Hunting West Texas is a truly unique experience. Out on the high chaparral you can see vast expanses of land without buildings, houses, or paved roads. Only mesquite and creosote bushes cover the land, meshed with oil fields and ranch gravel roads and two track trails. The sunsets and sunrises are spectacular, and the night skies are breathtaking displays of constellations and meteor showers that are sometimes like fireworks displays. These are skies that are long forgotten to us Eastern dwellers where endless city and suburban lights dim the stars to near oblivion. The only detractor is the recent proliferation of oil field drilling rigs spawned by the current high price of oil.
For the last few years I have had the privilege of being invited to hunt with one of the most accomplished and experienced coyote hunters in the country. Roger, a wealthy retired businessman who grew up in this country, made his wealth in the oil fields and now spends his springs and falls in Costa Rica and summers in Vancouver, but returns each winter to West Texas to hunt coyotes.
Coyotes have been around probably as long, if not longer, than humans. They are extremely intelligent and wary. They are very efficient and effective hunters, and now that wolves are no longer found throughout most of the country, they have no predators to control their numbers. They hunt and kill almost every kind of bird or animal, and because of their propensity to prey on livestock and game animals, they are quite unwelcome guests in ranch country.
Because they are so intelligent and wary, effectively hunting coyotes requires a great deal of knowledge and experience, excellent marksmanship, quality optics, and very specialized equipment. Roger has been doing this for many years and, due to his reputation, has gained access to several large (Texas size) ranches that range from 40 to 500 sections each. (A section is a square mile.) Keep in mind that this is a part of the country where they still occasionally hang trespassers.
The problem with hunting coyotes is that if you botch a setup, you will educate them, and if you hunt a ranch under the wrong conditions, you may just educate a whole generation of coyotes that are un-killable using the same tactics.
Our hunting is done at night (dusk to dawn) and only under favorable conditions, which include time of the year, phase of the moon, and wind. In the high chaparral, high winds are common and eliminate approximately half of the nights, and on many nights the winds cut the hunt short. Due to overlays of scent and sound propagation, anything stronger than a slight breeze renders night calling ineffective.
We use a collection of recordings of prey animals and birds in distress that have proven to be effective. Some might surprise you, like that of a common housecat and puppies. Coyotes also prey on other predators, like foxes.
On one hunt in February 2006, my flight arrived the first night of hunting at 7 p.m., and we were on a ranch hunting by 9:30. We had an excellent night with good conditions, and the coyotes kept coming all night. We got 14 coyotes in all. The next night was another good one, with 12 of the critters falling. High winds kept us sitting in the house the next five nights. We used one of the windy days to lay out calling locations on a nearby ranch for future use. My new Topoguide software and GPS proved very useful.
When the winds finally subsided, we headed toward the New Mexico border to check out a ranch Roger had not hunted before. Unfortunately, the rancher had moved the livestock off the land and we had a poor night, getting only two. It seems the coyotes mainly hang around where livestock are present. The next night we went to a more familiar ranch and had an average night, getting seven. The following night we were again blown out by a weak, fast-moving front.
I have gained a lot of knowledge on this strange pursuit and a keen respect for these ancient predators. They are naturally suspicious, keen and wary. The least mistake will send them to the next zip code. Top quality optics are required to see the body outline under the dim red spotlights against the desert foliage, and experience is required to know how to coax them to the sounds, bring them in on a run, and then use the sounds and light to stop them in their tracks for the shot. Then a highly-tuned rifle with a very light trigger is needed for that shot, which only comes in a fleeting instant. A rock solid, steady rest for the hold and a steady but quick squeeze is essential to clinch the deal. All this while fighting the fatigue of the all-night hunt and the chill of the cold desert night and numb fingers and toes.
This is like no other hunting I have ever done and is quite an experience. As I look to the future of this and other types of hunting, I can forecast certain things. It takes huge tracts of land for this pursuit. It takes about 40 sections of land to make a full night of hunting. Calling locations are spaced about a mile apart and each calling session lasts about fifteen minutes. These large ranches are becoming endangered species. The owners are mostly elderly and only a couple of generations from the original settlers. As they pass on, the land is split among heirs, many of which don’t share their passion for the land. The economics are such that the cattle operations are largely unprofitable. This land is dry and inhospitable for most people. Most of the revenues come from oil and hunting leases. They charge outrageous sums of money for wealthy folks from the cities to hunt primarily deer and quail. Quail leases now bring about as much as deer leases. The future bodes smaller ranches and more human incursion. The oil business, booming once again, will bring more drilling rigs, wells, and oil field traffic. Economics rule.
Enough of philosophy now. It is time to go line out calling stands on another ranch for another evening hunt and hope for calm winds tonight.
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