Coyotes!! - Ohio
Tony's first yote.
Hunter: Tony Perillo
I love spending time in the woods so much I decided that I would try a little coyote hunting between late season deer hunting and spring turkey. This is all new to me, I have never hunted coyotes before and I knew it was no easy task. I approached it the same way as chasing deer. Play the wind and try to keep scent and the calling to a minimum. I watched a lot of DVDs trying to educate myself, but I still found myself taking 20 calls into the woods and either sounding like a wounded goose or a yelping dog. But it didn’t matter, I was outdoors doing what I love to do.
I then realized I’m spending many hours out here and the odds of seeing a yote or even shooting at one are not looking good to me. I then thought I would get a few road kills from work (deer I mean) and put them in the field to make it easier. Well I did nothing but fill the bellies of a boat load of coyotes. Those deer where gone in days since it was late February, cold, with lots of snow. So I put away the 223 and the calls for a while and figured I’d try at a later time.
Well, later was mid July of this past summer. Dusty and I decided to put out our trail cams, and start glassing the fields looking for up and coming shooter bucks. We did this a lot spending our evening looking at all the fawns, does, and velvet bucks. One evening it was pretty cool and overcast we knew we were going to see lots of deer feeding in the beans. Slowly as the sun dropped we were watching at least 25 deer in the field, how cool this was—until we watched a coyote put a stalk on a fawn. I wanted to scream and scare it but we wanted to see nature take its place. Well the coyote did not succeed, all the deer in the field alerted one another and the fawn lived another day.
Being a bit more educated now, I took to the woods that very next morning in the same spot, one rabbit distress call and my A/R .223. I set up at least one-half hour before sun up and waited for first light. So I’m thinking how cool is this, hunting these critters in warm weather on a bean field in late July. I decided it was time to call. This call sounded like a roomful of newborns with dirty diapers, but it did its job. Just five minutes into this hunt here he came. First, 200 yards, 150, 100, and then 75 yards. It was time, I squeezed as I watched my first coyote fall to the ground. And yes this was the one chasing my deer in the beans. A pig of a coyote tipping the scales at 55 lbs. Now that’s a big male. So, one down and many to go, and I hope I do better this winter enjoying where I love to be and that is in the woods.