F*ckers got my last two cats.
Time to kill the lights and grab the infrared.
Why? Seems like with your last two cats now gone, your problems are over.
Ok, here's my urban coyote story of the day. All true.
Microsoft buddy of mine has a big place over in the 'burbs of Redmond. Big house on a couple acre property out in the boonies. He's got goats, alpacas, llamas, chickens, ducks, etc, and of course, all this "food" attracted some coyotes. Over time, he kept losing his ducks ,geese, chickens, and whatnots until he finally got fed up with it and called us up for some backup firepower.
The plan was simple on that cold and dark December evening. Have some dinner, smoke a cigar, have some bourbon, dress up head-to-toe in cammo, grab the long and scatter guns, hop in our pre-made blinds, fire up the predator call, call in the doggies and shoot them back to Coyote Hell.
Easy as pie????
The evening was upon us and it was a very clear yet cold late December evening. Dinner was exceptional as was the cigar and Blanton's Bourbon. Around the witching hour, it was determined to go out and bag us some doggies, so we geared up in our cammo, loaded up our weapons and headed out to our pre-determined shooting spots.
Shooting Spots #1 and #2 were up on the roof of his house, slightly back from the callers in the blind, but up high with a good vantage point. The shooters were armed with H-BAR class M4/M16 type .223 both equipped with optics (no night sights). No one actually thought these guys would get any shot off, as even though it was a full moon night, it was pretty damn dark out there.
A few yards in front of the house was the fence that separated the property from the pasture and Coyote No-Man's Land where all the animals were kept, house, or roamed. That's where shooters #3-6 were station, including caller #1 (me). We piled up brush, weeds, etc to make little blinds along the fence where we could tucker on down and hide ourselves waiting for a doggie to approach. The wind was in our face and we knew it was a pretty solid plan. Shooters #3-6 were armed with 12 ga. scatter guns with various rounds in the chamber, including high-velocity pelleted rounds, slugs, .00 buck, and probably a Dragon's Breath round or two (for illumination purposes only, of course).
As a side not to this story, as the lone caller, I've had some experience calling in ducks, geese, and turkeys, but never really any coyotes. So, I got online and found a site that was very helpful in explaining what calls to use, when, and what cadence to use and when, etc. With a little practice on my predator call, I got pretty good at simulating a rabbit that was getting eaten by a Chubacabra. Hell, any sane Coyote in a 2-mile radius was gonna come running at the sound of this, right? I also know that having another different call was a must, but the only other call I had was a turkey scratcher. So, I brought that with me too.
Back to the story - We took a rooster and tied a rope to his leg and staked him to the ground about 20 yards in front of us as "bait". Poor damn rooster had no idea what he was in for, but didn't seem to care that he was stacked to rope to the ground and just pecked at things on the ground. About 75 yards out in front of us, were the big animals in another enclosed type area. They were off down by a pond and were out of harms way. Past that enclosed area, 100+ yards past us was the Coyote No-Man's land. We figured the doggies would be comming up from here and on in to us. Was going to be an ambush type fight with us on the defensive, but we were ready.
We all got settled in to our positions and let everything sit and quiet down for about 30 minutes. The moon was full and it was about 25 degrees outside. Still dark as stout, even though we had a full moon. Probably a little too dark, but I could see the rooster and could easily see 25 yards on either side of him. Plenty enough time and space to ambush a doggie on the prowl!
I pulled out my predator call and let loose with the pre-determined call cadence: Chubacabra had just mutilated a rabbit!!!! The world erupted in chaos after that blast of noise! Several dogs from miles around started barking! All the animals down by the pond got startled and started running around in a panic! Geese started honking and the ducks started quacking.
Excellent! That should bring something in.
So, I continued with another round of calls. Mind you, at this very same time, I'm almost paralyzed with laughter. As soon as every animal in a 5 mile radius started to freak out at my predator calling ability, I lost it. I literally was crying because I was laughing so hard. Yet, not to lose on the hunt, I had to laugh silently, or at least as silent as I could. I can't tell you how HARD it is to laugh and use a predator call at the same time.
I called for a few minutes, paused, called, paused, and did what I was suppose to do. The animals were still agitated so I say and waited for about 15 minutes.
Knowing that I needed something else, I brought out the turkey call and let loose with some good old fashioned turkey yelps! Impressive, or so I thought. "Tuuuuurk, tuurk, turk, turk, turk, turk, turk......"
All of a sudden pure hell broke out in the animal pen - where we forgot that we had left all the geese, ducks, chickens, etc. No one had thought to actually round up the "bait" and secure them at the house. Right as I had finished my last turkey chirp, something crashed in to the animal pen causing anything that *could* fly, *to* fly. 4 geese came flying in the 100 yards from the pen in at us, landed at the fence line, and made a mad dash towards the house. Ducks and chickens could be heard flapping and quacking. The big animals were running around all bothered.
It was obvious something was amiss and shooters #3 and #4 grabbed a spotlight and made a charge towards the perimeter. The rest was a blur, but after a 15 minute search of the area, it was reported that "quite a few sets of eyes" could be seen off in the distance and that they were "probably coyote" too scared to come in any closer and probably would not.
Damn! The hunt was over. It was late, we were cold, so we eventually packed up and went home. Oh well, we failed in our mission, and all was well that ends well.....
Until I got the email from the homeowner the next morning. Actually, it was from his wife and it went something like this:
"Dear Asshats,
Thanks for coming over last night and enjoying our dinner, smokes, and fine bourbons, as well as causing a wild ruckus at 1:00 am. When I went out to feed the animals at 7:00 am, I found 6 dead and partially eaten ducks, 4 dead and partially eaten chickens, and 1 mauled goose. Now, we haven more ducks, no more chickens, and 3.75 geese left.
Seems not only did you NOT kill any coyotes last night, but your efforts to call them in worked - as in you called them ALL in to dinner last night. I'm pretty sure every coyote in a 10-mile radius of our house invaded the property last night.
PS. You also left Mr. Rooster tied to a stake. For some reason, he was left unharmed."
So, there you go. I called in an Epic Pack of Coyotes and led them to their dinner.
Let me know if you need any help, Irie! I've still got the calls!