Today's weather alert was for a stagnant air advisory -- no wind for the next 2 days! Combined with the single digit overnight low temps, the coyote calling should be good. Sure enough, it was 6*F at sunup when I made my first stand in an area that has been productive for me in the past. But all I called in was a Cooper's hawk that tried to grab the spinner decoy on the FOXPRO.
On the next stand a coyote came from behind me, cut my inbound track, and barked at me for 10 minutes from the safety of the thick sagebrush.
On the third stand I was only a few minutes into "jackrabbit distress" when I spotted an adult coyote coming from my right, beelining at a gallop for the caller. I didn't think that it would stop when I muted the caller, but it did. I had a standing broadside shot at about 50 yards. With the crosshairs right behind its shoulder I touched the Jewell trigger, expecting to see a perfect impact. Instead, I could practically feel the firing pin spring trying to accelerate the striker through the congealed grease in the bolt, which at this temperature had the consistency of peanut butter. When the firing pin finally hit the primer with a feeble "
click," the coyote heard it, looked at me, and trotted away looking over his shoulder. I ejected the round; it had just a tiny dimple in the primer.
I always leave my rifle in the truck overnight because I don't like bringing a cold rifle into a warm house, to prevent condensation on the rifle. I have disassembled the bolt on my Kelbly Atlas Tactical action in the past, and did notice that it was shipped with more grease than I normally use on the striker mechanism, but I failed to take into account the effect of very low temps on the viscosity of the grease. Shame on me.
I put the bolt inside my jacket to warm up and took the dog for a run to give the grease some time to thin. The next two stands were fruitless. I was beginning to think that my carelessness with the bolt lubrication was going to cost me what should have been a good day of calling.
By the time I had lunch and ran the dog again, the temperature had risen to the high 20s. My sixth stand was in a shallow bowl surrounded by a greasewood rim. I set up my Bog-Pod just below the rim, well-hidden in the greasewood. After about 15 minutes of prey sounds going from softer to louder, a coyote pup came over the rim to check out "jackrabbit distress." Mysteriously, it turned around before getting close to the FOXPRO, and started to climb out of the bowl from the same direction it had come. I was tracking it in my scope, and when it paused at the rim (about 200 yards out) I took a shot with the same cartridge that had the light primer strike on the first coyote. I didn't see the bullet impact in the snow, but I missed the coyote clean.
Definitely not one of my better days.
The FOXPRO went to "coyote pup distress 3" at the report of the rifle, but since all of the recent coyotes have been coming to prey sounds, I switched back to "jackrabbit distress." Within a minute a coyote pup (the one I had just missed, I think) appeared on the rim and headed straight for the caller. He stopped, facing me at 96 paces. I tried to hold for the center of his chest but hit a couple of inches to the left, smashing the ball joint of his right shoulder. The 40gr NBT just about ripped off his front leg, spraying blood and shards of bone behind him and killing him instantly.
If it weren't for dumb pups and 3-legged grownups I'd be getting skunked on this trip!
