New Thing #26 - Coyote Hunting

Yay, this week marks halfway through my countdown!! :)

Christmas is all about family, so for my new thing this week, I had some quality father-daughter bonding time. My dad is an avid coyote hunter, so I decided to join him today. Fortunately, he did not make me watch one of his 84 hunting videos before we set out. Believe me, I've seen enough of those over the years. One of them left a surprise in front of my car the night before last, so I was on a mission to go for blood.

My parents still live on the farm I grew up on, so there are plenty of places to blend in and scope out our targets. When my dad goes out hunting, sometimes he lies low in a fence row, hidden among some trees, or recently, in the blind he built. It's set up off the ground and there's room for two people in it. That's where we went today. It's covered around the bottom of the actual blind to keep the wind out, but there's an opening at the top to shoot from. It's pretty cool since he built it from scratch rather than getting some generic one from Bass Pro.

There's the "trap door" to get in.

My dad's homemade decoys.

My dad in his camo. Can you see him?! He nearly blends in.

It was quite a bit warmer today than it has been in the past week or so, so all the snow and ice melted into a slushy pond.

Once my dad had the decoy set up, we headed up into the blind. Dad has a chair for him and he brought a swivel stool for me to sit on. We got set up and waited. Dad pulled out his calls and we waited. He tried his "howler" call and we waited. He tried his howler call again and we waited. I scanned the horizon again and again. But, you can't make sudden movements or they'll see it, so I had to move liked I was in slow motion. Then he tried his rabbit call and we waited. I scratched my nose. It took ten minutes to raise and lower my hand. We waited. I started to nod off and we waited. An hour went by and no sign of any coyotes. Not one damn coyote came into view. We gave up and decided to come back to the house and try again later.


The howler call...how it's supposed to sound! He has various different howler calls to mimic adult males, females and young pups.

Here's the rabbit in distress...

Me and dad. I didn't really have any hunting gear, so I had to borrow my dad's bib overalls and coat. I had to hem up the bottom of the pants about a foot so they weren't dragging on the ground.

A couple hours later, we went back out and tried again. We faced north instead of south since my dad's had success calling them in from that direction before. You're supposed to call into the wind so they can't smell your scent, but since we didn't have any luck earlier, we tried to call with the wind. We hoped that the can of coyote pee dad sprayed on the ground around us, and the showers we took earlier in the day would help mask our scent. I sat on the edge of my stool hoping to get a glimpse this time. So, again, dad pulled out his calls. We waited. He tried his adult male howler, we waited, his young pup howler, we waited, his rabbit call, we waited. Another damn hour went by and still no signs of the wily bastards. Maybe if we had an anvil or a box of dynamite, we would have had better luck.

As it got closer to dark, we decided to call it a day, but not before dad gave me my own call to try out. It looked a bit like a megaphone and had a plastic reed type thing that you pressed your lips on. You're supposed to blow in short bursts to reach the right pitch of the coyotes. My first attempt sounded a bit like a kazoo. As did my second and third. In between giggles I finally got a few out that sounded somewhat real. Although they sounded more like pups than they did the adult male. But dad said I did a decent job for my first attempt.

The tip of the call I used.

Here I go! The beginning sucks, but I get better toward the end...sort of. :)

Here's my dad's homemade rabbit decoy, Homer. It has a battery operated motor inside to make him flop around. I really wish we had though about this earlier in the day. That would have been quite entertaining. Dad said it works though. Stupid coyotes.

Even though we didn't see any coyotes, I still had fun with my dad. I respect his hobby and I know how much he enjoys it. It's very peaceful and tranquil out there, and I can see why he likes to go as often as he can. I'd get bored as hell out there all day, but he likes it, and that's what matters. Thanks dad! :)