Doe-Licious Delight & Coyote Chaos

 

 As much as I love to bow hunt whitetail I encounter situations that require me to pick up a rifle. These are rare moments, especially when hunting deer, but that was the case this past January. An opportunity was presented to conduct deer management on some property in Deep South Texas & with over 5000 acres to cover in 3 days & plenty of tags to fill I knew I would have a rifle in my hand. There wasn't time to scout or set up good bow blinds and the land owner needed some doe herds thinned out. The land was going to be leased out for the following season & who could pass up an opportunity to fill our freezers & feed our family!

 Most of the hunting was done down long senderos and hitting up water sources so we tried to increase the challenge by taking long shots, usually 200+ yards each time.
 

Over the next few days we were able to put 6 doe in our ice chests & another friend filled his with 3 doe as well. Knowing we would be keeping some of the meat but also filling our parents & families freezers was very rewarding and being able to help out the land owner in the process. 9 doe may not be a big dent in the doe population but it could only help.



The 3rd doe I shot was  in the early afternoon and the weather was warming up so we field dressed her immediately so we could continue to hunt (this was actually one of the bigger doe I shot but the angle in the picture below made her look smaller-we were keeping her in the shade to keep her cool as well). We left the gut pile and headed out to finish checking senderos. We were making our way back to the area of the gut pile when we saw a big ol bobcat run off from the pile! It had not been more than an hour since I had shot the doe and the bobcat found his own dinner quickly and during daylight hours! We tried to get a shot on the cat but he was too quick for us!

In between filling ice chests we were always on the lookout for predators, pests, pigs and javelina to hunt. While driving around midday we headed to one of the water sources for some action. When we drove up over one of the damns we all spotted a coyote devouring an animal carcass.

The first shot from our friend was a miss but then my husband took a follow up shot while the coyote was on the run and he hit him. We quickly made our way over to him. This was turning into a team effort and since he was still alive (broken back) I then put two .40 rounds into his head. Dead coyote. As always I wanted pictures (have to share with y'all) so I drug him out of the brush & proceeded to take pictures. 

 

 As I laid him back down I freaked out! He started breathing and moving his mouth. At first I thought maybe it was just his body reacting to the shots and being held upside down but when we put a boot on his stomach he pushed it off with this breathing & started moving! A few more rounds in him finally led to his expiration. I would have thought 2 shots to the head would have sealed the deal but apparently I was wrong!

 

 This was one tough coyote & here I was holding him up taking picture while he was still alive!! The only comfort I had was that I had on snake boots that came up to my knees and 3 bottom layers of clothing! As you can see from the picture his gnarly teeth were well within range of latching onto my leg and leading to a whole mess of problems! Not the smartest moment I have had in the woods! 

 

 

The last morning of the hunt hubby and I were sitting together watching a sendero when we saw 2 doe come out. They were calm and relaxed and it was his turn to shoot; as he was getting set up for a shot at 180 yards we both noticed something else in the distance.

 Sneaking up behind the two unsuspecting doe were 2 evil conniving coyotes. We were about to witness them carry out their plan of attack from behind on the smaller doe and we were not about to let this happen. The doe had no idea the coyotes were sneaking down the road. As much as we wanted to get another doe on ice and meat in the freezer, we knew taking down these predators and saving the doe and future fawns was more important.

 So hubby turned his sights of his .270 to the coyotes and took a shot at 200 yards and dropped the first coyote in his tracks. He moved quickly to try for a shot on the second coyote but it had already made its way into the brush. The doe scattered as expected but we were happy to have destroyed that coyote and ruined their plan of attack!

 

 So yes the coyote in this picture was shot by my husband and not me, but he isn't as excited to take pictures as I am haha! However, that coyote was very smelly and my hands stunk for quite some time afterwards! 

 It was a great weekend trip of filling freezers, managing the doe population, taking down some predators and I even did a little javelina stalking with my bow that came up short. Now all of those doe are in our freezers and the freezers of our family. The land owner thanked us over and over but we were the ones who were extremely grateful for the opportunity to hunt, feed our family, and make memories to last a lifetime!