I don't think I shared this here....got these a couple weeks ago.
I'm not good at story telling but I'll try. Went out this morning to try my first ever morning hunt. Ben has offered to take me out next week, but I might have a job by then that would interfere. (I'll have to suffer through that somehow as I've been off since Feb). I read in the paper that Saugatuck had sightings on the rise and thought I'd go help out. I picked the area of the Allegan State Game Area closest that I could get to the Saugatuck/Douglas area. It was close to the river on a little back water bayou if you will. I walked a ways in between the bayou and the RR tracks until I found a bit of dry land to stand on. I saw plenty of fresh tracks on that walk in so I was quite hopeful.
I set up in the woods beside a little feeder stream with the RR tracks about 60 yards behind me where I could see around the woods a little bit and I could also see out over the back water which it turns out wasn't very deep and mostly froze over and mushy.
I made some squeaks from a stolen squeaky dog toy squeaker that my brother in law had for his dogs
Nothing
I hadn't taken my MP3 player so all I had was my 2 hand calls....Death Cry and DC2. I did my best impersonation of a dying critter. Suddenly I could see a yote running across the bayou and disappear around the corner then reappear with another in tow running away from me and onto the far bank about 400 yards away.
I did another dying critter and here comes one across from my right paralleling me about 150 out and disappears into the woods. I'm quiet and keep a sharp eye out but don't see it again for about 3 minutes walking away from me about 200 through the woods. I tried some lip squeaking which stopped it...but didn't bring it back.
Now I figure I'll try something different. Since a wounded pup seemed to work the other night when GW shot his I tried that. ZIP ZAP ZOWEY here comes a pair high tailing it across the bayou straight at me. There is a drop off on the land I'm on of a few feet. They come to that area and disappear from view but won't come up into the woods enough for me to see them.
They start to move away so I do some lip squeaks and they come right back out of view (darnit).
Here comes Amtrak (right on schedule I think)
so the dogs take off away from me at a full run. I give it about 1 minute for the train to be gone and go back to my hurt pup impression. Here they come back again at a full run.
This time one of them stops where I can see an opening through the brush. Somewhere around 100 yds. I put the crosshairs of the 223 on it's chest and I must have squeezed the trigger.....I don't exactly remember
It drops from sight. The other dog is headed for never never land across the bayou. I'm immediately back onto the hand call with the hurt pup routine. The dog stops and comes back to about 150 yards on a side edge of the bayou and stops, looking around. I put the cross hairs on it's chest.........CLICK. I'm having a feeding issue that I have to work on. Anyway....since it's so far away it doesn't hear anything and I have time to work another round into the chamber while it's standing still.
Repeat of first shot....dog drops right there....wiggles around a bit and then nothing.
All in all I think I probably stood there for around 20 minutes max. It took a lot longer to get in and get back out than the stand time. Trying to drag 2 dogs in the snow was about the same as trying to drag a deer.....so I drug them up by the tracks, went and unloaded my gun, backpack and coat. Came back with a tarp to make the drag easier, still sweating my butt off cause I'm dressed for the cold and working fairly hard for an out of shape old man
The new to me Stevens 200 in 223 is a keeper.
I'm not good at story telling but I'll try. Went out this morning to try my first ever morning hunt. Ben has offered to take me out next week, but I might have a job by then that would interfere. (I'll have to suffer through that somehow as I've been off since Feb). I read in the paper that Saugatuck had sightings on the rise and thought I'd go help out. I picked the area of the Allegan State Game Area closest that I could get to the Saugatuck/Douglas area. It was close to the river on a little back water bayou if you will. I walked a ways in between the bayou and the RR tracks until I found a bit of dry land to stand on. I saw plenty of fresh tracks on that walk in so I was quite hopeful.
I set up in the woods beside a little feeder stream with the RR tracks about 60 yards behind me where I could see around the woods a little bit and I could also see out over the back water which it turns out wasn't very deep and mostly froze over and mushy.
I made some squeaks from a stolen squeaky dog toy squeaker that my brother in law had for his dogs
Nothing
I hadn't taken my MP3 player so all I had was my 2 hand calls....Death Cry and DC2. I did my best impersonation of a dying critter. Suddenly I could see a yote running across the bayou and disappear around the corner then reappear with another in tow running away from me and onto the far bank about 400 yards away.
I did another dying critter and here comes one across from my right paralleling me about 150 out and disappears into the woods. I'm quiet and keep a sharp eye out but don't see it again for about 3 minutes walking away from me about 200 through the woods. I tried some lip squeaking which stopped it...but didn't bring it back.
Now I figure I'll try something different. Since a wounded pup seemed to work the other night when GW shot his I tried that. ZIP ZAP ZOWEY here comes a pair high tailing it across the bayou straight at me. There is a drop off on the land I'm on of a few feet. They come to that area and disappear from view but won't come up into the woods enough for me to see them.
They start to move away so I do some lip squeaks and they come right back out of view (darnit).
Here comes Amtrak (right on schedule I think)
This time one of them stops where I can see an opening through the brush. Somewhere around 100 yds. I put the crosshairs of the 223 on it's chest and I must have squeezed the trigger.....I don't exactly remember
Repeat of first shot....dog drops right there....wiggles around a bit and then nothing.
All in all I think I probably stood there for around 20 minutes max. It took a lot longer to get in and get back out than the stand time. Trying to drag 2 dogs in the snow was about the same as trying to drag a deer.....so I drug them up by the tracks, went and unloaded my gun, backpack and coat. Came back with a tarp to make the drag easier, still sweating my butt off cause I'm dressed for the cold and working fairly hard for an out of shape old man
The new to me Stevens 200 in 223 is a keeper.
