remingtonman_25_06
Handloader
- Nov 17, 2005
- 2,807
- 402
Thursday night me and a buddy planned on going coyote hunting all day up a canyon I know theres tons of yotes. We got up at 5 am friday morning and were out walking by 6. We set up the foxpro call and called a couple spots with no response or seeing anything. We walked about 1 mile more and sat down to call again. My friend did not want to take a rifle, I have no idea why really, I dont think he wanted to pack the extra weight all day. Turns out I'm very glad I didn't let him borrow my .222 rem anyways, as this would turn out to be one of my worst hikes out yet. Anyways, I put the foxpro on my favorite call which is the woodpecker distress. In about 5 minutes my buddy is whispering at me to get over to his side as there was a coyote bombarding in from about 300 yards. By the time I got to his side of the sagebrush, the yote had stopped and I could not see it as it was blended in. Just then he turned and started trotting away. Ha, I got ya now is what I was thinking. I was packing my 7mm RM and shooting my 175g Sierra GK's. She stopped out there about 250 yards and I let one go. Poof a fur went flying and the first yote was down for the day. This was about 9 am. We picked up the call and made our walk about another mile to another stand location. Once again, I put the foxpro on the woodpecker distress and much to my surprise, my friend was whispering at me to get over there as there was another yote coming in. The dang coyotes were always coming in on his side, and he didn't even have a gun. Well, this coyote was a little smarter then the first one. By the time I got over to my buddy, the coyote was already going away circling. I only got a glimpse of it but didn't shoot. He went down in a little ravine, so I sprinted about 50 yards to try to close the distance for when he came out the other side. Well he came out ther other side about 200 yards away, but I was now winded, and I did not have a rest to shoot off. I knelt down and got on him, but did not shoot. My crosshairs were going everywhere. I was sad to let that one go. I also told my buddy the next time he comes in here, he needs to pack a rifle, no more of that crap. Well it was now about 11:30 so we went to another call site about another mile away and ate lunch and called. We did not get any more coyotes to come into the call that day. We saw tons of mule deer, probly around 100 of them. We saw some pretty nice 3 points and one decent 4 point. WHere were they during the season??? It gets dark about 4:30 here, so I wanted to head out of the canyon about 3 since we were 5-6 miles back up in there. I had my crooked horn outfitters packed with everything...but a flashlight. Me and my buddy called a little more and didn't see or hear anything and so I decidced at 3 it was time to head back down. This is where things got real fun. My friend could not keep up with me in the first place, he is not used to walking 10+ miles, of which the first 4 are uphill. We did happen to walk right up on a coyote about 1/2 hour before dark. I shot him about 100 yards offhand. Boy those 175g's tear them yotes up. I brought my camera, only to find out the batteries were dead, so no pics of either coyote By the time it got dark, we still had 2-2.5 miles to go. I had no flashlight, it was pitch black. We were in a big dark canyon. Well I had my cell phone so I opened that up and used that for what little light I could. I could barely make out the trail and we were both slipping and falling all the time. My friends knees finally were giving out on him. He said they've never acted that way before, but he said he was in pain. He was ready to spend the night under a sagebrush I think. I had to encourage him to keep going and that were almost there. He was wanting to stop every 20 yards or so, but I told him that wont help him, all will happen is you'll get really stiff, so lets keep moving. It was now around 6 pm and we had been walking pretty much blind for an hour and a half. My friend was getting really agitated I could tell. To top it off, I forgot to add that it was raining off and on the whole day yesterday and we were completely soaked to the bone. Gore tex is worthless, over priced crap anyways. I had one good slip. I fell off the trail and slid on my rifle 10ft down a sand embankment. To say I was mad was an understatement. I could care less about me, I just wanted my gun to be alright. The thing was covered in sand. I had a hell of a time climbing back up that ledge, I couldn't go anywhere else as theres a big flooded creek at the bottom of the canyon. We sidehilled for about 3 miles out of there. It was a pain in the you know what. We finally got out at 7:30 pm. My cell phone went dead at about 7 so we had absolutely no light for the last 1/2 hour. All I got to say is I"m soooooo glad I knew where I was hunting and familiar with the place. Otherwise, we woulda been spending a cold night out in the sagebrush. I dont know about you guys, but even in the dark with a flashlight is hard to know where your going. I led us out of 3-4 miles with nothing more then a stupid little cell phone lite. My friend kept wanting to go down the bottom but I told him its 10x darker in the bottom, and to top it off, theres a creek and its flooded and theres switchbacks and I did not feel like swimming. Anyways, to say the least, I think I cured my friend from going coyote hunting with me again. He was dead tired when we got back. I was not that bad physically. My shoulders were kinda sore from packing a 30lb pack for 13 hours on top of packing my rifle. I dont know if it was all worth it or not. I did get 2 coyotes though, but no pics so thats a bummer. I guess I'll still have the memory of the coyote hunt all day with my buddy, and how miserable and dumb I was for not packing a little lifesaver called a flashlight!!!
