rabbit in shear agony before, which tells me that the elk were comfortable with the sounds of another animal in the last moments of its life. The two coyotes that came from the west, however, appeared to be very interested. They might have been following behind the elk as they were on the same trail and only a couple of hundred yards behind. As that revela- tion got cataloged in some distant part of my brain, movement came from the left. Two more coyotes were moving toward the elk but looking in the direction of the call. I knew right away they were moving to get downwind of the sound. I put down the Benelli and shouldered the Remington Stainless Fluted 22-250. When I put an eye to the Leupold scope, they had caught my movement, but I had no choice in switching guns. As they moved away at 250 yards the front one looked back at my bark and was immediately greeted by a Sierra 55-grain BlitzKing. The bullet , I later determined, had struck just in front of the right hip and had exited just between his left front leg and his neck. Down for the count! The other coyotes vanished and I never saw them again. I went back to camp as the temperature was rising. It broke a record today of 92 degrees for September 20. Melted most of the ice in my beer cooler. The sacrifices we make afield. Monday, September 21, was very
windy, 40 mph plus, and it was hot! So hunting was fruitless. Tuesday was not much better but the morning started out cloudy and cool, with some fog in the low areas. I decided to try a spot that I hadn’t hunted before. It was a long way from camp and consisted of steep terrain, boulder piles, and heavily sage covered flats ... just the place to find coyotes. It was about 10:30 a.m., and my fourth call site when it happened. I placed the FoxPro about six feet
up an old dead pine tree so the volume would carry farther, as the wind was now near 20 mph. The call had been on for 13 minutes, according to the remote control, when she came in from my left, ran straight to the now silent call, and suddenly stopped. She never did see the call or me when the Benelli went off. At 16 yards the load of Triple B from the Federal Black Cloud knocked her over like someone had summoned Thor’s Hammer. When I inspected her, she had the black wad from the shotgun shell em- bedded in her right side. I saved the wad
and photographed the coyote and wad. No wonder those “Black Cloud” shells knock down geese and ducks so well. Thanks, Federal Ammunition Company! You have many fans out here. If you are using a shotgun in your hunting, try the Black Cloud as your first shot and then Winchester No. 4 3-inch buckshot. You will find they work very well together. September 23. I hunted a ridge line
that I had hunted many times before. The ridge runs from the northeast to the southwest and on the westerly side it drops off onto an open plain. But to
the east it’s a different story. The ridge falls off steeply into a valley with a main drainage and seven smaller drainages that flow into the main one. All is cov- ered in thick sage ... a perfect place for coyotes. I have shot more than 20 coyotes from the same call site over the last few years. Again, I hung the FoxPro in a dead tree for maximum effect and I began calling. The call had been on for only about 90 seconds when a coyote came in from my left at a dead run. He never slowed down and he ran past the call. He must have caught my scent at that point
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