I hit the W.A. long before walking light this morning. Talked with a young feller from North Carolina while I got my gear on . Him and his brother gonna be hunting these big Ohio deer for the next week . His brother had already lit out for the woods ,,,you guessed it ,,,right where I had intended to start the day,,,roosting area . So I struck a different course and proceeded with stealth . Well, as stealthy as one can be in all this dry fodder .
Didn't hear a single bird . Da'gum near got run over by a pair of does . LITERALLY! I could have spit on the one she was that close . Don't know what they were running from as they came in ,but I know who they were running from when they departed .
9:55 I was standing in some good sunlight warming myself and eating a sandwich . I could hear something moving down in the holler to my right . Sounded like a deer . I kept looking and then I see it's a song dog . The dog and I were actually walking toward one another before I stopped to eat ,,,the wind being in my favor . I finished the grub and pulled up my net ,,,then slowly squatted on my heels . the brush between the dog and I was good and thick with little run off gulleys every ten yards or so . I gave him the kiss of death . I judge he was at least 60-75 yards when I started the lip squeak . 15 -20 seconds after I started squeaking I hear him coming and just that quick I see him . He's standing out there about 25 yards just looking at me . I make another series of lip squeaks and he drops down into one of the gulleys ,,coming in . I swung the double to where I thought he'd come up and out . I was off about 6 inches . He stopped and stared my way again . He started to cross the next gulley but at the same instant he moved I squeaked again . He just backed up to where he was and stared at me . Now the double is trained on a hair between his eyes . I squeezed the full choke barrel trigger and down he went with one brief YIP. I watched him as he rolled to the bottom of the gulley and then he remained still . I got my gear back on and reloaded the full barrel and eased up on the vermin . A 1 1/4 ounce load of #6 shot ,,,at 20 steps ,,,to the face and head ,,WILL NOT CLEANLY KILL AN ADULT MALE . There was no brush between me and the coyote when I fired . His head was a mess of course , yet he lay there breathing . So I dispatched him humanely with a one ounce load of 7 1/2 shot between the ears at about 12 feet.
I was squatting in direct sunlight as this all took place . The only camo I had on was a facenet . He didn't know at all what he was looking at .
Later it got warm enough to take a nap . So I got into a known turkey holler and made a few calls and got comfortable . Didn't get to snooze much though . The sky clouded over and hid the sun . It got cold again ,and I got up and moved . Ten minutes later it flurried a little snow .
Seen enough grey squirrels to fill a pick up truck .
