# A little coyote hunting Saturday.



## alleyyooper (Mar 8, 2020)

Arrived at Mikes at 9:00 AM, Carol opens the door with a huge smile for me and says Mike is in the kitchen. I go in and see him pouring coffee into thermos bottles. He turns with a big smile and said they had been in the back where Carol had shot up a box of ammo in her rifle.


Mike had driven down and picked up her finished Mag Na Ported rifle Friday got home and resembled it before work. After running a cleaning worm down the bore.

Carol had got there right at first light, they fixed a breakfast then went out back and shot the rifle to make sure the scope was still on and see how she liked the recoil. She said after the first shot, am I shooting blanks?

Really dropped the recoil down.


We decided to take Mikes truck for the day, again Carol would not set upon front but was a chatty Kathy in back.

She said she had shot 20 rounds of the Federal Power Shock 80 gr bullets and said she had felt no recoil.


Since all the snow was gone she had picked some on sale brown Camo at Dunhams during the week. Girl was ready to hunt.


Mike had worked out a route Friday also before going to work starting in Lenon Michigan travel up M 13 to a couple sheep farms first then a dairy farm and a couple hobby farms. Mike also said he would do some door knocking if we need to.


First place the Montie Porter sheep farm about average for a guy that has a town job around 50 head.

We get parked and dressed set out across the pasture sheep eyeing us with suspicion, got to the gate walked thru shut the gate worked along the edge of a fall wheat field but could have crossed the frozen soil but were not going to chance it. It was still only 30F but the sun was bright.
At the far fence line we come to a hay field along the woods about 15 acres. Walked out and set up the decoys and callers again Carol wanted to be in the middle.


Start with the challenge and get a couple barks right off. Mike had talked maybe we should do a series of challenges to get them moving our way before doing the in heat female sound.

Every ones wind indicators is hanging limp so I think the coyotes will come straight in.

Soon I see one right in front of me and another off to my left, do the see them sign to Carol she shakes her head yes and settled the rifle butt stock into her shoulder while watching me.

Now there are 3 as I sign for Carol to let Mike know to go after the tail end Charlie.

I signed she should do the trigger so Mike and I both see her. She says OK she would do the last one Mike the middle one and I could have the leader. Carol does the trigger and the Swift butted my shoulder and a coyote is down in the scope then another as I turn the scope then a 3d.

Cool 3 coyotes on our first set. Gather the gear and join Carol looking at her coyote with a gleam in her eyes.
We roll them in the plastic and drag them to the yard and truck.


At the truck Carol gave me a hug and Mike a wet sloppy one. Says thank you for telling me about Mag Na Porting the Rifle didn’t feel bad last week but I saw my coyote drop and the tail do that death wiggle in the scope today.


We are going to another sheep farm just 5 miles away. Donnie Walker and sons been into sheep for close to 30 years now they say.
This place is flat just at the edge of the Saginaw valley but soil is on the sandy side. There is a slough about half way across the property about 2 acres. The sheep pastured there during he summer so the grass and weeds are down but there is about 5 acres of thick over grown woods behind it about 80 yards. Mike and I set out the decoys and callers at the far side of the slough. 

Do the challenge and receive one answer bark , another and another but didn’t sound as if it was moving. I cut loose with the piglet in distress and now we can tell the coyote is moving as it answers the challenges.

Just set still must of been about 5 minutes. Then one more challenge with a return bark. Mike points off to his right and there is a single coyote half way to the decoys. I see Mike lean over to the scope and then fire. He has a coyote down about a total of 90 yards from us.


We gather the gear and walk to Mikes coyote Carol is already getting ready to wrap up. It is a Female not a very old one from the foot pads.

Back at the truck ready to leave and Donnie comes from his work shed. Says hello heard the shot wonder if we had gotten one. Was happy to hear we had.


Next place is a old farm about 50 acres, they lease to a crop farmer but have a thick around 8 acres woods we had been told.

This place is owned by Randy Johns and his wife Joann. She keeps a few chickens and had been raided about 2008 by a pack of 4 coyotes who got several of her chickens. She and Randy had went to Gander Mountain in Flint and bought a rifle to shoot the coyotes. The counter Jerk sold him a Remington 783 in 30-06 he shot it a few times and didn’t like it to well.
Found us when he went to the feed store for scratch and some farmers had gave him our number.


We walk across some corn stubble to a fence line with some brush growing in it. Walk out about 60 yards and set the decoys and callers out around 45 yards from the woods.

We got no answers to the challenges. So I let loose with the piglet sound ran it about 3 minutes and then went silence for a bit them hit is again. I see a coyote coming out of the woods Carols zone. She saw it also looked to see if she should go ahead and shoot and I signed go ahead.
I watched a puff of fire belch out the barrel but the rifle did not jump. The coyote laid out in the field stone still.

Carol has that bright eye look again as we walked to gather the gear and go look at her male coyote which she wrapped and started dragging to the truck.


We are taking a dirt road off M13 going west. There is a homestead hobby farm we are going to. They have a few goats crazy critters climb in apple trees and walk across rock walls, make sure you park in the fenced in area or they will walk on your truck.



We walk back thru the orchard dodging brush piles from the pruning that had been done during the winter.
We are headed off to a large drain area where 5 different drains converge in to one huge drain.

Very few people clear those drains of brush and trees. They just grow and grow till the county drain commission decided they need to be cleared and put the job up for bids.
Coyotes love these spots because they can dig dens in the banks and have them where they can catch the rising sun of the morning and shade in the hot afternoons.


We set up in the end of the orchard about 80 yards from the drain connector lip.
Mike and I set the decoys and callers out and get back to brush piles to break out out line.
Mike lets go with a challenge and gets a couple answers. Waits a bit then lets another one go and again gets answers back, closer.

I turn the sex crazed female sound on and played the volume a little raising it and dropping it to a little whine. Out the corner of my eye I see Carol moving her rifle on the cross sticks a bit to her right. I look and see a couple ears just above the lip. Lower the volume and do the I need you big boy come hither, the call is to its left so to see the decoy and face the caller it has to move to its left. Should come right to Carol if it ever rises above the lip. It finally slowly rose above the lip I see Carol looking at me so I made the pistol and dropped the hammer since I wasn’t seeing any other coyotes. Again I see a belch of flame from the muzzle and no jump, look where the coyote had been and it is still there anchored by that 80 bullet. It had been 20 minutes so far. I signed for mike to do a challenge sound again, work it a bit.

Got another answer much closer then any had been before. We stayed with it another 30 minutes but seemed that coyote had hung up then turned and was moving away.
Nothing was getting it turned around and bring it back now.


Carol had that bright eye look again and was wrapping the coyote up in a sheet of plastic but waited to show us it was a male, foot pads said young one.

 al


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## alleyyooper (Mar 8, 2020)

Back at the truck Mike said because they had spent the morning shooting Carols rifle he didn’t make any lunch. Said we were close to Montrose we could got there and get some thing for lunch.

On the way we discussed where we would go. I had Pizza with Mike Thursday so was not ready even though there are different ways to make them to have one.

Carol suggest Subway. I like subway some stores in my area do not have Swiss cheese and others do not have spinach. So that is where we went I got the oven roasted chicken foot long, spinach, Swiss cheese, tomatoes, black olives on a Honey Oat bun and ranch dressing.

They had ice tea that looked like tea also not urine like the one Kare and I go to some at home.

White we are eating Carol agains thanks me for mentioning the Mag Na Porting says she had fell in love with the rifle last week end and it is even better now.

We decided when we left there Mike would turn on the charm and we would start knocking on doors. 

Driving down a gravel road just off M 57 to the north we see a fellow about my age walking from the mail box to the house. Big grain dryer bins around the barn and tool sheds. Mike pulls in and jumps out of the truck. They are talking shaking hands, Mike signals for us to get out.

We walk up and introduce our selves. Had to laugh when Mister James Fowler asked Carol If I was her dad, age seemed about right. She is really about 10 years younger than my son our youngest.
She told him no just a friend of Mikes her boy friend.


He said to give hm a minute to deliver the mail to the house and he would show us around the farm. He had a two seater side by side in the tool shed, we climb aboard Me in front Carol and Mike in the back. He is a cash crop farmer since 1954 when he got out of high school and went partners with his dad. His home place is 340 acres and they lease more by placing ads in the local penny saver paper in the winter. He took us around the boundary line then showed us the small 5 acre wood lot on one side connected with the neighbors there are some buckets hanging from some trees. He told us that the neighbor boys in there teens collect the sap and boil it down. He said they usually will drop off about a gallon of the syrup to him and his wife.


We look at a clump of trees about 100 yards from the woods and asked about it. Said there is a spring there where they used to get a tractor stuck two three times a year till they planted some trees as a reminder to stay away.
He said we could hunt any time during the week mornings till maple syrup was over then any time.


We thanked him for his time and the permission to hunt. I make a note to drop off some Honey next time we are near there. 
We had spent 2 1/2 hours of quality time there. But had another farm to hunt.

Mister Fowler had told us he had a friend 3 miles west and 4 miles north he would call and let him know we were on our way to talk to him. He had verified John Romero was home.

We arrive at the Romero farm a working beef operation, became friends with James Fowler when he started buying corn from him.

His farm is 400 acres, keeps the feeder stock in a feed lot but the breeding stock free ranges about 50 head at this time.

He says we are welcome to hunt his place and points out a place for us to park any time we are there and be out hunting and out of the way. He also had a side by side take us for a farm boundary tour stopping at the edge of the woods 40 acres of mostly hard woods. They do selective cutting when they need lumber. They have a guy come in with a portable band saw mill to do the cutting.
It is also a old long time in the family farm.

He is taken with Carol and asked if she is along just to make sure us guys didn’t do some thing stupid. She says no she hunts also and likes doing it.

He said what kind of rifle you shoot a AR, she said no a S&W in 243 made by Husqvarna. He asked to see it as he had never even heard of them. Carol goes to the back of the truck and removes it from the case and racks the bolt open handing it to him. He comments on how nice the wood grain in the stock is then sees the slots in the barrel. What are those slots he asked Carol explains it is a recoil reduction system called Mag Na Porting. Very popular with heavy caliber pistol shooters.

He tells us we can hunt any time we wish to from day break to dark 7 days a week. Hands the rifle back to Carol and thanks her for allowing him to look it over.
Said he hadn’t met any lady predator hunters before.

We spent two hours there so is now starting to get late. We decided we would go back to Mikes skin our coyotes and make a travel plan for Sunday.

Only got 4 coyotes for the day but acquired two farms we can now hunt more valuable than a $50.00 coyote hide.

 Al


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