17cal Fan
Silver $$ Contributor
Started working on the coyotes at night again now that the mosquitos have died down.
Killed 1 male last night. 2 males and a female tonight.
I parked my Remington 788 222 after hunting with it the past 2 seasons (60 something coyotes). It's hard on rifles hunting at night. Dew, frost, snow and just general terrain in the dark is tough.
Switched to a 17 Fireball that I built a couple years back. It's working but not as DRT as the 222 was but then I'm still like a kid shooting his 1st deer when it comes to drawing a bead on a yote. Heart pounding and the whole 9 yards. I don't expect that will ever go away. My heart pounded the same way when I shot my first coyote in1976. But my nerves do settle down after the first few.
Tonight was just amazing. Walked in, placed the call out in front of me 20 or 30 yards. Walked back to the tripod to get all set up. Start scanning with thermal monocular and there are 2 deer laying out in front of me maybe 50 to 75 yards away. Played a rabbit song for a few minutes with pauses and edging the volume up. Scan back to my left for 8 or 10th time and there's a yote standing there. Bam, down but moving around, bam, over. My deer friends were still laying out in front of me.
Played the rabbit song some more and heard yotes howling maybe 1/2 a mile away. Found a male howl on the remote and played that a minute or so and switched to a different male howl for a minute or so and then just watched. Here comes a pair and a 3rd one joined them. I got situated to where I could shoot if they stopped but noticed they were not really sure where I was. So I bump the remote to let out a short howl and here they came. I rolled the one in the middle and swung on the one bringing up the rear and rolled him but he got up so I rolled him again. The lead yote had gone for the tree line so I did not throw lead at him. Recovered the 3 I shot and called it an evening.
Was shooting Berger 25HP but I'm going to try the 25 VMax and see if that helps anything. If I don't get some improvement I will switch back to the 222. Trigger is a little lighter than I normally hunt with so at this point it's not helping on shot placement. Hopefully I'll get used to it quickly.
Killed 1 male last night. 2 males and a female tonight.
I parked my Remington 788 222 after hunting with it the past 2 seasons (60 something coyotes). It's hard on rifles hunting at night. Dew, frost, snow and just general terrain in the dark is tough.
Switched to a 17 Fireball that I built a couple years back. It's working but not as DRT as the 222 was but then I'm still like a kid shooting his 1st deer when it comes to drawing a bead on a yote. Heart pounding and the whole 9 yards. I don't expect that will ever go away. My heart pounded the same way when I shot my first coyote in1976. But my nerves do settle down after the first few.
Tonight was just amazing. Walked in, placed the call out in front of me 20 or 30 yards. Walked back to the tripod to get all set up. Start scanning with thermal monocular and there are 2 deer laying out in front of me maybe 50 to 75 yards away. Played a rabbit song for a few minutes with pauses and edging the volume up. Scan back to my left for 8 or 10th time and there's a yote standing there. Bam, down but moving around, bam, over. My deer friends were still laying out in front of me.
Played the rabbit song some more and heard yotes howling maybe 1/2 a mile away. Found a male howl on the remote and played that a minute or so and switched to a different male howl for a minute or so and then just watched. Here comes a pair and a 3rd one joined them. I got situated to where I could shoot if they stopped but noticed they were not really sure where I was. So I bump the remote to let out a short howl and here they came. I rolled the one in the middle and swung on the one bringing up the rear and rolled him but he got up so I rolled him again. The lead yote had gone for the tree line so I did not throw lead at him. Recovered the 3 I shot and called it an evening.
Was shooting Berger 25HP but I'm going to try the 25 VMax and see if that helps anything. If I don't get some improvement I will switch back to the 222. Trigger is a little lighter than I normally hunt with so at this point it's not helping on shot placement. Hopefully I'll get used to it quickly.
