#40Fan

I actually saw 19 coyotes from Friday night until around 3:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon when I had to call it quits and work on a friend's truck. I called all but 5 of them in. One set was way cool!!

I hunted by myself the whole time except Friday night when I had my brother-in-law running the spot light. Only managed one that night.

I stuck mainly with coyote vocals the whole time.

First was a single Friday night with a female invite! A female is what actually showed up though. Spotted two more later but both ran before we had time to setup and call.

Saturday morning right off the bat I called in a double. I am pretty sure I was using the Pure Predator call. First one I hit I just barely caught in the gut. Second one ran until I started playing the wounded coyote call.

Next set was crazy! Started with a challenge howl. Maybe a minute later I see two coyotes to the south of me coming in (I am facing east). I am watching them when I notice some movement from directly in front of me. Two more hauling the mail! Both sets were around 500-600 yards away when they noticed eachother and then the fight was on, or it seemed that way to me. The second group made a straight shot towards the first group and they (first group) turned and burned across the highway (south of me) with the second in hot pursuit! All of this in what had to have been less than 5 minutes. Now I have only made one call and figured after this fiasco that I should just get up and go, but being a smoker, lit one up and waited. Made another challenge howl close to 10 minutes and within another 2 or so minutes had another pair of coyotes coming in from my northeast! I did manage to get them in close enough to pop one. I'll be back in that spot next weekend!

I called three more in that day but only bagged two.

Sunday morning first set produced. Started off with some distress and saw nothing. Blew my version of the female invite and gave it the smoke test (had another cig). I was ready to get up and in fact did when I saw a coyote sneaking in. Dropped down into my hole and waited for it to show up over the hill. When it stopped on top of the hill, I gave him a little kissy kissy, but he was interested. Started to walk away when I barked and put him down. Rest of the day was a waste.

All of the other yotes that I saw was while driving along the highway.

Some day, Howler, we will get the chance to hunt together. But, my "Is it me? Or.." post when this is done, might discourage you!

Howler

Well, at least you're still able to find good numbers, even after most airieal gunning has been done. Maybe next year we'll get our schedules lined out and get some callin' done together.
I got out this a.m. before the cold front came blasting through and the winds convinced me to throw in the towel. Only got a couple of stands in, but managed to call 3 in on one stand. Only used howls, and they didn't come in real good, but i managed to kill this big OLD male. I should've had my lone howl decoy out, and they might've commited better. I'll post a pic. with my rifle, and then I'll also post a pic. of his mouthso you can see just how old he was. Probably the 2nd oldest coyote that I've ever shot. He was visually much larger than the other 2 that came in.

Howler

Here's a pic. of an old coyote mouth. He's missing front teeth and the two right side canines are not much more than nubs. Really only has one good canine left.

#40Fan

Let's call it a season.

Jrbhunter

Well it's 1:30am here... March 1st... so its over for me. This has been a long, hard and very succesful season for me- up until recently!

Last Friday, the 20th, I drove 5 hours North to begin a loop that would bring me home on Wednesday the 25th. Unfortunately I'd no sooner get my gear ready and I'd find out about my dog with a broken leg (Posted about that earlier). So I cut that hunt short and came home, after dropping two coyotes on seperate stands and never locating them in the darkness (Very uncommon?). I was home Saturday, went out that night and called one - killed it. Sunday morning I woke up aching and sore and spent the ENTIRE DAY in bed. Monday I drove 5 hours to re-start the original hunting loop I had planned. By the time I finished the drive I was shaking violently, sweating and feeling like crap. We hunted anyway! 6 hours later I was laying facedown in an icy ditch... my partner and I had seperated to search for a true double taken just moments before! Once I was coherant enought to find the button, I radiod him and said "LEAVE EM' - LETS GO HOME!". He found them the next day.

I laid down at his house around 1am on Monday morning and found enough energy to drive home by 9am. Once I arrived home on Monday my conditioned worsened severely. By Tuesday night I was bed stricken- Wednesday I'd already lost7 pounds and airways were swelling shut - Thursday consisted of 3 hot baths and 17 hours of sleep. Friday I was taken to the hospital where I was diagnosed with a handful of viruses and infections. The worst of which was Strepp Throat, which explained why I had lost my voice for the last 3 days.

So, instead of pushing hard thru my Northern Loop and finishing up the week in Oklahoma and Louisianna- I've been sitting next to this stash!





Probably going to be another 3/5 days before I have a voice and any kind of energy level. This has been REALLY hard on me... season ends on March 15th and I still have goals to meet!

bhw

Team # 3- I'm still pluggin along, guys!

last nite, 1:15 AM
25 yd shot

Howler

Another nice one bhw, BUT unfortunately, I can't count it since we called midnight of the 28th as the cut off date for the contest. SO, it shouldn't be of surprise to anyone that Jrb, carried his team right to the top. Jason has had one heck of a year hunting and killing predators, and it's obvious that he works at it. My hats off to him for puttin' the rest of us in our place!! #40fan once again made a good showing, much like last year, but came up short with no help from his team mates. His long range skills, made possible with a serious long rifle, has helped him make a strong showing, but it just wasn't enough to carry the full load of his team. And with plenty of help,I was unable to carrymy teamwell enough to maintain the lead. I'd guess, that purepredator may be a force towatch this coming season, as now he livesin a target richenvironment and will probably have the pieces to the puzzle figured out well enough but this coming fall to be a serious contender.
The theres Rammer, bhw, and crew. Just couldn't put enough fur down to make a run at the end, although they, along with several other board members did put some decent fur numbers on the ground.
What it all comesdown to is mostly time, targets, and dedication to really stack up fur. We're not all in the same boatin any of the threecatagorys. Some of us have plenty of time, but lack dedication. Some of us have time and dedication, but lacktargets. You gotta put all three together if you really want to be a recognized successful predator hunter. BUT by drawing random teams, we just about made the field level. It's the luck of the draw, BUT it made it fun for most of us, I hope.
Now, if you all remember I had mentioned something about some little "prizes" that we had for the top producer and also for all the winning team members. SO..........Johnny, what do we have for the top points man jrbhunter..............We have a very slightly used Phantom PRO-SERIES WR-320 wireless caller system, donated by one of the contest participants who goes by huntnfishak, Thanks Bill, (by the way, Bills' wife Pmed me and to let me know that Bill's job took him away from being able to participate in the contest). Now, IF Jrbhunter doesn't want this for what ever reason, I will also offer up the latest Verminator dvd along with all three Verminatordistress calls as a replacement, AND I will thendo a random drawfrom all who were in the contest, for a recipient of the Phantom caller. AND for the rest of Team #2 participants, I am offering thier choice of one of any of the three Verminator distress calls. I will PM each member for shipping addresses and to find out which call they prefer.
SO here's a picture of the Phantom call. NEXT POST!

Howler

IF Jrb so chooses to pass on this, then I will random draw a winner from those who were entered in the contest.

Howler

This is the other choice that Jrb has, if he passes on the Phantom Pro caller. And the rest of team Jrb, I mean team #2 gets thier choice of one of the three distress calls shown in this pic.

bhw

Sorry Howler!! I'm just happy to have scored

This contest was great fun. Thanks for doing it It was sure fun to see the critters from across the country

Andrew Lewand
"bhw"