Predator Call

I guess the longer you do something the greater the odds of something rare happening while you are doing it.  I have been trying to call critters for a long time and approximately 10 years ago while hunting with J. D. Beeson, an event occurred that I will almost certainly never duplicate.  We were calling on a very large south Texas ranch where there was a very good coyote and bobcat population.The thick thorn brush that is typical to this area offers very few natural openings.  Many of the calling stands that we make in this country are at the intersection of two senderos (roads).  On this morning, J. D. and I chose one of these intersections to make the third call of the morning.  Being left-handed, I took the sendero to the right  and walked down to the first bush that offered me a little more concealment.  J. D. sat down at the left side of the intersection so that he could watch the sendero to the right and the one running away from him.   I estimate that there were thirty steps between us when I began to work the Black Magic predator call.

Approximately 3 minutes into the call, a coyote broke from the brush across the sendero from me.  As soon as the coyote hits the sendero, he is looking directly into my eyes.  I know that making a move was almost impossible but my rifle was resting across my lap pointing down the sendero where the dog was headed.  If I could just shoulder my rifle, I would have a chance to kill the dog. 

The motion of shouldering the rifle caused the dog to grab another gear as he attempted to gain the safety of the cover on the other side of the road.  When I saw motion in my scope, the coyote was less than twenty steps…I pulled the trigger.  As bad luck would have it, my bullet had cut several small branches on the brush that stuck out in the edge of the sendero.  Though I felt I must have gotten at least bullet fragments in the dog, I could find no is sign of it.   

I walked up the road where J. D. was sitting and before I could say anything, he said, “I missed him”.  My response was “You shot?”  “Yeah, I shot at a coyote that trotted across that sendero about 80 yards up there”, gesturing to the sendero that ran north.  “Did you hear me shoot?” I asked rather confused.  He responded that he had not heard my shot. 

Two different hunters shot at two different coyotes in two different directions at exactly the same time.  Evidently, the rifles had discharged so close to the same time that neither of the shooters knew that the other had shot.  I have been calling critters for over 45 years and I will be willing to bet that I never see this scenario play out again.