The old overgrown road stretched east on the half-mile line, separating a picked cornfield on the north and a disked cornfield on the south. The road was heavily overgrown with cedars and brohm grass, no longer accessible by vehicle, but hopefully, still by the occasional coyote. The wind was rather strong, blowing out of the northeast. On the north side of the road, 300 yards ahead to the east, was a sizable group of hardwoods and cedars. The Big Blue River meandered lazily a half mile to the north. On the south side of the road, 400 yards to the east, the tops of cedar trees could be seen just over a small rise in the disked cornfield, signifying a decent sized farm pond.

We set up to call east, towards the two pockets of cover. The sun had already set behind us. I sat on the right-hand side of the road against a small cedar. A fence followed the road immediately on my right, prohibiting movement to my right. My job was to cover the overgrown road for the sneak through the cedars. Jim Woolsey sat on the left-hand side of the road covering the north cornfield and the approach area along the north side of the road. Roy Richters covered my down-wind side, sitting 25 yards to the south of me against a lone cottonwood tree in the disked cornfield. Roy had everything covered to the right of the fence using moosedick, a special purpose 10-guage shooting 3 1/2 magnum shells. Jim and I were using our 12-guages.

I slipped the "raspy old hen" diaphragm turkey call in my mouth and started the dying rabbit blues. Nothing. . . .but the wind blowing in the brohm grass. 8 minutes into the call and I was preparing to give the all-clear signal, considering the strong wind blowing. Then she appeared. They normally don't come in like this. She popped over the small rise in the disked cornfield on the south side of the road coming from the farm pond. She wasn't trotting or running; she was screaming. She was coming so hard and so fast that there was no reason for me to even bother moving. Roy would be lighting the fire within moosedick shortly. On a side note, it is incredibly amazing how a coyote can come over a hill and know exactly which cedar tree the dying rabbit is lying under. It is a satisfying feeling in itself in just sitting and watching the wet-work unfold. But then things got interesting. He showed up 100 yards behind her, doing his damndest to make up the lost ground. At this point, I realized that I would need to get in the game. When the female hit 35 yards from me, I started a slow swing to the right, knowing darned well that I might spook her. Worst case scenario, she turns, but Roy still picks her up and we go home happy with one dog. By now, the male is still 75 yards out and coming hard. I swing my gun to follow him. The female is too far to my right and far too close to me for me to have a play on her. At approximately 10-20 yards from me, she picks up my movement and comes to a halt. At this point, I lose track of her and prepare for the

male. He hits the 35 yard mark at which I cannot follow him any further due to the fence. I touch one off. He jumps, twists, and yelps. The female who was in tight on me, takes off running straight to my right, heading right in front of Roy. He immediately fires and I notice that she is not touched. Roy had been tracking the male also and squeezed as soon as I shot. He also hit the male, but he did not go down and started making his way to the overgrown road. Roy quickly swings in front of him and abruptly puts an end to the female. He swings back at the male and sends his last shot at him, hitting him again. I have jumped up and started running forward to cut him off from getting into the trees. He jumps the fence and two shots later, he is down. Jim never saw the scenario unfolding and needless to say, was quite surprised at the sudden six-shot outburst.

For those of you that have yet to be part of calling in a coyote, words cannot describe the rush of excitement that you receive! And this two-dog day was the icing on the cake for the 15 quail afternoon.

Aaahh. . . . Nebraska, the Good Life!