A New Twist For The Howler Herb Brusman
son and I were howling, a wild-eyed trapper/hunter type came rushing up to the booth and said, “By golly, that’s just what I need for my dogs!” Since I’m always interested in using dogs in con-
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junction with the howl, I queried him further. He quickly introduced himself and told me his story. His name was Steve Carl and he raised greyhounds and borzois (Russian wolfhounds) and used them for running down and killing coyotes for sport and in some instances for predator control for local sheep ranchers. Well, I knew about running coy- otes with greyhounds, but still didn’t make the connection. Steve quickly cleared up the mystery and said, “We
could use the howler to call up the coyotes and then turn the dogs loose. It’d be something different for us, because we usually cruise with a pickup load of dogs and ‘dump out’ when we see a coyote.” Well, I hadn't tried that, but am willing to try anything new, especially when it comes to different methods of taking “Ol’ Wiley.” We finally got together in late May. He and a friend,
Tony Lewis (who raises whippets), showed up with three greyhounds and one borzois. They were hot to hit the trail, so we headed out to some likely areas near our home in Long Creek, Oregon. Since the coyote pups had just recently hit the ground, we figured the adults would be close to the den areas. We howled in several areas, got responses, but no
coyotes showed up. Oh well, nothing ever works right when you need it to (says Murphy)! Anyhow, on the fourth stand, we decided to take just one dog with us – the largest, the borzois, which we figured would be more than a match for our furry friend. (More about this later – surprise!) We walked up over several rocky bluffs and finally found a good spot overlooking a water hole. After several “lone- some” howls, I got a very distinct “challenge” howl in reply and I motioned to my two friends to be ready. A big scraggly dog coyote loped around the side hill
and stared intently up at us, not quite making out what we were. I pursed my lips and mouse squeaked him into about 50 yards. Tony “sicced” the borzois on the coyote. The dog made a half-hearted run toward the coyote and when “Ol’ Scraggly” looked up at him menacingly, and screamed his “challenge” howl, the old borzois just folded. He stopped in mid-stride and made no more moves toward the coyote. The coyote advanced screaming and we stood up and “hissed” the borzois forward. Believe me, that dog was having no part of Mr. Coyote. The dog just froze and after the coyote saw he had him bluffed, he trotted jauntily away, as if to say, “That’ll teach you to mess with me.” All of us were flabbergasted at what we had witnessed.
Steve quickly explained that the dog had never faced a coyote one on one – just with the pack and didn’t have the sand to stand up to it. Well, so much for that. They were impressed with the coyote’s howling ability, but I was not
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hile doing a sports show in Seattle several years ago, a very interesting thing happened. While my
overly impressed with the dog. Well, we’d learned our les- son. The next coyote, we’d have all four dogs. I made several other calls and called coyotes within 200-300 yards in the junipers, but the wind was wrong and I couldn't sight cue the dogs in on the coyotes. The next day we decided to try the old aggressive
coyote that the dog had washed out on the day before. I assured them we could call him up again since we were close to the den site. We chose to come in a little different direction and
we got on the bluff. I howled – got an answer – but noth- ing showed. I told the guys we’d have to move closer and I’d do a pup “ki-yi.” We did and about the second series of “ki-yis,” both coyotes showed up. The old dog was in the lead and the bitch was hanging back. The dogs soon spotted the male coyote, but unfortunately they just concentrated on one animal at a time and the pack won’t split on two. Lucky female! Well, quick as a wink, the dogs had cornered the coyote and after one screech, he was a bundle of fur! The following day we tried another area north of town.
At the first set we located three coyotes, all within rifle shot, but we were trying for dog kills. I learned what part of the problem was: the dogs were used for spotting coyotes from the truck in open country and had trouble spotting them in the brush. After several unsuccessful tries I told my son, Chris, that we should try to kill the coyote with the 17, since I wanted to see what the 18.5-grain Hammett bullet would do. We tied up the dogs, circled the coyotes, and pup “ki- yied.” No response, and as we peeked over the hill in the alfalfa field, we spotted them mousing. We pulled a sneak and I gave the 17 Sako to Chris. He sneaked over the ridge and the coyotes saw some movement and started trotting off. I barked and one stopped at the edge of the field. Chris had readied the rifle on the bipod and “crack!” We could see the coyote hump up a little, and then it ran off about 25 yards and keeled over. Wow! Three hundred twenty-five yards! He had held behind
the shoulder and the bullet penetrated between the ribs and did the job. I had chronographed the 18.5-grain Hammett at 4,600 fps. Hot! But accurate. I would not recommend this light bullet for overall general use, though. The 30-grain bullets at about 3,900-4,000 fps are better. One more stand produced another coyote, but the
dogs had more trouble catching this one because of the large volcanic rocks and steep country. However, it was more open and even though they had to chase it farther, they could keep it in view. Well, I didn’t figure we’d done too badly and both dog
men were ecstatic. You would have thought it was Christ- mas! They had a different plaything and a new method for doing in “Ol’ Wiley.” I also had learned a new and useful method for the old and venerable howler. It was a blast, to say the least!
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