Never give up!

A chilly morning this last week found a my friend Jim and I out predator hunting. We were prepared to be out all day, starting in the juniper covered grasslands and planning to eventually move into the thick pines. Our first stand produced two coyotes, who almost simultaneously came into the area, but from different directions. One coyote approached from Jim's side, and one from mine. Both stayed in the thick brush, offering only brief glances of fur as they moved from bush to bush. Both coyotes also moved quickly into the thick brush that was our downwind, and were never seen again. Clearly we had just been given the slip by two "educated" dogs, but our outlook for animal activity in the area was good after such a productive stand.

Later in the day our outlook was not so positive. We hunted hard, made excellent stand setups, produced great call sequences, and yet we saw nothing more. Oh we saw deer and elk, but never managed to get a peek at another predator, though I'm sure we must have called some in. The wind had really picked up and swirled constantly throughout the day, making it hard to pinpoint and accurately monitor the downwind side. We continued to enjoy the hunting experience, but we were getting itchy to get our sights on some predators!

As the sun sank low in the sky, we talked of maybe just calling it quits and getting an early start home. But we've both been in this game long enough to know that when you do that, you'll always be left wondering what could have happened . . . . so we pressed on. As I screamed my final set of rabbit distress and then signaled to Jim that the stand was over, we looked at the horizon which now completely hid the sun. We had, at best, 20-30 minutes of shooting light left, and decided that we would do one more stand. We moved into an area close to the city limits and setup so that I could cover the downwind as Jim began a series of distress calls and lone howls. About 5 minutes into the stand, I spotted a coyote moving hard and fast towards Jim. I raised my rifle and watched through the scope as he charged towards Jim, who gave out a sudden bark, freezing the coyote in his tracks 60 yards away. I continued to watched through my scope as Jim center-punched the yote with a V-Max bullet, sending him to the ground. A few more minutes of calling produced no more animals, but as we ended the stand, we each wore a smile and were very relieved to have a coyote on the ground. Of course we had a great day hunting together and enjoyed our time in the outdoors, but it is always satisfying to get what you've been hunting. Even though we knew to keep going, it's a lesson that can never be learned often enough - never give up!