotes
I woke up to rain at 3:00 am but it quit by the time I rolled out of the sack at 4:00 am. I go to the kitchen and put a kettle on for tea and set down to wait for it to go to a boil. Once it is boiling I go pour it over my tea and set about fixing some breakfast, decide today I will make a 3 egg omelet with cheese, some torn apart slice of ham from a Easter ham Kare had bought a couple days back, we have been fixing sandwiches and other meals with and some red pepper I had chopped up Tuesday for lunch omelets for Kare and I that were left over. Decide I didn’t want any toast no need for carbs since the struggle I have been having with my sugar has been working.
Should have fired up the lap top and checked the weather at the local airport but I didn’t do that. Finished up my breakfast and did the clean up to avoid the wrath of Kare, while the kettle was on the stove again. Finished up the cleanup and filled my thermos with tea laced with some honey for instant energy later. Got dressed for what the local airport weather had last night as the low of 50F and a high for the day of 70F.
Quarter after 5:00 am I have the truck all loaded with my gear, Want new information on the drivers information system like the compass for one and the outside tempture, so a quick look in the book tells me how to get that and it worked the first time. YEA!. Off to Deans house, will let him tell me where we are going since I was not in the drawing for a partner I didn’t do any calling around to any of the farmers. Arrive at Deans at 6:25 am, get his gear loaded and was told where we are going to start the day.
7:03 am we pulled in to the Humphreys farm just as the sky’s open up. Do a radio search and find a talk weather station and find out we will have rain for about 40 minutes minim, of course they are usually wrong. Dean suggests we make a run to the nearby truck stop and grab a donut and some coffee. Walk in the place which is really empty for a Saturday, one of our regular waitresses waves us to a table with a pair of cups and a pot of coffee by a window. She tells us the baked goods are fresh, delivered from the bakery just a half hour ago, I have a blue berry muffin and Dean as well.
At 7:48 the puddle out the window was not showing any rain hitting it any longer so we paid our tab making a quick run to the men’s room then back to the farm. Parked and got dressed grabbed our equipment and sloshed back down a lane to hay field gate then along the fence to a stone pile. Went and put out Dean’s new Turkey decoy out and the caller, kind of torn on the turkey decoy but Dean assured me that the breeze would make it move.
Just 5 minutes in to the calling sequence of 16 minutes of coyote pack with prey/meal and a coyote comes out of a wood lot off to Deans left, stops and took its last breath after Dean fired. Waited for 30 minutes longer and saw nothing more. We walk to the coyote and the fur is horrible all blotchy, I drag it off back into the woods while Dean gathers his decoy and the caller. Get back to the truck; head off to another beef farm some 15 miles away. Started sprinkling again but the talking head on the radio said it was just a brief wetting, stopped by the time we got parked.
Head down a lane then take a turn across a hay field to an odd mound that overlooks a swale to the east and a small wood lot to the south west. Tell Dean I am doubtful about the turkey decoy and set out the weasel ball and caller. Start off this time with the piglet in distress call, I figured 8 minutes till a coyote pops up in the swale near the edge. My zone so I take a quick look to see if any others are in the area and see nothing so fire, coyote yelps and turns to run only to go about 5 feet. Next thing I see a pair in Dean’s zone so watch him to see what his plan might be, signals I should try to slowly turn and take the tail end Charlie while he takes the lead. I fire as I see his finger recoil sign, my coyote goes about 10 feet and is done. I look to see Dean’s coyote is dead right where it stood. All three of these coyotes have awful fur too.
Back at the truck I ask Dean if he wants to keep hunting since the fur is no longer any good. He said he didn’t want to stop as he was not fully into it for the fur money, as much for the sport. Then it starts raining again. We decided we would drive to a place about 45 miles away and start working back toward home. It stopped once again on the way there but the wind was picking up too. Glad I had put the 243 in the truck just in case. All rain stopped just before noon and it started warming up. At 1:30 we went to a small lake side café for a sandwich then hit 3 farms in a row with nothing showing. At 3:00 PM the trucks temp read out said 83F, finally we are back into coyotes. Eight total coyotes for the day when we gave up due to strong winds. Easter Sunday Dean had to spend with the family figure same for everyone else.
Al
Should have fired up the lap top and checked the weather at the local airport but I didn’t do that. Finished up my breakfast and did the clean up to avoid the wrath of Kare, while the kettle was on the stove again. Finished up the cleanup and filled my thermos with tea laced with some honey for instant energy later. Got dressed for what the local airport weather had last night as the low of 50F and a high for the day of 70F.
Quarter after 5:00 am I have the truck all loaded with my gear, Want new information on the drivers information system like the compass for one and the outside tempture, so a quick look in the book tells me how to get that and it worked the first time. YEA!. Off to Deans house, will let him tell me where we are going since I was not in the drawing for a partner I didn’t do any calling around to any of the farmers. Arrive at Deans at 6:25 am, get his gear loaded and was told where we are going to start the day.
7:03 am we pulled in to the Humphreys farm just as the sky’s open up. Do a radio search and find a talk weather station and find out we will have rain for about 40 minutes minim, of course they are usually wrong. Dean suggests we make a run to the nearby truck stop and grab a donut and some coffee. Walk in the place which is really empty for a Saturday, one of our regular waitresses waves us to a table with a pair of cups and a pot of coffee by a window. She tells us the baked goods are fresh, delivered from the bakery just a half hour ago, I have a blue berry muffin and Dean as well.
At 7:48 the puddle out the window was not showing any rain hitting it any longer so we paid our tab making a quick run to the men’s room then back to the farm. Parked and got dressed grabbed our equipment and sloshed back down a lane to hay field gate then along the fence to a stone pile. Went and put out Dean’s new Turkey decoy out and the caller, kind of torn on the turkey decoy but Dean assured me that the breeze would make it move.
Just 5 minutes in to the calling sequence of 16 minutes of coyote pack with prey/meal and a coyote comes out of a wood lot off to Deans left, stops and took its last breath after Dean fired. Waited for 30 minutes longer and saw nothing more. We walk to the coyote and the fur is horrible all blotchy, I drag it off back into the woods while Dean gathers his decoy and the caller. Get back to the truck; head off to another beef farm some 15 miles away. Started sprinkling again but the talking head on the radio said it was just a brief wetting, stopped by the time we got parked.
Head down a lane then take a turn across a hay field to an odd mound that overlooks a swale to the east and a small wood lot to the south west. Tell Dean I am doubtful about the turkey decoy and set out the weasel ball and caller. Start off this time with the piglet in distress call, I figured 8 minutes till a coyote pops up in the swale near the edge. My zone so I take a quick look to see if any others are in the area and see nothing so fire, coyote yelps and turns to run only to go about 5 feet. Next thing I see a pair in Dean’s zone so watch him to see what his plan might be, signals I should try to slowly turn and take the tail end Charlie while he takes the lead. I fire as I see his finger recoil sign, my coyote goes about 10 feet and is done. I look to see Dean’s coyote is dead right where it stood. All three of these coyotes have awful fur too.
Back at the truck I ask Dean if he wants to keep hunting since the fur is no longer any good. He said he didn’t want to stop as he was not fully into it for the fur money, as much for the sport. Then it starts raining again. We decided we would drive to a place about 45 miles away and start working back toward home. It stopped once again on the way there but the wind was picking up too. Glad I had put the 243 in the truck just in case. All rain stopped just before noon and it started warming up. At 1:30 we went to a small lake side café for a sandwich then hit 3 farms in a row with nothing showing. At 3:00 PM the trucks temp read out said 83F, finally we are back into coyotes. Eight total coyotes for the day when we gave up due to strong winds. Easter Sunday Dean had to spend with the family figure same for everyone else.
Al
04-17-2017, 08:50 AM
#2
Typical Buck
Join Date: Sep 2008
Location: Orange County, Virginia....
Posts: 556
Thanks for sharing! Just starting out Coyote hunting myself and have been reading a lot of your entries. Great info. One question I have is when will the females be having their pups? I have not been using a pup in distress call yet as I have been saving it on this one particular place until they start having their pups. Just curious when that will be.
04-18-2017, 03:26 AM
#3
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: MICHIGAN
Posts: 2,568
Here in Michigan the coyotes mate mid February thru March, a few may be later.
With a lactation period of 60 to 70 days you should start seeing pups late April to the end of May at den sites. We do not normally start seeing pups hunting with mom or dad till late June into July.
Pups start dispersing from their natal territories as early as 6-9 months of age, or they may remain as subordinate associates.
We have had a closed season on coyotes at the end of March till Oct for years so never kept track of pups all that much till last summer when our season is went to 12 months of the year.
Last summer I didn't do much coyote hunting due to knee replacement surgery and my friends placing me in easy access spots.
I don't worry much about shooting a lactating female because dad & older siblings make good baby sitter and keeps them fed with game they eat and regurgitates for them.
Al
With a lactation period of 60 to 70 days you should start seeing pups late April to the end of May at den sites. We do not normally start seeing pups hunting with mom or dad till late June into July.
Pups start dispersing from their natal territories as early as 6-9 months of age, or they may remain as subordinate associates.
We have had a closed season on coyotes at the end of March till Oct for years so never kept track of pups all that much till last summer when our season is went to 12 months of the year.
Last summer I didn't do much coyote hunting due to knee replacement surgery and my friends placing me in easy access spots.
I don't worry much about shooting a lactating female because dad & older siblings make good baby sitter and keeps them fed with game they eat and regurgitates for them.
Al
Last edited by alleyyooper; 04-18-2017 at 03:31 AM.
