Hunting story

[El Chivo]

thought I'd post about today's hunting adventure for those of you sick of political posts!

I arrived at the trailhead as dawn was breaking and ran into a guy who I met 8 months ago on the trail. We got to talking and decided to hook up for the day and try a new area. We scaled a ridge right at the trailhead and found a beautiful area very different from the Angeles forest I'm used to. Easy on the brush, mostly wild oats, and lots of deer paths with very fresh dung and easy trails.

Still we didn't see any deer; judging by the deer beds we found, they watched us park. So later on we went off to check out some of our other spots. It was a beautiful hunting day, cool, overcast, brush softened by last night's rain.

About 4 pm we were passing a ridge and my buddy sees a coyote way up high. For reasons of ettiquette, it was his shot but he didn't want to spend the ammo - he had only two rounds for his H&R single shot. I had a few more than that so I got the shot. The coyote had seen us and was climbing, but not running. I tried to give him some lead, figuring he would take an extra step by the time I fired. This was about 175 yards offhand, uphill about 30 degrees. I picked him up in the scope in about 1 second. My Weaver 1-3x was set on 1.5x, so the coyote and surroundings looked natural but slightly more dramatic. I made a good shot but it was just high. Now the coyote was running. I fired again and kicked up dirt in front of his face and he reversed course downhill, running like blazes. Then he redirected and went back up, over the hill.

Well, that was fun. With all the hunting trips and seeing only does, I haven't fired a shot in 3 months. And it was nice to see my condor reloads are on target, even if I don't know how to lead a wily coyote.

So we passed that ridge and cut around it, taking the road, to check out another spot where my friend had seen a bighorn ram not too long ago. That's unheard of around here. Anyway, we checked out that spot, and turned around to come back. As we were walking back the way we came, a doe had come out after we passed and was standing by the road, behind a small boulder. As my friend passed the boulder, he and the doe saw each other at the same time, eye to eye with each other. She was maybe 3 FEET from him, and let out the loudest, most violent snort I have ever heard. I swear he must have been sprayed with deer snot. He nearly jumped out of his camo, and I nearly soiled my shorts laughing. The doe about-faced and ran back the way she came, we looked for any matching bucks but she was alone.

After all this, we heard rocks falling somewhere way up there. I looked up and saw a second, smaller coyote who had just witnessed the say-it-don't-spray-it incident. I didn't want to shoot again without ear protection so my friend took out his 22 revolver while I stuck my fingers in my ears. He got quite close which was unbelievable (150 yards, 45 degrees uphill) but this coyote too got away.

At dusk we were in a wooded area, and as night fell (it gets dark all at once up there) we heard some wicked squealing. Something was in trouble, so we went to check it out. We followed the sound and finally located a small raptor that was clutching an even smaller bird. I've seen birds like this swooping around right at dusk, from up close it looked like a hawk, but it was about the size of a robin. It had gray and white tailfeathers and was mostly dark gray otherwise. This sparrow hawk was so engrossed in what he was doing, he couldn't have cared less about us. We shined the flashlight on the pair and finally my friend picked them both up, disengaged the talons, and both flew off.

Now I understand why coyotes come to those shrieks of distress. If one animal is being killed by another animal, a coyote has a good chance of making meals of both of them and they won't see him coming.

So we didn't get any venison, but had a lot of fun. We turned a quick, routine trip into a true dawn to dusk hunting day. We made some tentative plans to hunt coyotes and bobcats in the off-season. So I might have a new hunting partner. Regardless, I'll never forget that doe snorting at him from 3 feet away, that was classic.

[mescalero1]

I know I have spoken here before about making running shots on jackrabbits at 125 yards with a Ruger Single Six and a Bushnell scope setup.
I now ( today ) have a Dan Wesson .22mag with scope, 8 inch barrel,so I still walk with a scoped .22mag revolver.
I would not try 150 yard shots on coyotes with my rig, I think that is streching things too far; too much chance of wounding and not killing cleanly.

[KirkD]

Enjoyed your account! Next best thing to being there.

[Old Ironsights]

Awww... you took that poor birdie's profit away to rescue someone who failed at their job...

You sure you don't work for the Government/IRS?

[Ben_Rumson]

Enjoyed the read.. Thanks

[dr walker]

Good post, thanks for sharing.

[RKrodle]

Sounds like a good day. Thanks for sharing.