York Coyote Hunt

By Mike Horning

On Friday morning March 3, 2006, I headed into the woods in York, Maine with a group of friends and two hounds looking for coyotes. Alan, the owner of both hounds brought along his best two, which were of the same litter, one male and one female. Also there was Alan’s brother Gary and friends Randy, John, and Scott who all grew up within a couple miles of each other. Two years prior to this hunt, both Alan and Scott trapped over 80 coyotes up at Alan’s camp in Greenville. Normally they can trap between 50 and 60. But this particular morning is was a cold, clear, and windy, which made it difficult to hear the hounds at times. Alan had each hound outfitted with radio collars and so he needed to beep them often in order to determine which direction to go. Early on, a coyote came out of nowhere and went right by Alan. Alan fired but with no luck. Ten minutes later the same coyote passed between Randy and Scott. Scott fired once and Randy emptied on it - the coyote lives another day.

Later on in the day, they had passed by a pond and were standing on one side when the hounds struck again. This time Alan turned out the less experienced hound as they are both great at cold trailing when they jump a coyote.

 

Randy called me on the radio to tell me where the coyotes had crossed several times. When I got there, the hounds were just out of my hearing range. I headed in the direction I believed they were headed. After about ten minutes, I could hear the hounds coming toward me.

I positioned myself up on top of a ledge where I could watch a gully, thinking this may be where the coyote would come through. Within seconds I could see the coyote coming toward me. It approached within 30 yards of where I was standing. I took quick aim and dumped him in his tracks. The coyote began to spin around so I gave him two more shots.

I was hunting with a 12-gauge Browning shotgun, using 3 inch, 00 buckshot.

What I found to be one of the more enjoyable moments of the hunt was standing over my coyote watching 3 very excited hounds wagging their tails in satisfaction.

This was another great day in the Maine woods. As it turned out, this was the 6th coyote killed in front of the 12-month old hounds so far this winter.