I looked at the list and tell Mike if he wants to continue we should get back to some wilder area, for day time coyotes. Mike says he wants to keep on and says he agrees. We drive to a area that contains a lot of state game land. Small farms mostly owned by retires as hunting lands. Soil is mostly sandy so there wasn’t big farms in the area.
We did have a few of the small farmers who have called with coyote problems, mostly chickens being ran in the day lite in the yards.
We arrive at this hobby farm and as we are unloading the gator putting on our camo the owner comes out. Said he saw a pair of coyotes in his back field a week ago, didn’t bother calling because they were back there and crossing the field. We thank him for letting us know we’d let him know how it went. We go back set up 30 minutes later we are packing it in with nothing but time spent in the sun.
Another near by place was the next place we set up this place proved much better when a single male showed up to our call the sounds of a Piglet in distress playing. Mikes 222mag did a fine job. Back at the truck I expressed I was thinking about a electric powered golf cart. Then told Mike I was going to just put those thoughts from my mind. Never work in the winter and wasn’t going to get used to a cart them not go hunt coyotes because the snow was to deep for the cart.
We arrive at the Langley sheep farm trucks temp read out said 36F wind was coming and going and when it was coming it had a bit of a bite to it yet. Sheep will clean an area up pretty good even if it is to wet to farm so a slough that would be grassy on most farms was down like a mowed hay field. But the grass was growing on the other side of the fence here ran to a wood lot behind. About 10 minutes into a Lamb in distress sound a pair of coyotes peek out of the grass and dart back in before we did any thing. But that lamb and the decoys kept calling to them easy meal easy meal so they poked their heads out again and finally broke for the decoys. I signed Mike to fire I would take the trailer. Again the 22’s boomed almost together and we had two more coyotes down. Both were females and had excellent fur. I guess that is one good thing about the well below normal temps March and so far April has had.The fur is still good.
We get the coyotes back to the truck and the farmer comes out of his lambing shed to talk and saw those coyotes. The smile on his face lit the all ready bright sky. He tells us he has some lamb chops for us he had buchered a couple days before. We tell him thank you but we are still hunting more places for about 3 to 4 hours and we had no cooler.
He says to come back and bring a cooler and ice for about 10 pounds of chops.
Holy cow 10 pounds of Lamb Chops we are going to have to set up a group cook out for those.
We make it to Fosters pork farm. This is a totally barn operation and you really don’t want to get down wind of the barn fans. Those barns are clean but the smell coming from them isn’t so much.
Here we drive back to a grassy fence line where we can get a decent view wind in our faces of a wood lot that had been timbered off 2 years ago. The brush is thick with a south west facing hill side where coyotes have had a den for some time now. Take some out and others move in. This time only a single Male showed up to the sound of that Piglet in distress. Mike made a good shot and after 40 minutes we packed it in.
Back at the truck Mikes says we are doing good, think we should quit a bit early so we can skin these dog out? I tell him I have lights at my place and tomorrow it is supposed to snow so could do it then.
Another dairy farm this place is a centennial farm owned by the same Ransom family for over 100 years. Really the same family has been farming it for 112 years. The old original hip roof barn still stands although has went thru a major remodel. The ground floor is a milking area can milk 20 cows at a time. All milk is carried by pipe line from cow to cooler in the far end of the barn. The up stairs has been converted to a big office and sleeping areas for when They want or need to sleep near the cows.
We get back to a back field along The river, lots of brush growing along the edge and where a small creek flows into the river. Here we decided to try the coons fussing again as it is starting to get late. This time we have 3 coyotes respond and 2 of them ended up in the back of the gator. Both females with nice fur, Mike is in a really good mood and saying cha ching as we tie the gator down.
It is now 6:30 PM and we have been at it for 12 hours and have a pile of coyotes to skin sew and all that goes into making them sale-able. With how things were going we may have continued if Tom had been home and just sold the carcusses
We decide we would stop at a restaurant and have supper. I call Kare and tell her not to wait for me as I am eating out and will be skinning coyotes till the wee hours.
We stopped and filled the gator with gas, sprayed it down at the quarter wash close by then returned to Johns. Got it back in the machine shed and unhooked. Drove to the skinning room and unloaded 11 coyotes as John came out to help.
About ten minutes later Dean shows up so there were 4 of us skinning and sewing. Some ribbing of course was in order, my coyote I had lead a half mile didn’t have the top of its head. How close I had came to a total miss. Is sure good to have good friends ME thinks.
Lot of remarks on the nice small holes to sew up and how those 55gr HPBT break up rarely exiting.
Finally we are finished so retire to Johns office to enjoy the coffee Cheryl had brought out for us.
We all talked Mike into making a new counter offer on the small farm. Once that was settled I left for home, 10:30 PM as I walked in the door with a dirty rifle. A quick swab of the bore would do till morning. I am really tired, but went to bed with a smile.
Al
11 in a day! Nice hunting! 
