Wylie, predator, coyote, calf killer, fawn killer... Whatever you call him, he’s not very well liked. Each passing year I get a bit less eager to pull the trigger on game animals. However, that’s just not so for me with coyotes. I really do have a disdain for them. Several powerful memories pop up whenever yotes are brought up. In my ranking of bad things, yotes actually fall well below an infected toothache.

This brings me to the, “Things to do in the off season.” Predator control. Of which coyotes are at the top of the list. One good thing about hunting them... they are very sharp. So, they present a very cunning and worthy opponent. Yup! It’s a challenge. 

Most of the young of the year will leave the family group in the fall and strike out on their own. Often joining other young of the year. That makes the early fall a good time to try to hunt them. 

Those little buggers are pretty sharp. Easily educated. In fact, most of the time if a hunter makes even the slightest mistake, the jig is up. Then one gets to see what is described by a yote hunter as the famous coyote “After Burners.” They take off like their tail is on fire.

 While calling with the latest electronic caller set out 50 to 100 yards out front of the brushy hiding spot of the hunter, dressed carefully in full camo matching the surroundings perfectly, choice words start to fly. Lots of times he will have his trusty semiauto coyote rifle with a full magazine. 

There are some good things about hunting yotes. There is usually public or private land accessible for hunting them. For the most part most landowners are happy to let folks give the yotes a hard time. Then there is the ability to just sit tight and let them come to you. So, we old grampas can take our grandkids our to experience a challenging hunt that is not physically challenging. Also, the schedule is not demanding either. Hunters can still be successful in the middle of the day. So, 4 a.m. rollouts are not necessary. It is true golden hour is a higher percentage time to go after them. But not absolutely necessary. Also, firearms can be small low recoil calibers easy for the grandkids to comfortably handle. 

Purists and old timers will say voice calling and using a handheld blow through reed call are all you need. That is true. However, whether it’s ok to work at it and run out of breath and make your rib muscles sore from blowing for hours or because it’s cool... some of us find a way to justify spending hundreds of dollars on fancy electronic callers and motorized decoys to dance around a comfortable distance out in front of your chosen secret spot hiding in a brush pile. You know the one I’m talking about. Yup, the one with 600 different natural sounds. You can play any two at a time, individually or at the same time. It also has a hi fidelity super doper ground shaking speaker loud enough to wake sleeping babies two counties away. Honestly, the new style of E-Callers (electronic caller) is amazing. Many of the digital sounds coming out are true recordings of animals. Yup, they work very well and are super convenient. 

Most folks don’t give much thought to coyote hunting. However, many will try to hunt them and might go many trips without even seeing one. Often most hunters who have one and cherish it as a trophy to keep in the man cave, took theirs by opportunity during a deer hunt. A coyote is a high value target for young hunters early in their lifetime to fill a bucket list wish. 

So, we have the perfect rifle, fully camo painted, the high dollar carbon fiber bipod carefully attached at the proper balance point for ultimate stability, perfectly sighted in at 100 yards, the perfectly matched camo, facemask and gloves too, the really great e-caller, set up carefully with sun at your back and wind in your face, a generous open, low brush area to see them coming.

So, you fire up the caller and choose just the right rabbit in distress call to lure a coyote in. You activate the button that tells the e-caller to swing back and forth to throw sound as far away as possible and you wait. Two minutes, five minutes, ten, you get to 13 minutes and start to think what the heck. I have all the best equipment and I’m doing just like all the instructions and experts say in the videos. 

Well shucks... now what? OK let’s try to turn the volume way up, change the sound to a different rabbit in distress. This time you picture a smaller more tender bunny to attract a coyote... no way he can resist that, it’s even making me hungry now. You look at the beautifully backlit state of the art remote controller and the timer now says almost 16 minutes I’ve been growing more disillusioned. 

OK well *^#@. Why couldn’t that work. I did everything the way everyone said. Guess it’s just not gonna work this time.

OK now, I’m a fairly oversized guy and advanced years so just getting back up off the cold hard ground is an event. Not something you want someone to catch on video and see on youtube later. I’m in mid effort getting up, mask off, gun in one hand other hand is dodging cactus to push off the ground... I’m sure I’m grunting and groaning like an old fat grampa should be. As I start plucking out the cactus in my hand, I look to the sky to grimace and contemplate what cuss word to use... I happen to glance into the open flat in front between the two gumbo knobs, THERE HE IS! A beautiful full grown gorgeous, glistening in the early morning sun. Silver, gold, red and a bright white bib, just pulling to a stop from his beeline straight towards that tender, tasty bunny he was just listening to. Of course, now it’s a panic of surprise and excitement. Trying to get the gun back on the ground with the bipod the right direction. Kinda felt like a Three Stooges skit right then. Just as I get the scope clearly centered on the brilliant shining coyote, I can literally see his mouth close, head perk up and eyes lock on to me. He darts toward the gully soon to be out of sight. I let out my personal interpretation of an alarm bark of a coyote. He bounces to a broadside pose and I’m gonna get a shot. By this time, I’m so wound up and shaking so bad it’s hard to keep the coyote even in the scope view. I do my best to settle and decide he’s gotta be out of patience for this, so I give it my best shot. I know at the crack of the gun I had missed high over his back by a bit. Oh yes – now the Afterburners thing. Pretty sure he ran off so fast i think he made his own tail start of fire. 

So, there I sit. The flames trailing over the ridge just like the back to the future movie. I’m shaking... catch my breath look up at the crystal blue sky and honestly let out a true WOOHOO! 

 I missed but oh boy what and experience for my first attempt with all the perfect coyote gear I’d worked hard at saving and collecting for years. 

Oh, is this gonna be a blast to occupy my retirement in the fall, winter months.

This is a true honest experience of mine. It really did happen that way. One statement to make the tender hearts happy, no coyotes were harmed in the making of this memory.