I put my gun belt together for the job . It has my revolver holster and a fixed blade knife on my right hand side . On the left hand side is my holster for my pliers . I am a left handed shooter but have the ability to shoot with either hand . I have put in the time and dry practice to be able to use both hands to shoot a pistol , revolver or rifle left or right handed for a reason . I spent a lot of time out far from other people with no way of calling for help if it was needed so if some thing unexpected happened and I had to use my off hand to shoot with I had that ability . I have spent countless hours being several miles from any person or place where there was any way of contacting people . My truck is still set up for survival and to get me out of some bad situations if need be every thing has a use and a place for it to be kept . The T P is under the back seat on the drivers hand side in a gallon ziploc bag . The jumper cables are on the passenger side under that same back seat as well as a tow strap . It's better to have and not need then to need and not have . A small air compressor tire plugs ect. are also in my trucks console and under the back seat or located in my truck .
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
- Thread starter DSheetz
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nealm66
Well-Known Member
The first time I competed with pistol in a bowling pin shoot we had to shoot strong hand,weak hand, both hand. Weak hand shots we're about 12" to the right till I figured out I was using my weak eye. Totally messed with my brain
I shoot with both eyes open but adjust for sighting with my dominate eye . My arms move to get the sight picture not my head it becomes second nature with dry practice . With my dry practice there is no ammo close to where me and my firearm are and the weapon is checked more then once . If I am using dummy rounds they are painted red , if they are rounds that I have put together they have spent primers in them but the end will still be painted red , I don't have any desire for an unintentional discharge . I had that happen in a chopper once , early in life , fortunately the rifle was pointing out the door and at the ground , an *** eating still was issued as it should have been .
I have friends that are retired U.S. Navey SEALS and U.D.T. now those people can teach about shooting the same as the other special forces of the U.S. military . From what I have seen the biggest difference between ours and other countries special forces is that most of our people are taught to be considerate of others as they are growing up instead of just ourselves and life in general . Sadly I see that is changing as is our society it's becoming a me for me not a me and the others in my world . As I see it this relates to hunting calling and trapping because it carries over to lives of animals as well as humans , we are taught that we should show consideration and compassion for their lives as well thus we don't want to cause undue pain and suffering to them either so we do our best to make good clean kills when we need to and we tend to not just go out to kill animals to be killing something besides time .
By now the coyote pups are looking like smaller versions of their parents . They should still have some awkward moves but have been working on honing their moves , hearing , sight and smelling skills . The red and swift fox kits are hard to tell from the adults by size now . They have been tuning up their little radar dish ears and pouncing skills on the bugs in the weeds and grass . It's such a treat to watch them as they are training to be hunters Turning their heads from side to side tipping them and getting a fix on their intended prey . Then slowly gathering their feet and tensing their whole body in preparation for the big pounce , then the leap coming down on the grasshopper with both front feet . I don't have any idea as to how much force they strike with but I do know it's a lot from what little dog strike with when we play and they pounce on me in that fashion . One evening years ago the wife , kids and I were going up on the mountain to visit my Grandma . I saw a couple of coyote pups out mousing in a meadow out a couple of hundred yards . Farther down the road Lenard was riding towards us his horse just plodding along . We sat and watched the pups till he rode up stopped and then we visited with him for awhile . He said it's odd that you saw them , they've been here about every evening now for a week but most people just drive on by . Sadly some day someone will see them and shoot them . We visited a while longer then he rode on so he could get home and put his horse up before dark . Lenard has been gone now for well over 20 years but his son still rides his cattle daily on horse back instead of a four wheeler . It's just more peaceful and you get to see so much more , A horse steps with four feet , as do the other animals , we step with two and animals know the difference in the sound . And have learned to fear the two footed steps . For all of my life I have slowed down taken the time to look listen and enjoy what is around me in the world . Even when I worked around equipment and others I would stop listen and look when the sounds around me changed , So many times people would look at me then ask what's up with you what are you doing . One morning as I was on my way to a morning meeting I heard an odd sound coming from the steam turbine turning the generator on unit #4 . I called the control room and asked them if they were aware of the sound and that I thought they had a broken expansion joint in the 15th stage extraction steam pipping . How the h234 would you know that was the reply . Latter that day the unit came down because they had a broken expansion joint in the piping in the exhaust trunk of the turbine . They noticed it because the feed water heater it was feeding wasn't working as it should . In todays world it pays to be observant , what the military trainers would say was a high condition yellow . You don't have to be nervous , excited or a lot of adrenalin flowing just not in a daze . Be aware of the sounds , sights and smells around you it's a relaxed state but an aware state . From past experiences I can tell you that people stink if they have adrenalin flowing and the animal world can smell it as an alarm to them . That's why some people catch more fish , or are more successful at hunting they are aware of their surrounding but don't have the smell of excitement or fear .
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We have been hot and dry for the most part . Pretty much the same as the rest of the U.S. We have had a couple of small fires fortunately not any thing like what some places . The last two days have been in the low 100's here so the animals have been out and about early and late in the day then laying up in the heat of the day . Sunday it was 103 here at 3:00 P.M. and the antelope were all bedded down near watering holes . The livestock were laid up in what shade they could find so I'm thinking that the hunt for predators would have been really hard at the least . This is the type of weather where if you are doing control work you will have a problem with nearly any form of it . Trapping with foot holds the lure will dry out and the scent cone will be small . Calling will be at a different time of the day to be successful but can be done . The young of this year will still be cautious so if you use coyote vocalizations you will want nonaggressive ones . Lamb blats , fawn blats ect. will work at the right time of the day on the older as well as the younger predators . The calling locations will need to be pretty close to where the animals are bedded down as well . being quiet as you move in to call is very important as well . I still wear long sleaved shirts for protection from the biting insects as well as deet for my self but on my pants cuffs and shirt cuffs and the neck of my shirt not my skin . You can use some of the plant based deterrents as well some of the mints work ok , marigolds are a deterrent as well as patchily oil . My wife still thinks it's for trying to cover up the smell of smoking pot . But it came back from the Asian area as an insect repellent when your not able to bathe regularly you need something to keep the bugs at bay lice , fleas tics and leaches ect. . As time goes on we have gone back to using natures remedies over the man made chemicals . Snaring works well at this time as well just know that an animal will die fast in this weather no matter what way you catch them and they will not be smelling very kindly to your nose . With snares that is the plan they won't last long with a foot hold the coyote don't stop fighting and will be overheated soon . Water is key to their survival as well as ours stay hydrated and cool as best you can .
My son was home from college . I had built him a 7MM Dakota so we decided to take it for a test drive . I had the dies but was using some factory ammo for the brass . We got it zeroed then decided to take it to a prairie dog town and reach out for a few shots so we could see how it did at longer ranges . I sat up my portable bench for him and he was taking out a few little dogs at ranges out to 500 yards . It was a partly cloudy day warm in the mid 50's . He had shot a few and we were waiting for them to calm down and start standing up again . Something ran out grabbed one that he had shot then dashed back to some sagebrush . Pretty soon something dashed out and grabbed another one then ran back to the sage brush . My son goes what was that dad it looked like a coyote but it's way too small . I laughed and said haven't you ever seen any swift fox when you were out with me before . We watched them for awhile there was only three of them but they were taking full advantage of free meals .
nealm66
Well-Known Member
That's awesome
Several years ago in early June I was out looking for a coyote that was killing lambs in a rough pasture with deep draws . I made my way up to the top of a hill over the top and down the other side where there was a cut bank that was around 4 feet tall . It had a view of the rough draws as well as a small valley and the sun was coming up on my right hand side . I let out a couple of howls then waited several minutes and did some fawn blats . A few minutes passed when I heard some grass breaking above me then saw a movement as a gray form hit the ground only a couple of feet to my left . I like most people jumped from being startled realized it was a nearly grown bob cat . It realized I wasn't it's intended meal and also jumped then it ran several feet farther to my left turned and stood looking at me . That calling stand was over for the day but I watched as the young cat wandered farther out then sat and watched me for several minutes till I stood up and climbed over the top of the cut bank . I made my way farther to my left into a small saddle on a ridge found me a good location and howled waited several minutes just looking and listening down in a draw to the west she howled back then did a few barks . I watched her run from the bottom of the draw and up the side of a small hill where she stopped stood her ground and started putting on a show for me doing short sharp high pitched howls and some barks . That told me she had been startled when she first talked to me and had been near her den and was now attempting to get me the unwanted coyote out of her home area . I let her put on a performance for a long time then I gave her a few puppy squeals from my mouth call she bristled up did some really high pitched short howls and ran my way . I had her in my scope before I talked to her and watched her the whole way in keeping her in it . When she got close I gave her a couple of barks on my call she stopped stood and was dropped . When I got to her she was a very small coyote only about the size of a red fox . I checked her and she only showed 4 pups on her uterus . I put her and my stuff down beside a two track made my way back to the truck had some water then drove over to where my things were parked and started walking down toward where she had first been there on a south facing bank was her hole a lot of mashed down grass , puppy crap . She had put them in a good location down out of sight of us humans in a pasture that was near to the lambs but not in the same pasture with them . The fence at the bottom of the draw was the boundry line between the two pastures it was one where it was hard to get to except on foot . It would be an interesting story to know as to her first year of life and why she was runted and so small and why she didn't have a mate helping her with her pups . She was close to the neighbors ranch and that was one I didn't work on and there was also a small area of homes with 40 , 20 and 10 acres of land . It is highly possible that she had been orphaned as a pup last year and that her mate had also been shot leaving her to fend for herself and their pups . I will never know for sure .
Twenty five years ago I said that I would work with the county predator control board and the Wild Life Services to get a program set up in our county for predator control . I was out with one of the new guys one morning in early fall it was a nice morning warm in the low 60's no wind and partly cloudy . I had been showing him around so we decided to take a break from checking snares and do a little calling into an area that I didn't work on but could call coyote out of on to the ranch that I worked for . We parked my truck on the back side of a large hill that had boulders the size of my truck scattered on it .We went around the base of it picking our way through them . as we got to the backside we found a good location in a small low spot in the front of a couple of boulders in some short dried grass . I started doing some fawn blats after a couple of minutes I saw a head peaking over the top of a small ridge out about four hundred yards . It sat there staring our way for several minutes then ran over the ridge and part way down the side of the ridge where it froze crouched down low and did the stair again . I made a few more soft fawn blats it moved our way slowly in a low crouch then ran a short distance in the low crouch . Typical cat fashion crouch watch stair run some creep some freeze stair some more . It had been over 15 minutes since I first spotted it's head on the ridge and it had closed the distance by only a hundred yards . I kept up the soft pleading fawn blats it kept slowly moving our way , cats weren't in season so I had no intentions of shooting it I just wanted to watch it and the way it was working it's way into my calling . I knew where it lived and if I wanted it during trapping season I knew where and what type of set to make for him so my calling him was just for the enjoyment of watching and learning from him at this time . I kept calling it and it kept slowly making it's way in it got to the fence line slowly working it's way down the fence in the cow trail along the fence it would bring a front paw forward almost set it down then move it back and forth before gently setting it down time after time it did this and always in a low crouch . The amount of strength in its body was incredible to watch nearly like watching any other athlete perform but all in slow motion . After 45 or more minutes it started to slowly work up hill towards me crawled under the fence and slowly made it's way toward my feet when it was around 20 feet from me it lay down on it belly it's tail twitching and just watched and waited then it got up turned and sprinted off into the draws below me he had finally decided I was human not a fawn . I didn't have any feelings that he might decide to pounce on me although if he had it would have been one sided till when and if I got to my pistol . When you have the opportunity to be out and have these types of experiences it is so interesting and exciting and what a learning experience . The guy with me said he could barely set still as it got closer and he thought that I would shoot it instead of just watch and play with it . Nether of us will forget the experience .
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Wow what a cool experience. Over the years I've had several times in the field where the "critters" have been close enough to literally touch. It's so cool. I've also learned as you've said many times about keeping calm, that the more calm you can stay the closer they'll get before either smelling you or literally touching you and deciding somethings just not right.
I love being out around animals . Even livestock has somethings to teach me . They have been selectively bred for generations but they still have some of the ways that they need to survive in the weather . I watched as a heard of cattle bunched up and moved to a fence line when the wind was blowing smoke from a wild fire toward them . The fire was in another state but they still moved as far as they could from it . My wife's little Pekinese dog will start wandering around upset at least an hour before a rain storm . They seem to know and feel the changes in air pressure , moisture content and wind speed . She's 14 years old and pretty deaf now but still senses the changes . Cattle , sheep and the other animals are aware of the changes that we tend to ignore now . The birds will start to gather into a flock at times when a front is going to move through . Moving south for a cold front from the north and north for a hot front coming from the south . it's just interesting for me to try and see what they have to say in their own way .
