coyote hunting in Vermont

[chino1969]

I just returned from a week in Vermont where, among other adventures, I tried hunting coyotes. The place I hunted has coyotes and their howling was heard two days earlier by the caretaker of the farm. This farm includes a mountain with plenty of high ground. The mountain has a rustic cabin on the top with a second loft level with three hinged windows that face down the mountain yielding a perfect shooting corridor. The hike up the mountain required the use of snowshoes as the snow was 2 ft. deep and took about an hour with plenty of coyote tracks around. I arrived at the cabin approx. 9:30 p.m. on the night of 3/1 and proceeded to set up in the loft area. Propping open the windows provided a great field of fire. Using a variety of wounded animal calls, I heard several coyotes 'talking'. For someone who has never heard coyotes, it was the most unearthly sounds I've ever heard. To make a long story even longer, I was not successful in getting them in but heard their hair raising sounds for awhile. I remained in the cabin until 2 a.m. in the morning when another major snow storm began about midnight. I will return to this same area in May when I can hike to the cabin. The eastern coyote is a worthy adversary.
Chino69

 

[ReedG]

Great story, Chino. Glad you enjoyed your trip to VT. I've shot 3 coyotes that I called in with no experience of any kind. A friend has an old farm with huge fields and had seen and heard lots of coyotes. I went to the local gun shop, bought a cheap plastic "dying rabbit" call, read the one paragraph of instructions,make a noise like a dying rabbit), and headed out. The large field was scattered with large round bales of hay, so I picked one with a good downwind view and sat up in front of it, in the early evening.

I blew on the call a few times and made some sounds like a crying baby, fooled around with different pitches, etc. Then I waited 30 minutes and put out about three minutes of my best dying rabbit emulation; waited 10 minutes and repeated several times. Then I waited 30 minutes, and deer started coming out in the corner of the field, eventually a dozen or so. When I started the next round of calling, the deer looked a little nervous for a while, but continued to feed.

About 30 minutes later, I noticed several deer quickly look in the same direction. About 300 yards up across the field, a coyote is pacing, watching in my direction. My position on the shaded side of the bale in the approaching darkness hid me well. I made another 30-second call and the coyote moved about 50 yards closer. I couldn't stand it any longer and eased around hay bale and came up behind it, resting my Encore .243 on the bale, I put the crosshairs right on the top of the coyote's head,he's looking straight at me) between the ears and squeezed. Needless to say, the coyote lost his mind!

Later on, I managed to shoot two more on different visits but my calling expertise needs much work. They are very wily and much more patient that me. But I'm hoping to get out more this spring.

Let me know next time you're coming to VT and maybe we can drink a coffee or something.

 

[chino1969]

Let me know next time you're coming to VT and maybe we can drink a coffee or something.

ReedG,
I'm glad you liked the story and am sending you an e-mail as I will be reurning to VT on 5/18/07 for at least a week. From what various farmers and landowners have told me the coyote packs travel along the ridgelines in search of food. A pack may be in one area and move to another, however, their 'circuit' of travel remains the same and may take several weeks to complete. When I was on my last trip, I took along a Ruger Mini-14 with open sights and 55 grn. Hornady V-Maxes. The terrain I was in was pretty well wooded and any shots would have been offhand. My repertoire of varmint rigs range from .243 A.I. to 6mm BR and everything in between. Medium range shooting, 250 to 500 yds., is one of my passions and I have custom rigs and handloads that perform admirably. Everytime I visit, I make it a point to meet new and interesting people of a like mind. Reading some of your past posts, I see that we've agreed on several subjects. I have a Savage single shot switch barrel rig with several Pac Nor and Douglas tubes for the very same reason,s) you do: quality, accuracy and flexibility at a working man's price.

I'm convinced that had I remained in the cabin in the early morning hours of 3/2, I would have been able to 'coax' the coyotes into range but the snow was coming down sideways. I had to snowshoe down the mountain, hike about a mile along a cleared path and back to my Jeep where I still had a 30 mile drive back to the motel on secondary roads with snow piling up. My return trip in May will enable me to spend all night in the cabin and hopefully be able to thin the pack. The landowners have become concerned for their own safety due to the size of the pack.
Chino69

p.s. I don't know if you received my e-mail as it came back to me. Let me know if you recv'd. my message as I will try again if not.