So I left my house at 3:45 a.m. to take a drive to a favorite calling spot. My hunting partner, who was also the shotgunner for the day, was a rare no-show...so I had to roll out solo. Since I had waited at my house a little while longer than anticipated to see if my buddy would eventually arrive, when I did finally get to the spot I was in a bit of a hurry to beat the rising sun..after a quick wind check at access gate #1 I determined the best way to get to my stand location was going to be on the backside road to the property. So I drove the few extra minutes, parked my truck, gathered my gear and was locked and loaded and on my way. Since it was getting ever lighter, I decided it'd be better to take a longer but more concealed route to get where I was going. Once finally in place, I grabbed my mojo critter and call and walked across a 30-40 yd wide cornfield and slightly downwind and placed them near the edge of a wide dirt road used by heavy equipment..and also used by what seems like every coyote in the area.. I say this because when I scouted this place in the past I noticed that this road in particular seemed to be the most traveled..it always had the most tracks going up and coming down and always had scat everywhere...even thought there are several other access roads that are within this parcel of land, this seems to be the favorite. I always felt they liked it so much because it runs down the center of the property, its the most "interior" of all the roads and it snakes its way in between wheat, soy and corn fields.. good for both food and cover...we have seen coyotes mousing in the soy before and back in February we called in and took a male that came straight down this same stretch of road..although at that time it was buried under almost a foot of ice and snow.. Anyhow, when I returned to my shooting position and checked my surroundings it crossed my mind that perhaps I had set up a little too close to the wheat field to the left of me that is just across the road. I was worried that if a coyote came through the waist high grass I'd never see it..and it would be in my lap..and since I was solo and wanted to lessen my load, I did not bring a shotgun.. hmmm, I could be in a pinch. I decided it was pretty light by now and instead of risking being spotted trying to change locations I decided to stay put and hope that a coyote would come down the long stretch of road or across the more vast corn field to my right and not the close cover of the wheat field to the left of me...Well, turns out what I feared the most happened..After placing the call and decoy I sat silent for a few and when I glanced down at the remote again the timer read 4 minutes 39 seconds..long enough pause for me, I pressed pup frenzy, and let it run..after a couple minutes I noticed some crows circling above..they then proceeded to start cawing quite excitedly..in the back of my mind I recounted how many times I have heard the words "the crows are your eyes in the sky" and I recalled other times like how during last fox season I was tipped of to an approaching fox by some startled killdeer and another time when I was calling for coyotes a few springs ago and had called in a bobcat (out of season of course), it was the spring peepers going from annoyingly loud to dead silent that alerted me something was up..I knew these crows were telling me something ...I sat ready, flipped the kill switch to fire and waited..I glanced down to my right and slowly panned back to my left...out of the corner of my eye I caught movement. Like a ghost, out of the wheat, pops a scraggly coyote moving at a good clip along the grass and the road..left to right and towards the call/decoy..I re positioned myself and just as I started to turn and put my eye to the scope the dog turns and starts retreating back to where it popped out..I barked a few times but it was over as fast as it started..I suppose it most likely winded me or perhaps its sixth sense kicked in..either way it got the slip...I ki-yi'd a few times in desperation but I never saw anything again..it came in at about the 4-5 minute mark...sitting now in silence I could here yipping barking and whining coming from directly in front of me 200 yds or so up in the woods..those woods climb fairly steeply and are covered with rocky outcroppings..perhaps a den?? I did a few howls back and sat a little while longer listening to their responses and further pinpointing their location...for a future meeting. I did not want to over call so I figured it best to cut my loses and bug out before I educated them any further than I had already done...it was 5:44 am. Looking back there was a lot of things I did right, like my approach, wind, and overall location of my stand, which is linked directley to my previous scouting. And of course there were a few things I could have done different. Like, bringing the shotgun no matter if I'm solo and its more weight to carry. I would have had a chance. But since I didn't bring it, I should have chose a position in the same proximity that allowed a more conducive rifle only vantage point. Instead, I set myself up to be ambushed and that's exactly what happened. But such is predator hunting I suppose.. its never perfect. The better you get the more often you dot your I's and cross your T's.. Just thought I'd share an experience.
