sportsman01
Active Member
- Messages
- 356
Just returned from a last minute trip trying to notch a velvet muley tag. It was a tough hunt, very hot and those ol' forest bucks are hard to stick. Had some chances...but never notched my tag.
Anyhow, on Friday afternoon we helped a couple gents who arrowed a bull get 5-6 miles back to the truck (they had come off the complete opposite side of the mountain after anchoring their bull). They had seen a bachelor group of bucks and sent us that direction. My brother and I setup in a great vantage point that gave us tons of glassing options in a prime area. After an hour or so we heard what we thought was a coyote making a ton of racket. The strange part about it was it went on for about 30 minutes, was really high pitched and whiny and was never joined by other coyotes...as they normally do. So we continued glassing that canyon, trying to pick up the dogs in our optics. After the yipping/howling/whining stopped two mexican gray's stepped out...a female, and a very large male. Both were collared and very easy to tell apart from a coyote. Ears were rounded, heads blocky, they carry their tales out behing them and the male was massive (compared to the typical coyote). He looked like a husky, very white with gray sides, a reddish back and ears were red. They started about 400 yds from us and ended up coming within about 70 yds (75 last I ranged). We watched them for well over an hour. I might add that this mountain side was crawling with elk, deer and antelope two days prior. This night....nothing moved. Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe all the racket clued everything in. The two bulls that were bugling stopped when the wolves started yipping...and didn't start up again for about 45 minutes after they stopped. Pretty wild sight and a dead silent 2-3 miles while this was all going on. They ended up passing within that 70 yd mark right by us and never knew we were there. I was tempted to see how they reacted to predator calls or just my presence, but also thought if things went south and we ended up taking one out...how much trouble I'd be in...so we let them slide on by. Wish I would have taken pics...but my mind was on other things. Next time!!
Anyhow, this was on the far west side of the canyon creek mountains near the loco mountain area. We had some righteous wolf folk stop by my camp and tell me that there were wolves in cooney prarie as well and that if they attacked my dog in camp (had my trusty huntin dog at camp with me) I couldn't harass the wolf in anyway. I laughed...and won't tell you my exact reply, but I basically told them to go pound sand.
So, mobility impaired and rifle hunters beware...they are in that area right now and are being watched...
Hope everyone has had some great hunts and good luck with the upcoming seasons and congrats to those folks that knocked them down. We saw only 6 or so camps with bulls, but they were good ones!
Anyhow, on Friday afternoon we helped a couple gents who arrowed a bull get 5-6 miles back to the truck (they had come off the complete opposite side of the mountain after anchoring their bull). They had seen a bachelor group of bucks and sent us that direction. My brother and I setup in a great vantage point that gave us tons of glassing options in a prime area. After an hour or so we heard what we thought was a coyote making a ton of racket. The strange part about it was it went on for about 30 minutes, was really high pitched and whiny and was never joined by other coyotes...as they normally do. So we continued glassing that canyon, trying to pick up the dogs in our optics. After the yipping/howling/whining stopped two mexican gray's stepped out...a female, and a very large male. Both were collared and very easy to tell apart from a coyote. Ears were rounded, heads blocky, they carry their tales out behing them and the male was massive (compared to the typical coyote). He looked like a husky, very white with gray sides, a reddish back and ears were red. They started about 400 yds from us and ended up coming within about 70 yds (75 last I ranged). We watched them for well over an hour. I might add that this mountain side was crawling with elk, deer and antelope two days prior. This night....nothing moved. Maybe it was a coincidence, or maybe all the racket clued everything in. The two bulls that were bugling stopped when the wolves started yipping...and didn't start up again for about 45 minutes after they stopped. Pretty wild sight and a dead silent 2-3 miles while this was all going on. They ended up passing within that 70 yd mark right by us and never knew we were there. I was tempted to see how they reacted to predator calls or just my presence, but also thought if things went south and we ended up taking one out...how much trouble I'd be in...so we let them slide on by. Wish I would have taken pics...but my mind was on other things. Next time!!
Anyhow, this was on the far west side of the canyon creek mountains near the loco mountain area. We had some righteous wolf folk stop by my camp and tell me that there were wolves in cooney prarie as well and that if they attacked my dog in camp (had my trusty huntin dog at camp with me) I couldn't harass the wolf in anyway. I laughed...and won't tell you my exact reply, but I basically told them to go pound sand.
So, mobility impaired and rifle hunters beware...they are in that area right now and are being watched...
Hope everyone has had some great hunts and good luck with the upcoming seasons and congrats to those folks that knocked them down. We saw only 6 or so camps with bulls, but they were good ones!
