Wednesday, May 6, 2009
Youuuu Might Be A RedneckHi everyone,
Yes
it finally happened again. I was sound asleep last night when I heard
the coyotes cackling. They startled me awake because they sounded
close, really close.
I have found that with most people who grew
up in the city then moved out to the country, their estimate of “how
far away the coyotes were” can be a bit skewed – even some born and
raised country girls can get spooked of them and misjudge the actual
closeness of the howling coyotes. They howl and cackle mostly at night
when everything is quiet, their voices are made to carry over long
distances like wolf howls - so they sound a lot closer than they really
are. Also depending on the lay of the land – you’ll get the sound
bouncing off of mountains or ridges; it’s really fairly common to hear
coyotes howling from miles away, MILES.
But
I grew up in the woods – literally, and once familiar with an area I
can tell by sound exactly how far away they are when they howl or
cackle. The ones I heard last night were really close. REALLY CLOSE. I
heard the dogs get up and go running towards the backside of fence. I
tried twice real quick to get hubby up and at another round of cackling
I jumped up out of bed grabbed my shot gun and the spot light.
I
opened the slider door slowly and then purposefully set off the motion
light on that back deck hoping to see them and gauge their range…I
caught a glimpse of a pair of eyes just beyond out back gate
(less than 30 yards from me)
– next things happened very quickly. I slid a round of heavy buckshot
into the barrel of my break action shotgun - I grabbed the spot light
with my left hand and had the shotgun in my right, using my thumb
flipped on the spot light and brought it up as I brought the shotgun up
(I’ve done this before so shooting with one hand is not new to me – but it is a little tricky) in an instant I saw not one but two full grown coyotes
(up here if they are healthy they can get up to 50 lbs)
at the back gate both very, very interested in my dogs. Out of the
corner of my eye I saw several additional pairs of eyes around the
corner of the fence to my left…
I made a decision based on the
fact that rabid coyotes have been turning up in our area and also based
on how close to our house this band had gotten and how interested they
were in our dogs. When Roper saw me at the door he made a run for it to
get inside, when Kaiser saw the gun he made a run for his dog house
(he doesn’t like gun fire). In a split second I had a clear shot at the
coyotes
(who had NOT run off upon seeing me)
and fired, out of reflex I put the spot light down and reloaded and had
the spot light and gun back up as Hubby came running out of the bedroom
dropping the “f” bomb several times. They were running off and almost
to the woods already so just for good measure I shot once more in their
direction knowing I wouldn’t hit any of them, yet hoping it would
encourage them not to return.
A heavy load of buckshot can hurt!
It’s been awhile since I have used any – usually I am shooting trap
with trap load and that doesn’t bother me at all – but that buckshot
sure can make a kick! My shoulder still hurts. The nice thing about
buckshot is that you can’t really miss with it – so I got one, but
didn’t really rejoice in it, I mean it’s not like I was out hunting for
them or anything
(Hubby
was very pleased and has not quit bragging since last night - strange
though how he doesn't mention the fact that he slept through most of it).
I just wanted to protect my dogs and discourage them from coming back -
it was a male, don’t know if that matters to anyone else but I felt
better knowing it wasn’t a female with pups.
However,
like Mikey has said, once you have listened to them tear apart one of
your dogs and basically start eating him/her alive you feel a lot less
sorry about grabbing a gun and thinning out the population.No
pictures though, I thought that may be a bit much, and since they were
acting as a band and not alone and appeared otherwise healthy I am
guessing they were not diseased but I have put in a call to Fish and
Game just to see if they’d like examine it anyways. I have hunting
license
(big and small game) and coyotes are considered a nuisance animal up here anyways
(this means almost anyone with a license can shoot them at any time of the day or year) so I was well within the law.
