Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

Coyote here pack up at certain times of the year . Usually it's the adults with their pups of the year running as a group here . I noticed that they normally run in groups of two or three for the most of the year here . If the weather is bad for longer periods of time they will group up and hunt larger animals here . I think from what I've seen the numbers of coyote running together depends a lot on what they are hunting and feeding on . When they are eating rabbits , mice and smaller animals they are in smaller groups , but when they are hunting and eating larger animals they run in larger groups here .
 
Here they use cracker shells for deer , elk and birds . They fire from a 12 gauge the projectile goes out then it explodes near them like an M-80 going off . State Game and fish ,state department of agriculture , USDA , ect. have them here . Where I live we have a few black buzzards that roost in trees near and in the city cemetery they sure make a mess with their crapping where they roost and it really upsets some people just to see them near where their loved ones are interned . My brother-in-law was the grounds keeper for the cemetery and he spent a few nights and evenings training them not to roost there using the cracker shells . Another brother-in-law used them to chase the deer and elk out of his dads hay meadows . I have known of some sheep ranchers that used propane cannons to scare the coyotes away from their livestock . It scared the sheep as well as the coyotes but only for a little while . The coyote adapted to them faster then the livestock did .
 
I'll be heading over to eastern Washington the middle of this month. I was talking to a friend who said he saw a lot of coyotes in Montana, can't remember where exactly he said. I'll be over there middle of next month to visit my brother. He bought a place on the yack river. Went shooting today with my friend that has Parkinson's. I'm still trying to squeeze something out of those Hornady 88's in my 22 creed but they're not being very cooperative so far. Did have decent luck with my other buddies 6mm creed though.
 
Some of my rifles just didn't like any Hornady bullets . I don't know what the reason was the jacket material , the core or the shape , what ever it was they just never worked to my satisfaction in some of my barrels . It was the same with other bullets in different barrels my 6.5x284 wouldn't shoot Bergers , Hornady but liked Sierra's and Nosler's all of the same weight . They had different amounts of bearing surface and a different composition in the jacket material . It's not anything bad about any bullets they just weren't what my rifles liked kind of how some powder doesn't seem to work as well as others in the same barrels and the primer tends to make a difference to some rifles but the rare rifle just takes any food and keeps on running . That's what keeps it interesting isn't it just as with coyote hunting we just have to keep searching for the right combination of things for each situation and rifle or pistol .
 
It's interesting but frustrating lol. Luckily I know the rifle shoots extremely good. I'll keep fiddling with them just because they seem to be available and not very expensive. I'd say it will be a learning event but I'm just playing with seating depth and when I get them as tight as I can I'll finish with the tmb tuner that's on it. Was planning on having it ready for eastern Washington but not enough time. Probably should have bowed down and bought some of the 90 bergers I had shooting good off eBay or the like. Oh well, I have a couple other rifles ready to go as good as I can make them
 
In early January 25 years ago here we had about a foot of snow on the ground it was below zero and had been for a week or so . The wind wasn't blowing and had been pretty calm for the most part . It seems that the wind blows in the cold fronts then stops for awhile then it will start blowing and blow in a warm front . So I was nearly out of town by 60 miles to the north on the Cheyenne river I sat up to the west of it and maybe 25 feet higher then the river below a cut bank . As the sun began to come up I let out a couple of howls two barks and another howl . I waited for a couple of minutes and did it again . to the east they answered me out maybe 1/2 mile away down on the river , it's not really more then a stream . I talked with them a little they went quiet so I did as well . I could hear them trotting on the ice before I could see them there was three of them . When they were 50 yards out I shot the one to my left side it ran to the edge of the river and dropped in the tall dried out weeds . The other ones ran to my right side into the tall weed cover . I got on my howler and did some hurt coyote screams one of them came running back and would raise up on it's hide legs trying to see over the tall weeds when it stopped and stood I shot it went down . I got to them and had a young female from the first shot and an older male from the second shot . By the time I got back to town they both were frozen hard as rocks .
 
I haven't seen any antelope fawns yet but it should be getting close to them being born now . The antelope , deer and cattle were almost all bedded down this morning at 7:00 but were up and grazing by 10:30 . We had a west wind of around 10 mph by then and got to 86 today but it's still green for now .
 
Record rain fall last weekend, cooler temps and wet. Supposed to last till fall ( La Niña). Definitely the evergreen state. Streets would grow green if wasn't no traffic for a month. I'd complain but it keeps the population at bay somewhat. About 2 years and they're ready to go back home ( hopefully) seen a new fawn last weekend trying to follow its mom across a highway through a canyon. Made it this time
 
I never did get to the place where I liked high humidity . I worked a lot in higher humidity when I was younger when it was hot it seemed hotter and when it was cold it seemed colder chilled even the bones . Hot is hot and cold is cold but I sure like the lower humidity and heat and cold index's we have where I live teens and lower 20 percent humidity makes me happy .
 
Here where I live around this time of June the adult coyote start to move the pups from the den holes and start them camping out in the sage brush and grassy draws . They will for the most part not return to holes again instead they will move around with the adults going to where the adults are feeding . They have already been learning some hunting skills by their play with the other pups as well as the adults . Now they will be exploring their new world chasing bugs and other small critters . They will practice their stalking and pouncing skills on them as play things , their toys provided by their world around them starts at an early age to teach them the skills needed for a life style that often puts them at odds with the humans . By sometime around early to mid August they will start to follow the adults on their hunting excursions mostly staying back out of the way and learning from that , then coming to feed on the larger animals on site . What they are learning is to stay low out of sight remain quiet and to be patient and to watch their prey to pick the best chance of taking one by observing them . When you watch them hunting it's not just a hit or miss thing it's more of a targeted choice that has been made . I watched a pair of coyote hunting a heard of sheep with lambs that had guard lamas up on summer pasture in the mountains where there was very little cover to hid the movement of the coyote . That was a learning experience for me . They came trotting toward the heard and at around 400 yards one of them laid down while the other one kept trotting toward the lama as it saw the coyote it started to gather the heard and get them bunched up and was starting to move them away from the approaching lone coyote. While one coyote kept the attention of the lama and it bunched the heard the other coyote crept around them and stayed low out of sight . One coyote decoyed the lama and kept it focused on it while the other coyote got into place to make it's dash and strike . When it was in place the decoy coyote made a false charge at the lama , which the charged the coyote it saw . At this time the sheep lambs and lama were all focused on the coyote in the open . The other coyote ran in grabbed a lamb and had in down by the throat and killed before any one in the bunch knew what was happening . The lama didn't seem to notice the kill and after charging the decoy started to heard the bunch away from where the kill was . After it had them away from the kill site by a quarter of a mile or so the decoy returned to it's partner and started to have supper . Neither one got to enjoy their hard earned prize , I learned how they were doing what they were , where they were coming in from and where their pups were camped at , it cost the rancher one more lamb but in the end paid for two adults and eight pups and a lesson in coyote abilities and ways for me to use in the future .
 

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