summer warmth. I had been up since before 3:00 in the morning so it was time for a short nap. When I woke up later I looked at the time and it was near 3:00 in the afternoon. I blamed my long nap on the light wind blowing through the pines – I sleep well with that sound in my ears. I decided to walk over and see
if anything had picked up the scent trail left by the sheep blood. It was an easy walk to where I would make my approach to be looking down on the sheep. About 40 magpies were on my sheep and were devouring as much as they could. I sat down under a large ponderosa pine tree where I had a per- fect view of the area and bait. What lay before me was an ancient dry lake bed, a full mile across with a gentle up slope to the west and a set of hills to the east. It was about 4:30 when I saw him.
He was moving west toward the road from the east and was making a beeline to the blood trail. Once on the trail he put his nose down and sniffed in both directions … and here he came. He’d move a 100 yards or so and then put his nose down to smell, then move on. At about 300 yards he saw the magpies and made straight to the sheep. With the wind blowing at just a breeze in my face I knew the advantage was mine. When he got to the sheep he made a charge at the magpies and scattered them. Now with no competition he had the sheep to himself. I looked to see if any other coyotes were coming and there were none. Using as a shooting support a stick that was once a limb off of the tree I was sitting under, I rested the 25-06 and let the cross hairs settle on the coyote just behind the front shoulder. The 25-06 went off and the coyote slumped to the ground and never moved. I sat still and waited, never moving. Within five minutes or so the magpies were on the sheep and were working on the coyote too. By this time it was late and I was getting hungry so I slipped back to camp and started cooking. I had started a fire in the camp
fire pit and by now it had burned down to coals. It was perfect for the T-bone I was about to cook on the heavy wire grate, held up by four well-placed rocks. I had wrapped potatoes in alu- minum foil earlier and tossed them in at the edge of the fire. After fixing
Page 34 Spring 2012
a salad and some green beans, I was almost ready for dinner … except for the Coors beer that had been resting comfortably in the last of the winter snow drifts near camp. With the steak cooked to perfection and seasoned to my taste, I sat down to eat. Only the air moving through the pine needles made a sound. It was nearly dark when I finished but I continued to sit by the fire, reflecting on the day’s events. The birds were at roost and the earth fell quiet … for about 30 minutes. Then the coyotes started their howling from six directions. I knew they were emerging from their dens and were about to start the evening hunt. I fell asleep so quickly when I laid
down that I couldn’t remember lying down. My wrist watch said 1:13 a.m. when I was wakened out of a dead sleep. Coyotes were on my sheep and there was nothing I could do but listen to them as they devoured my bait. Morning came and I was sitting under my tree well before light, waiting in vain for daylight to come. A pack had come in during the night and there was nothing left of the two ewes. As I stood up to walk back to camp I heard dogs barking in the direction of the sheep a mile a way. Not unusual, except they were not the barks of the border collies of the sheep herder. I ran back to camp, threw my
stuff into my truck, and took off for the sheep. I slid the truck to a halt where I had stopped about a quarter of a mile from where the sheep were, jumped out, and took off running. We didn’t have backpacks in those days but I had an old military rucksack that I sometimes carried. There were some new nylon backpacks around but I wasn’t smart enough to own one. So with a box of 25-06 shells in the hip pocket of my Levis and a sandbag in my right hand, I took off at a dead run. It didn’t take long to run to the rock pile that had served me so well the day before. I climbed to the top of the rock pile and was met by a sight that has never left me. I counted 11 wild (formerly
domestic) dogs killing sheep with a violence I have never seen before or since. Sheep were down everywhere. Ewes and lambs lay dead or dying around the entire herd. The herd was so panicked that some were on the ground
Great Stuff from the Club Commissary Store! Caps and Beanies $12 - $16 each plus shipping, see pages 177-180 for details.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212