Worth going back

Here's another coyote from the weekend before last.I had a couple hours on sunday.So I decided on finding a spot on some county land that was close to the highway where I see coyotes crossing alot.The land along the highway is private,but behind the the private land is a big chunk of county land.I found an area while morel mushroom picking last spring that looked promising.It had alot of red pine and balsam in the area,but also had some cut off areas of hardwood.After parking the truck,I started walking in looking for a decent setup,I found a logged off spot that was bordered by some thick balsam.It was kinda like a valley,so I set up on the north side up on a slight rise that overlooked the valley.It was 2pm,clear sky and bright sun and a little breezy.I sarted on a carver 220 swift bullet call for a few seconds,but decided to switch to my carlton open reed for a little more volume.Even though I was on a little rise,there was a high ridge to the south,and wanted to reach out past it,along with the wind,I was sitting in a bowl.After screaming on the open reed for about 3min.,here comes a coyote trotting in from the west along the bottom of the ridge.He's about 80yds out,broadside.I wait until he gets out in front of me.Just as he does,he turns and comes straight towards me.I still have him in the scope,when he gets about 60yds away,he stops and sniffs the ground,then lifts his heads and winds the air,at that moment I touch the trigger and send a 100grain sierra from my .243 into his chest via windpipe.He just drops in a pile.It took longer walking in than it did on the stand,I love it when things fall together.Here's a pic of him.

 So a week or so later. Only had time today for one stand.Decided to try the spot that I called in and killed a single male above about a week before.That was the first time I tried that spot,and figured it was worth another shot.The wind had died down since yesterday,with a front moving in tonight.Again,I sat with my back to the north,with the wind coming from the SW.Looking out into this logged out select cut type of a ravine.

I started the stand with a high pitched lone howl,with my homemade howler.Then went silent,scanning the area,looking for movement.It was nice.The wind was pretty much nil,the sun was low,behind a few scattered clouds.

After a few minutes,and detecting zero movement of any incoming,I decided to let out a short series of loud kiyi's,and left it echo through the hardwoods.After a few seconds,I thought I seen movement to my left,beyond the slight rise in front of me.So,I watched for a minute or two,searching out every little shape,and shadow,looking for anything that might belong to a coyote.NOTHIN.

So I'm into about the 10 minute mark of the stand,and give out a short series of bunny screams on my carlton critter call for about 15 sec.

Just as I pulled the call from my lips,a blur of fur is coming in hard along the right side of the slight rise just to my left,in front of me.Then to my hard left,in my periphial vision,I catch another blur of fur coming up the slight rise next to me.I could hear their feet falling as they hit the shallow snow on frozen ground.It was time to do or die,and I wasn't about to die.I knew the second I throw my rifle up,the charger to the left was gonna see me,there was nothing blocking his view,so decide,to wait a second until the front charger got behind a tree,figuring she wouldn't know what was happening until she woke up dead.

As the nose of the 12 O'clock dog was vanishing behind a maple,I brought my rifle up.As I did,the hard charging dog to the left,who was about 10yds away,caught me and swapped ends,almost skiddin' sideways and kickin' up snow.At that instant the charger to my front,locked em' up,and swung her head in the direction of her fleeing accomplice,trying to access what just happend.She had stopped behind the tree,but not soon enough,for her head and neck were exposed at a mere 15 paces from the end of my .243,which a milli second later,barked,and left her lying on the snow,with her tail doing a few twitches of her last dance.The .243 hit her at mid neck,but couldn't do the deed when she swung around on the fleeing witness who wasted no time putting on the distance,to where coyotes go at times like this.