# More Christmas jingle



## alleyyooper (Dec 20, 2018)

Monday morning Dean and I met at Eric’s house for some, breakfast, coyote hunting and setting up Erics barn for the holiday party on the 26th. Eric let his wife do the cooking of breakfast and dinner later. 

She fixed some type of scrambled egg thing with cubed ham, green, yellow and red peppers, onions and hominy in a deep backing dish. Well when I think of dee I think of a meat loaf so guess it wasn’t that deep.
She told us with the amount of coffee we were drinking we would be peeing instead of hunting.


We drove to the Argue sheep farm arriving when it seemed dark yet but a quick check thru the scopes told us it was lite enough. We walked a circular route to arrive in the back where a woods meets a normal grass swale which joins up with the pasture.


We set out 3 decoys with tails clipped on about 125 yards out from a tree line we were going to set up in placed two callers out then settled in for the calling to start. We did sounds of a lamb in distress and a yappy dog. About 15 minutes in I could see a coyote sneaking thru the grass then 2 more. They work around where they poped out to my far right. I could see Eric sign to Dean he would take the lead coyote and the rest were up to Dean. 


I hear the shot from Erics 22-250 and the last shot from Deans 22/308. Eric turns to me and holds up 3 fingers, they had gotten the whole bunch. We let the callers run till the 30 minute mark, nothing else showed.


We go gather our decoys and callers then walk to the coyotes. Eric had hit dead center in the chest of his big Female that appeared to be older by the stains on her teeth and well worn foot pads.


Next on the list was the Twinning sheep farm about 5 miles east.This flat land with drainage ditches some over grown with Autumn Olive which it was on one section of the farm near a wood lot that had been logged 3 years before.


We walk back and set up next to a row of round bales of hay and walk out about 100 yards to set out the decoys and callers.

Again we do the lamb and yappy dog sound. We were nearly ready to gather our gear when a coyote pops up out of the ditch. I wait since it was in my zone for it to get away from the ditch in hopes of more being with it. Soon it is getting near enough to the decoys to be worried so I allowed the 220 to bark. The coyote spun and fell laying there kicking. I was about to shoot again when it went still.


It was still frosty so the drag of the Male coyote wasn’t’t bad on the frosty grass . But it would not remain that way as we could feel it warming up back at the truck and stripping out of our camo.


Next on the list was a dairy farm about 3 miles to the south. This farm we have been hunting for 17 years one of our first and where Mike use to do most of his hunting. They still maintain fences as they allow the cattle to graze as well as feed from wagons with feed bunks.


We walk back to a hay field near their wood lot a big 80 acre chunk. Set up in a fence line between a couple round bales. Set a single decoy out and the pair of callers about 125 yards away. Decide to go with the piglet in distress sound. A full 30 minutes and nothing shows so we pack it in. We get back to the truck as mister Gairns comes from the milking barn. Asked how things were going with us and wished us Happy Holidays. Told us he hasn’t seen or heard a coyote since about 6 months ago when Mike and Mikie had came.

We decided to go back to Erics skin the coyotes and do the barn rearranging that needed to be done. My coyote revealed I had hit it just to the left of center and it had traveled down along the ribs a bit then went inside and blew. But it was nice fur and not a huge hole to sew up.



The barn we just used a leaf blower to blow the hay chaff out and hang a few strings of Christmas lites and check them. Set up saw horses and laid OSB on them then screwed them down so they couldn’t tip off the horses.

All ready for the 23d evening. 


We were called to dinner, a stew with all sorts of veggies & chunks of beef. There was also home made baking powder biskets and a jar of my honey. We discussed where we would go that afternoon. it had warmed up a lot and the sun was shining too.


After dinner with us moaning oh my belly having stuffed our selves we drive 25 miles to a crop farm. This farm has been in the family 147 years starting as a dairy farm. They have acquired close to 1000 acres connecting except for roads. They also lease and farm another 10,000 acres in the surrounding area give or take a few thousand.


The lady of the house keeps a flock of free ranging chickens and one night they heard a ruckus coming from the hen house. Looking out reviewed several coyotes attempting to break in. John got the call a few days later. We took 8 coyotes off the place in 2 weeks time.


We always find it difficult to set up here since they maintain no fences and only have some drainage ditches and no wood lot. We worked back across some corn stubble to a drain crossing where we could set up. Decoys are hard to use here also but by setting them out in the field down one drain and across from the one we set up in it was done.


Took 20 minutes before a couple coyotes showed up again I was not in position to do any shooting Eric and Dean each collected more jingle.
We did 5 more farms after that but drew blanks. We laid it on the bright sun shine and warmth. The coyotes have really thick fur for this time of year but the temps have been below normal for over 60 days.

Back at Erics I sew up my hide and use Eric stretcher to stretch it. He will take it to Tom in a few days with his and Deans also.
We did 5 more farms after that but drew blanks. We laid it on the bright sun shine and warmth. The coyotes have really thick fur for this time of year but the temps have been below normal for over 60 days.

Back at Erics I sew up my hide and use Eric stretcher to stretch it. He will take it to Tom in a few days with his and Deans also.

We did 5 more farms after that but drew blanks. We laid it on the bright sun shine and warmth. The coyotes have really thick fur for this time of year but the temps have been below normal for over 60 days.

Back at Erics I sew up my hide and use Eric stretcher to stretch it. He will take it to Tom in a few days with his and Deans also.

 Al


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