Hit a ranch we went to a couple of weeks back as the rancher said he has been seeing more coyotes like last time when he called to see when we were coming back.
510 am I started off with locater sounds, not a peep back. Last time they went off right at 520 am, but it was silent Monday.
What the heck we moved 500 yards and set up facing a hog farm we saw the 1st ones at last time out.
What do I decide to play here, well of course baby pig sqeals and hungry puppies into the mix here & there. 20 min of nothing moving and just as the sun is breaking the sky we decide to move. Well naturally they decide to all go into the early morning barks now that we decided to stand up.
Sat right back down and hit hungry pups and a sqeal or two. Then we see a pair at 780 yards trotting right our way. Finally, well one decided to just sit along the drainage we feel there may be a den at, but the other is still on its trot to the call. I lost it, then it pops up at 109 yards and turns to a nice broadside angle, looks back at the other one and thwapp a solid slap and its down, a female
We move up the road and spot 3 more in 2 other crop circles just dinking around, they all see us and head to other way out fast walking and keeping an eye on us since they are in no hurry.
We stop just below a crest line and glass over it and see on at about 900 yards in the cattle so we drive 1/4 mile above it and unseen. Hop the fence and get above 2 finger gullies and decide to set up and see if we can spot it as it comes up one of the draws.
Playing baby cottontail and modulating it up to max and down for 5 min we spot a different one coming in on a fast trot about 1/2 mile out above where we figured the other would be.
Before we know it its at 200 yards and closing fast. My pal is 50 yards higher up then me and its not stopping for him so he lets it go by and at maybe 90 yards it turns to go downwind of us, but just about in my lap. I bark and it slows to look and I drop it. Standing up to go get it we see the other coyote across the drainage still within the cattle at a now ranged 1243 yards now. It most likely said I'm busy today down here.
We meet the rancher in his ranger and he said there were 2 more west of us a mile in a crop circle that he was trying to circle & push them with the ranger our way. He said they just kept running circles around him barking, more like playing since they don't move like cattle when he does that. We head out there, but nothing was seen or came into calling.
I was using my Savage 6x45, my pal his 6.5x284 Ruger build.
Rest of the day was shooting p-dogs. Had fun at 523 yards for a bit, even though we were surrounded by mounds of buckets of pups all over we were challenging each other for the long ones across a creek and at the foot of some hills. I ended up with 19 hits out of 50 shots out there, pal won with 26 out of 50 rounds. Those small pups were hard to pin down, my reticle pretty much covered them at that range.
I was using my Savage .223, 50g Zmax and him a Savage 22-250, 55g varmageddon. After that game we went a shooing the holy humdogs out of everything around us and never ran out of shooting. I did rain on us for 3-5 min 2x, sun was right back out and in the high 60s and they came out like drowned rats each time that happened. 50 yards to 300 the rest of the time.
Took time to reflect on brothers in arms that were taken to early in life on top of it all.
510 am I started off with locater sounds, not a peep back. Last time they went off right at 520 am, but it was silent Monday.
What the heck we moved 500 yards and set up facing a hog farm we saw the 1st ones at last time out.
What do I decide to play here, well of course baby pig sqeals and hungry puppies into the mix here & there. 20 min of nothing moving and just as the sun is breaking the sky we decide to move. Well naturally they decide to all go into the early morning barks now that we decided to stand up.
Sat right back down and hit hungry pups and a sqeal or two. Then we see a pair at 780 yards trotting right our way. Finally, well one decided to just sit along the drainage we feel there may be a den at, but the other is still on its trot to the call. I lost it, then it pops up at 109 yards and turns to a nice broadside angle, looks back at the other one and thwapp a solid slap and its down, a female
We move up the road and spot 3 more in 2 other crop circles just dinking around, they all see us and head to other way out fast walking and keeping an eye on us since they are in no hurry.
We stop just below a crest line and glass over it and see on at about 900 yards in the cattle so we drive 1/4 mile above it and unseen. Hop the fence and get above 2 finger gullies and decide to set up and see if we can spot it as it comes up one of the draws.
Playing baby cottontail and modulating it up to max and down for 5 min we spot a different one coming in on a fast trot about 1/2 mile out above where we figured the other would be.
Before we know it its at 200 yards and closing fast. My pal is 50 yards higher up then me and its not stopping for him so he lets it go by and at maybe 90 yards it turns to go downwind of us, but just about in my lap. I bark and it slows to look and I drop it. Standing up to go get it we see the other coyote across the drainage still within the cattle at a now ranged 1243 yards now. It most likely said I'm busy today down here.
We meet the rancher in his ranger and he said there were 2 more west of us a mile in a crop circle that he was trying to circle & push them with the ranger our way. He said they just kept running circles around him barking, more like playing since they don't move like cattle when he does that. We head out there, but nothing was seen or came into calling.
I was using my Savage 6x45, my pal his 6.5x284 Ruger build.
Rest of the day was shooting p-dogs. Had fun at 523 yards for a bit, even though we were surrounded by mounds of buckets of pups all over we were challenging each other for the long ones across a creek and at the foot of some hills. I ended up with 19 hits out of 50 shots out there, pal won with 26 out of 50 rounds. Those small pups were hard to pin down, my reticle pretty much covered them at that range.
I was using my Savage .223, 50g Zmax and him a Savage 22-250, 55g varmageddon. After that game we went a shooing the holy humdogs out of everything around us and never ran out of shooting. I did rain on us for 3-5 min 2x, sun was right back out and in the high 60s and they came out like drowned rats each time that happened. 50 yards to 300 the rest of the time.
Took time to reflect on brothers in arms that were taken to early in life on top of it all.
