Northern Montana Coyotes......

[STS]

I made a little road trip up to Northern Montana to what's called the "High Line." The High Line is the northern most railroad line in the lower 48. It's BIG wide open country, where the shooting can get extremely long. There was one day lost to wind, in fact there were gusts of 96 mph last Friday night and a steady 50 mph all day Saturday. The rest of the time the wind was mild for the most part. We managed to knock out 16 total. I thought about the thread that asked what is the "best coyote cartridge." This is a good example of an area that puts extreme demands on a rifle to be able to make those long shots. After 9 coyotes, I calculated the average distance of those shots. It came out at 360 yards and included one at 125 yards and one at 575 yards. Several of the others were 375 to 450. I shoot a .22 Creedmoor when I'm up in that part of the state and it makes those long shots very doable if the wind is not screaming. I've been trying for several years to find the perfect spot up there to set up and call a coyote out of Canada into the US and shoot him. That has turned out to be a much bigger challenge than I anticipated. Roads are scarce in that part of the world, and even fewer when you get close to the border. All for now.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

Still what 7-8 hr drive one way for you? How many sets did you make? Do you need to camp? Would be a bucket list trip for me.

 

[STS]

It's about 6 hours from here. I say about because I might cover 150 miles east to west in a few days of hunting, The number of sets can be quite variable. In some areas the terrain is fairly flat and that doesn't lend itself to making a lot of sets in a day. Other areas have a lot of topography and that means more opportunity for greater numbers of sets. A couple of good examples are the following. We hiked about 2/3 of a mile into a relatively small chunk of BLM and made a stand. We had a half dozen or more coyotes answer the howls, but they were at least another mile away. Way too far for them to come. You have to get in their house so to speak. We took off and hiked in another half mile and set up again. This time we tripped their trigger and a pair came to check us out. My partner took one out at 375 as that's all the closer they were going to get.
Another great example of how big the playing field can be in that area is the next one. Again on a huge piece of BLM. Probably 30,000 acres. We set up on some finger ridges overlooking a flat that I would guess is at least 3 miles wide. After a few minutes of calling I hear one barking at us. It took 2 or 3 minutes for me to spot him out on that flat. My range finding binos will range to 1500 yards and I was still 400 to 500 yards short of being able to range where the coyote was. After a minute or two of cussing him out with warning barks on a hand call, he couldn't stand it any longer and was on his way up there to kick my a$$. Smart old male could have simply come right up the coulee to us but he wanted to circle and get a look first. Problem was I figured out where he would show up and shut him up at about 150 yards.

 

[jds holler]

Wow! I have simply never done worth a damn in that kind of wind -- or over those kind of distances. Are you working grass prairie type terrain, or is it sage flats? You're making me rethink my strategy in a lot of country I may have neglected or ignored in the past. jd

 

[Ranger188]

What caliber was your partner shooting?

 

[STS]

I don't do worth a damn in that kind of wind either. That 90 plus mph wind was Friday night, so I hung out in the motel room and ate pizza and watched college football on Saturday while it was blowing 50. I went out to a p-dog town for a while, and couldn't hit them worth crap in a 50 wind so back to take a nap. The coyotes will be there tomorrow. They live there.
There's not a lot of sage up there and what there is is really small. It's mostly native grass range with big coulees here and there. You just gotta figure out where they are, and get within calling range of them and make sure you've got enough gun to cover the distance that they hang up at. Some stands don't look all that appealing and I feel like I'm just wasting time. One of those stands like that yielded a quad and two DOA. We both shoot the .22 Creedmoor. I always wanted a .22/243 Middlestead, but never got around to building one. And then the .22 CM came to town and it's been a game changer.

 

[jds holler]

A bud and I happened to go for a weekend of calling a few years ago, and it turned into a windy few days with speeds from maybe 20 to 50 mph without let-up.

After another unsuccessful stand, I had my pard walk upwind of me to see how far he could hear my call. I had mouth calls that are known for volume, and 100 yards was pretty much max distance in that wind.

 

[Hal]

STS

What bullets do you use?

Hal

 

[NCVarhtr]

Great story. Thanks for sharing....

 

[wwbrown]

Those Montana coyotes are beautiful, we bought a lot of Montana pales in the late '70's and early '80's and I always thought Montana and Idaho coyotes to be the best, at least in terms of fur.

I live in Minnesota and we have some of the ugliest coyotes the fur has a reddish hue on most which is ugly as far as I am concerned, not worth skinning.

Just my two cents,

 

[centerlineseal]

some of the ugliest coyotes the fur has a reddish hue

That'd be what we called a "Rin Tin Tin"! $15 for one in the late 80s, when a "Pale Rider" could bring over $80. Northern Idaho/Eastern Washington.

 

[jds holler]

That'd be what we called a "Rin Tin Tin"! $15 for one in the late 80s, when a "Pale Rider" could bring over $80. Northern Idaho/Eastern Washington.

Don't bother coming to Eastern Oregon. Our yodel dogs look like mangy golden retrievers, full of fleas and ticks, and rabies. AND our governor sucks. jd

 

[centerlineseal]

full of fleas and ticks,

Black Trash bag and RAID! Yup, ... been there, ...done that.

 

[jds holler]

Don't bother coming to Eastern Oregon. Our yodel dogs look like mangy golden retrievers, full of fleas and ticks, and rabies. AND our governor sucks. jd

I should apologize for this remark.. I was exaggerating -- except for the part about the governor. jd

 

[MTSLW]

I think you meant to say northern North Dakota
Yotes up here won’t be prime for about another month. So that’s when a lot of us start shooting them, they are pretty but the fur won’t hold. Doesn’t matter much if you aren’t keeping them.
Heavy bullets matter a lot more than speed when it comes to wind. You usually have a bit of time to dial and assess wind on the longer shots so even a 22BRA works really well with 88elds.