How about a wolf?

[TonyH]

A couple of times recently I've surprised foxes while out after rabbits (they were too quick for me, and I was only carrying a .22 anyway) but I just had an email from a friend in Canada about his recent groundhog hunts. He writes, "I shot a hog in a bean field, and no sooner did I shoot, when [my wife] saw a deer run out. She put her binoculars on it and yelled coyote! The biggest thing you ever saw. It was not a coyote, but a timber wolf. It stood as high as your waist, and I bet was over 100 lbs. Long legged son of a bitch, and really long in the body, and the tail sticking straight out, compared to a coyote tucking its tail between the legs. I was not at all prepared for that. The gun, laying on a hay bale, was not even loaded, and I was 10' away from it. I did manage to get it loaded and one round off, narrowly missing the rear of the animal, when he went into overdrive, and disappeared into the next zip code. Amazing sight.."

I've been out there a couple of times but didn't see even a coyote; one place I hunted, there'd been sightings of a wolf, and on another farm people had seen a bear a couple of times. It adds a certain flavour to varmint hunting when you're on ground where there's a possibility of bumping into a 100 lb timber wolf!

Tony