Got a chance to go out calling with my hunting buddy tonight and after 2 1/2 years of trying to score a coyote at this particular property, tonight it all came together. We arrived at our spot at about 5:25 and started the walk in. Not 100 yds later we came across fresh coyote tracks heading in as well. Not fifty more yards, we came across another set headed in the same direction. This is not uncommon for this area and as usual are expectations were high..but, we've had this feeling before at this location and confusingly always came up short...as we discussed on the 40 minute ride up, we knew it would just be a matter of time before we connected because of the history of near misses and the fact that every single time up here we've seen, heard or called and missed coyotes..this spot is roughly 1500 acres belonging to a very small hunting club and it is rarely called for predators as most of the members are deer, turkey and small game guys. Anyhow, we stomped out way through the deep snow and arrived at our calling location. We placed the call and the mojo out and nestled in to start our stand. After sitting silent for a few minutes we heard a coyote let out a series of howls probably 5-600 yards out to our left..I let it do its thing and when it finished I responded with a female howl from the Shockwave. A minute or two later the coyote let out a slightly longer series of yips and howls to which I again answered with a similar sounding series of female howls. Then things went silent. It was at that point I whispered to my friend "I bet its moving in"..to which he agreed. Eventually the coyote belted out a howl but this time it was a long lone howl and considerably closer..we were at that point on high alert..I answered back with a female long howl of my own..it did not answer. A minute later I did a ki-yi out of my mouth call and we sat. Next thing I know my buddy says "here he comes, here he comes"..I do a slight turn of my head and sure enough here comes wily on a steady clip 300 yards out and coming in hot...my buddy calmly flips to fire and we wait..Convinced he is now locked onto the mojo we're confident he'd come right in range..and he did. I was happy for my buddy on scoring a nice prime dog which is also his first, I was pleased with myself for not eff'ing it up on the calling and for us finally scoring together at a spot that had given us fits for the past couple years..it was a good night. Heres a pic of me with the prize.
