Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

Here we have WYDOT travel information on the computer and you can look at the different web cams, on the different highways and towns or cities in the state. I suspect that every state has their own versions of it. Having lived the vast majority of my life here and having my Grandparents to teach me I do have a good supply laid up as well as my truck is set up for the different types of things that can be encountered here. Still, I find it better to wait for the conditions to improve before venturing out and about. Yesterday my wife was telling me about a young woman trucker down on I-80 that was stuck at a rest stop with the road closed, she was inexperienced with the high winds being 110 lbs. she was afraid to get out of her truck to crank the gear down on her trailer and make it more stable so that it wouldn't blow over. She said that she was scared as she had ever been. When we go from the areas that we are used to living in, to another so many things change that we probably won't think about beforehand. Calling coyotes from one area has different aspects to it from one area to another but it also has some similarities as well. I have traveled to Montana and Southern Indiana to call coyotes and used the same howls in both of these states that I use here, and they reacted the same to them. The open terrain here has its advantages as compared to the brushy terrain of Indiana but then the brushy terrain has its own advantages just like our area has disadvantages it does as well but with a little thought and having a good basic understanding of the coyote it can be done.
 
I got a call one evening to see if I would locate for the helicopter the next morning. They gave me a specific time that they wanted me to be there and start howling for some reason instead of the normal locate then call us on the radio. So, I got there at 4:30 waited till my 5:00 start time they had set, I had an old male setting in a draw maybe 200 yards in front of me open up then up the draw a few pups started talking. Behind me I could hear a couple of them talking probably a mile away but that was where the rancher was supposed to be. I heard the chopper coming it was slightly off course to where he said to meet him, so I jumped in my truck ran it up on a hill pointed it toward the helicopter and flashed my lights at him, he headed my way, so I put him on the coyote's location. He got the old male and a couple of the pups but the rest of them hit the den hole. He came in and I told him I would head out to another location 15 miles away and locate a couple that had gotten run off by deer does with fawns the day before as they were coming to my howls. And sent him to where the others had talked and the rancher. I got out to the other location and got set up behind a ridge, climbed over it through a saddle and got myself positioned howled a long lone howl and just watched the pair sat up on a small rock pile down the draw over a mile away, they just sat there not saying a word or moving, I heard him coming my way and watched them start running down the draw. I put him on the location that I had last seen them, but he was on the wrong fork of the draw I got him stopped and over the correct branch of the draw. He flew down the draw crossed a two-lane highway and was maybe half a mile past it when I heard a shot then another couple of shots. He landed and checked them it was a dry pair then he comeback set down and asked me did you really see those coyote or were you just guessing that they were there. They had run over a mile after hearing the chopper coming. That made me think that I had earned my pay for that day because if I hadn't been there, they would have gotten away again. They got two pairs down where the rancher was, and I went back to take the other 3 pups from the den. I had already taken the female from that den a few days earlier.
 
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I was visiting with the Wildlife Services guys one evening they said we are going to fly such and such area tomorrow morning. I said okay that's around thirty miles from where I'll be in the morning do you plan on being in my area. No, we have a lot to get done over there and at this place, so we won't be flying your area unless you call us. I got out there around daybreak and ran a few snares on the boundary line with another ranch. It was late June and the adults with the pups were still hanging around the birthing dens I had worked this area for a lot of years, so I knew the areas where they usually had dens. I figured that I would make a few stands and try to call a coyote or two off of the neighboring ranch and get a good location of a den. I hid my truck made my way to a good stand location sat down and did some glassing for about 15 or 20 minutes then let out a long howl waited a minute or so and did a series of interrogation howls. After around five minutes I did another series of interrogation howls when all of a sudden, a truck came screaming up a small hill parked, and a guy jumped out and started glassing then I heard a plane it circled then lined out and headed my way it dropped low and powered back and started to glide over my direction making a run to locate the coyote. I stood up out of my hide and waved him off. My cell phone started vibrating so I answered it, what are you doing in that area you said you were going to be at such and such place. Man, that's where I am. You said that you weren't going to be in my area unless I called you, new guys working in an area that they didn't fully know made a mistake in their location heard a coyote talking and called the plane in it does get interesting at times. I don't know how many people that I have howled in, but I have only howled in one plane. I have howled in a couple of guys at different times that were horse back and they would always ask me where is your truck.
 
When you are out and about nearly every day for over 36 years you get to have some interesting things happen and enjoy almost every minute of it. There are things that happen that most people will shake their head at and say yah right to but each and every one of has at one time or another had some very good, interesting experiences.
 
DSheetz said:
Thank you all for your kindness. 74honker wishing you a fast recovery please don't be like I am and push it too fast and hard let your body do what it needs to in its own time frame.
Click to expand...
Yeah I tried that about a week ago and it told me different lol. Trying to behave now but it's tough to do. Am feeling a bit better everyday now if I do behave.
 
I got out some today as expected with all of the wind and snow the south facing hills were blown clear, the north facing hills, draws and low places were blown full of snow. The animals were pretty much on the south facing blown clear hill sides eating or laying in the sun. Here even if it doesn't get above freezing the sun shining on the darker browns will melt snow and ice so the animals will have a drink. The coyotes and other predators will be laying in the sun out of the wind as well. Alot of the time the wind will let up after the sun sets and they will then get out and hunt. The front that hit us has now moved east and you guys are now catching the brunt of it. I hope that you are keeping in out of it the best that you can. Guys like VenceMule and so many more of us know how hard it is to not get out and hunt before and after the fronts move in or out but also know how dangerous this type of weather can be. We usually don't get the ice storms like a lot of the country does we do in the spring get wet snow blowing horizontal that builds up on things. The temperature got to 46 today and the snow is crusted if you are having to travel in it that really makes for some tough going. when you break through the crust it's a real problem to dig out of it, but the good thing is that with the 40 mph winds it's not drifting now. We have road closures for light weight or high-profile vehicles as we have gusts over 60 mph. Yes, you can die in this type of weather! The wind chills are quite low frost bite can and does happen the animals will be laid down and if you just really have to get out and try your luck at tricking them you will need to get right on top of them for them to hear your efforts, but then your scent will be dispersed to several parts per million. To all do your best to stay warm, dry and safe. to those of you that have to get out and get the power back on for us that are spoiled and can stay in out of it now thank you be safe and healthy.
 
I was out one day in late June checking some snares, because you just don't let up on the coyotes if you are working on a sheep ranch. They had docked 95% and 102% in these pastures and were running between 5500 and 6000 in the two pastures. The neighboring ranch hadn't done quite as well and told the guy I was working on that they were still losing lambs. I made my way up a little used road along a 1950's era pipeline that went up the bottom of a deep draw for over a mile. It was a coyote travel route they used to get unseen from one ranch to the other untold generations of coyote had used this draw. When I would get to good tracking soil I would stop get out of my truck and look for tracks there were plenty of them going in both up and down the draw in the stock trails. After I was getting near the top of the draw and close to the ridge top, I stopped got my gear out and set up my siren, it's a 210 db siren so hearing protection is a must have. I ran it for several seconds but less than a minute as I don't want to run it long enough that the coyotes will stop howling before I stop using it. I took my hearing protection off and waited probably a minute passed then way off in the distance on the neighbors ranch I heard three distinct coyotes start talking. They were well over a mile out and it seemed to me that they had taken the time to get on a hilltop before talking as they often will here in my area. This ranch had its own predator control guy, so I got on the phone to the guy I was working for and told him where the coyotes were that I had heard then finished checking my sets and went home. That evening I got a call from the rancher I worked for asking me to go out and locate for the helicopter in the pasture where I had heard them that morning. They had a new guy with some cur dogs that they wanted to try out to see how he did before hiring him for the county to den the pups. I got out there and sat listening well before daybreak, it was quiet then after sunrise They gave me a call and told me when the helicopter would be there. At the appropriate time I howled my locator howls, a couple of ridges over they answered I heard the helicopter coming and got on the radio with it gave him the location and started watching the coyotes, the chopper came in and he was too close to me so I got him turned and put him on top of them they all just sat on a hill top and watched the chopper till he got his gunner on them. The first one went down and the chase was on for the other two, as they were taking care of them, I saw some half-grown pups running in the bottom of a draw towards me and got on the radio with the rancher and the new guy to let them know where they were. Three of them holed up and the guy's dogs kept them there one ran and came up the draw towards me. The head of the draw had a cut bank that was close to 5 feet high I ran down there behind the pup jumped in the draw. A half-grown pup sat in the shade under the cut bank with his head hanging down it bothered me to kill him but that's what I had to do. They were all well fed on lamb fat and well. They hired the new guy he lasted a little over a year before his wife wanted to go home to where the grandkids were. He gave me one of his pups she turned out good, but she wasn't my old dog, Buckwheat. There will be some good dogs but most of the time you will have only one that really stands out to you, I had two Elly May and Buckwheat. Someone killed Elly May Buckwheat was a litter mate of hers that Howard Carnathan sent me, after she was killed, they came all the way to Wyoming from Tupelo Mississippi. But that's another story in itself .
 

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