my first six pack and a box of beef

TRnCO · #1 10-28-2016, 09:24 PM

Finally decided yesterday that I was going to start calling, hot weather be damned. This Oct. has been very warm, and between that and other things, just hadn't gotten a chance to get out.
Well, first stand of the season turned out to be a doozie. I was over looking a large sage flat that is about 400 yards wide and a mile long. This stand has a history of delivering action every year and as I was walking in I could see many coyote tracks in the dust on the cow trail.
I started with pup howls and immediately I had vocal responses from several coyotes. They seemed to be spread out and weren't doing a group howl, but I had a bunch of them talking. I went with pup howl for a minute or two and decided no coyotes sounded as if they were getting closer, so I switched over to long female howl and no more got it started when I saw the first coyote coming. I muted the call, the coyote stopped at about 100 yards, so I gave it another single howl, which brought it another 25 yards and that's where I decided close enough. Bang and down #1. I went right back to long female howl to finish the sequence. No more spotted so I switched to rabbit and in a moment saw another coming hard. I muted the call and the coyote finally stopped just 12 yards from the call and I dropped it #2. Knowing I had other ears within ear shot, I let rabbit sing the blues some more. In a moment, I spotted another coming, so once again I muted the call. This coyote happened across the first that I had shot and that brought it to a halt, so I shot it. This coyote yipped and took off, so I bolted another round in and began to follow through the scope and was about ready to hit it again when it became obvious it wasn't going far and in short order it piled up. #3 down. Back on the call, I decided to switch over to one of the coyote fight sounds. About a minute or so into coyote fight, I spotted the next suspect coming. It stopped just short of dead #1, and decided that was good enough, so bang flop. #4 down. Turned fight back on and a quick scan I see one that had stumbled across #1 and didn't seem to like what it found and it was leaving, but not quickly. So I began to follow it in the scope when all of a sudden it stopped, so BANG flop. #5 down. SO now with empty gun and out of control adrenaline, I kill the call and realize I had just killed my first 5 pack. What a way to start the season. I didn't even think to look around for any more coyotes, instead I got up and headed out to round em up. I sat my rifle, call, seat, and bi-pod down by the nearest coyote and walked out to collect the nearest two. I had them picked up and was walking back to my rifle when a sixth coyote started howling not but a couple hundred yards away. I'm thinking, NO WAY, and I stop to scan with my binocs and couldn't see the coyote, so I figured it couldn't see me either. So I hustled back to my rifle, call, and sticks and quickly loaded one more round in the rifle, turned on the call and let er rip on rabbit. Not 30 seconds later I see another coyote coming my way. I let it get to about 50 yards where it stopped and I let er rip. Flop. #6 on the ground. The .17/204 cleans house.
I've killed a few quads over the years, and this was, well, just as good, plus two.
And if that wasn't good enough, when I stopped by the ranchers house, he decided that I needed some beef. Told him I really didn't need any, but he insisted. How can ya beat that. A six pack and a box of steaks and burger. What a way to start to the season.