Closing weekend – A mountain coyote and doe
This past weekend we headed home for Thanksgiving to see the parents and do some hunting. Zack was anxious to pull the trigger on a buck as he hadn’t seen anything worth shooting throughout the season. Early Saturday morning we loaded up on the ATV and headed up the mountain. The area we were in is very thick forest and holds some nice mountain whitetails. Unfortunately there wasn’t much snow on the ground and the woods were just too loud to sneak up on anything. After a tough morning of hunting we decided to bust out the distress call and try to round up some predators. We had seen numerous fresh coyote tracks and knew they were in the area. We set up on a small frozen lake and Zack began calling. About six minutes into the stand I spotted a coyote dropping down through the timber towards our position. Before Zack could reposition the coyote was already tip toeing out onto the ice at 70 yards. Over the course of the next five minutes he slowly worked to withing 50 yards but was wary. He was starring us down so we had to remain very still.
- The coyotes view of our calling position
He knew something was up but wasn’t in any hurry to leave. As soon as he turned Zack repositioned his gun. The coyote stopped and looked. Zack had to very careful to minimize his movements so he could get a shot. The coyote slowly worked back to the snowy bank. As soon as he turned his back Zack moved into a shooting position. The coyote stopped and looked back for the last time. Zack made sure I was on the coyote with the camera and let the Remington sing. The coyote dropped on the far bank and Zack had his first mountain coyote.
- Our first mountain coyote
We were pumped up and we headed over to check him out. It was an average sized male and we were pretty excited to catch the whole thing on film. Go ahead and check out the video!
- Stoked to get this guy on film
The following day I sat in a tree stand we had set up. Once again I was hunting solo and the GoPro battery died as I tried to film this hunt. It was the final day of rifle season and my last chance to fill my doe tag for that region. A young buck walked by after sitting for 30 minutes. I had already filled my buck tag and let him walk. About ten minutes later I was surprised to see a doe feeding through the woods only 30 yards away. It is surprising how silent deer can be! The doe spotted me reaching for my bow, she proceeded to stomp and bark at me at 18yards. Boom! A rifle shot echoed from the nearby forest. The doe took her attention off of me, and I took that opportunity to get my release on the D-loop. The doe started to make her away from my stand. I drew as she passed behind a tree at 22yards, I held on her until she stopped perfectly broadside at 25 yards. Wham! I couldn’t see my where my arrow stuck her, but I could see she was bleeding bad. She ran 30 yards before she piled up.
- Always a good sign
I found out I had made a perfect shot, with a clean pass through. It was a great way to end the rifle season, two does in 5 days!
-Travis
Doe Down!
Well my bow hunting season has been quite the challenge this year. My season has consisted of mistake after mistake. Finally this morning I had the day to myself and went out and put a doe down after only 1 hour of hunting.
- Doe on the ground
My brother and I were supposed to go out and film our hunt, but Zack had college priorities he had to tend to. This was fine with me, but for some reason I always end up filling a tag when the camera isn’t around. My morning started off at first light with a nice 1.75 mile hike in. I spooked about five deer in the dim light about 1 mile in. I slowly hiked to the spot where the deer seem to migrate and once again was spotted by a whitetail before I could even get an arrow nocked. Ten minutes later I spotted two does making their way around a ridge. I used trees as cover and crept to within 100yds. The deer positioned themselves in some small pine trees and I quickly dumped my backpack and tippy toed another 40yards. I finally made it to 47 yards of the two deer. I drew, stood up, and settled my 50 pin on the doe. BAM! My arrow knocked the whitetail off her feet! I hit a little high, and quickly put another arrow through her chest.
I filled my Deer B archery tag and couldn’t be happier. We still have until January 15th to fill our B tags and I am looking foreward to the next month and the action it will bring.
- Sportin that hunter’s orange
-Travis