# Coyote Contest



## mikevanwilder (Nov 11, 2008)

Last weekend my cousin and I were signed up for the Utah Predator Callers coyote contest. To make a long story short we didnt win, not because we didn't shoot the most doggies but because our truck blew a wheel bearing before we could make it back to the check in.  
We still had fun and found some new areas to hunt. 
I wanted to share the story on one of the coyotes we shot. It was the second morning and to this point we had only called in one dog and that was at 7:30am the first day. We had made about 12 stands that didn't produce anything at all.
On sunday we decided to hit a spot we've called before and had good luck with. Its a piece of property that has a ravine going down one side and some fields that sit on top of the other side. The ravine has a small creek running down it with sage brush and some tall cottonwoods that run along the fields.
We sit on the side opposite of the field in the sage and try to call them from the fields to us. Like the other time we called as we are walking in we see a coyote mousing in the field. He looked like a big dog from where we were, 1000 yards or so. We sat down with the e-caller in between the two of us. My cousin turned on jack rabbit distress and the coyote starts to bark but also starts to make his way toward the edge of the field and into the sage brush. I pull up my binos and watch as he cross the fence and turns and heads towards us. Then he disappears into the sage and I don't see him again.
My cousin didn't see him leave the field so he turns the call to a pup distress for a few minutes and nothing. I'm watching the bottom of the ravine waiting for the coyote to appear. All of a sudden the dog starts barking to our right and he is on the same side of the ravine as us. I can't see him but can hear him, but my cousin could see him and thought he could shoot him. Well he shot but didn't connect, usually we would call it a busted stand and get up and leave but this time neither of us moved and just let the call continue.
5 min later a pair of coyotes start howling up on the field but we can't see them. We tried all the calls we thought would make them move but nothing happened. We decided to pack up and move into the tall trees along the field and see if it doesn't trigger them into moving closer. 
As we moved closer another coyote that was down in the ravine started howling. We got down in some sage and tried to call it in but it wasn't going to. It sounded like a young dog were as the first dog that came in sounded old and big. We figured that we could still make it to the trees and let this one go. 
We got to the edge of the field and saw a coyote making his way across to the other side. I pointed out a ditch that ran down the middle and we decided to move toward that to get a shot. There was about an inch of snow on the ground so our sound was pretty muffled but the coyote spotted something right as we jumped into the ditch and kinda took off over the rise and outta sight. We decided to try and call again just because we knew there was more coyotes around. We let the pup in distress call go and I heard the small coyote that was in the ravine still, start barking. I was about to get up and leave when the dog that disappeared, reappeared and was running at us as fast as he could. We both looked at each other and kinda laughed, not believing what we were seeing. Well he made it to within 100 yards and that was it, bang. We got up to him and noticed he was the same coyote from the field when we first sat down and the same that my cousin had shot at. We still can't believe we fooled him into coming back.
Anyway thanks to Reb for putting on a great contest and having great prizes, even though we didn't even get a chance to win those. I really like the 1 1/2 day thing.
Here are some pics.


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## yfzduner450 (Dec 28, 2009)

Mike, it sounds like you guys had a great time and i'm sorry to hear about your truck. I hope you skinned them coyotes. The fur is finally worth something again. Good luck to ya on the next contest!!!


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## MadHunter (Nov 17, 2009)

Awesome story Mike. Sounds like a blast. Too bad about the truck.


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## reb8600 (Sep 8, 2007)

I wish you could have made it back to the check in. We gave away a lot of real nice prizes in the drawing. I hope to see you at the next one. I will be at the one in Ephraim also.

I am glad to hear you like the 1 1/2 day contest. I asked everyone at the check in if any of them would rather see a one day contest instead. Nobody wanted that so I will leave it the same next year. I had a few emails when I first announced it saying people would have joined if it was only a one day hunt. I am not sure that any of them would have actually signed up though. The 1 1/2 day hunt gives you time to travel somewhere to hunt.


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## bullsnot (Aug 10, 2010)

Nice job fellers!


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## JERRY (Sep 30, 2007)

Very nice! Sorry to hear about the wheel bearing. Been there done that. Sucks!


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