Exercising Jessie with the Kite.

 I have been trying to get Jessie some exercise when I can, but one thing or another always seem to get in the way. The Duck hunters that have the bird hunting rights on the Ranch were down this weekend, so Jessie and I stayed home, and waited until the birds had a chance to settle down.

The weather has been so nice that the wind has not been strong enough to fly the Kite, so every thing has conspired against us this year. Yesterday we did get a flight at some Mallards at the Ranch.  Jessie snagged a Mallard Drake over the water, but had to drop him to keep from going in the water herself.

Today I installed an automatic gate opener on the entrance to the place, and what with one thing or another spent most of the day working on it. The weather is changing a bit, and the wind began to blow by the time I finished. I decided that I would fly Jessie on the kite, and work on her muscle condition. Quite frankly I was too pooped to trudge through the Sage to do anything more.

I ran the lure on the kite up to 350 feet, she is too out of condition to do more. I talked Karen into running the video camera for the flight.

https://vimeo.com/79535232  password- owyheeflyer

The lure line is rigged with a fishing trolling release that is on a 8 foot line leading to a lure. The lure is garnished with the rear end of a Starling as a reward. The other end is tied to a small carabiner that is secured to the main kite line. That way when the hawk pulls the lure free from the quick release, it is able to slide down the line to the ground.

This method gives the hawk more exercise than it would actually get from just flying in circles waiting to chase what ever you flush, as well as teaching it that higher in the sky is better. If you take a hawk out, turn it loose and let it amuse itself by flying around you are teaching them to wander. That is not good! This is all business, the bird is in the right place for hunting, and the exercise can be as demanding as the bird can stand.

Lure training with the kite is something that is normally done at the start of the year to condition the hawk. Hunting is crappy right now and Jessie if not exercised and flown just becomes cranky in the extreme. This at least allows us to pretend we are doing something worth while.

Coyote update

 This is the condition of the horse when I first visited the area, at 3 PM of the 9th. The easy part had been consumed, and the only part left is that part lying on the ground.

 Since I am hunting the Coyotes with the intent of selling the hides, not eradicating the gene pool, There is a lot of work to do, and since the spot that the bullet hit this Coyote,caused a lot of damage, I worked until 9:30 PM repairing the damage. I went back the next morning at daybreak and killed a really big male. Since he had seen me approach, he ran a ways before he made the mistake of looking back, I didn't go near the carcass. I could see however that the ribs had been chewed off. Again it took most of the day to get his processing all done. Plus it is about a half mile one way to get to the ambush site, and a 35 lb male Coyote is a chore to pack. I felt the need for a rest. I also mistakenly thought that taking out five other Coyotes on the ranch might have reduced the population a bit.

 This is what I found when I went back on the 10th. As you can see they have dragged the carcass several feet around, ate all the meat that had been lying on the ground plus all the hide. Quite frankly I was more than a bit surprised. That horse had to weigh between 8 and 900 lbs. Figure a Coyote can hold about 10 lbs at a sitting, maybe 15 lbs a day. That is math that I am not qualified to do.

After I shot this one on the morning of the 11th, and carried it back home. I left it cooling for a couple of hours, while I had breakfast and stalled a bit. When I did go out to skin it, to my pleasure I found it a bit easier to process. Plus it was not quite as fat as the others had been, so the fleshing process was a bit easier. Karen and Sharron from next door were going into town, so I was left with most of the rest of the day to myself. Lets see, TV, or hunting? So I went back over there. I was pretty sure that there would not be enough left to draw a Coyote back in there after another day.

When I arrived at my ambush point, I was surprised to find another Coyote chewing on the bones, and added her to my bag. Being a female she was not quite as heavy as the males that I had taken. When I go in to hunt, I carry a fold up seat, electronic Varmint call, coats, and camo "gille suit". Its all bulky and a bit heavy too, especially if you are carrying a Coyote over your shoulder. I decided to carry her out, come back and sit on the carcass for the rest of the evening. I left every thing there and hiked the half mile back to the truck.

I had a nice quite evening sitting there looking at the landscape, but saw nothing else. Eventually my butt got numb enough to cause me to go home, and go to work on the last victim.

The weather has been unusually warm during the day. Mornings are 20 degrees, but afternoons have been in the high 50's. The interesting part is that the horse never got that "rotten" smell. It never had a chance to spoil.

If you remember this spring the Savage rifle in 22-250 cal that I had bought to varmint hunt with, blew up after about 80 shots. They eventually sent me another one after a lot of hassle. I had just about decided to steer clear of Savage, but the rifle that I wanted cost twice as much, was a lot heavier and much too pretty for what I had in mind for it. So I decided to keep the gun that they sent me and take my chances. So far the gun is working well and shoots like it should. My longest shot to date was 325 paces.

I have always hand loaded my own ammo. The first one blew up with a reduced load that should have never caused any damage. I found a load that does well with the bullet that I have chosen. I ended up with a load of 38.4 grains of Hodgden H380 behind a 40 grain Hornady VMax bullet.  Since my shooting eye has had laser surgery to repair a leak in my pupil, my vision in my right eye is not all that it should be, so I do my sighting in at 50 yards. I decided to check it at 200 yards since a minor variation at that distance becomes much larger the further from the end of the barrel. I shot a four shot group at 200 yards and ended up with a group of one inch 1/16. Not all that many years ago, a rifle that would shoot a one inch group at 100 yards was the industry standard. If the gun holds together I will be a happy camper.

Nov 10th

The Rut is still building, and this is the latest visitor. As you can see, he is the biggest one so far. This one has six ladies with him.

He is not that much wider than the others, but he is much taller, and more massive. He is still not close to the biggest one around, but he will do in a pinch.

Who says size doesn't matter. Look how much bigger he is than the Doe's around him. The other bucks were pretty close to the same size as the Doe's. This guy is pretty close to mature.

We have been flying Jessie on the Kite, when there is enough wind to get it up in the air. She has done better than I would have thought she would do. Boredom will make you do things that no one would believe.

Of course now we have a warm front coming in, and it is dead calm, which is a bit weird for this time of the year and area. I have been keeping Jessie at a "full Attention" weight. In other words she is very glad to see me, rather than her normal "screw you" attitude. So I have been waiting until the last minute to feed her, and she is unhappy about that.

Yesterday morning I decided to take my Varmint call over to the "lake" that starts Crooked Creek to see if I could find a Coyote to add to my collection, and check for Ducks while I was at it. I got up well before daylight and arrived at the lake at first light. Unfortunately there was nothing there other than Geese. I would just as soon not put her up over Geese, you never know whether she will get a wild feather up her butt and take another one.

I sat there in temps in the teens for more than 40 minutes with my call and got no response at all. I could not understand that at all. I know that several Coyotes hang out in that area.

When I got back home it was obvious that the wind wasn't going to blow that day either. I decided that I would roll out the plane and go see where the Ducks were sitting, so that we could go out and hunt for a change.

https://vimeo.com/79004790    password is - owyheeflyer

I did find some Ducks in a spot that we could catch one if she really wanted to, but I also found why the Coyotes were not available. They were feasting on one of the old "retirees" of the horse herd. I saw two of them on it as I flew by.

Karen wasn't feeling well enough to go hawking and Tammi was not at home, so I grabbed my rifle, threw Jessie and Yogi a Starling apiece, and headed out. I parked at the spot that was closest to the rimrock where the horse and hopefully Coyotes were. It was still a half mile walk through the Sage. I kept my eye out for any Rabbits that I might find, and am very sad to say, I didn't see one.

As I got close, I used an end of the rimrock to hide my approach. I peeked over the end and could see two Coyotes working the carcass. One was behind a chunk of Sage and the other was facing me working on the shoulder of the horse. I thought OK, I will just shoot it in the top of the back. I don't think I will do that again. I was sewing until 9:30 PM trying to put the hide back together again.

Of course she never knew what hit her, and she dropped right where she was standing.

This is they way that I carry them. I am selling the hides, so I need them in as good a shape as I can manage.

 When I shot this one, the one with her took off over the rimrock. I saw him peeking over the Sage about 175 yards away trying to figure out what happened. I could not get steady enough to be sure of my shot, so I didn't shoot at him. As you can see from this picture, he again stopped to look and this time I was ready. The white spot on the other ridge is where he stopped, for good this time.

 This time I decided to shoot him in the shoulder to cut down on the sewing. I am using a 40 grain V Max bullet, that is traveling at 3800 fps. He never got out of his tracks. It blew up just under the skin, with no exit wound. Much better. The first one that I carried out last night only weighed 16 pounds, this guy tipped the scales at better than 35 lbs. I am pretty sure he was the boss dog in that area. The half mile this time was a bit of a chore.

 The sun was just coming up and I couldn't resist a picture of the Steen's

 This one is a panorama. Since it is the first one that I have done, I am not sure if you can get the full effect. If you right click on the picture and "Open it in a new tab" you can enlarge it enough to see it. It was very early, and the picture was taken with my phone, so that is all the excuses that I have for it.

I had intended to take Jessie for Ducks today, but the ranch has some Duck hunters there today, so I guess a nap is in order.