boonerbuck
02-13-2006, 09:39 PM
Our trip was a smashing success. We had lots of action considering we only had a day and a half to hunt. I guess I'll start with Sunday morning.
We woke up a touch late after a really cold night. Our area was just a km or 2 up the road so it was no big deal. As we drove through an opening on our way to where we intended to call first, I seen plenty of fresh tracks. I parked the truck and we set up there instead. Right away we had coyotes in all direction answering. Nothing did come in so we headed for our original area. It sounded like a good size pack was in there waiting for us. When we got up top to some open grass land, we set up along the edge. Nothing, just a way far off reply. We worked our way around the bottom edge of this huge open meadow but still nothing. It was obvious at this point that we ended up going over top of where they were and probably passed our scent through to boot. We decided that pack could worked the following morning.
Next we tried up at the very top where there was some summer cattle range. We set up at the beginning of the open country and let out a couple of howls. Before the second howl was even finished, we had a pack ahead of us yipping away. I worked the FX3 howls and eventually they stopped answering. I gave it a few minutes and moved to distress calls. After we were there 35 minutes or so, I heard crunch crunch beside me. I slowly turned my head and there is a yote just 20 feet to my left watching the caller. It looks right into my eyes and bobs his head around the bush for a better look and goes back to watching the caller. I have my head extended all the way to the left and I can't move. Every time it checks me out, I hit the button on the remote to get it's attention away from me. After around 10 minutes of this, my neck feels like it's been twisted in a full circle. Eventually, it decides to pass on the caller. As soon as it's walking with his back to me, I turn around to make the shot but it turns and we lock eyes again. A momentary stand off but then it just walks away. I then turn to Gatehouse and wave to get his attention. I point behind the woods to my rear and he picks the dog up. Unfortunately, when he gets the cross hairs on the dog, there is a branch in front of the muzzle. The dog then sees the movement and vacates. Busted!!
For the evening, we have absolutely no action in an area loaded with sign. I guess they either were not interested or just not within calling range. Oh well. We have Gatehouse's steaks marinating back at the camper so we are moving pretty quick to get to the meal.
We get up nice and early to an inch of fresh snow and we have a coyote in camp challenging my dog. Unreal. My dog chases it off. Off we go to work the pack from the morning last. Before we can set up in the spot we picked, a yote crosses at 200ish yards or so ahead. We scramble to get the shooting sticks down but she sees us and walks off. I use the caller without the remote and do some quiet calls. After 10 minutes we decide that we are busted and she's not coming back. Boy I was wrong. Just as I was getting up, the stump ahead of me grew ears. She was watching us from behind a burnt stump. I tell Gates I see her and go to squeeze a round off but my safety isn't all the way forward. BANG!! Gates nails her with a neck shot at 220 paces!
We then decide to continue to call with a few howls and lo and behold, a pack above us and behind us on the other side of the ravine start freaking. We are surrounded. Nothing comes in though, so we get in the truck to drive over to the other side of the ravine to work that angry sounding pack.
We didnt even make it there. As we covered our tracks through yesterdays stand, we can see that they crossed the ravine to come to us but turned and headed back. This is evident with their tracks. We set up right there and begin to work the caller in the blowing snow. Sure enough, both packs start yapping at us again but still a bunch of no shows. After about 30 minutes of trying this call and that call, I go heavy on the Male Challenge. Five minutes later, I see one come out of the ravine ahead of me. He looks pretty big, dominate male I assume. I let out a little lip squeak to Gates to let him know I have one. What I don't know is, while we are back to back, he just had one from the other pack come out at 30 yards. He doesn't get the shot. I'll let him explain what happens though. Back to the critter in front of me. When I lip squeaked to Gates, I got pin pointed and he was locked on me. I hit another challenge but he couldn't be distracted. I put my eye down to the scope and the lense was full of snow. I gave it a little blow to clear it away. BIG MISTAKE! Instant fog! I looked through anyways and I could see him alright so I aimed for centre of blur and pulled the trigger. The dog went into the death spin about 10 times and ended up behind a pine. I watched him for several minutes through the tree and it was clear he was not dead yet. I decided to cut to my right for a better angle and give him a finishing shot. He gets up and bolts! Damn it. Off I go into the ravine. There is lots of blood but he never slows down. Once he started up the icy mountain side out of the ravine, I called off the search. He's liver hit. He's not going to last long.
So we are in a storm now and gatehouse makes the wise decision to start home early. He has to cross over the Duffy Lake Corridor and it gets pretty nasty up there. He has work in the morning. I make him an omelette and we part ways. It was over quickly but we hunted our asses off and had a great time. I decide to stay back to get a couple of more sets in though.
Minutes after he leaves, I drive by some open range that is posted on my right. I see a yote out in the open mousing. I turn around and park half a km back. I then hike up the hill across from the dog and set up my caller and let fly with the Snowshoe Hare Distress. 5 minutes later, he shows up above me working his way to the caller. Ha ha!! Your mine!! I nail him at 80 yards and this guy goes down for good. Never a dull moment in this area I tell you. I do one more set and when I parked, I got my truck stuck. No need to worry. I pulled out the tire chains and got wet and muddy while the whole time I was grinning ear to ear.
Gates and I all ready have talked about returning in a couple of weeks. Don't tell the yotes though!
Last set Sunday night, we watch the full moon rise.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a294/boonerbuck/savageantlers019.jpg
Gatehouse's yote and the set where it all happened.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a294/boonerbuck/savageantlers020.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a294/boonerbuck/savageantlers021.jpg
My second dog of the day but the only one I brought home. Mine is the bottom one. I just dumped Gatehouse's out of a sack so it looks kind of gnarly.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a294/boonerbuck/savageantlers023.jpg
We woke up a touch late after a really cold night. Our area was just a km or 2 up the road so it was no big deal. As we drove through an opening on our way to where we intended to call first, I seen plenty of fresh tracks. I parked the truck and we set up there instead. Right away we had coyotes in all direction answering. Nothing did come in so we headed for our original area. It sounded like a good size pack was in there waiting for us. When we got up top to some open grass land, we set up along the edge. Nothing, just a way far off reply. We worked our way around the bottom edge of this huge open meadow but still nothing. It was obvious at this point that we ended up going over top of where they were and probably passed our scent through to boot. We decided that pack could worked the following morning.
Next we tried up at the very top where there was some summer cattle range. We set up at the beginning of the open country and let out a couple of howls. Before the second howl was even finished, we had a pack ahead of us yipping away. I worked the FX3 howls and eventually they stopped answering. I gave it a few minutes and moved to distress calls. After we were there 35 minutes or so, I heard crunch crunch beside me. I slowly turned my head and there is a yote just 20 feet to my left watching the caller. It looks right into my eyes and bobs his head around the bush for a better look and goes back to watching the caller. I have my head extended all the way to the left and I can't move. Every time it checks me out, I hit the button on the remote to get it's attention away from me. After around 10 minutes of this, my neck feels like it's been twisted in a full circle. Eventually, it decides to pass on the caller. As soon as it's walking with his back to me, I turn around to make the shot but it turns and we lock eyes again. A momentary stand off but then it just walks away. I then turn to Gatehouse and wave to get his attention. I point behind the woods to my rear and he picks the dog up. Unfortunately, when he gets the cross hairs on the dog, there is a branch in front of the muzzle. The dog then sees the movement and vacates. Busted!!
For the evening, we have absolutely no action in an area loaded with sign. I guess they either were not interested or just not within calling range. Oh well. We have Gatehouse's steaks marinating back at the camper so we are moving pretty quick to get to the meal.
We get up nice and early to an inch of fresh snow and we have a coyote in camp challenging my dog. Unreal. My dog chases it off. Off we go to work the pack from the morning last. Before we can set up in the spot we picked, a yote crosses at 200ish yards or so ahead. We scramble to get the shooting sticks down but she sees us and walks off. I use the caller without the remote and do some quiet calls. After 10 minutes we decide that we are busted and she's not coming back. Boy I was wrong. Just as I was getting up, the stump ahead of me grew ears. She was watching us from behind a burnt stump. I tell Gates I see her and go to squeeze a round off but my safety isn't all the way forward. BANG!! Gates nails her with a neck shot at 220 paces!
We then decide to continue to call with a few howls and lo and behold, a pack above us and behind us on the other side of the ravine start freaking. We are surrounded. Nothing comes in though, so we get in the truck to drive over to the other side of the ravine to work that angry sounding pack.
We didnt even make it there. As we covered our tracks through yesterdays stand, we can see that they crossed the ravine to come to us but turned and headed back. This is evident with their tracks. We set up right there and begin to work the caller in the blowing snow. Sure enough, both packs start yapping at us again but still a bunch of no shows. After about 30 minutes of trying this call and that call, I go heavy on the Male Challenge. Five minutes later, I see one come out of the ravine ahead of me. He looks pretty big, dominate male I assume. I let out a little lip squeak to Gates to let him know I have one. What I don't know is, while we are back to back, he just had one from the other pack come out at 30 yards. He doesn't get the shot. I'll let him explain what happens though. Back to the critter in front of me. When I lip squeaked to Gates, I got pin pointed and he was locked on me. I hit another challenge but he couldn't be distracted. I put my eye down to the scope and the lense was full of snow. I gave it a little blow to clear it away. BIG MISTAKE! Instant fog! I looked through anyways and I could see him alright so I aimed for centre of blur and pulled the trigger. The dog went into the death spin about 10 times and ended up behind a pine. I watched him for several minutes through the tree and it was clear he was not dead yet. I decided to cut to my right for a better angle and give him a finishing shot. He gets up and bolts! Damn it. Off I go into the ravine. There is lots of blood but he never slows down. Once he started up the icy mountain side out of the ravine, I called off the search. He's liver hit. He's not going to last long.
So we are in a storm now and gatehouse makes the wise decision to start home early. He has to cross over the Duffy Lake Corridor and it gets pretty nasty up there. He has work in the morning. I make him an omelette and we part ways. It was over quickly but we hunted our asses off and had a great time. I decide to stay back to get a couple of more sets in though.
Minutes after he leaves, I drive by some open range that is posted on my right. I see a yote out in the open mousing. I turn around and park half a km back. I then hike up the hill across from the dog and set up my caller and let fly with the Snowshoe Hare Distress. 5 minutes later, he shows up above me working his way to the caller. Ha ha!! Your mine!! I nail him at 80 yards and this guy goes down for good. Never a dull moment in this area I tell you. I do one more set and when I parked, I got my truck stuck. No need to worry. I pulled out the tire chains and got wet and muddy while the whole time I was grinning ear to ear.
Gates and I all ready have talked about returning in a couple of weeks. Don't tell the yotes though!
Last set Sunday night, we watch the full moon rise.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a294/boonerbuck/savageantlers019.jpg
Gatehouse's yote and the set where it all happened.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a294/boonerbuck/savageantlers020.jpg
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a294/boonerbuck/savageantlers021.jpg
My second dog of the day but the only one I brought home. Mine is the bottom one. I just dumped Gatehouse's out of a sack so it looks kind of gnarly.
http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a294/boonerbuck/savageantlers023.jpg