Indiana Coyotes

Neilson  Friday, November 26, 2010

Adventure Review

My deer season has been lack-luster at best.  A broken toe has really slowed up my ability to hunt some of the thicker stuff that might have held deer.  But the fields and woods have yielded a pleasant surprise, coyotes!   Opening morning had produced no deer sightings so I moved to a new location for the afternoon hunt.  The weather had the feel of rain and I was hoping the deer would start to move.  Getting comfortable  in a double ladder stand put up by a buddy, I was just getting in tune with the woods when I noticed some movement to the west.  As silent as smoke, a big coyote slinked through the woods bent on slipping by as unnoticed as possible.  I quickly decided that this coyote was too good to pass up, even on opening day and brought up the shotgun.  Sensing something amiss, the coyote moved quickly through the woods but paused for just a second to look back in my direction.  Wrong move yote!  A quick shot dropped the coyote where it had stood.  A beautiful hide on a large coyote. 

Fast forward to the Black Friday and I was back trying to hunt deer again.  This time I was in a stand across a field from where I had taken the first coyote.  I had switched to my muzzleloader and was now hoping a buck whitetail or another coyote would give me an opportunity.  The temperature was cold and the windchill really made the sit cold but I felt that after 2 days of rain, the deer would be ready to move around.  Looking west again, I caught movement at the edge of an alfalfa field.  There near the brown grasses stood a coyote.  Twice it moved and stopped, scanning the surrounding area.  As soon as I spotted the coyote, I had my gun up ready to go.  In my experience, the coyote will run in a heartbeat if anything looks amiss.  Finally the yote started moving again and started to clear some trees.   I tracked the path of the coyote as it trotted into the open field and heading towards the woods I had taken the first coyote a couple of weeks before.  The shot was almost automatic as I kept the crosshairs on the shoulder of the yote.  When the smoke cleared, the coyote was down only a few yards away from where the shot occured. 

As I walked back with the coyote in hand, I reflected back on the past couple of weeks.  No calling, no decoys just good old fashioned luck and good shooting.  As if to signal that the coyotes might be shot but never shot out, another yoddle dog crossed just in from of my truck as I was walking back.  Now if I could just get the deer to follow this program, I’d have it made!