killdeernow
Beginner
- Dec 20, 2006
- 199
- 0
I headed to my friends house, like I do every year, for two solid days of coyote hunting. Yes, it is August and it’s easier to call in coyotes. The fur is crap but the times are great and the coyotes are everywhere. We hit certain areas before all the predator hunting contests begin because the places we go get hit HARD. At the end of the two days, we called in 4 and killed 3, we spotlighted about 6 and killed 3 and we crossed paths with one and brought it down for a total of 7 coyotes.
Not a big deal I guess in August but what you are about to see is why coyote season is 365 in Nevada.
By Saturday afternoon, we hit all of the areas we usually hit and I told my friend Mike I wanted to see new territory. I told him I was looking for a coyote rich environment that I haven’t been to. So he agreed to show me some new Nevada country. We ended up on this beat up road, in 4-Low crawling through washes, rocks, etc. It was some pretty nasty stuff. I was thinking to myself, if I were a coyote, I wouldn’t live here. I didn’t say it though because he was kind enough to play tour guide the rest of the day. As we were heading up this wash, Mike yelled, “COYOTE.”
I replied, “Seriously?”
He said, “Yeah, running up that finger”
I told him to let me know when I was next to the finger he spotted the coyote at and I would stop. He then yelled, “stop” and I did. We both got out of the truck and started looking around. We didn’t see anything but then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It was a coyote about 190 yards straight up this finger that led to the top of the mountain. I found a good rock to steady myself on w/my bipod…I needed the rock because it was such a steep slope up. I got the coyote in my crosshairs and the 223 WSSM sounded off. Down he went!
I went up to the top of the finger to retrieve him because I wanted a picture of me, Mike and the coyote to capture the memory of the last two days. After I got down the hill with the coyote, I walked around the truck to get my camera and as I was looking down, I spotted blood. I told Mike, “I have blood.” It wasn’t the coyotes because I didn’t drag him around the truck. I then followed the blood trail to a gut pile (stomach only). I then jumped to a conclusion that it was a poacher and I started cursing and was about to get the GPS coordinates to report it to the Nevada Department of Wildlife. I then started walking around the back of the truck and I saw this!!!
It was a Bighorn Sheep lamb killed less than 36 hours ago. Its back half was eaten! That’s what the coyote was eating when he heard us coming up the wash. We can’t prove the coyote actually killed the lamb but there was a spring no more than a hundred yards away full of water and the lamb appeared to be in decent shape (skin wise…the part that was left). Lesson learned here: DON’T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS…it definitely was NOT a poacher! Here’s a picture with the lamb and the coyote (the blood on the lamb’s head was the coyotes).
Then one with Mike and me.
Not a big deal I guess in August but what you are about to see is why coyote season is 365 in Nevada.
By Saturday afternoon, we hit all of the areas we usually hit and I told my friend Mike I wanted to see new territory. I told him I was looking for a coyote rich environment that I haven’t been to. So he agreed to show me some new Nevada country. We ended up on this beat up road, in 4-Low crawling through washes, rocks, etc. It was some pretty nasty stuff. I was thinking to myself, if I were a coyote, I wouldn’t live here. I didn’t say it though because he was kind enough to play tour guide the rest of the day. As we were heading up this wash, Mike yelled, “COYOTE.”
I replied, “Seriously?”
He said, “Yeah, running up that finger”
I told him to let me know when I was next to the finger he spotted the coyote at and I would stop. He then yelled, “stop” and I did. We both got out of the truck and started looking around. We didn’t see anything but then I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. It was a coyote about 190 yards straight up this finger that led to the top of the mountain. I found a good rock to steady myself on w/my bipod…I needed the rock because it was such a steep slope up. I got the coyote in my crosshairs and the 223 WSSM sounded off. Down he went!
I went up to the top of the finger to retrieve him because I wanted a picture of me, Mike and the coyote to capture the memory of the last two days. After I got down the hill with the coyote, I walked around the truck to get my camera and as I was looking down, I spotted blood. I told Mike, “I have blood.” It wasn’t the coyotes because I didn’t drag him around the truck. I then followed the blood trail to a gut pile (stomach only). I then jumped to a conclusion that it was a poacher and I started cursing and was about to get the GPS coordinates to report it to the Nevada Department of Wildlife. I then started walking around the back of the truck and I saw this!!!
It was a Bighorn Sheep lamb killed less than 36 hours ago. Its back half was eaten! That’s what the coyote was eating when he heard us coming up the wash. We can’t prove the coyote actually killed the lamb but there was a spring no more than a hundred yards away full of water and the lamb appeared to be in decent shape (skin wise…the part that was left). Lesson learned here: DON’T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS…it definitely was NOT a poacher! Here’s a picture with the lamb and the coyote (the blood on the lamb’s head was the coyotes).
Then one with Mike and me.
