Not Wile E. enough

[Toby Bradshaw]

I gave the hawks the day off after a lot of jackrabbit killing and gorging yesterday. It was 24F and calm this morning -- just right to call in a few coyotes. I saw three coyotes cruising through the alfalfa pivot by my cabin on my way out, confirming that the locals were on the prowl.

My first stand was on a small tract of BLM land with a berm surrounding a large depression. It's one of the few places around here where I can shoot from a sitting (instead of standing) position. I ran through a litany of sounds for almost 20 minutes before playing pup distress -- always a last resort. I was about to pack up and leave when I spotted a coyote peering over the top of the greasewood about 150 yards out. Just its ears and the top of its head were showing. My shot must have gone over its head, because it just stood there for a second before melting into the brush. My bad.

On the next stand, in the shadow of a juniper overlooking a nice sagebrush flat adjacent to a freshly-swathed pivot, I set up my standing BogPod. I really prefer to stand because it gives me a much better view in our heavy cover, and more freedom to swing the rifle left and right, even if the shooting position is not quite as steady as sitting. Most of my shots on called coyotes are 100 yards or less, anyhow.

I opened with "shelterbelt" on the Lucky Duck Revolt. In less than 5 minutes I spied a pup ambling towards the caller. It was weaving in and out of cover, and I was afraid it would reach the caller and wind my inbound track before I could get a shot. Two seconds later another pup appeared, following the same trail as the first one, then veered out into the (relative) open, making a beeline for the caller. I swung my rifle onto pup #2. I tried to stop her with a whoop, but she was intent on the caller. I took a frontal shot at 32 paces while she was still moving, just a yard or two from the caller. Because I was shooting downhill and leading her by holding on her nose, the 40gr NBT hit her in the braincase. Made a bit of a mess on the offside.

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

After a few dry stands and 2 missed coyotes (running) over the past couple of weeks, I thought I would try to make the most of today's cold (9*F) morning and nonexistent wind. The alfalfa pivot south of my cabin had 2 coyotes in it. I stalked through the sagebrush to the edge of the pivot and spent a few minutes tracking the coyotes in my Leupold 3.5-10x40 cranked all the way up. The coyotes were about 300-350 yards out, mousing. I didn't want to shoot in their direction because of the well-traveled road on the far side of the pivot.

I like to experiment with various sounds on the Lucky Duck Revolt caller, so I played a little "kangaroo rat" to see what reaction I might elicit from the coyotes. As soon as they heard the prey distress sound they looked towards the caller, but instead of moving closer they continued to stroll across the pivot and into the next field. Oh, well.

I turned northwest and walked about a half mile into the sagebrush/rabbitbrush to a small rise overlooking a saltgrass clearing. I dialed up "shelterbelt" (cottontail distress) on the Revolt, and let it work its magic. In less than 5 minutes I spotted a coyote sneaking through the sagebrush -- she was curious, but definitely not committed. She stood perfectly still, looking in the direction of the caller. After about 30 seconds I decided that she wasn't likely to come any closer. I wound the Leupold up to 10X -- a rare treat for me on called coyotes, at least 90% of which are shot at under 100 yards with the scope on 3.5X.

She was facing me, quartering slightly to my left, 182 paces away. The 40gr Nosler Ballistic Tip struck her just behind her left shoulder. Because of the shallow shot angle the bullet took out her lungs before rupturing her diaphragm and exiting through her belly. Exit wounds are uncommon with the 22BR and 40gr NBT, especially on frontal shots, but when they happen they are spectacular/grisly. Upon impact the coyote bolted. Because of the light recoil of the 22BR/40gr NBT I was easily able to see the gaping wound in her side/belly. She rolled to a stop after 30 yards. You can see the blood from her nose (lung shot) as well as the exit wound. The ravens and magpies won't have to wait for a golden eagle to open this one up!

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

Another cold (8*F) calm morning. Rather than hunt in my own back yard I drove about 5 miles to a section of BLM land surrounded by alfalfa pivots and pastures full of cattle. The "road" in was in terrible shape, pulverized into deep powder. It will be impassable if it ever rains. I did see 2 coyotes in a weed-choked pasture as I crawled along in 4-wheel drive, so I had high hopes for my stand in the adjacent rabbitbrush.

I set up my Bog-Pod just at sunup in the shade of a small rise, looking down into a flat with sparse, short rabbitbrush and saltgrass. I set the Lucky Duck Revolt 40 yards away on top of a rabbitbrush. As usual, I started with "shelterbelt" (cottontail distress). In less than 3 minutes a coyote materialized on the side of the hill next to mine, 90 degrees to my right. It sat down and stared at the caller. I was in an exposed position and couldn't turn to shoot the coyote without moving my whole upper body. Before I could come up with a plan to get a shot without spooking the coyote, an adult male coyote came galloping up the draw between the two hills. He ran straight at the caller, getting within a few feet of it before veering off, looking back at the caller over his shoulder.

I whooped to stop him, and he gave me a perfectly broadside shot at about 60 yards. The 40gr NBT clipped his left elbow on entry, punched a .22 caliber hole in his chest, mangled his vitals, and exited through his chest and right elbow on the other side. He spun and ran 40 yards or so before running out of blood pressure. His trail wasn't hard to follow.



I skinned this one out to hang on my wall -- a handsome adult male in his prime, with a lot of red in his fur (common around here).

 

[Mike Lum]

6.5 doesn't play nice for fur... this is entry.

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

It was too cold (4*F) to fly the hawks first thing this morning, so I drove a few miles and set up to call coyotes under a lone juniper at the top of a wide, shallow draw leading into thick sagebrush. Above the draw is square mile of grass flat. Four minutes into "shelterbelt" a coyote came charging in from the grassy side, which I've never had happen before. The juniper blocked my view of the coyote until it was almost on the caller. When the coyote cut the track that I made to place the caller, it looped around and headed back the way it came. I knew it wouldn't stop after winding me, so I took a shot at about 40 yards as it quartered towards me in its turn. The coyote stumbled at the shot, but kept going on, not able to run at full speed. Most likely I broke its right front leg. I took two more shots as it ran away, without effect. It crossed a 2-track onto private land after about 300 yards, still going at the same labored pace. I hate to leave a crippled animal, but I couldn't follow it onto private property, and probably never would have caught up to it, anyway. These things happen if you hunt enough coyotes.

I drove up the 2-track another mile or so, then walked a half mile to a long, narrow, rocky draw lined with big junipers on the west side. I set up in the shadow of a small dead juniper on the east flank, and put the Lucky Duck Revolt in the bottom of the draw. The wind had started to pick up, but I was hoping that I'd have some protection from the trees and the steep sides of the draw. After 8 minutes of "shelterbelt" a big male coyote came loping down the west side of the draw, straight towards the caller. I picked him up in my scope, planning* to stop him and shoot him before he got to the caller. When he was 20 yards from the caller I whooped to stop him, but it did not have the desired effect -- he immediately spun on his back left leg and lit out on his backtrail. Since I had him in my scope the whole time, I shot just as he pivoted. He gave no sign of being hit, racing up the west side of the steep draw.

*"Plans are useless but planning is indispensable." -- General Dwight Eisenhower

I was really disgusted with myself for crippling and/or missing 2 coyotes in a row. I called for another 5 minutes or so before packing up my gear for the walk back to the truck. Rather than take the most direct route back to the truck, I scrambled down and across the draw to check out the coyote's departure path, just in case. Fifty yards up his trail I found this:



His blood was already freezing to this rock.



A little over 100 yards from where I shot him, I found him lying stone dead.



The 40gr NBT entered behind his right front leg, then exploded his heart. There wasn't a piece of intact heart muscle left that was bigger than my little fingernail.



Are coyotes tough? I'd say so.

By now the temperature had climbed into the high teens, so I picked up the hawks and enjoyed watching them soar around in the wind, knifing down on the jackrabbits below.



A 6-pound jackrabbit can put up quite a fight with 2-pound hawks, as evidenced by the pile of fur and feathers at the scene of the kill.



All in all, a pretty good morning!

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

There was a slight chill in the air first thing this morning.



Bundled up against the cold, wearing my trapper's hat -- the fur rimmed with frost from my condensed breath -- I put the Bog-Pod in the shadow of an isolated juniper by an open alkali flat.



I played "shelterbelt" for 5 minutes, but the only response I got was a coyote howling in the distance. I switched to "luckypecker" (bird distress), and a minute later this male coyote (probably this year's pup, but well-furred) tiptoed to the edge of the clearing. He paused at 65 paces, then collapsed when the 40gr NBT hit him in the center of the chest. You can see the entrance wound if you look closely.



I drove up the dirt road a couple of miles and spotted 4 coyotes in a pivot full of cattle. I've generally found it pointless to try to call coyotes out of a pivot, but I've had success at this particular spot before, so I set up on the adjacent BLM tract, which is a juniper-sagebrush savanna. There were a large number of robins and a flock of pinyon jays foraging in the junipers, and their constant calling and motion were a distraction while I scanned for incoming coyotes.



It took 8 minutes of "shelterbelt" for this adult female to show up. She stopped 98 paces away alongside a juniper to survey the situation before having to cross the opening to the caller. After putting the Leupold's crosshairs on her chest I squeezed the trigger. I clearly heard the sound of a solid impact. She went nowhere but straight down.



Warmer weather is on the way, so I'll probably do more hawking a less coyote hunting this week.

 

[helmut in the bush]

Awesome

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

My neighbor is an avid hunter but, at 77 years old, has limited mobility. I've taken him out coyote calling once before. We called in 3 coyotes in 3 stands, but none of them gave a very good shot opportunity.

We tried again this morning. I took him to one of the few spots I have that is both productive and reasonably accessible. He was huffing and puffing going up a gently sloping game trail to the stand, not much more than 200 yards from the truck. But once on stand he caught his breath while I set up the caller.

I always start out on a low volume in case there are coyotes nearby which would be spooked by an abnormally loud sound. When nothing showed up in 5 minutes, I cranked up the volume for about a minute to get any distant coyotes headed our way. Once a coyote has pinpointed a sound, even from far away, it will come straight to the caller.

Two minutes later an adult female coyote came bounding through the sagebrush, charging the caller. I muted the sound,and she stopped about 50 yards out. My buddy got pretty excited (who wouldn't?) and jerked the shot high, right over her back. [The heavy trigger on his vintage M700 .22-250 doesn't help, either.] She whipped around and motored off as fast as she could go.

There's only one thing to do in a situation like that -- hit the "emergency button" -- pup distress. On my Lucky Duck Revolt I like "pup chaos" for this purpose. The female coyote was already out of sight in the sagebrush, but started barking at us when she heard the pup cries. Unbelievably, she came almost all the way back to our stand, barking the whole way, and eventually appeared at 135 yards. Her front feet came off the ground every time she barked -- she was mad!

My buddy calmed his nerves and drew a careful bead on her. I saw her drop at the shot, and when I found her there were brains splattered all over the sagebrush. Needless to say, my buddy was tickled pink, and I had as much fun calling for my friend as I do when I call and shoot my own coyotes.

 

[DirtySteve]

I need a fix. Get out there and kill something!

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

Probably not before December. Believe me, I feel your pain.

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

Even though it was 15*F this morning, spring is coming -- I saw my first tree swallow of 2021. Since it is breeding season for coyotes, I started my first stand with some pair howls. I got an instantaneous, enthusiastic reply from at least one pack. I couldn't entice them any closer with pup distress and prey sounds, though.

My second stand was a sagebrush flat with a sizeable open area. As usual, I set up my BogPod in the standing position to be able to see coyotes in the flat terrain. Once again I led off with pair howls, then switched to "shelterbelt" (cottontail distress) after 4 or 5 minutes. Within 2 minutes a yearling male trotted in from my right. I muted the call but he didn't even slow down. I was afraid that he would come all the way to the call and bolt when he smelled me, so I led him a bit and hit him in the chest. I was satisfied with the shot, but he turned and struggled to run straight away. I put the crosshairs on the base of his neck and touched off another shot, rolling him up 81 paces from the muzzle.



Hoping for a double, I switched the Lucky Duck Revolt to "pup chaos." About 4 minutes in I heard footfalls behind me. I slowly turned my head to see a coyote walking less than 10 feet behind me. I didn't expect a coyote to come from that direction because I had purposely set up with only a narrow strip of sagebrush behind me on the downwind side. The startled coyote galloped off, but as I followed it in my scope I could see from its body language that it might stop, attracted to the pup distress sounds. Sure enough, it paused on a little mound 309 paces away, with just its head and upper neck showing.

I cranked the scope up to 10X. The crosshairs were wandering a little when I squeezed off the shot. The coyote's head disappeared. I assumed that I had missed, but turned off the caller and went out to check. When I got to the little mound the coyote lifted its head and tried to get to its feet, but couldn't. Like a dumba$$ I had left my rifle on the BogPod, so I made the 600-yard round trip to retrieve the 22BR and finish off my double.

By the time I got back the coyote was gone. I heard it dragging itself through the sagebrush, and got glimpses of it a couple of times, but was unable to get a decent shot at it before it got into the thick stuff. After 30 minutes of searching I went back to truck and let my Brittany out to see if he could reflush the wounded coyote, but no luck.

I went back to the spot where the coyote had been standing and found quite a bit of hair stuck in sagebrush, a fresh turd, and a small pool of blood. I hate to leave a wounded coyote, but sometimes it happens.

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

We have some unsettled, windy weather headed our way today and tomorrow, but it was calm and overcast at sunrise. I went to one of my rare "sit-down" stands -- a ~10-acre bowl with a 20-foot-tall rim around it and scattered sagebrush/greasewood in the alkali flat at the bottom of the bowl. I was tucked in the shadow of the east rim with a dead greasewood behind me breaking up my outline.

With the barometer dropping I was hoping that the coyotes would be hungry, so I started off with cottontail distress sounds. After 5 minutes I was about to switch to some coyote vocals when a coyote crested the far rim, walking down the bank. It didn't seem to be in any hurry. I'm pretty sure it didn't see me or smell me, but it circled the base of the far side of the bowl instead of coming straight to the call. After 50 yards it climbed back up the bank and went over the rim without ever stopping or looking over its shoulder. I was tracking it in the scope but never got a shot I liked. I couldn't get it to return by playing coyote pup distress and coyote breeding fights, so after 15 minutes (total) on the stand I packed up and left.

I drove a couple of miles to a hillside with a big, sagebrush-filled flat below it. There aren't many openings to shoot, but there are a lot of coyotes. I set up my BogPod at standing height in the shade of a tall sagebrush halfway up the hillside. I played "shelterbelt" at a low volume for 4 minutes hoping to lure a coyote that was close by, but no joy. I then cranked up the volume to reach all the way across the flat. Within a couple of minutes a yearling male coyote appeared, moving tentatively towards the Revolt. He saw or smelled something he didn't like and started to meander off. He wasn't really spooked, though, so I waited for him to stop and look back at the caller. He paused broadside at 122 paces. The 40gr Nosler hit him right above his left elbow. He spun twice, hit the deck, and twirled his tail as he gave up the ghost.

 

[Toby Bradshaw]

As forecast, yesterday was super windy, so I worked on my cabin instead of calling coyotes. It was still breezy out of the west this morning with snow flurries on top of the skiff of snow that had fallen overnight. I don't like calling coyotes in the wind, but I decided to give it a go anyway. I walked a few hundred yards from my cabin and got set up. I played "high pitch" (baby cottontail distress) on the Revolt to give the educated coyotes something different in the way of sounds. Two minutes later out of the corner of my eye I saw an adult male coyote come sneaking in from my (unexpectedly) downwind side. Luckily he was far enough south that he wasn't in my scent cone. He stopped at 90 degrees to where I had the rifle pointed, but from the standing position it is easy to swivel the BogPod around. The coyote was focused on the caller and didn't see me turn to shoot. Between the west wind watering my eyes and the snowflakes melting from my eyelashes I could hardly see through the scope -- it was like shooting through a swimming pool. But he was only 79 paces away, and I heard the satisfying sound of solid chest hit. He went straight down.

I dragged the coyote back to my stand to get a photo of the BogPod, backpack, and Atlas Tactical 22BR. You can (barely) see my cabin roof in the background.

 

[WyleWD]

I like the markings on that one. Would make a pretty pelt to decorate a wall with.

Great story too. WD

 

[Brians356]

Awfully quiet here lately, and not in a good way. That's all I'll say.
-

 

[CT10ring]

I was walking to my first calling stand when this yearling male climbed out of the sage and onto a boulder about 75 yards away, wondering what had spooked that herd of mule deer. I shot him offhand with my Rem 700V .222, 24gr H322, 40gr Nosler Ballistic Tip. I could hear the impact and found him lying on top of the boulder -- he never took step after the shot.

View attachment 978171

Nice! Where are you shooting, if you don't mind?