Made The Grouse Opener Yesterday

Fellas;

Upland bird season opened in Montana yesterday, so I took a day off & went hunting with a buddy & his son.  We got started out of town about 8 AM & drove to the spring coulee behind the ranch that people who attended MYGAWDS may remember.  We then walked through the woods attempting to roust out any grouse residing there.  I had my .22, my buddy had his 20 gauge, and his son had a .22-250, just in case we found a coyote.  No grouse, but three bucks in velvet and one doe were disturbed though.  

After passing through the woods, I checked the water tank, and then we started back to the pickup on the road.  That put a small pasture to our left, or north.  Which proved to contain four coyotes!  The centerfire was put into action four times, resulting in one coyote down at about 275 yards, and three making rapid tracks for "elsewhere". 

The shooter, upon walking up to the downed dog, discovered that he'd forgotten a cardinal rule:  Take a pistol with you.  Which is to say the badly wounded coyote took off & he had an empty gun.  The  dog went to ground in the little creek bottom about 80 yards from where it'd gone down.  I walked up to it & put a round in it's head with the CZ .22.  It was a young, this year's early litter, female, well-fed, no mange.

From then on, birds were forgotten, we were coyote huntin!  We went down to the ranch & hung in the shelter belt & called with no action.  So we went due north, up on the hill & over a bit, & called into a basin on the backside of the ranch.  But again with no activity for our trouble.

Did see a small herd of 7 antelope though.  But they spooked at us when we were well over a half mile away.  That's not good, somethin's been harassing them.  Most of the time they regard about 3 to 4 hundred yards as "no problem" range. 

In any case, we'd taken care of about all the AM in the day & decided that the Lazy Doe contained cheeseburgers that were calling our names.  Which was true, and they were accompanied with a cold one.  Life is good.  And if we'd been in the city, that burger would-a cost over twice as much as it did.  But, back to the coyote eradication program.

We went to our Hidden Valley property and I armed myself with the 6mm instead of the rimfire.  We dropped the truck & walked in about a half mile to a stock tank at the head of the valley where we set up & called.  Bingo!  Got a dog comin' in under a minute of calllin.  Unfortunately, it was to my left & behind me and the other two guys were to my right.  My buddy saw it first, & got my attention, I turned & tried to locate it & never did.  His son got on it, but by this time it knew something wasn't right from it's point of view & was starting to depart.  He took the moving head shot at about 125 yards, but missed.  And then the rain that had been threatening, started to move in.  With fairly serious wetness & wind attached.

Therefore, we adjurned to the Belt Brew Pub, discussed the day over a pint, and arrived back at the house around 4 PM.

No birds, but a helluva good day in the field, and success to boot!

900F