stocking cap from one of my buddies in order to provide a bit of protection for my balding head. While most of our fi rst day was
Whenever possible we tried to position ourselves in a manner to blend in with the natural surroundings.
ing on the time of the year, you might also stick in some birdshot. There are chukars in the area and by purchasing a non-resident three-day small game li- cense for only $25.00 you may be able to turn your trip into a combination hunt. A few more coyotes were encoun-
tered by our team on that fi rst day, but nothing as exciting as Tim’s bout with his kamikaze ’yote. A few of the more cautious dogs came to our calls, but re- fused to present themselves for a shot. The other team had a little better shoot- ing success, taking a coyote with a very
respectable coat for early October. That was coupled with the excitement of hav- ing a bobcat come in to their calling, and a brief confrontation with a big rattler. Our first night became a little
chilly when the wind came up, so on the following nights we decided to use the trucks to provide a bit of a windbreak for our makeshift camp. Arranging our cots close together and parking the vehicles on the upwind side made the condi- tions a bit more comfortable for us, but still the nights were a bit on the nippy side. Fortunately I was able to borrow a
spent in the more mountainous terrain in the higher desert area, for our second day we moved our camp to lower terrain in hopes of hunting around the fringes of some of the local farmland. Splitting into two separate hunting parties was a benefi t. We could compare notes in the evening and adjust our strategies according to the other team’s success. Coyotes sometimes fi nd the agricultural areas a little more food friendly in the way of mice, other rodents, birds, and maybe even an occasional stray house- cat. Generally this was much fl atter ter- rain than we had become used to, with very little contour and thickly blanketed by patches of sagebrush. There were a few open spots spread throughout, but shots can be quite challenging in this type of environment unless a coyote should happen to pause in one of the openings long enough to get the cross- hairs on it … or come close enough to send a spoonful of BB in its direction. On one occasion I found myself
A chair like this Cabela’s Gobbler Lounger provides a great deal of comfort when trying to get the most out of the shooting day.
Page 14 July — September 2011
positioned on the right, with Dave next to me. Early on in our hunt we had all agreed that if anyone spotted a coyote he should give a mouth squeak in order to tip off the other hunters. I think it was just shortly after the second volley of calling that I heard that squeak coming from Kendall. Turning my head to look back, I saw that Kendall was attempting to direct our attention out in front of Dave and me. Turning back, my eyes caught a glimpse of a coyote standing in one of the few openings in the sage. Just then I heard Dave’s .204 sound off and the coyote fell to the 175-yard shot. As designed, the little TNT Green bul- let exploded upon entry, expending all of its energy inside the coyote with no bullet exit. All in all, our Great Salt Lake Desert ’yote hunt turned out to be an exciting and rewarding trip. We called in and killed several fi ne coyotes. As mentioned, Cory’s group also called in a bobcat, but because Utah classes bobcats as fur-bearers and not vermin, the har- vest is tightly restricted and controlled. So, even though it was an unusual expe- rience, the only one that went home with a bobcat pelt that day was the bobcat himself. We had a lot of excitement via two rattlers, and Tim’s kamikaze ’yote
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