# My first successful night hunt (unique double)



## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

Well I am going to try to recap last nights hunt off of about 1.5 hours of sleep. I got home at 6:30 AM and the kids were up and at 'em at 8 AM while the wife went to Zumba class so I will do my best. :lol:

Last night was ideal night hunting conditions. Full moon, cold, light wind, white snow. I am pretty green at night hunting. I have probably done it less than 5 times.

Xdeano and I went out to some spots. First stand looked good, until some losers in a mufflerless puddle jumper sedan come tearing down the road as we are putting on our snowshoes. "We thought you guys were stuck" is what they yell out the window. Thanks for screwing up our stand boys! Off they go with their loud car. Anyway no customers on that stand.

Second stand looked promising but nothing.

Third stand looked even more promising. xdeano starts off with some howls and we get a few packs howling in a few directions. We wait, and wait, and wait. It's about 3 AM and I doze off for 10-30 seconds at least a few times during the stand. Xdeano continues with lsome coyote vocalizations. Finally I spot one out on the ice maybe a half mile out. At that time I hear xdeano walking to me from his side of the vantage point. I motion for him to sit down and I start lip squeaking and doing a little rabbit blues. Suddenly I see a predator coming across an open spot and starting the circle. I am amazed at the large circle it is making. As it's coming in I am trying to turn my magnification on my scope from 4X to 14X...but it is STUCK (frozen)! Finally the predator circles so far that it makes a complete 180 degree turn midstride. I knew immediately that it saw the truck. I barked, it stopped, and I took a shot with my scope at 4x. It was about a 200-250 yard shot but we hear a SMACK! However the predator takes off trotting and I thought I missed. About thirty seconds later I look back at it through my scope and see it spinning and lie down. Xdeano continues with some distress sounds. Eventually xdeano starts walking my way, and sure enough, I spot ANOTHER approaching predator coming from my side! I get his attention and he lies down about 10 yards from me. This predator is now about 300 yards out right where predator #1 was laying, and they are both moving around together. (Keep in mind I am looking through a slightly iced over scope here at night so the view was not too good). I cannot figure out whether they are two NEW predators, or the one I shot at and a new one, or what. Some coaxing brings one of them in to about the same place the other one was when I shot it. I am figuring this one will see the truck too, so I stop him and shoot. SMACK, YELP, and it falls and kicks and is done.

Once the stand is over we walk over and here is what we find. Predator #1 was a nice red fox. It came in to all the coyote howling going on. Predator #2 was a coyote. From what we can figure out is that he came in, and then got preoccupied by chasing the injured fox that I had shot while he was breathing his last breaths.

Both were in that 200-250 yard range...223..50 Grain V Max.










Next stand we tried to get around to the other side of the area where we heard the other ones howling. xdeano does some howls and soon I can hear some LOUD scratching/footstep noises. I look out on the ice and two black dots are closing in FAST! It was kind of fun to hear them before seeing them. In not much time the coyotes are right in my lap at about 50 yards. I took a fairly mature female by the looks of her teeth. Once I wake up a bit I will go outside and weigh her and try to get a picture of the canine teeth. The male (we figure), got away.

Pretty good night all in all.


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## jonnyr7 (Jan 5, 2010)

hey nice work. isn't that kinda weird to have a fox and coyote in such close proximity to each other? i thought the coyote chased the fox off their territory


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

Yeah I know that is why I thought it was such a wierd deal. I will remember that hunt for a long time.


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## jonnyr7 (Jan 5, 2010)

just goes to show you never ever know what might happen out there on those cold bright nights


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## Snowgooser (Mar 28, 2008)

That night hunting looks so cool! Nice picture of the double.


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## papapete (Jan 2, 2005)

I'm getting real tired of you going out and smacking them whenever I leave town!!!! :wink:


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

papapete said:


> I'm getting real tired of you going out and smacking them whenever I leave town!!!! :wink:


Let's see let's think about this...oh yeah...you are ALWAYS out of town! oke: :wink:


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## bearhunter (Jan 30, 2009)

the fox verses coyote thing is kinda wearing off. been seeing plenty of fox latley in the same area (sections) as coyotes. even seen them laying out within site of each other. :thumb: good job on the double guys


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## xdeano (Jan 14, 2005)

This is one of those spots that there are usually fox in the area. I usually pick up about 4 or 5 a year in this area and about a dozen coyotes before spring. It's a coyote magnet spot. It isn't to unusual to find fox and coyotes near each other, but to call in a fox with all the howling that was done, then to pick up a coyote right along with it, in a time span of my 3 minutes is kind of different.

xdeano


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## WIdawg22 (Sep 18, 2008)

bearhunter said:


> the fox verses coyote thing is kinda wearing off. been seeing plenty of fox latley in the same area (sections) as coyotes. even seen them laying out within site of each other. :thumb: good job on the double guys


Any of you guys see any fox ever killed by a coyote. I seen one once, I skinned it out and it had bite marks across the back of its neck. Wonder how often it happens. Wonder if a fox decoy would be beneficial while calling coyotes?


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## MossyMO (Feb 12, 2004)

Fallguy
Congrats on the oddball double and thanks for the story, sounds like fun !!!


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## xdeano (Jan 14, 2005)

WIdawg22,

I've had several red fox in foot hold traps that have been killed by coyotes. They come in and see the fox struggling and just go for them. Coyotes will chase/attack a fox any chance it gets. It has to do with territorial boundaries. I''ve heard of several reports that guys were out in treestands hunting deer and had a fox run right under the stand going full tilt, and about 10 seconds after that a coyote or several coyotes go charging through the woods.

It does happen.

xdeano


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## barebackjack (Sep 5, 2006)

Fallguy mentions the first animal (the fox) on that set making a wide circle, well, he was giving you guys a wide berth as he knew there were "coyotes" there. He was being cautious.

Coyotes catch and kill fox ALL the time where they "co-exist".


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## owwwwww (Jan 8, 2008)

Nice hunt! Its funny xdeano didnt scare them away when he was moving, he would of been on my sh*%t list if it was me and they ran off! That coyote had his heart set on getting to that fox and nothing was gonna stop him.


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

owwwwww said:


> Its funny xdeano didnt scare them away when he was moving, he would of been on my sh*%t list if it was me and they ran off!


Well considering it was his landowner's land and he did the calling and we took his pickup...well, he could have uppercut me in the jaw while I was squeezing the trigger and there's not much I could have said. :lol:


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## owwwwww (Jan 8, 2008)

I suppose thats ok then lol. The caller always has the right to first movement


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## Bloodyblinddoors (Oct 25, 2006)

When ever I'm the one doin the calling I always make it clear to my partner(s). At the end of the set I'll let out a whistle. If the coast is clear you whistle back. If not dont whistle back. It's the best way we've found not to screw ourselves like that and we've never scared an animal away by whistling.


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## RBuker (Dec 11, 2009)

There seem to be more and more fox again the past couple of years. We called in 4 of them on Friday night.

Nice work on the double. It sure was a perfect night on Friday.

Good work.


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## Bloodyblinddoors (Oct 25, 2006)

RBuker said:


> There seem to be more and more fox again the past couple of years.


I'm experiencing the same thing. The fox numbers have been increasing steadily in the last 4 years and this year is no exception. It sure is cool. I love them little reds. Well........ It's more a love hate relationship  I'd rather call in a coyote cause it seems I have more control of them when they aproach. Reds usually end up twisting me into a pretzel most the time. Cant get them to stop long enough for an anchored shot. I've gotten REAL good now at bring a scatter gun with on every set.

On one set not so long ago I called in a yote. Killed it at 100 steps. Got on the ki-yi's and within 2mins Mr. Red bombs in with wreckless abandon. Came from the same dirrection as the yote but could not get him to stop for more than 1/8 second. I had to spin so far to my right and my bi-pod got hung up and ended up collapsing one of the legs. I wanted to grab the shotgun sssssoooo bad but would have had to let my rifle fall down and now the fox is only 30yds. It finaly stops and I rush an unsteady shot with the rifle and miss.

I think the reds are just using me for entertainment. Thats OK. I like it.


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

Bloodyblinddoors said:


> When ever I'm the one doin the calling I always make it clear to my partner(s). At the end of the set I'll let out a whistle. If the coast is clear you whistle back. If not dont whistle back. It's the best way we've found not to screw ourselves like that and we've never scared an animal away by whistling.


Yah me and papapete have a pretty good system down that is similar to what you do. I haven't called with xdeano a whole lot yet so I don't know if we can read each other yet as well as papapete and I read each other.


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## RBuker (Dec 11, 2009)

Yup, I'm getting reports of more and more people getting chances at foxes. I love to see it. They will always be my first love....


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## xdeano (Jan 14, 2005)

I typically hunt with radios, but they were left in the truck. Movements can be a good thing at night though. It kind of paints a picture of a coyote getting after a rabbit. I guess the guy who sees the animal should start to do some lip squeaking or other distress sounds so the guy at the other end of the woods knows whats going on. The caller always moves first! I'm not use to hunting with anyone either, i'm what they call a loaner when it comes to calling. But it is nice to have another person with another set of eyes. And one that can pull the trigger.

xdeano


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## kingcanada (Sep 19, 2009)

that was a "comedy of errors" type of hunt with a real happy ending. the fox coming to the howls really surprises me. you guys were certainly blessed that night. sounds like it was worth the lack of sleep. now that the final weeks of bird season are over here, i look forward to smackin' some fur again. reading stuff like this get me all fired up!


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## xdeano (Jan 14, 2005)

Fallguy, you forgot to add a time table of events. I'd guess we were on stand with the fox and coyote for an hour or more. The last stand was pretty quick, we ended up getting out of there by 500am or so. They were pretty slow to come in most of the night.

xdeano


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

xdeano said:


> Fallguy, you forgot to add a time table of events. I'd guess we were on stand with the fox and coyote for an hour or more. The last stand was pretty quick, we ended up getting out of there by 500am or so. They were pretty slow to come in most of the night.
> 
> xdeano


I didn't forget. I couldn't remember! Combination of being super tired the next day and barely remembering what happened at all, as well as falling asleep a few times on the fox/coyote double stand. I had no clue we were on stand for an hour! 

Should of drank the whole 6 pack of Mt. Dew I brought with instead of just two of them.


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## xdeano (Jan 14, 2005)

well you were awake when it counted anyhow. :sniper:

xdeano


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## Fallguy (Jan 23, 2004)

True that. I only dozed off for a few seconds at a time though. At least I think. :lol:


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