The Big Sandy Mountaineer -

Another year of calving is just around the corner for many in the Big Sandy community and around Montana. The Big Sandy American Legion Coyote Derby started as an idea in 2017 by Mason Ophus, Stephen Boyce and Clete Ophus. A good opportunity to fundraise for a local organization and help the local ranchers with reducing the depredation issues that coyotes present during calving and lambing season. While ranchers are up for hours on end, monitoring and caring for their livestock during this critical time of year, no one is perfect and livestock have a mind of their own that like to throw curve balls every once in a while. If a cow strays too far from the herd in the middle of the night to calve and that calf doesn't hit the ground running, the risk of predators is always there.

The 5th Annual Big Sandy American Legion Coyote Derby kicked off on Friday night with a check-in, rules meeting and Calcutta. We had 29 teams sign-up for a total of 98 participants. Teams head out on the hunt after the Calcutta until it's time to check in on Saturday afternoon. There are no boundaries or restrictions on where they have to hunt, as long as they make Saturday and Sunday check-ins. The first 24 hours of the derby brought in the majority of 87 coyotes from Chouteau, Hill and Blaine Counties. As Sunday came to a close, a total of 209 coyotes were turned in.

RESULTS:

The First Place Team in the calling Class with 26 coyotes to Brandon Stahl, Chad Drugge, Merle Young, and Todd Alisch.

The Second Place Team with 20 coyotes to Ned Miller, Ben Miller, Chad Wiberg, and Zach Starcher.

There was a tie for third place with 12 coyotes but Scott Skoyen, Taylor Klein, Jason Haider, and Chris Carpenter came out on top with the tie being broke by the total weight of all of their coyotes for a total of 309.8 pounds.

The First Place Team in the Open Class with 24 coyotes went to Bruce Gasvoda, Shane Silvan, Matt Feuerhelm, and Russ Allderdice. The team also donated all of their coyotes, which raised an additional $250 for the American Legion.

The second place team with 23 coyotes went to Nathan Brooks, Tom Zweep, and Darren Brahnson.

The third place team with 20 coyotes went to Cooper Jenkins, Glenny Phillips, Winston Henke, and Cortlan Bickford.

Justin Skoyen and Richard Nieft, a team in the calling class brought in the biggest coyote, weighing in at 39.2 pounds. This big dog won them a Cascade Bolt Action 22-250. Peter Sura, Paul Sura, Cory Brothers, and James Curtis brought in the smallest coyote, weighing in at 17.6 pounds. The small dog won them a Lucky Duck Rebel Coyote Caller.

The 5th Annual Coyote Derby was a huge success from all aspects. The participants hunted various local ranchers and hopefully come calving and lambing season, the livestock will be a little safer. We raised $8000 for the Big Sandy American Legion. Last year we awarded $3,450 and to date we have given away $13,650 in scholarships to Big Sandy High School students, as well as new uniforms and guns for the Honor Guard. This last year with the Denton Fire, two veterans lost their homes and one veteran lost his business. We will be donating $2,500 of the money we raised to these veterans. The continued support of all of our sponsors, participants and volunteers is what has made this such a success.