Airedale56
Well-Known Member
My darling Girlfriend wanted to go coyote calling with me today.
We got out early and headed up toward Sunlight Basin north of Cody.
We hit some new country that she hadn't seen and since I hold an OTC tag,
looked for black bear sign as well. We covered several prime areas and saw no recent sign. Found some old bear scat and coyote and wolf scat primarily composed of black angus hair and found the mostly skeletal remnants of a dead cow that was spread out for about 50 yards around the main body at the kill site.
We decided to hit Bald Ridge before we hit the summit at Dead Indian Pass.
Saw lots of cattle on the Shoshone Forest Bald Ridge area.
We saw one coyote crossing the prairie on the way in and watched him head through the cows. No shot taken. I know where he's hanging out and I'll go back.
We traveled on North a mile or so from the cows and spotted a good calling spot that looked like it would produce a coyote, or a wolf if we got lucky. Eight left on the wolf quota for Area 1 and I have a tag.
Had a 6.5 SAUM and 142 SMKs at 3000 fps rested over a Bog-Pod tripod and ancient Crit'r Call Peewee open reed call to my lips and two sets of eye balls watching for responding canines. We sat east of a timbered hillside which dropped into a deep draw. We were in the short grass tucked down looking west, sun overhead at our backs, wind in our faces.
After I sat down and glassed the setup for as yet unseen coyotes, I ranged several key points with my rangefinder to make sure I knew the distance to each point that I expected to see a potential response.
I blew three short series, about twenty seconds each, in about a minute and a half.
I had not even started to run another short series when…Kathy, eyes glued to a set of Bushnell Forge 15x binoculars, very calmly said:
"Bear. No, two. Grizzlies. They're coming in."
She pointed them out and I knew they were at the 300 yard mark of a tree I had ranged a few moments earlier.
There was No Doubt the sow was coming and so was her tag along yearling. Deliberate and committed. Wow, they were in beautiful condition. The ZCo 4-20x told me so. I saw no ear tags from Game and Fish run-ins or a collar on either bear.
I told Kathy, "We've got to GO. NOW."
I snapped two zoomed phone camera shots at about the 275 yard mark and we stood and walked slowly away, headed to the truck, about 300 yards to the east. We crested the hill back to the truck and didn't see them again. I think she may have seen us and quit coming.
I don't want to get in a bear fight with a grizzly. Or two.
A cowboy horseback on that grazing allotment had a sow grizzly with a cub chase him for nearly a mile two years ago about a mile and a half north of where we were. She was really determined to run him out of the country. I thought of that conversation when Kathy announced their arrival. No way of knowing if it was the same sow.
They were about to drop into a draw and would have popped back into view just about 100 yards away.
Things could have gotten Western if we had set up closer to the timber or only had one set of Mark 1 Mod 0 eyeballs in operation today. She is a great spotter of game.
Oh yeah, we did finally see a Black Bear about a mile away on a hill above the Clark's Fork Canyon headed for the timber with a bigger Bear in pursuit. Didn't get a great look at the second bear so not sure of the species.. Seen on the far right edge in the notch in the top of the three of the timber lines in the photo.
Great day today. Even if no coyote taken.
We got out early and headed up toward Sunlight Basin north of Cody.
We hit some new country that she hadn't seen and since I hold an OTC tag,
looked for black bear sign as well. We covered several prime areas and saw no recent sign. Found some old bear scat and coyote and wolf scat primarily composed of black angus hair and found the mostly skeletal remnants of a dead cow that was spread out for about 50 yards around the main body at the kill site.
We decided to hit Bald Ridge before we hit the summit at Dead Indian Pass.
Saw lots of cattle on the Shoshone Forest Bald Ridge area.
We saw one coyote crossing the prairie on the way in and watched him head through the cows. No shot taken. I know where he's hanging out and I'll go back.
We traveled on North a mile or so from the cows and spotted a good calling spot that looked like it would produce a coyote, or a wolf if we got lucky. Eight left on the wolf quota for Area 1 and I have a tag.
Had a 6.5 SAUM and 142 SMKs at 3000 fps rested over a Bog-Pod tripod and ancient Crit'r Call Peewee open reed call to my lips and two sets of eye balls watching for responding canines. We sat east of a timbered hillside which dropped into a deep draw. We were in the short grass tucked down looking west, sun overhead at our backs, wind in our faces.
After I sat down and glassed the setup for as yet unseen coyotes, I ranged several key points with my rangefinder to make sure I knew the distance to each point that I expected to see a potential response.
I blew three short series, about twenty seconds each, in about a minute and a half.
I had not even started to run another short series when…Kathy, eyes glued to a set of Bushnell Forge 15x binoculars, very calmly said:
"Bear. No, two. Grizzlies. They're coming in."
She pointed them out and I knew they were at the 300 yard mark of a tree I had ranged a few moments earlier.
There was No Doubt the sow was coming and so was her tag along yearling. Deliberate and committed. Wow, they were in beautiful condition. The ZCo 4-20x told me so. I saw no ear tags from Game and Fish run-ins or a collar on either bear.
I told Kathy, "We've got to GO. NOW."
I snapped two zoomed phone camera shots at about the 275 yard mark and we stood and walked slowly away, headed to the truck, about 300 yards to the east. We crested the hill back to the truck and didn't see them again. I think she may have seen us and quit coming.
I don't want to get in a bear fight with a grizzly. Or two.
A cowboy horseback on that grazing allotment had a sow grizzly with a cub chase him for nearly a mile two years ago about a mile and a half north of where we were. She was really determined to run him out of the country. I thought of that conversation when Kathy announced their arrival. No way of knowing if it was the same sow.
They were about to drop into a draw and would have popped back into view just about 100 yards away.
Things could have gotten Western if we had set up closer to the timber or only had one set of Mark 1 Mod 0 eyeballs in operation today. She is a great spotter of game.
Oh yeah, we did finally see a Black Bear about a mile away on a hill above the Clark's Fork Canyon headed for the timber with a bigger Bear in pursuit. Didn't get a great look at the second bear so not sure of the species.. Seen on the far right edge in the notch in the top of the three of the timber lines in the photo.
Great day today. Even if no coyote taken.
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