PHOTO COURTESY OF DAVID ZEUG
I was right, too.
Two opportunities at coyotes in one day does not
happen often. Two chances a year are more likely for
me, but I’d experienced the adrenaline rush that comes
when you put in your time and were given a chance.
And like I said, isn’t that what we’re really hunting for
anyway?
I wasn’t done yet, though. It was clear coyotes were
running the lake’s ice in their quest to f ind food and
each other during their mid winter mating season.
A couple days later I was working another piece of
shoreline, glassing and calling periodically as I hunted
into the light wind when I saw him trotting toward me,
poking into various pockets in the twisted ridges of ice.
Sometimes he’d climb to the top of them and look out
over the arctic like landscape. Once he even lay down
on top of one until a roving band of ravens pestered
him enough to get him moving again.
I hoped my third chance would be a charm. My cover
was good, the gun was resting on my glove again and
he was closing fast, almost too fast. I have enough
trouble hitting a coyote standing still and this one was
trotting steadily and would soon be within my 150-yard
comfort zone. I wanted him to stop and knew how to
make that happen. I dug my call out of my pocket and
put it in my mouth while following him in my scope.
One short, quiet note was all it took to stop him in his
tracks. And a split second later after the front shoulder
hit, he was nose down on the ice.
Coyote populations are up east of the Mississippi and
unlike other furbearers, so are the prices on prime
coyote pelts. And the memories gained from hunting
these fascinating predators? Priceless.
Volume 03 No. 01 | 2019
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