The Bremen Hunt was fun. We saw 16 coyotes and 1 fox. Some were from the road driving between stands. Other did not respond to the call. We had 3 come to the call and got one coyote.
Here is a picture of Papapete dragging out his coyote that I called in for him. Interestingly this was the only one we had all weekend that charged in hard!
Of course, a tournament for Papapete and I isn't a tournament unless we have vehicle trouble, such as a flat or getting stuck. This year we got stuck pretty good. Here is me after we dug out. Notice the wierd angle of my shovel! The crust was so hard I bent the handle all to hell.
The next day we went out calling and we decided to hit a spot we hit the day before in the tournament. We knew there were more coyotes there and we wanted to redeem some mistakes we made the day before.
Here is a picture of one of Papapete's snowshoe tracks from the day before. Look what took advantage of his path!
During midday I finally ended my drought. We walked into a river valley and upon splitting up to different hillsides kicked up 3 coyotes across the river. We figured they were 600-800 yards away. I was in the process of crossing an open snowy area to get to my vantage point. I froze and crouched down. 2 of the coyotes hightailed it out of there. The other stayed put. I eventually got prone and got my snowshoes off but I was totally exposed and didn't want to risk spooking the last one!
Papapete got on the call and after about 10 minutes of distress and ki-yis this coyote plus another bedded down above him started to come in.
I am going to try to explain this but without a picture it is hard. Today I hunted a stand I will remember forever because of it's beauty.
We are waiting and waiting for this coyote to come to us. We were still up on the bank so the only way we would see this coyote is if it went uphill to get to us. Papapete is on my left and he has a hill on his left with a 6-7 foot high dropoff (ridge) of snow on his left side. I am expecting this coyote to show up about 50 yards in front of me by popping into view. I look to my left and and coyote is standing on the ridge of snow (highest point around) and he is about 40 to 50 yards in front of Papapete and above him. I can hear Papapete lip squeaking but he is not moving his gun. I figured he could see him but later told me he couldn't-he just figured the coyote was now close and was coaxing. I pivot my gun to the left and in my scope it looks like a magazine cover...white snow ridge, bright blue sky, and a pale yote standing quartering me, looking for a rabbit! Squeeze, pop, yelp, and tail twitch ended the deal.
Here is the coyote up on the snow ridge. The distant hill is where they were bedded.
Here is the coyote's viewpoint. Notice above her shoulder the white snowbank (low spot) and the snowshoes (black dot in the low spot)...that was where I was laying prone. Did she see me?
Lesson: If you walk into a stand and get busted...keep calling!
Today we saw 14 coyotes and 2 fox and we made 5 stands and got 1 coyote.
Here is a den we found near nightfall tonight. This was in a rockpile where we had a coyote stand up while we were calling but wouldn't commit.
