Sunday, November 29, 2009

Trust Your Gut!

I traveled with my family up to Colorado for the Thanksgiving holiday. It was a really fun trip and we got to see family and friends and have some great adventures. And of course, I couldn't make a trip like that without doing a little hunting! I went out with my brother-in-law Matt and a local friend named Brandon.

Most of the land in Colorado is privately owned, which is such a different experience for me since Arizona is about 85% public. Except for a few stands that we did in the snow covered mountains, most of our hunting was done in the grasslands, and you can see for miles. Of course that means the coyotes can see you from a ways off, as well! Most of the yotes we saw were while we headed to a stand or after we were done, as there is little to no cover. The good news about this type of country is that there are prairie dogs everywhere and in between stands we really enjoyed testing our marksmanship skills on them!

On one small patch of farmland we hunkered down in a little wash with a few very small trees to use as cover. I had thought before we left the truck that I should have brought my shotgun, but this land was so open so I stuck to my rifle. GUT WARNING #1. Matt setup to my right and Brandon to my left, and as I set up my position, I thought to myself that I needed to be able to cover the big field behind me. But that would put me out of cover and in some long grass, so I stuck to the trees. GUT WARNING #2. As I began my calling I really started to look at the terrain features and realized that one of the most likely places a coyote would come from would be into the field behind me, but I hoped that it would have to come by one of my partners first. GUT WARNING #3. A few minutes into the stand I got this strong urge to unhook my sling so that if needed I could shoot my rifle weak-handed and be able to get a shot at something coming in from behind me. GUT WARNING #4. A few more minutes passed as I sang out a rodent distress sound and I realized that all I would have to do is adjust my position a little to be able to get a shot at the field behind me, which now was consuming all of my attention. GUT WARNING #5. Well it turns out there are only so many warnings that your gut instinct will give you, and as the coyote came blazing into the stand to Matt's right and straight to me, I realized that I was out of options. That furred up Colorado coyote stopped at about 30 yards and looked right in my direction as I was trying to figure out how to draw on him since I would have to completely turn my body. I could see from his behavior that the gig was up so I made my move. But I had a lot of movement to pull off and that yote had other ideas. By the time I got my scope on him he was headed for Kansas at Mach 2. I tried to slow him with a bark, then tried to stop him cold with the rifle, but he lived on for another day.

Moral of the story? Whether you are just getting started or whether you've been on countless stands as I have, always trust your gut!

The vistas were beautiful but the terrain is much more open than I am used to.



When we ventured into the high snowy country we came upon some moose, and I was able to sneak pretty close (but not too close!) to this cow and her calf. They are big animals!

Friday, November 20, 2009

The Finishing Shot

I consider myself a good shot. And I practice shooting a lot - I practice on moving targets, close targets and far away targets. It keeps me fine-tuned for shooting in the field when every round counts, and where you may only get one chance. Tuesday morning found me looking through the scope at a nice adult coyote, and just as I pulled the trigger the coyote turned to run, and the bullet made him stumble. I quickly shot again, and I heard the bullet hit but I was worried the dog would get away so I hurried over to where he was. From what I could tell the first bullet hit him in the spine above his shoulders, and the second bullet hit him too far back, shattering one rear leg and breaking the other. He was crippled from the spine shot at any rate, and as I approached he was dragging himself away on his front legs. I really do not like wounding an animal, and I pulled out my pistol to shoot the dog in the head. At first I missed the moving coyote, but I hit him with a subsequent round and he went down.

As I stood near the coyote and thought about the stand, it suddenly raised its head and looked around! I quickly shot it again with the pistol, and this time it was down for good. My point to this story is that when you wound an animal, then you are responsible for giving it a clean and quick death. I took more shots at this coyote than I usually have to, and things got a little bloodier than normal, and maybe it was just one tough dog, but either way I wish I would've killed it quicker. A coyote down is a coyote down, but just remember that amidst all the adrenaline and excitement of hunting, we all need to be as ethical as possible.


Wednesday, November 4, 2009

Eating predators - tasty or not so tasty?

A couple of years ago, I ate a coyote steak - it was nasty. Then I ate a bobcat steak, and it was really tasty. Well today I ate some fox filets, and it was . . . . well you'll need to check out my write-up over at the NPHA called "Predators are tasty!" to find out!

There are some people who are against predator hunting because predators hunters don't eat what we kill. Well I do, so that argument is no longer valid!