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!
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