On the first stand a coyote came in pretty quick and pretty fast, and I shot it with the shotgun. Coyote goes down, moves around a little, and then lays there for about 5minutes, moving around a little every now and then but not really that active. I'm scanning the area when I catch some movement - it's a coyote running away from the stand and into the thick brush. It took a second for my brain to realize that the coyote was the same one that was supposed to be dead! I jumped up and tried to head him off as I ran into the brush, and I could hear him thrashing around in the leaves, but after quite a while of searching in near impassable brush, we couldn't find him. Lesson Re-Learned: hit 'em until they stop moving.
A few stands later another coyote comes in, full steam ahead, and then comes to a halt about 30 feet in front of Weev. He shoots and misses, but then makes up for it when he dumps her running away at about 70 yards. Nice big furred out female coyote, too.
A few stands later we had crawl into a deep canyon and I just knew that a fox was going to come in. I tell Weev to get ready and then I start calling. Less than 2 minutes later BOOM! I hear the roar of a shotgun followed by the scream of a fox. A few seconds after that I hear a lot of scrambling and realize that Weev is running down the wash and BOOM! he shoots again. I get up and follow him - seems that the fox (who literally had the stuffing knocked out of him) laid there for a second and then got up and ran - he died in a rock hole but we couldn't get him out. Lesson Re-Learned (again): hit 'em until they stop moving.
Next stand we called in two foxes who wouldn't commit to shotgun range, and seemed to be more interested in chasing each other around in the rocks. Then on the last stand of the day we called in a coyote who slipped away into some brush downwind before Weev could take a shot. But all in all it was a good day - 3 coyotes and 3 foxes called in, and the new guy got to see everything and even got to pull the trigger with success.
But above all, I came away with this: no matter how many times you hunt, no matter how many animals you kill, you always have something to re-learn. In this case: hit 'em until they stop moving.
And as a side-note, I got the chance to use my new Pelt Pakker from Kettle Creek Calls yesterday to drag this big heavy coyote back to the truck. Weev says it was pretty comfortable, and I know it sure beats having my old drag, which was a piece of 550 cord, dig into my hand from the weight.
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