I really enjoy coyote hunting. Second best is retelling stories about successful and not so successful outings with fellow hunters. The stories that are always most memorable are the hunts that don’t go as planned. 

Recently, I had a fellow hunter call me and request that I draw him a cartoon to memorialize a hunt where he made an embarrassing mistake (if you’ve hunted long enough, you’ve done it and won’t do it again). He relayed the story by telling me that he had been on a typical stand running his e-caller and after only 10 minutes a coyote appeared and hung up at around 225 yards. The guy took the shot and dropped the coyote where it stood. He waited a few minutes to see if there were any other takers. It was a textbook coyote hunt. 

Then came his mistake. As he walked out to retrieve the dead coyote, he left his unloaded rifle on its steady sticks, not 15 yards from the e-caller. When he hoisted up the coyote he just shot he looked back to where he had been sitting. There, not 10 yards from his gun and the e-caller was another coyote — watching him. Then it sat down. 

The hunter stood helpless as the coyote sat there and mocked him. We both got a chuckle as the hunter told me the story over the phone. We’ve probably all done it — and the honest ones have even owned up to it. It is a great story, and now it’s a great cartoon. Thanks, my friend, for the inspiration.