Keithw247
Active Member
The daughter trend continues!! My daughter just turned 13 last week. She hunted with me about two weeks ago and we didn't see anything. I asked her if she would go back and she said yes. So I surprised her by picking her up from school this afternoon (her mom usually picks her up) and told her we were going hunting. She seemed excited. I was hoping we would have a more eventful hunt so she would want to keep going.
We got in the same stand we hunted before and sat for about an hour. It was real windy with gusts of at least 10-15 mph but it was good wind for the stand we were hunting. Nothing was moving, and I'm thinking it's another boring hunt for her and she's not going to want to come back. A few minutes after 5:00 something caught my eye running along the left side of the field, at first I thought it was a small deer but then realized it was a coyote. I picked up the gun and got the scope on it. It was trotting quickly in our direction to our left. I started whistling trying to get it to stop. It looked our way but didn't stop and was soon going to be out of the field so I took a shot. I was amazed it flopped over immediately and did a few leg kicks and then lights out.
This was my first ever coyote. I had pictures of this coyote for two years. He is easy to spot because he has no tail...a bob tailed coyote!
So that brought some excitement to the hunt. However, I'm now thinking we have no chance to see any deer with a coyote just passing through but told Ellie lets just sit till dark and see what happens. The feeder is about 80 yards at the other end of the field from us. As we are losing light the only way to see at that end is with binos or scope. I know we are running out of time and check out the end of the field one last time before I am ready to call it done. I see a deer coming up a bushhogged road in the same corner of the field that the coyote had come from. It was moving real slow and being cautious, again it was very windy. I'm pretty sure it's a doe and at one point I had a shot on it and considered taking it because we were losing light. But then I thought getting meat was not what this hunt was about, I would rather her have an opportunity and not get the deer than me taking it. I knew if I handed her the gun before she could actually see the deer she would probably never find it in the scope. She finally told me she saw it so I handed her the Savage 243 and picked up my binos. The deer made her way to the feeder and of course had her back directly toward us. We are losing light fast so I pull out the grunt call and hit it several times, she never looked. I kept telling Ellie "don't shoot till I say so". Finally after what seemed like 3 days, she quartered to her right and I told Ellie if she could see the shoulder take the shot. A few seconds later the shot rang out and I briefly lost sight of the doe because of the muzzle blast but did catch her running off to the right in the woods. We were both very excited but I knew there was a chance she may have missed it since I didn't see it hit the deer. I was cautiously optimistic. I told her lets get down and go check out the coyote first. After verifying it was the bob tailed coyote we made our way down the field to the feeder. I was extremely relieved to find a few drops of blood right where the deer was standing when Ellie shot her. However I struggled to find more blood after a few feet. Since I know where she ran out of the field I just started down a path in that direction and within 40 yards saw some white off to my right. I can't tell you the relief, excitement and pride I felt when I confirmed that was her deer, a 95 lb doe. Icing on the cake is it was a perfect shot for a quartering away deer. I hugged her and told her what an awesome shot she made.
One of the best hunts of my life!!
We got in the same stand we hunted before and sat for about an hour. It was real windy with gusts of at least 10-15 mph but it was good wind for the stand we were hunting. Nothing was moving, and I'm thinking it's another boring hunt for her and she's not going to want to come back. A few minutes after 5:00 something caught my eye running along the left side of the field, at first I thought it was a small deer but then realized it was a coyote. I picked up the gun and got the scope on it. It was trotting quickly in our direction to our left. I started whistling trying to get it to stop. It looked our way but didn't stop and was soon going to be out of the field so I took a shot. I was amazed it flopped over immediately and did a few leg kicks and then lights out.
This was my first ever coyote. I had pictures of this coyote for two years. He is easy to spot because he has no tail...a bob tailed coyote!
So that brought some excitement to the hunt. However, I'm now thinking we have no chance to see any deer with a coyote just passing through but told Ellie lets just sit till dark and see what happens. The feeder is about 80 yards at the other end of the field from us. As we are losing light the only way to see at that end is with binos or scope. I know we are running out of time and check out the end of the field one last time before I am ready to call it done. I see a deer coming up a bushhogged road in the same corner of the field that the coyote had come from. It was moving real slow and being cautious, again it was very windy. I'm pretty sure it's a doe and at one point I had a shot on it and considered taking it because we were losing light. But then I thought getting meat was not what this hunt was about, I would rather her have an opportunity and not get the deer than me taking it. I knew if I handed her the gun before she could actually see the deer she would probably never find it in the scope. She finally told me she saw it so I handed her the Savage 243 and picked up my binos. The deer made her way to the feeder and of course had her back directly toward us. We are losing light fast so I pull out the grunt call and hit it several times, she never looked. I kept telling Ellie "don't shoot till I say so". Finally after what seemed like 3 days, she quartered to her right and I told Ellie if she could see the shoulder take the shot. A few seconds later the shot rang out and I briefly lost sight of the doe because of the muzzle blast but did catch her running off to the right in the woods. We were both very excited but I knew there was a chance she may have missed it since I didn't see it hit the deer. I was cautiously optimistic. I told her lets get down and go check out the coyote first. After verifying it was the bob tailed coyote we made our way down the field to the feeder. I was extremely relieved to find a few drops of blood right where the deer was standing when Ellie shot her. However I struggled to find more blood after a few feet. Since I know where she ran out of the field I just started down a path in that direction and within 40 yards saw some white off to my right. I can't tell you the relief, excitement and pride I felt when I confirmed that was her deer, a 95 lb doe. Icing on the cake is it was a perfect shot for a quartering away deer. I hugged her and told her what an awesome shot she made.
One of the best hunts of my life!!
