Some Pictures and Video - Korey

[kirsch]

When I write a story, it usually turns into a book. I will try to keep this a bit shorter. I have written on this forum this year and other years that the trend as you move into the heart of the winter and as you approach mating season is more about vocalization and less about distress. It doesn't make much sense as the winter is at the harshest so they should be hungry right? Well, the vocalization might just be better because #1, they aren't hearing it as much as most people can blow a rabbit call, but very few howl well, and #2 if food is tough they might even be more territorial.

This was recently emphasized as my hunting partner and I went out on Sunday. This was hard for me as I am a "diehard" Minnesota Vikings fan and they were playing on Sunday. Thank goodness for a DVR. After I heard they went ahead 7-0, we went out on a stand.

Distress hadn't been working, and I had decided to use more vocalization on the next 3 stands. It worked right away on the first stand. The coyote hung up on us a bit and didn't want to come any further as we didn't have a good hide and with the big camera just sitting up by a hill, we stuck out too much. There were a total of 3 coyotes but they sent the alpha male in to investigate. This coyote died looking at me at 260+ yards. The coolest thing about this was we don't have much for hills in ND, but this coyote took a full dive off a 20+ foot snowbank/draw ledge. It was pretty cool.

On the 3rd stand, we had a pair of coyotes out in a field at about 800 yards, and I couldn't see them but my partner watched them through the binos as he was sitting and I was prone. Every time I would challenge, they would come and as soon as any distress was played they either stopped or in one case turned around. At that point, I stuck with vocalization only. It took a few more challenges, and they came right in. I didn't include a video of this but on the first 4 stands - 0 coyotes with mostly prey distress and 3 stands with vocalizations yielded 6 coyotes with 2 presenting a shot and dying. It once again confirmed what I have been seeing for the past few years. From now on, during this time, I will do very little prey distress except for first 2 stands of the morning and last 2 at night and use almost 100% vocalizations on all other stands.

I got a call yesterday as I was working at home, and my buddy said he saw a coyote sleeping right outside of the city limits of Fargo. For any of you who have been to Fargo, you would not say this is coyote country. There is little to no structure and it is flat as a board with little to no trees with the exception of by the river. This coyote was laying right out in the open and sleeping. We got permission from the land owner to go in and we got to 211 yards and we saw he was not settled so my partner used a tree row for a rest as the coyote was down so low, and shot him right in his bed, right in the head. The video at this link has both the kill off the snow bank and the bedded kills. I had to free-hand the stalk and usually don't jerk but when he shot a whole bunch of frost and snow fell on me and it spooked me a bit so the camera has a jump to it. I don't dare show more than this or I will get in trouble from the production company.

http://www.laketrax.com/ftp/Kills.wmv

I also had my wife snap a few pictures of us after we brought this coyote home including the one he had just shot and the ones we had shot the last 2 times we had a chance to get out. I am the guy with the facial hair. :OUCH:

http://www.laketrax.com/ftp/2010_1.jpg

http://www.laketrax.com/ftp/2010_2.jpg

[Kreller1]

Sweet, thanks for sharing!

[mike2355]

those are some big looking yotes, nice colour on them. Congrats kirsch

[The Baron of Bufflehead]

Awww... you guys have matching camo. That's so cute.:OUCH:

Sorry, I couldn't resist.:rf: Great job on the coyotes Korey. They all look like nice heathy fellas. I'm going to try the vocalization only thing next time I get out, because the woods have gone dead here as far as distress sounds are concerned.

[bighonkers89]

That's awesome , thanks for sharing! Make for some nice hides!

[kirsch]

Baron, yes isn't it sweet that we match. I would love to find a heavy winter set already in Mossy Oak Winter Whites. Wearing another set of cover-ups gets so bulky at times. I feel like Ralphy's little brother on the Christmas Story who falls down and can't get up because he is dressed so heavy.

We can wear anything as long as it is Mossy Oak, and shoot any gun as long as it is a Thompson Center and can use any optics as long as it is Nikon. :OUCH:

I used to think using sponsor endorsed equipment was a pain but as we have gotten better at the filming aspects and are becoming a main feature on the Predator Madness videos, the sponsors are treating us better and better so I can't complain. As I mentioned in a previous post, I have owned a lot of accurate guns but this new Thompson Center Precision Hunter is crazy accurate. It even makes up for my poor shooting. :eek:

[kirsch]

Ironically, the coyotes we are holding up are the coyotes with the darkest color. The ones on the ground are much whiter and if fur prices were better, would bring more money. These just happened to be the ones we shot last so they weren't as stiff. As far as size, the one on the ground in front of me is the biggest of all of them on the picture where we are standing and the one on the far right was the smallest.

[hooked on waterfowl]

Way to go Korey, that definately gets the adreline flowing.I like watching football too, but being outdoors and experiencing that sounds like a way better time spent.

[The Spank]

Awesome video and good story, however and I don't want to be a stick in the mud, if the camera angle was correct on that second yote he was lined up for the shot with a farm house and buildings directly behind. I know they are a long ways off but still? I would have had to pass on that shot if it were me or manuevered myself into a position where no buildings or possibly people would be in my shooting lane. Not trying to be critical but I once posted a pic of myself and 2 buddies on here and in the pic it looked like my shotgun was pointed at mt own head. It wasnt but it looked that way and was pointed out to me rather fast and rightly so. Hope I haven't offended you?:TT:

[kirsch]

10ga.crazy, no offense taken. You are seeing this from a camera with over a 20x zoom. The farm house you are referring to in the video is over 5 miles away believe it or not. And yes, I realize bullets can go that far. Until you mentioned about seeing it in the video, I would have said there was no way there was a farm there as as far as our actual eyes could see, there was no farm. What I can tell you is, if you would have been there, you would have taken the shot because the farm was to far for the human eye to see from where we were. I am guessing 5 miles because we drove to it from that direction for 5 miles and there was no farm.

As you said it is the angle of camera plus lots of other things. It is the danger of using a camera in the field. Safety is our always our #1 goal and I can assure you there was no danger. The only danger was there was a road approximately 1 mile away that you can actually see cars during part of our walk/stalk so we had to make sure there were no cars anywhere when we shot.