With my southern black mouth cur , Buckwheat , I used to help him get to his place I made for him on the couch where the AC in the hot weather would keep him cool and where the furnace would keep him warm in the cold weather . I finally knew when it was time for him he let me know by his actions . I took him and he wanted to get in the truck so I put him in the truck with me we went for a nice ride then I took him to one of our favorite hunting draws and got him out of the truck he wandered around sniffing for tracks then he just sat down and looked at me . I put him down and buried him there where it was quiet and sunny . We had taken several fox and a couple of fox dens from that draw . We had been together since he was 8 weeks old , he told me when he was too old to work coyote any longer when I had several coyote answer me one morning he came back looked at me then went and got in the truck . I kept him for two more years he had earned his retirement years and then some . They are our friends , companions and family !
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
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nealm66
Well-Known Member
Man, those dog stories are tough. The wolf hybrid was my only dog. Wasn't really my dog. My sisters ex husband was crazy into hiking and would find the largest dogs he could find and use them as pack animals. My sister found this one free. It was chained up in a back yard and about 1 year old. It immediately killed his current pack dog when she let it out of the car. She sent it through a bunch of obedience training and he worked with it a lot but they finally decided to drop it off at my place supposedly temporary without giving me any knowledge of its history. Beautiful huge white thing and me not knowing it's history I treated like it was a good dog. Well, I guess that's all it needed. I just had to be there if there was company and let her know they were welcome. Was interesting to be around a dog like that. Never barked. Hardly ever made a sound. My brother brought over a large for breed long haired shepherd and felt confident they would get along. She instantly went head down towards it and it knew it was bout to die. I scream/yelled and she stopped. I put her up. My wife and I would take her hiking and had get creative getting her into the back of the pickup towards the end. I cried when I had the vet come out to put her down
We do that with our dogs when they go the same as we do with the people we love because we love them . When a dog takes you as it's alpha leader it will die for you and any others that it feels threatened by will be put in it's place or killed .
This is a hard time of the year for the predator control workers . It's hot and dry for the most part , but we also have the hard rains in areas that cause flash flooding . Draws that have been dry all year will have floods that wash down them taking out fences and anything that you may have set in them , snares and traps ect. some of the good cut banks where you know the animals will be laying up in the cool dirt out of the sun will wash and fall over on some of your sets and the gumbo will be bad for a few hours but with flash flooding it only lasts a short time then it dries out . Mornings this time of the year are my favorite time of the day and I like getting out early getting my work done and waiting for the cool down at the end of the day . One of the best things about where I live is the fact that it cools down at night here most times , we don't have hot nights here very often , you can wear a long sleeve shirt to a lite jacket at night and early in the mornings then short sleeves by mid morning . The animals like it the same as I do also . I like to watch the other animals and let them tell me when they are more active the other morning the animals were laid up early by 9:00 A.M. but were up and feeding by 2:00 P.M. it was still pretty warm nearly 95 degrees but then I told my wife the moon is coming up I'll bet on it . It was You could see it just starting to peek over the horizon . You will often see the predators laying in the early morning sun on hill sides or rockpiles just watching the world . You can take advantage of this and do some glassing then stalking them and snip them . With some of the coyote that have been worked hard and have been able to elude the control efforts this may be your most effective method . You have done your ground work , tracking them during their down time , so you know the general area where they are most likely to be . I may have even got them to howl a day or two before with the siren , I haven't had much luck calling a coyote after getting them to answer the siren the same day and they tend to be on the alert from it , it's been easer for me to snip them when they are relaxed and don't have a clue I'm in the area . Sometimes it's the easiest and fastest way to take care of an animal that is causing problems . When you get a call that someone has a problem coyote and they tell about all of the things they have already tried to get them . They have called them they used this sound , that sound , puppy sounds are one of the favorite sounds people tend to try , the siren is another favorite sound , they have set traps and snares , they have even called and had the plane and helicopter come look for the problem . These are people that take pride in taking care of their own problems and most of the time they are successful at it , just not this time this coyote may have actually been there for years and just not been a problem , or it may have come from another area where it has been pursued by others for a few years and was filling a void and getting away from pressure by others , what ever the reason they called you as a last resort you now have been given a challenge , now it's your turn to show your pride in your craft and your stubborn determination , your tracking abilities , your patience and your knowledge of the animal you are going after as well as your respect for that animals survival skills . This is what makes it so interesting for you and why you keep going back time and time again while others take pleasure in just doing it for a short period of time out of the year during the fur season .
I also enjoy it when the grammar police take the time to let me know when I have made a mistake , I smile to myself and shake my head then try to do better the next time yup I learn from them still . The Americanized version of English is a complex language with so many differing words spelled differently for different meanings but sounding the same , too , to , two , bread , bred lead , led and several others .
I have been known to make my own calls . The best wood that I have found was some French Walnut that was given to me by a custom rifle maker as scraps left over from stocks that he built . It had a rich dark color as well as a rich tone and the howls I could produce with them was as close to a coyote's that I have heard , male , female and puppy sounds all were readily answered by the coyote them selves . He has since retired and I have ran out of the walnut . I have some Brazilian Ebony that I bought for making knife scales that I am going to make a call or two out of , a howler and a distress call to see how they sound . It's a very dense wood so I am hopeful that it also will have a good tone . I have made a couple of howlers from purple heart wood and they did ok just not as good as the walnut , they did look nice and sounded good . I have used some maple wood as well but it didn't make the same tones that the French Walnut did although it was a good sound and the coyote responded well to them . It's a fun hobby for me and a challenge I do it for enjoyment and don't need another job , I've put my time in at work and am just enjoying my time now as with my knife making I do it for the pleasure of it and if I were to start selling them it would become a job and the enjoyment would probably go to the wayside . A lady that helped me learn more about training my little Jack Russell asked me if I could make a knife for her to give to her son and I said ok but do I have a time line and can it be of my designee mostly yup it could be . So I made it out of bearing steel triple heat treated it and triple cryo treatments between the heats then drew it back to a toughness not a brittleness . She said you could cut your steak with this easily I smiled at her and said it's designed to cut , hold an edge and if that's what he does with it that's his choice but also if he wants to field dress a deer or elk it will do that with no need to resharpen it till he's done with it . It's about enjoying my time and taking pride in what I do still .
DMP25-06
Well-Known Member
Hello Dave ,
Would you please post some photos of the predator calls that you have made ?
If you don't mind doing so , I am certain that quite a few of the LRH members that have been following "Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote" , for over 2 years , would greatly appreciate it .
Possibly 2 photos , 1 photo of call fully assembled and ready to use , and a 2nd photo of the call with the reed assembly removed , and the pieces sitting ready to be assembled , and used .
Thank You for your continuing postings , sharing your stories and KNOWLEDGE with us .
DMP25-06
I will get in touch with Mr. Butterbean and see if he will post some pictures if I send him some as I still haven't taken the effort to learn how to post them myself but I do know how to send them to another person's phone . I am tech tarded according to my grandson and kids. lol .
DMP25-06
Well-Known Member
Me Too ! Technically Challenged .
My 9 year-old Grandson tells me "Old People don't know modern technology" , an I AGREE with his statement .
Bucklowery
Well-Known Member
Thank You Butterbean ! I made this one to be more like a Tally-Ho call you can make male coyote, female coyote , puppy coyote, deer blats, fawn blats , jack rabbit and cotton tail sounds as well as many more sounds that vary in pitch by where you place the pressure on the reed , how much pressure , how hard you blow and the duration of the air movement . It's made of American walnut from Ohio . I have tried to get some persimmon root from southern Indiana but my brother hasn't sent it yet . He had a road dozed into his place and they pushed out some of them as well as a butternut tree .
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I have always been curious about making things and if I could do it and have them work or not . I have had a lot of things not do as I had hoped they would but have found great satisfaction in making things especially when they did what I had hoped they would . The vast majority of my howlers have been given to others . I would have them hanging on my lanyard someone would see them and be curious ask about what it was . I would tell them and show them how they worked . They would ask if I could make them one so they went home with that one as a gift . Happy early birthday or Christmas what ever they wanted to call it . There are probably close to a hundred of them scattered across the U.S. from such happenings . One guy told me this and the lanyard you made for it will go in my collection of calls he sells calls and sporting goods and is just a good guy . It's kind of a selfish thing on my part as it's for my own satisfaction that I do it . I will get more pictures posted of other calls at a later date . Again Thank You Butterbean and to every one else I hope all are well and doing fine ! Dave
