Zeeks predator pursuits 2020

[Gencountyzeek]

Well the season continues to be a exciting one. But another miss unfortunately. First stop was in warsaw. Walk back to my gun after setting the call out, hit the first yote vocal sound and literally instantly theres eyes at the end of the field, and here it comes. This yote was coming in quick, getting downwind of the call. When it was probably 125ish yards out i tried barking at it to stop it, nope kept coming. Hindsight i shouldve muted the call. When it got to 85-100 yards i made the choice to take the shot on the move because it was getting to were if he kept coming id have no shot do to a house. Shot felt good, but it took off and i sent 1 more to make sure it would remember me...there is a power line cut about a 1/8th mile in the direction he ran so we packed up and moved there. We were told it was mowed, well it was but only 10 yards wide. Still tried. Set the call and started calling. Within 5 minutes i had a pack sounding off and a single yote closer. I didnt like the setup due to wind and were i assumed they would go to get downwind, so we packed up and went back to the original field setup further down towards the woods. About 8-10 mins in the woods lit up with yips and barks. We went back and forth for another 5 mins then silence for 10min. Called it and packed up. Next stop in attica. Walking into the field and a pack lights up across the road. Setup and call and i got 1 to come across the road, unfortunately he was directly down wind of us. He gave a few barks and yips and he was gone. Probably 20 mins in had howls way off but no one showed up. Packup and head to corfu. Stopped at the spot i missed the yote the other day. Get out of the truck and theres a yote barking and yipping on the other side of the hill from us, close. We sneak up and i set the call out. I piss him off and pick up eyes Probably 400+ yards out. And then he just sat there, id call, he would call...a few mins later a pack goes off across the street. After about 20 mins of this single yote barking and yipping, he apparently woke someone up behind him because all we see is white lights shining around up towards the hill. Well that ruined that. So we head down the road a little and across the street. Set and and start calling, within the first 2 mins the pack sounds off. Well i went back and fourth with them, then a single dog for an hour. No one wanted to leave the woods. It wad 330am at that point and we left that 1 dog yipping. Fun night, sighting in a rifle shortly, goin to take the yote gun out just to make sure its my crappy shooting and not the gun.

[ny hunter]

Sounds lots a fun .... Thanks for posting...

[Gencountyzeek]

Went out last night for 2 quick sets. It felt like forever since i last went out. First spot across the street from me, its a cut soybean field with standing corn still. Setup so if they came out downwind of the call they would end up 100 yards infront of me. Warch a group of deer feeding around, one of which was a nice buck, hope he crosses the road one of these days im in a stand. About 15 mins in i picked up a smaller animal moving in on my thermal scanner. Got it in the scope and it was a fox. Watched him for the next 10 mins sitting and watching the call. Had to move on to the next spot. Get there and more deer out, one of which was maybe the biggest buck ive seen. Id say easily 160" deer, 14-16pt...HUGE!. But back to varmint hunting, called for 15 mins and got another fox to come in, no yotes talkin last night. Maybe friday night.

[Shoots100]

13 hours ago, Gencountyzeek said:

Went out last night for 2 quick sets. It felt like forever since i last went out. First spot across the street from me, its a cut soybean field with standing corn still. Setup so if they came out downwind of the call they would end up 100 yards infront of me. Warch a group of deer feeding around, one of which was a nice buck, hope he crosses the road one of these days im in a stand. About 15 mins in i picked up a smaller animal moving in on my thermal scanner. Got it in the scope and it was a fox. Watched him for the next 10 mins sitting and watching the call. Had to move on to the next spot. Get there and more deer out, one of which was maybe the biggest buck ive seen. Id say easily 160" deer, 14-16pt...HUGE!. But back to varmint hunting, called for 15 mins and got another fox to come in, no yotes talkin last night. Maybe friday night.

What's the dope on the thermal scanner ?

Thermal is sure a game changer and worth every penny knowing that after you look through it and see something/nothing there, you know there's something/nothing there.

Hope you drill some holes in some fur soon.

[Gencountyzeek]

1 minute ago, Shoots100 said:

What's the dope on the thermal scanner ?

Thermal is sure a game changer and worth every penny knowing that after you look through it and see something/nothing there, you know there's something/nothing there.

Hope you drill some holes in some fur soon.

I picked up a AGM asp25-384. Demo model with full warranty. Definitely nice being able to scan and with certainty know if somethings there or not. Lovin it so far.

[Shoots100]

7 minutes ago, Gencountyzeek said:

I picked up a AGM asp25-384. Demo model with full warranty. Definitely nice being able to scan and with certainty know if somethings there or not. Lovin it so far.

Great optic.

Should tip the odds in your favor now.

I see a super hogster in your future, as going from thermal to a NV scope is going to get old quick.

[Gencountyzeek]

9 hours ago, Shoots100 said:

Great optic.

Should tip the odds in your favor now.

I see a super hogster in your future, as going from thermal to a NV scope is going to get old quick.

Lol, in the future maybe but not the near future. I actually dont mind switching between the two. I like picking it up with the thermal and then being able to I.D. it with nv. Maybe some day a trijicon mkIII 60, seems i could id with that, just have to see which child id have to sell to afford it lol.

[Shoots100]

On 10/22/2020 at 7:03 AM, Gencountyzeek said:

Lol, in the future maybe but not the near future. I actually dont mind switching between the two. I like picking it up with the thermal and then being able to I.D. it with nv. Maybe some day a trijicon mkIII 60, seems i could id with that, just have to see which child id have to sell to afford it lol.

In the early years of thermal technology, I would agree with your ID issues, but with the newer thermal vision sensor technology, ID'ing isn't an issue, unless your shooting very long range.

I like to keep my shots within 100 yards, but after using thermal for a long time, I can ID animals by their mannerisms from a pretty long ways away.

It's always better to be safe than sorry.

Healthy kids go for big money now a days, so I would be looking at the N vision Halo instead of the Trij !

 

 

[Gencountyzeek]

Did one quick set across the street and it paid off. Walking in scanning with the thermal i saw a group of deer on one side of the field and a lone deer on the other. Got setup and scanned back by the lone deer and picked up a smaller heat source maybe 20 yards from the deer in a hedgerow. The deer took a few steps closer to it then took off. I played a cottontail distress and it hoped out of the brush. This was pushing 300 yards at this point, so i was patient as it slowly made its way across the field stopping occasionally and just looking towards the call. It made it to about 150 yards and that was close enough for me. Put the crosshairs on the chest and squeezed. It immediately starying spinning in circles, i was pumped but then it took off...shit, chambered another round and took another shot on the run, then 1 more.it dipped below a low spot and i lost it. Got back on the thermal scanner and picked up another dog. I thought it was the one i shot at already. So it starts moving away and i take a shot at it and now its off too the races, 1 more shot for good luck and now im put. That dog made it into the woods. I thought how in the hell did it survive? So i start walking out scanning with the thermal, get to the dip and theres my yote, dead. A 2nd one came in while i was shooting at the first! I missed out on my first double. Still a great night for 15 mins of hunting. Its a nice redfish female, just finished skinning her and now time for a shower and bed.

[ny hunter]

Thanks for posting love reading this bro..

[Shoots100]

Great job.

Thermal rules the roost.

Hunters using NV and Red lights kill a lot more than they know, they just can't find them after the shot.

[Gencountyzeek]

Heading out tonight with 2 buddies, hoping to put multiple yotes down.

[Gencountyzeek]

Nothin last night. Budfie missed a fox at one spot, didnt shoot a fox at the next stop because it came in in the first 2min. Had a yote show at that spot too but stuck to the woods and got down wind of us. Crazy quiet night, didnt get any responses at all. O well, back to deer hunting!

[Gencountyzeek]

Trying again tonight, starting in marilla, then maybe Bennington, corfu, maybe akron. Heading out around 9 when the rain should be over.

[Gencountyzeek]

O man, one of those nights when you get home at 330am you question why you do this lol. Super quiet night, saw some fox but early on in the sets so they got to walk. No yotes heard at any sets, lots of deer out though and some really nice bucks seen. Well, charging batteries and body here...maybe next weekend.

[Shoots100]

8 minutes ago, Gencountyzeek said:

O man, one of those nights when you get home at 330am you question why you do this lol. Super quiet night, saw some fox but early on in the sets so they got to walk. No yotes heard at any sets, lots of deer out though and some really nice bucks seen. Well, charging batteries and body here...maybe next weekend.

Like the Lottery, You never know !

I have way too many people calling me up asking to do some coyote hunting on their land, but not until after deer season ends.

One morning last week, the coyote were taunting me as I was headed to my stand, that I almost went back to camp to get my coyote rig.

The next couple of morning's I took my coyote rig and didn't hear or see a thing.

How's the Thermal working and the battery life in the cold weather ?

 

 

[Gencountyzeek]

24 minutes ago, Shoots100 said:

Like the Lottery, You never know !

I have way too many people calling me up asking to do some coyote hunting on their land, but not until after deer season ends.

One morning last week, the coyote were taunting me as I was headed to my stand, that I almost went back to camp to get my coyote rig.

The next couple of morning's I took my coyote rig and didn't hear or see a thing.

How's the Thermal working and the battery life in the cold weather ?

 

 

It made it all night last night, i do plug it in while driving to the next set. Last night i had too longer drives of about 20 mins for it to charge. I do have a lanyard with a battery pack attached so i can plug in if it gets too low while in a field.

[Gencountyzeek]

Son wanted to go behind the house and see if we could call a yote in. Cant say no to a 11yr old. No yotes but called in my first grey fox. Came out around 225 yards out and came in perfect down wind of the call and hung out maybe 30 yards in front of us. Got good video of him, ill post a screen shot from the video. I let him live as im more interested in yotes at the moment.

[Shoots100]

It's nice to have someone to "make" you go out coyote hunting and being able to go out behind the house and hunt them too, so be thankful for that.

I let fox go, unless the chicken coop is being raided or the neighbors start complaining that their cats are disappearing.

Fox are better than cats at rodent control and by the way it's looking down at the ground in that snap shot, it looks like it was doing just that.

Do you have any video of the same view with the thermal and wraith ?

[Gencountyzeek]

1 hour ago, Shoots100 said:

It's nice to have someone to "make" you go out coyote hunting and being able to go out behind the house and hunt them too, so be thankful for that.

I let fox go, unless the chicken coop is being raided or the neighbors start complaining that their cats are disappearing.

Fox are better than cats at rodent control and by the way it's looking down at the ground in that snap shot, it looks like it was doing just that.

Do you have any video of the same view with the thermal and wraith ?

I have 3 mins of video of him coming in and walking around. Not sure how i could share that on here. And i dont own a wraith my buddy has one i have a pulsar digex.

Edited December 6, 2020 by Gencountyzeek

[Gencountyzeek]

Giving it a go tonight. Staying local, hope to hear some song dogs. Got a new field to try, fingers crossed.

Edited December 11, 2020 by Gencountyzeek

[ny hunter]

Good Luck..................

[Gencountyzeek]

Welp...it was a fun night. 1st spot we were 1000ft from the driveway and a yote crossed the road infront of us into a field on the opposite side we were hunting. It went into a field i can hunt but the wind was pretty terrible for it. We continued to the original field and setup. Not 2 min in i had a group going east of us, its a location were almost everytime i hunt this field they respond from, just cant get to them. 30 mins pass with them sounding off further away now so we pack up and head to the truck. 2 buddies im with want to hit the field the yote ran into, so we go knowing the wind sucks for it. The pic below is the field. We got to almost the corner and i scanned with my thermal and saw 2 somethings where the green crosshair is, wasnt quiet sure and then my buddy puts his red light on them. Boom instantly they take off, theres 3 and definitely yotes. 2 run across and outta the field. One stops and begins to bark at us were the green line ends. Now ive only ever hunted this field once before, i did not know how deep it was. This dog just sat there barking and barking, we were busted and he was letting everyone know. At this point it was like well, ill take the shot, tried steadying the best i could in the muck we were sinking in lol. Boom!, i knew i had missed as he ran off. Wanting to be 100% sure of the miss i walked out there and then relized how far it really was. 326 yards, guessing my bullet probably dropped 6"-8" at that range. Damn...get back to the truck and now yotes are yipping closer to were we started the night and behind us. We decide to try the original field again, and again yotes going but not coming in. 

1 more field for the night, new field, very large field. Wind was perfect for it.

Had a fox come in pretty much immediately but did the opposite of what you would assume it should do. Came in straight at the call, maybe 100 yards from it, it turned and went into the wind around the field and away from us. 90% of the time they would come in and head down wind of the call which would end up infront of us. Weird...about 10 mins later im talkin with my buddy, scan quick and bam got another something running right at the call. I get back on my gun and see its a yote. Coming in and probably 150-175 yards out from the call it does the same thing and heads into the wind and away from us out of the field...wtf...we were not silhouetted in any way, we were standing under a very large hickory, wind never shifted... I will say im not sure if anyone yote hunts near there, that field had just been cut 2 weeks prior so it couldnt have been hunted much i would guess. O well fun night. 

[Gencountyzeek]

Another one down. Letting my dogs in last night, i always scan my field with my thermal monocular. Saw her running around the field and new instantly it was a yote. Grabbed my rifle and went out back. It was like walking on potato chips getting back there. Made it to the edge of the field and watched her move into some tall grass, couldnt shoot do to houses in the background. So i moved to my shooting shack, covering up the sounds of my steps with a rabbit distress mouth call. As soon as i got in i scanned again and she came back into the open. And thats a wrap, thankful for the thermal again on the recovery. She ran maybe 40 yards into some tall grass, definitely wouldve found her this morning but just had to walk and scan till i found the the heat. 

[Gencountyzeek]

Giving it a go tonight. We will be doing akron, a little corfu and then down to attica i believe, possibly arcade also. 1st time wearing the snow camo for the year. Some new spots so hoping we get some yotes coming in.