Best Varmint Hunt Ever
By Steven C " The Varmint Doctor"
AKA " The Killing Fields"
It started several years ago when I read the the State of Utah was going to allocate 750,000 dollars to reintroduce the Black Footed Ferret into Coyote Basin, East Of Vernal, Utah right on the border of western Colorado to help maintain if not reduce the number of prairie dogs in the area which was being used by oil and gas exploration as well as power, cable and new digital technology installations. The companies complained the Prairie Dogs might disrupt their efforts.
So My dad, Brother and I along with a few friends ventured out to find it. After a 3 1/2 hour drive we found Coyote Basin and it looked awesome. You could see the mounds everywhere. Now we had been varmint hunting heavy about 5 years by this time and this was the most I had ever seen. Then it started to rain and rain hard for hours it rained so hard that in the 3/4-1 mile that we had driven down the road and then decided it was to muddy and driven back . That Our trucks were covered in mud...every square inch.. . To say the least we were doomed. So we left and went home hoping to go back soon. It took 3 weeks for it to stop raining and dry out so we could get back there. I didn't want to go because the Utah Jazz were in the Playoffs and I didnt want to miss it.
Once we got the we set up camp because it was getting late. we went for a drive to see where we wanted to go and out of nowhere the Jackrabbits started running everywhere so we occupied the rest of the day hunting jackrabbits. The next morning we got up cooked us a good hearty breakfast as all varmint should have before a day of hunting. Then we started looking around. We had set up camp in between 2 small hills that were about 35-40 feet tall and about 200 feet in diameter. These hills were smack dab in the middle of this valley. It was so weird, kinda like someone put them there. We climbed up and we had a 360 degree view and a elevation advantage and then the prairie dogs started appearing out of nowhere all over. Someone yelled" Lets rock" and rocked we did.
Once settling up on these hills we commenced a barrage of 95 percent hits on the Prairie dog population that was nothing I had ever experienced. It was nuts! we had 2 220 swifts, 2 22-250's, 3 223.'s 1 308. 3 6/284s and 1 22-250 AI which was mine and just so happened to have a 49 hit hitting streak that day. It was a laser out to 350 yds and nothing escaped. If it came up it went way up or way down. Its a good thing I had multiple rifles so I could heat one up grab the next heat it up ,grab the next until all for were nice and warm then I cleaned them and did it again. My Buddie Mike V. and I laid and shot and yelled "Flip"or marveled at the double back flips with the half gainer tuck and pike's that we were seeing and just giggled and laughed at the Aeriel's. It was one of the funnest hunts I have ever been on. By the mid afternoon we were all out of ammo, not a single round left. We checked the time and it was 1:30. We were out of ammo at 1:30! I personally took 460 rnds. 200- 223's,100 6/284's and 160 22-250 AI's and I was out of ammo. We figured we shot over 2000 rnds in a morning with a 95 percent hit ratio! And then we did again 2 weeks later.
Coyote Basin is closed now for the reintroducing of the Black Footed ferrets. I'll never forget the Best Hunt Ever.
Thanks to all my Buddies. Mike "snaggle tooth" V. My Bro and Best Friend Ryan " Bucket S@&# " C , My Dad our family friends Steve, Allen and Chris
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