Keystone Kops Koyote - by Randy Grider

[Terry_Green]

Keystone Kops Koyote

by Randy Grider

Several years ago, an informal gathering of some six traditional bowhunters took a little jaunt into the wilds of a local WMA in ky.
After a three hour drive, and finally locating a semi-suitable spot to camp, they settled in for a weekend hunt in october. the weather was hot, and very dry. nearby camp was a gravel access road to local farms and stripmining operations. Hindsight is 20/20 and we must have been blind as everytime a truck rolled by camp was engulfed in a cloud of limedust. By the end of this hunt everyone is hacking and coughing,and all camping gear is covered with the whitedust.
 
Every morning the dirty half-dozen eased out in search of big game. Game was plentiful, with many sightings of deer,turkey,squirrels, and.., uh.., coyotes. We would all meet back at camp at noon to eat and swap stories.No one as far had gotten lucky, but lots of game was sighted, and this kept everyone intrested enough to hunt hard, especially a fellow we will call.., Norm.

Now Norm is a hard hunter, he thinks about food ,water, habits, lay of the land, very devoted to the animals he hunts, and an excellent shot to boot.

 Okay its the last day of the hunt, still no game on the pole, we are hunting this morning, meeting at camp come noon and packing up to go home. As i'm stalking the woods that morning, one of my fellow hunters unbeknown to me was in the same area and jumped two does. They came barreling down the hill at me. I could not see them, but heard the aproach, and crouched behind a cedar bush in anticipation. they broke into a clearing and stopped briefly to check the threat behind them. At twenty five yards, i drew my homemade osage longbow at the alert doe. The doe wheeled at the moment of release, and was hit square in the ham of her leg! Penetration was poor. Its hard walking back to camp kicking yourself in the butt every step. The distance wasn't that bad, but i was not well practiced with the bow, the dear was alert, and that combined with the slowness of the bow got me the flesh wound. sometimes it happens. we can only learn and try to not let it happen again. My decision was to go back to camp, packup, get my buddies, and return and look for the deer. Give her time i kept saying.

Upon returning camp, Norm shows up as i do."Need help dragging that big buck out Norm?"  he replies, "No, but have i got a story for you!"  I stopped him and said, "hold on, everybody needs to hear this!"

So we walk down to camp, where the rest are allready waiting. "Norms got a story fella's! let us have it Norm"

Well now you gotta know Norm. Fine fellow, but not big on conversation. He's the kind of fellow that if you were inside a burning building, with walls caving in around you, and no escape and people were screaming " were gonna die!" Norms typical response would be, "yeah.., hot." For the two nights of camping we had eaten good, and had hours of campfire camradery,cooking,bull sessions, and generally riding the hell out of each other. On those same nights Norm calmly sits, nodding his head, and occasionally, if spoken directly to a "yeah" or "nah".

Norm comes out of his shell. "tell us your story norm"
"Well i found this hot game trail, and off to the side is a clump of bushes, so i set myself down there. Its real nice and hollowed out and comfortable" he takes a breath, "so i'm sittin' hear watchin' this trail, and a coyote comes trottin' down the trail" by now, Norms gettin pretty excited, and kinda loud. "So i draw back and shot, just barely shootin' over that son of a b-----s back. He jumps and runs at the sound of the arrow, turns and runs straight at me! He clears the bushes and lands right at my feet!" by this time Norm is on his feet, gesturing wildly, shouting loud enough to turn a stampeding herd," I coulda' kicked that son of a b---h!" At this Norm kicks wild ,and high enough to put Bruce Lee to shame. Needless to say, by then we are all rolling on the ground, Norms breathing kinda hard, and he sits down. You just had to be there. Norm relinqueshed back into his near comatose state, and the party is over.

We all went back and looked for the deer. Found the arrow within twenty feet of where i hit her, and absolutely no blood trail. I figure it must have hit her leg bone, and she pulled it out. Being ethical, we looked regardless, for a couple of hours, gave up and went home, praying she'd be alright.

I can never forget that hunt, even though no one brought meat home, we coughed lime dust for a week, and my gear is still white, its was one of the funnest outings i ever partook. Hope we can do it again guys!