This weekend, I was asked to entertain a 17 year old who recently started hunting. He's seen photos of my hunts, and was eager to get some trigger time. I had hoped to get him on some dove, but we couldn't find any, so we switched to varmints. I told him he could shoot anything that was legal. Our take for the day was:
1 dead coyote (200 yard shot with AR15), and 1 missed coyote (450 yard shot) 1 bobcat, we heard the bullet impact, but never found a body (too dark) 1 coon, called in using the daylight method. 2 crows 2 dove 2 turtles 4 armadillos 7 skunks 1 probable rabbit, but we couldn't find it in the dark. 1 truck antenna Needless to say, the kid had a great time. He texted our results to all of his friends as we drove home.
-- Edited by TexasMatt on Monday 27th of September 2010 05:30:11 AM
Matt, great job on the varmints!!Did you call the dogs and cat?? Did the coon charge out??
No Shane, we were just driving and shining for the yote and cat. We tried calling several times, but never saw anything. The coon did charge in hard, and was running directly toward me. I missed on my first shot at 2 yards, then took better aim and connected at 5 yards.
I will update Matt a little bit. We have called in 6 and shot 4 in total... I have bagged 2 and Matt has another 2 so far. I was the failed gunman on the 2 raccoons that appeared but left before I could get a shot off.
I tried 4 stands on Friday (two crow hunting properties) and called in 2, bagging one. On Sunday I tried 2 more stands at one hunting plot but no raccoons responded. I did get 29 crows on Friday, too.
Our batting average on calling in raccoon has been pretty good on most properties. It is certainly exciting and a great adjunct to our crow hunting.
Shane brought this to our attention as it was covered on one of Brian Downs excellent Predator Talkcasts (http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=34247&cmd=tcpodcast's) and available for free on the iTunes Store (search for "Brian Downs"), just like Bob A's on crow hunting. It is podcast episode number 21. They make great listening on your IPOD when driving to/from hunting sites.
As they say, variety is the spice of life. Not too sure about the truck antenna though. Great job on the varmints, that youngster will remember that safari for years to come.