Turkey hunter Bill Robinson, of Maine, was in for a big surprise last week. And so was a coyote that thought it had put the sneak on an unsuspecting hen.
Tom Walsh of the Bangor Daily News provides the details:
“I’ll never forget looking up and seeing a jaw full of teeth coming at me,” Robinson said Tuesday, the day after being attacked and bitten on the right arm by a coyote. The wild canine sprang while the Maine Guide was hunkered down in the brush, using a mouth-call to lure a turkey into the open while hunting on private property near the Washington County community of Cooper.
“I had placed my turkey decoy in a field in front of me and then positioned myself in some cover,” said Robinson, 39, who lives in Edmunds Township, near Dennysville. “It was about 10 minutes after dawn, and right beside me was a short, thick spruce tree that had grown so thick you couldn’t see through it. That coyote came up the edge of the field and was one side of that tree, with me on the other.
“The distance involved was only about four feet,” Robinson said. “But that tree was so thick that he couldn’t see me, and I couldn’t see him. He was determined to have turkey for breakfast and was also determined that the sound he heard was a hen turkey.”
The coyote left two holes in Robinson’s arm, but quickly ran off when it realized the hunter was not a turkey. Robinson says he’ll be back out turkey hunting soon.
Had a similar situation several years back where a coyote came out of the woods to my right and approached my Hen decoy from above. As I was watching the coyote, I heard movement in the woods behind me, sure enough there were four other coyotes approaching waiting for the coyote in the field to flush the hen into their trap. I ended up shooting at the Coyotes behind me because I did not like the situation with a pack of yotes surrounding what they thought was breakfast.
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