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A Hunting Tale: by Paul Askew

Because the elk were not talking yet, my hunting partner for the

week, Lee Busque, a Fire Fighter and professional Bull Rider from

North Carolina and I decided to change strategies and set up an ambush

for elk in an area we found elk the previous day.

 

Just before daylight, we arrived at the spot Lee nick named Elk

Hill. I sat up in a cluster of pines that had dead droopy lower

branches, which made for good natural cover, and Lee sat up on the

other side of the hill on a stump over looking what we figured was the

main elk trail.

 

We planned to sit the first hour and a half of daylight and then go

try and find elk if we were not successful in our ambush. 20 minutes

after daylight, I heard the thunderous sound of critters running

through the dry mountainous pine forest. Not sure what was making the

ruckus or why, because I had perfect wind, I knocked an arrow and

readied for a shot. It was just a doe and a fawn, so my adrenaline

didn’t make it to overload before I realized what was causing the

commotion.

 

Seconds later, the hoof beats of the doe and fawn were now distant,

but I started hearing something over my left shoulder. I figured it

was a deer that separated from the other two. I slowly pivoted my head

in that direction and caught movement 25 yards away, which resulted in

the observation of a beautiful coyote that stepped up on a log in a

very picturesque fashion and scanned the area in front of him. It was

the epitome of a wild setting with predator chasing prey.

 

In my experience, coyotes do not generally stick around long, so I

was trying to get positioned for a shot. Just as I found an opening in

the cluster of droopy dead pine branches, the yote jumped off the log

and went from left to right still at about 25 yards.

 

He then started trotting straight away, so I gave a light whoop,

whoop, and he stopped and turned to look back in a slightly quartering

away stance. Fortunately, I was fairly well hidden in my natural blind

and the yote felt comfortable enough to stand for a shot as he gazed

in my direction trying to locate the source of the call.

 

With my bow arm straight out and string taunt like Larry D. Jones

had taught me 2 years prior, I attained my sight picture, drew,

anchored, aimed, adjusted my focal point for elevation, and made a

clean release. As I held my breath with adrenaline cracking through my

veins, the arrow appeared to almost hang as it covered the 30 yards in

what felt like slow motion as it arched its way through the cold

morning air toward its target.

 

On impact the yote flinched, spun, and started barking, and biting

at the arrow that was poking through both sides of his body. Slow

motion was over and things were happening in real time now. After a

few 360’s, the yote made off in a dead run that sounded like a

freight train as he scattered dried pine cones and trampled dead pine

branches in a roaring fashion.

 

Within seconds, the pine forest resumed its natural sounds again. It

was just the birds chirping, squirrels running about, and the sound of

a calm cool breeze. I sat there almost gloating to myself. Lee and I

met up on the top of the ridge a little over an hour later. I took Lee

down to show him where I shot from, and share my story.

 

We found first blood without a problem but about 20 yards later it

got real spotty, so we started to scan the forest in the direction I

thought the yote went. I didn’t figure he was far, but after 50

yards from last blood I decided to go back to the blood trail. I found

a speck and then it was all Lee from there. I guess with Lee having

taken over 100 whitetails, it just came natural for him to find pin

drops of blood on the grass, rocks, etc.

 

Lee tracked to a point where he established the yotes clear path of

travel and jumped ahead while I stood at last blood. I heard Lee say I

found a lot more blood down here and a dead coyote. The yote lay not

10 yards from where I decided to go back to last blood and was piled

up against a large downed log. We took a bunch of pictures, tied the

yote to a branch and packed him out whole to preserve for Tim Tuttle

at Creative Taxidermy.

 

Yeah, I know it is just a yote, but it is more than that to me. It

is a wild experience, 2 years of learning how to shoot a long bow, and

the feeling of accomplishment after a lot of stump shooting, shooting

at home, and shooting the DART virtual hunt at Broken Arrow Archery,

which taught me how to pick a spot. I also harvested a rabbit on this

trip, which Lee skinned and cooked on an open fire for us. No elk or

deer tags filled this week, but the season is not over yet.

 

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