Early in my coyote hunting career I was up on the mountain in the foot hills it was early May . I walked up a deep draw that tapered out at the base of a huge rock pile . I got set up in the rocks and waited awhile for the birds and other animals to calm down good . I had gone down and visited Bill Austen and called Vern Dorn by then and they had taught me a small amount of what they knew from the years of doing it they had done . They were very willing to help me get started doing coyote control work as I was a long ways from them and the mistakes I would make didn't affect their jobs . Any way I got set up and used what Bill called his interrogation call . It took around 5 or 6 sets of this call before I saw movement out maybe 1000 yards . A pair was coming in they stopped out maybe 500 yards and started to bark and do short howls at me doing kick backs and peeing , crapping and marking their area . As hard as I tried they wouldn't move any closer and did this for 30 - 45 minutes . I gave up and stopped calling to them and just watched them till they finally just sat down and watched my way . They eventually got up and went back the way they came from , so did I . That night I went over what had taken place and finally decided that I had to be out of their area and they had come to their boundary line and let me know not to come any closer to it . Being hard headed and needing to get this pair as they were having lamb for dinner , I decided to slip into their area and try it again .I waited a few days and went back in going up draws till I was well inside where they had stopped found me some buck brush and got set up watched and waited before I tried the interrogation call again . This time I saw them jump up and start doing their threat barks and howls at the head of a draw in some sage brush . They stopped talking and both ran straight at me on a hard run . I shot the lead dog and the second one jumped over it still running at me . I shot it at maybe 5 yards as all I could see was fur in the scope . After awhile I got my composure gathered them up then found my way up to where they had jumped up from . There it was the den was in plain sight when I stood where they had been laying as the grass was mashed down from them . 5 pups were in the den hole I had learned some and figured out just a small amount more about the coyote my addiction was getting stronger with every success but more so every time they beat me at the chase .
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
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Love your remembrances Dave, very very interesting and insightful, always!
I have been that always been that way, in hunting and woman, one cost more
Some lessons in life are pretty costly . Some life lessons are more interesting then anything else . So many times when coyote taught me something it made an impression on me that lasted so I remember them and how I came to learn from them . I enjoyed being taught by them and how they acted as well as how adaptable they are . Some coyote truly are smarter then most domestic dogs . A lot of people that I've talked with that work with dogs tell me you will have 1 or 2 in a life time that make a real good dog that are special . I've been around so many coyote and hunted them enough that I've ran across several of them that were that coyote which were special . Just looking back on them and it's impressive how many of them should have been dead but had out figured the people that were after them . I've had coyote that learned not to go under a fence in an existing hole so would dig new holes every time , snare smart . The same coyote wouldn't talk or come to calls , call smart . You either snip them or set up all the holes with snares and call in the air support to fly a close grid and hope that they run from them instead of lay down because if they are the one that will lay down you are going to do some walking and tracking so you can figure out where to snip them . I wore wolverine 8" lace up air walk boots for several reasons . Ankle support snake , cactus resistant had a good sole that didn't slip on wet muddy soils or on the hard packed soil with the little pebbles that roll under foot . They didn't cake up with gumbo badly like so many did and you could buy a new pair put them on and walk all day with out the need to give them a break in period and still not get blisters plus you didn't leave a lot of foot prints kind of like putting carpet on your shoe soles . Darn I got off track again but it's all related right . Any way when coyote are teaching it's best not to get upset about it as that just slows down the learning process . Yes it's frustrating at times but it's such a good opportunity to learn some thing from some thing that's not supposed to be smarter then us , have the ability to think or reason or good memories . That's only what people who really haven't been exposed to them that much will tell you !
In December of 1973 it was cold -10 with a foot or so of snow on the ground . I was home and went outside to set on a wooden bench and listen to the coyote talk to the full moon . Even then I wondered what it was they were saying . You would hear one do a long lone howl then another one would answer and another . Finally they would be closer to each other and then singing their song of being together again . I didn't get to hear them again till April of 1976 when it was snowing and raining but I still went out to hear them in the evening as I had missed them talking . They held a fascination to me even back then and before then . In about 1969 I was working up in Hyshim Mt. there was an older guy there that they just called old Bill who I used to talk to about the coyote when he would come around there . He trapped and snared them every body said he was about as good as you would find at it . Nelson was his last name quite the guy . I had the chance to be around some of the old Government trappers down here in Wyoming back then as well . A lot of them lived and worked out of old cars they would camp in old cabins along the routes they ran . Some of them would run traps and the old 38 shelled coyote getters . I've seen them drill holes in the tubes that held the getters so they could staple them to wooden fence posts to keep them high enough to be out of the snow along cow trails beside the fence lines . They all had a bunch of #4 New house long spring traps and were masters at setting them and blending them in . Most of them used old worn out blue jeans to cut pan covers to keep the dirt from getting under the trap pan when trapping any land creatures . They would use the same traps for beaver but usually put a long heavy wire on the chain into deep water and a heavy rock weight to wear the beaver down fast and drown it . They did it all beaver , coyote , lion , bobcats and even bears . It was a hard life with a lot of lone time . A lot of times they would take an old horse out shoot it where they wanted a draw station and then cut it up with some 1" or so chunks that they would put strychnine tables or 1080 in and drop them along trails coming into the bait as well as the bait being filled with poison . Times have changed for the better now and we can be more selective about doing control work . We have learned so much since then and a lot of it by those older guys that lived a hard life spending so much time with the coyote and learning from them as well as all the studies done by different universities
I don't think there's enough trees in the forest to keep the campfire going long enough for me to (and others) sit next to with you DSheetz and soke in all these fascinating stories. But keep telling and typing anyway lol. But.....I must say....the chance to meet you and shake your hand is becoming a life goal for me!
Trip was a little rushed cause Dave didn't want any of his " many " old girlfriends from days gone by, to see him and try to latch onto the ol Why-Dam-O-Ming herd Bull!!!
In the spring of 1987 I got a call one evening the guy told me who he was and that he was the president of the predator board in my county . Their regular trapper and hunter was out due to a knee injury . He was wondering if I would work for the board till he could get back to work . I said I would and arranged to meet with another board member the next morning to get started . We went out to his brothers place and he showed me where he was having problems and left me to do what it was that I did he said . I looked over the pasture and did some tracking figured out where the coyote were staying , found a place to call and got set up . This was pretty flat land with little to no sage brush or cover to hid me so I laid down in a shallow depression , got my rifle ready and laid out in front of me , then let out a set of interrogation howls . About 100 yards to my front the old dog jumped up out of another depression and stared at me then began barking . Having set up and being lucky I didn't have to move much to shoot him . Off to my right the female went into a fit of barks and short howls warning me that I was in her home range . As I moved to try and get a shot at her she ran out a few hundred yards all the time barking and doing short sharp howls . I had seen this act before and knew she was trying to draw me out away from the den because I was too close to it . There was a small hill maybe 3 feet higher then the surrounding ground and 20 feet wide and 40 feet or so long where she had been laying when I startled her and killed her mate . That's were the den was it had 4 pups in it that were still chocolate brown with their eyes closed still only a few days old . I took the old dog and pups to my truck and then set some #3 coil spring offset jaw traps in flat sets out away from the den hole . I used whily red 500 lure on a cotton ball with a wire poked through it then pushed down into a small tuft of buffalo grass as a backing on the up wind side of the set and left . I went to my paying job and worked that night till midnight went home got some sleep and was out there by 5:30 and day break the next morning . Up at one of the sets a small bunch of antelope . Da-9 I've caught one of them but when they ran off it was the female coyote in the trap . I took them all to his house and he told me where he had other problems to work on . By June I had taken 60 coyote out of there and 5 more dens averaging 5 pups per den it was a good spring .
I got a call one evening from one of the predator board members asking me to meet him at such and such place the next morning to locate some coyote for the chopper . I got there and sat watching one cloud floating along full of lightning when this strange truck pulls up beside me . The guy said who he was and that the board member couldn't make it but he was to take me out to locate coyote . I locked up my truck and got in with him taking my calls and rifle with me . We went out and got set up he was on the radio with his dad and brother they were set up in different locations . The dad ran his siren and we listened silence followed after a few minutes maybe 20 the brother ran his siren still silence followed after 20 minutes or so the guy I was with was supposed to run his siren . I ask him do you mind if I try calling first before you run that siren . He got on the radio and ask his brother and dad if it was ok for me to try some thing different from the siren first before he ran his siren . They both said they didn't think it would hurt as they were sure the coyote weren't going to talk this morning . I got out my howler and did a set of interrogation howls . One of the guys on another radio ask was that that guy doing that . the guy with me said yes it was . A few minutes later I did another set then down in some draws next to the river a pair of coyote answered me . The chopper came in and got on the coyote and I had another ranch to work for . I called in both brothers and the dad with in a couple of weeks of going to work for them with my howls . They eventually figured out when it was me howling . They had a place that was separated by a few mile from where I had first called to locate for the chopper and I was down there hunting one morning . I got to howling one morning and saw a rider come up out of a draw down about a mile he headed my way . I watched him picking his way along towards me . He finally got close and saw me . Where's your truck he ask I was looking for the coyote howling did you hear it . I held up my howler smiled and said my truck is over there in a draw about half a mile . A couple of days latter I was out on the same place but in a different pasture . I was howling and saw a rider out riding along some draws just kind of meandering along in my direction . He gets up to me and said it's you my brother said he came to your howls the other day too you hide your truck around here some where and walk in to here ? A week later I was out on their northern place set up in some rocks . I had hidden my truck behind a rock pile in a low spot along the road and walked into this place . I had done some howls and heard a truck coming my way so I knew the calling was done there so I got up and was walking back toward my truck when the dad pulls up to me and said I heard a coyote howling so was trying to see if I could get close enough to get a shot at it then I saw your truck as I came over this way . The boys told me they had both came to investigate your howls too . I worked for them for 30 years and killed a truck load of coyote on them they were very good to me and I still to this day have a lot of respect for them as people .
Memorial Day 1989 we had gotten some rain showers just enough to settle the dust and make the world a quiet place but not enough to make it muddy . I was out working in the pine ridges east of here on some lamb killing coyote . The day before I had howled in the old female , she showed that there were 8 pups out there in a den not too far off . I parked my truck up at the top of a ridge and walked down a two track toward where I had been the day before . There was a small draw that the road ran down beside of as I got down toward the bottom of the ridge I crossed the draw and found me a nice pine tree to set in the shade of in case the fog burned off before I was done this day . As I sat there some thing seemed just not quite right .You know the feeling you get when some one is watching you prickly skin maybe goose bumps . On a small rise across the road and in just a slight saddle I saw it . Laying there with it's head on his paws was an old coyote it would look at me for awhile then move it's head slightly to his left and down the road then back at me . I watched him for 30 or 45 minutes as he just did the same thing over and over again . He wasn't excited or showing any fear as if he thought that I hadn't seen him . I decided it was time so I slowly got ready and made the shot he was less then 75 yards from me . I made my way over to him knelt down beside him and looked down the road the way he had been looking . In a small grassy opening about 200 yards down hill , there was some dirt piled up in front of a hole . The den he had been watching all along . Him and the 8 pups went for a long trip they ended up going to a school in Boulder for some zoology students to clean their bones and reconstruct the skeletons as part of their studies. Did you know that coyote have 42 teeth when they are adults ?
And that is just one example of why it pays to be alert and quiet as you go into your hunting area . Take your time and when your get set up do some observing of your surroundings . I can't count the times that I have had coyote real close to me before I started calling and thus I say often to be quiet and cautious on your approach to make your stand then set and watch and listen to what is going on around you before you start your calling . Then start with a low volume as they may be closer then you think . If you start out loud you may scare them and they will end up running out from you then set or make barks and howls at you while you scratch your head and ask why aren't they coming to my call we've all seen the question ask why don't the coyote come to my calls just one explanation you may have bumped them out on your way in or with your first series of calls . Food for thought .
I April of 1997 we got a deep snow and cold front it was below zero a lot of wind one of the guys called me and ask if I would ride with his dad to fly the power lines and call in the bad spots . So I said that I would we marked down and called them in . Each power pole has a metal tag on it that tells the township , section and range it is in . The snow was a couple of feet deep in most places . The next morning I got called again lets go hunting coyote with the chopper . No problem there I'll meet you at the airport . It was a clear day and the sun was bright so good sunglass' were needed to keep from going snow blind . It was the 8th of April 12 below zero and the coyote even had trouble getting around in the snow as it wasn't crusted on top yet . We got 20 that day but one of them was very memorable . We jumped her tracks coming out of a hole in a cut bank tracked her a short ways . when we got on her she turned and ran back to that hole I got a shot at her but thought I had missed her . She ran into the hole . We landed got the wire out and ran it in the hole tangled it in her fur and pulled her out dead . I hadn't missed as bad as I thought . But the biggest surprise was that she had already had pups . We pulled 6 out of that hole the earliest that I have personally taken a den of pups . She had pulled the fur out from around her teats and bedded the interior of the den with it for the pups . What amazing animals they can be . I have to have a ton of respect for the way they can be with their pups . More then once I have seen them give their lives knowingly for their pups .
