My Newb Hunting Experience
I've been out in Northwest Kansas for the last five days or so to attend the Herndon Ox Roast (which is tomorrow if you are nearby). I carried my coyote hunting stuff with me from Tennessee thinking that I would see a gazillion of them! That was not the case....
One of the locals told me that a lot of them were killed by the mange. I have no reason not to believe him as some of the other folks on the forum have had areas where the mange has greatly reduced the numbers of coyotes.
The first day I tried a couple of stands near a natural spring. It is a pretty wooded area with one of the few creeks running out of it. There was a good place to park the pickup over a nearby hill. I took my Mojo Critter and El Cheapo caller to try. The wind was actually to our side as I couldn't get into a good position to be able to see. I tried for about half an hour with no response.
Later, I went to my prairie dog town. It is in a large valley with water, but not much cover since the crops are just now starting to grow (corn). I figured they would be near there since there are prairie dogs and lots of young deer. The wind was perfect for this one, but I didn't see or hear anything.
My nephew and I spent a couple of evenings using the siren with no success. The areas looked pretty decent with some cover, water, and such, but they may have been just too close to people.
After my brother-in-law Kyle poisoned the prairie dog town, there was only a few left. I shot a bunch of ammo at them in a futile attempt to take them out. The ones that were left over were pretty twitchy so I wasn't getting enough shots. I burned a bunch of ammo until I was down to my coyote ammo (hollow points for my .223 HandiRifle). I was having a hard time with my 12x scope, I really needed one with a better magnification for shooting the really long distance ones.
After that I gave it a rest and went to hunting rabbits and grackles with the air guns. I bagged a few rabbits and a few grackles so I was pretty happy. Besides I didn't have to walk very far and could run back into the air conditioner. Very Happy
There was a place that I wanted to go. It is my wife's cousin's place. They don't live there, but they farm it still while living in town. They have a series of hay field surrounded by some of the largest cottonwood trees I've ever seen. All the fields were recently cut and the hay bailed. There was lots of cover for animals all around.
My real problem was that I had made a plan at those other locations just knowing that there were coyotes. I also was humbled by the hot Kansas weather and so to go down here I just carried: my RuffiDawg, my ELK Howler, in my pocket I had a Primos KiYi which I really like. I had my rifle with 7 rounds of ammo and that was it. What was missing? NO SHOOTING STICKS and I left my binos in the pickup truck about half a mile away.
At least though I remembered my pickup and wind discipline. To be honest after the last few days I didn't expect to see anything (BIG MISTAKE). While I did pretty well at the start I skylined myself trying to get into a good spot for a stand. It was such a beautiful location! I could see hundreds of yards, the wind was perfect, but I was too casual moving in. I saw a large deer down near the hay bails. Off to the left another smaller one. Right in the middle was a smaller shape and I said to myself “I wonder if that is a coyote?†when I saw it hightail out of there! BUSTED! I didn't even get to raise my rifle! He was at least 250 yards away. DARN!
It is a huge section at least three miles of meandering ditches and cottonwood trees. I was more cautious the next time and setup on a point. I was able to crawl into it. It was perfect! I managed to call a cow, a wild turkey, and a rat (I mean a deer they are EVERYWHERE!) I could have hit the deer over the head. I guess the RuffiDawg kinda sounds like a fawn distress. She was a little puffed up to be sure.
I move about half a mile this time down to the last hayfield. It was perfect too! Nice field of view, perfect location for coyotes, wind in the best direction possible. I even remembered to sneak into the right way. However I blew the mouthcalls until I almost ran out of breath. Maybe my earlier escapades have ran them off? Beside me was a kinda dike that the tractors used to get into the field to bail. It ended in the other end of the pasture.
Casually I got moving down the hill. What is this? Off to my left its a coyote! It was circling downwind from my calling location! He saw me first and was moving at high speed. I managed three shots with my single-shot rifle before he went over the last rise. DRAT!
Can I list all of my mistakes?
1)No shooting sticks! Trying to hit one without some sort of rest was pretty pointless. I shouldn't have even started hunting until I went back to the RV and got them.
2)If I had my shotgun (back at the RV) I could have nailed him.
3)No binos. While you don't need them as much in TN they are mission essential in the wide open prairie.
4)Having failure in mind. I knew better moving into an area. After the last few days I just figured I was wasting my time. If I was prepared, I would have had my shotgun and shooting sticks at the very least.
Anyway, I wanted to share some hard learned lessons. I've read and watched so much I should have known better, but I think sometimes you've got to make some early mistakes to really learn and have those mistakes have some consequences.
What I have done better since I've been out here is I've learned to make better sounds on my hand calls. While I'm not Les Johnson, I think I can make my RuffiDawg sound a lot like his now. It is amazing how that after a few hours of practice you can get pretty good at the sounds.
After our Predator Hunting Seminar in TN, I bought an ELK Howler. It was kinda hard to learn how to use to be honest, but now I can howl pretty well with it. I would play the sounds on the electronic caller and imitate them. It has given me a lot of confidence in those two calls (and the KiYi which is a VERY easy call to master) that I just try with hand calls for awhile when I get back home to TN.
