Predator Hunting

      Travis and I set up on a small slope with a wash in front of us about 40 yards away from our stand, wind blowing cross-wind from right to left and a hill on the other side of the wash about 100 yards away.

I once again started the call soft for about 2 minutes, and then raised the volume to medium. Travis signed to me he saw a coyote coming straight to the call from over the hill. This coyote looked completely white in color almost silver in the sun. I put my scope on the coyote and waited for Travis to pull the trigger. The coyote kept coming in straight; he was now about 10 yards from the wash. I waited, Travis saw it first which means the coyote is his.

The coyote came in the 10 yards and hit the wash, we both waited for him to reemerge on our side of the wash and it would have been a take from the OK Corral, but he didn’t. I hit the squeaker and waited – nothing! The coyote never came out of the wash.

       After about 5 minutes of calling I had to see where this coyote went. I walk down to the wash and realized at that point the wash was about 8 feet deep; it didn’t look deep at all from where we were sitting.

Lesson one: know the area you are hunting. If I would have known the wash was that deep I would have taken the shot when the coyote came off the hill.

       Lesson two: The coyote never came out of the wash because once he hit the wash he caught our scent. He just turned and ran up the wash. He never appeared on the other side. Wind, Wind, Wind! I always preach about the wind and know not to let the coyote get downwind but once again, circumstances dictate sometimes even though we know better. I could not take the shot because I wanted my partner to get his first coyote with a call. He saw it first, it is his. Something I try to live by in order to keep it fair and to keep the partners I do hunt with hunting with me. Early in my predator calling career, if I saw it I shot it, didn’t matter who saw what first. I have learned there is more excitement in predator hunting then just shooting the animal. Being there when someone shoots their first one and being a part of that is a lot more enjoyable then shooting it myself.

      Coyotes one, Hunter zero.