Last Thursday,11-9-2006) was an absolute perfect day for calling and I had to be working. I finished up on some work and I had almost given up on going out calling, but when I went outside after work and saw how nice and calm it was, I boogied on home and changed into my hunting duds and headed out of town. I had what you might call--“Coyote Fever.†It had been almost 2 1/2 weeks since I had been out calling and I was getting pretty antsy to get out and give it a try again.
I have permission to hunt on several thousands of acres in the area I was headed to and it is all posted land so not many folks get to go in there. The wind was out of the NE so I decided to try calling in a couple of new spots. I parked the pickup off the road in a stubble field and got all my junk together and took off to the NE down a little valley. I was carrying my Pac-Nor barreled .17 Remington and had it loaded with my 27.8 gr. Hammett BT HP loads that had worked real good on prairie dogs this summer. I hadn’t shot a coyote with this load yet and was anxious to see how this load would perform on coyotes. When I got to a good looking spot to call, I set my FoxPro up in a pile of dead branches and hiked back to the SW of the caller and set up on a side hill and used a buffalo berry bush for a backrest which about 50 yards away from the FoxPro. I was planning on making a short stand in that spot and then hiking in to the east another 1/4 to 1/2 mile and make a 30 to 40 minute last-stand-of-the-day type thing.
I started off with the kitten in distress sound and had the volume down quite low because I only wanted the sound to reach out about 1/4 to 1/2 mile. I called for about 13 minutes and then turned the caller off and sat and waited and watched for about 5 minutes more. Nothing came in. There sure were lots of Canadian geese flying overhead though. It is fun to get out in the country where you can hear all the birds singing, etc.
I packed up and headed east up the side of the hill. When I approached the top, I peeked over and surveyed the situation ahead and made my plans on where to set up. I backed down off the hill and got down lower in elevation and walked around to the east well below the horizon. I got to the hill I wanted to set up on and crept up to the edge and checked out the lay of the land. It looked pretty good. I could see about 300 yards to the north, but had a blind spot to the NW. I felt that was OK because you can’t cover 360 degrees on most stands. The area to the NE, east, SE and east was clearly visible to me and there was a nice bush down below me that I could set the FoxPro in. It was a steep hill and the caller was probably 75 feet below where I set up. This time I used my Spring Hare sound on the FoxPro and played it at medium volume for about 4 minutes. No takers. I could see three mule deer get up out of the next valley to the ESE of me and wondered if there was a coyote that scared them up??? Nothing showed. I increased the volume for a couple minutes, but nothing showed up.
At about the 9 minute mark I turned the sound to an interrogation howl and let that play three howls and switched to the female invitation sound and let that play three howls. Then I turned it to the Coyote Locator sound and let that cycle through for the full 30 seconds. I muted the call and heard coyotes answering from the north, one from the east and a couple howling way to the south of my location. The ones to the north and east sounded like they were no more than a half mile away or so. I switched the sound to the female invitation and let it run for a full 30 second cycle and then ran the interrogation sound for a full 30 seconds and muted the call. I could hear howling from the north again. I set the sound to the spring hare again and lowered the volume level and let it play. At about 15 minutes into the stand, the howling from the coyote to the north got much louder so I knew that coyote had moved in to see who these intruders were. I slowly moved my rifle around to that direction. I thought maybe the coyote was down in my blind spot to the north. I switched the sound to the Kiss of Death and let it play. I could hear the coyote doing a combination bark and howl.
Finally, I spotted the coyote on the hill to the north of me. It was sitting and doing the barking and howling. I watched it through the scope and guesstimated that it was about 250 yards away. I figured that I could make a good hit on this sitting coyote. The wind that was blowing was now almost completely calm. The sitting coyote presented a very nice target. With the solid vertical coyote body, I could misjudge the distance by quite a few yards and still hit the coyote in a vital spot. I was about to turn the power ring up on the scope when all of a sudden I hear a coyote howling from the east and it is fairly close. I can’t see it, but I can hear it. I look and look for it, down in the creek bottom but can’t spot it. I keep scanning to the east, trying to pick up some movement or something that looks out of place, but nothing catches my eye.
I figured I had come upon an area that was right close to the border between the territories of these two different coyotes. The one to the north didn't want to venture and further for fear of getting a butt whoopin' and the one to the east might have still been on its way in, but I sure couldn't see it.
Finally, I looked back up to the north to see where that coyote was and it wasn't where it had been sitting. I scanned the hillside and finally saw that it has moved up the side of the hill about 20 yards from where it had been sitting. The coyote is now standing in a quartering stance to me with its head facing to the NW. I guessed that she was probably 265 to 270 yards away now. The drop on my 27.8 gr. Hammett load is about 2.5 inches at 275 yards. I figured I had better take the shot now or lose the chance for the shot. Like a dunce, I still hadn’t turned up the power ring on the scope; but my adrenalin was pumping pretty good about now, and turning up the power ring didn’t even cross my mind.
I wanted to get the shot off before this coyote disappeared over the hill! I held right below the fur line on the top of the back. I slowly squeezed the trigger and saw the coyote get hit, I heard it yelping, and saw it do the old death spin about four or five times and then to my dismay, it ran off to the NW and over the hill and out of sight. I got on my coyote howler and did my wounded coyote imitation, hoping the coyote to the east might be duped into coming into range for a shot. After about two or three minutes no additional coyotes had appeared so I decided to try to go find the one I had shot.
Before I left the spot from which I had taken the shot, I took out my range finder and ranged over to the spot the coyote had been standing at and got a reading of 228 yards. I had estimated the distance pretty close to the correct yardage, but thought since the distance was 228 yards and NOT the 265 to 270 I had guessed, I might have held a little high. I was worried that I might have just nicked the top of the coyote and not hit in the vitals.
With no snow on the ground and darkness approaching, I didn’t have a lot of time and not much hope of picking up a blood trail. My only hope was that the coyote had run over the hill and keeled over and didn’t get into a hole or pile of brush. I tried to pick up the blood trail where it was standing when I shot, but it was too dark so I couldn’t find any blood. I walked along to the north, constantly scanning the landscape ahead of me in case it was still moving out. Finally, after walking about 150 yards north of where the coyote had been standing when I shot, I spotted it lying on the prairie about 25 yards ahead of me. I was pretty lucky to be able to find it. In the photo below, you can see some of the brush and rough country this coyote could have gotten into if it had been able to run a ways further. Fortunately, it keeled over right there.
I had hit it just a wee bit higher than I like to hit them, but about in the right spot for a shot behind the shoulder bone. At a distance of 228 yards, I guess I have to be pretty happy with the shot from my Pac-Nor barreled .17 Remington and using the 27.8 gr. Hammett BT HP bullets. Especially since I didn’t turn my scope up off of 6.5x!!! I think that is the first time I have taken a long shot on a coyote without cranking up the power ring on the scope. The bullet must have hit near the back and top part of the lungs. Here’s a photo of the exit side. You can see the bright red blood in her mouth, so it was a lung shot indeed.
Here’s a photo of the coyote, FoxPro and the rifle with the coyote lying exactly the way she was when I found her. The photo was taken from the northwest side of the coyote and she had run to this spot coming from the southeast and going NNW. I forgot to set the clock on my camera, so the time is daylight savings time. It really was 5:33 when I took this photo, not 6:33.
And, of course, we need to have the “Hero†photo as well. What a goofy looking guy!!! I had to set the camera on my butt pack and had to use the flash to get the photo. You can see that the grass in front of the camera is all lit up. I guess one should carry a tripod to get the photos when you are alone, but I carry way too much stuff with me as it is. Maybe I could try to cut threads on the top of my shooting sticks and screw the camera onto that, but I’ll pass on that one.
I was about a mile away from the pickup, so I got my drag rope on her lower jaw and front feet and started dragging her back to the pickup. I had walked about 175 yards when I discovered I didn’t have my shooting sticks with me. Soooo, I had to trudge back to where she had been lying, look around in the ever darkening night and finally I found the shooting sticks and headed back to pick up the coyote again. I made it back to the pickup at about 6:05 p.m. I got the coyote strung up in the back of the pickup and made a phone call to my wife and told her I’d be home for supper in about a half hour.
I didn’t weigh the coyote, but I’d guess she will probably weigh in at around 25 pounds. From the looks of her teeth, I’d guess she is 2 or 3 years old. The neighbor’s dog has been going berserk and barking his fool head off. I don’t imagine he likes the coyote hanging on the fence.
I let the coyote cool off outside Thursday night and will probably put it in the chest-type freezer I have in the patio if it starts to warm up outside. It feels good to have the first coyote of the season hanging up in the back yard. Too bad deer season opened up today,Friday, 11-10-2006) or I’d probably be out lying on the prairie trying to fool a few more coyotes.
Well, I’m glad I got “Coyote Fever†and went out last night. I came real close to not going out. I was very happy I got a chance to shoot a coyote with the 27.8 gr. Hammett bullets. I need to shoot a few more with that load before I form a solid opinion on how they perform, but this coyote isn’t complaining!!!! The entrance and exit wounds were tiny, so the bullet worked good from that aspect. While the bullet did not anchor the coyote on the spot, the coyote was not going to live more than a few seconds after the shot. I'm not sure that my .204 Ruger would have put that coyote down on the spot either, but then we'll never know!!!
I have permission to hunt on several thousands of acres in the area I was headed to and it is all posted land so not many folks get to go in there. The wind was out of the NE so I decided to try calling in a couple of new spots. I parked the pickup off the road in a stubble field and got all my junk together and took off to the NE down a little valley. I was carrying my Pac-Nor barreled .17 Remington and had it loaded with my 27.8 gr. Hammett BT HP loads that had worked real good on prairie dogs this summer. I hadn’t shot a coyote with this load yet and was anxious to see how this load would perform on coyotes. When I got to a good looking spot to call, I set my FoxPro up in a pile of dead branches and hiked back to the SW of the caller and set up on a side hill and used a buffalo berry bush for a backrest which about 50 yards away from the FoxPro. I was planning on making a short stand in that spot and then hiking in to the east another 1/4 to 1/2 mile and make a 30 to 40 minute last-stand-of-the-day type thing.
I started off with the kitten in distress sound and had the volume down quite low because I only wanted the sound to reach out about 1/4 to 1/2 mile. I called for about 13 minutes and then turned the caller off and sat and waited and watched for about 5 minutes more. Nothing came in. There sure were lots of Canadian geese flying overhead though. It is fun to get out in the country where you can hear all the birds singing, etc.
I packed up and headed east up the side of the hill. When I approached the top, I peeked over and surveyed the situation ahead and made my plans on where to set up. I backed down off the hill and got down lower in elevation and walked around to the east well below the horizon. I got to the hill I wanted to set up on and crept up to the edge and checked out the lay of the land. It looked pretty good. I could see about 300 yards to the north, but had a blind spot to the NW. I felt that was OK because you can’t cover 360 degrees on most stands. The area to the NE, east, SE and east was clearly visible to me and there was a nice bush down below me that I could set the FoxPro in. It was a steep hill and the caller was probably 75 feet below where I set up. This time I used my Spring Hare sound on the FoxPro and played it at medium volume for about 4 minutes. No takers. I could see three mule deer get up out of the next valley to the ESE of me and wondered if there was a coyote that scared them up??? Nothing showed. I increased the volume for a couple minutes, but nothing showed up.
At about the 9 minute mark I turned the sound to an interrogation howl and let that play three howls and switched to the female invitation sound and let that play three howls. Then I turned it to the Coyote Locator sound and let that cycle through for the full 30 seconds. I muted the call and heard coyotes answering from the north, one from the east and a couple howling way to the south of my location. The ones to the north and east sounded like they were no more than a half mile away or so. I switched the sound to the female invitation and let it run for a full 30 second cycle and then ran the interrogation sound for a full 30 seconds and muted the call. I could hear howling from the north again. I set the sound to the spring hare again and lowered the volume level and let it play. At about 15 minutes into the stand, the howling from the coyote to the north got much louder so I knew that coyote had moved in to see who these intruders were. I slowly moved my rifle around to that direction. I thought maybe the coyote was down in my blind spot to the north. I switched the sound to the Kiss of Death and let it play. I could hear the coyote doing a combination bark and howl.
Finally, I spotted the coyote on the hill to the north of me. It was sitting and doing the barking and howling. I watched it through the scope and guesstimated that it was about 250 yards away. I figured that I could make a good hit on this sitting coyote. The wind that was blowing was now almost completely calm. The sitting coyote presented a very nice target. With the solid vertical coyote body, I could misjudge the distance by quite a few yards and still hit the coyote in a vital spot. I was about to turn the power ring up on the scope when all of a sudden I hear a coyote howling from the east and it is fairly close. I can’t see it, but I can hear it. I look and look for it, down in the creek bottom but can’t spot it. I keep scanning to the east, trying to pick up some movement or something that looks out of place, but nothing catches my eye.
I figured I had come upon an area that was right close to the border between the territories of these two different coyotes. The one to the north didn't want to venture and further for fear of getting a butt whoopin' and the one to the east might have still been on its way in, but I sure couldn't see it.
Finally, I looked back up to the north to see where that coyote was and it wasn't where it had been sitting. I scanned the hillside and finally saw that it has moved up the side of the hill about 20 yards from where it had been sitting. The coyote is now standing in a quartering stance to me with its head facing to the NW. I guessed that she was probably 265 to 270 yards away now. The drop on my 27.8 gr. Hammett load is about 2.5 inches at 275 yards. I figured I had better take the shot now or lose the chance for the shot. Like a dunce, I still hadn’t turned up the power ring on the scope; but my adrenalin was pumping pretty good about now, and turning up the power ring didn’t even cross my mind.
I wanted to get the shot off before this coyote disappeared over the hill! I held right below the fur line on the top of the back. I slowly squeezed the trigger and saw the coyote get hit, I heard it yelping, and saw it do the old death spin about four or five times and then to my dismay, it ran off to the NW and over the hill and out of sight. I got on my coyote howler and did my wounded coyote imitation, hoping the coyote to the east might be duped into coming into range for a shot. After about two or three minutes no additional coyotes had appeared so I decided to try to go find the one I had shot. Before I left the spot from which I had taken the shot, I took out my range finder and ranged over to the spot the coyote had been standing at and got a reading of 228 yards. I had estimated the distance pretty close to the correct yardage, but thought since the distance was 228 yards and NOT the 265 to 270 I had guessed, I might have held a little high. I was worried that I might have just nicked the top of the coyote and not hit in the vitals.
With no snow on the ground and darkness approaching, I didn’t have a lot of time and not much hope of picking up a blood trail. My only hope was that the coyote had run over the hill and keeled over and didn’t get into a hole or pile of brush. I tried to pick up the blood trail where it was standing when I shot, but it was too dark so I couldn’t find any blood. I walked along to the north, constantly scanning the landscape ahead of me in case it was still moving out. Finally, after walking about 150 yards north of where the coyote had been standing when I shot, I spotted it lying on the prairie about 25 yards ahead of me. I was pretty lucky to be able to find it. In the photo below, you can see some of the brush and rough country this coyote could have gotten into if it had been able to run a ways further. Fortunately, it keeled over right there.
I had hit it just a wee bit higher than I like to hit them, but about in the right spot for a shot behind the shoulder bone. At a distance of 228 yards, I guess I have to be pretty happy with the shot from my Pac-Nor barreled .17 Remington and using the 27.8 gr. Hammett BT HP bullets. Especially since I didn’t turn my scope up off of 6.5x!!! I think that is the first time I have taken a long shot on a coyote without cranking up the power ring on the scope. The bullet must have hit near the back and top part of the lungs. Here’s a photo of the exit side. You can see the bright red blood in her mouth, so it was a lung shot indeed.
Here’s a photo of the coyote, FoxPro and the rifle with the coyote lying exactly the way she was when I found her. The photo was taken from the northwest side of the coyote and she had run to this spot coming from the southeast and going NNW. I forgot to set the clock on my camera, so the time is daylight savings time. It really was 5:33 when I took this photo, not 6:33.
And, of course, we need to have the “Hero†photo as well. What a goofy looking guy!!! I had to set the camera on my butt pack and had to use the flash to get the photo. You can see that the grass in front of the camera is all lit up. I guess one should carry a tripod to get the photos when you are alone, but I carry way too much stuff with me as it is. Maybe I could try to cut threads on the top of my shooting sticks and screw the camera onto that, but I’ll pass on that one.
I was about a mile away from the pickup, so I got my drag rope on her lower jaw and front feet and started dragging her back to the pickup. I had walked about 175 yards when I discovered I didn’t have my shooting sticks with me. Soooo, I had to trudge back to where she had been lying, look around in the ever darkening night and finally I found the shooting sticks and headed back to pick up the coyote again. I made it back to the pickup at about 6:05 p.m. I got the coyote strung up in the back of the pickup and made a phone call to my wife and told her I’d be home for supper in about a half hour.
I didn’t weigh the coyote, but I’d guess she will probably weigh in at around 25 pounds. From the looks of her teeth, I’d guess she is 2 or 3 years old. The neighbor’s dog has been going berserk and barking his fool head off. I don’t imagine he likes the coyote hanging on the fence.
I let the coyote cool off outside Thursday night and will probably put it in the chest-type freezer I have in the patio if it starts to warm up outside. It feels good to have the first coyote of the season hanging up in the back yard. Too bad deer season opened up today,Friday, 11-10-2006) or I’d probably be out lying on the prairie trying to fool a few more coyotes.
Well, I’m glad I got “Coyote Fever†and went out last night. I came real close to not going out. I was very happy I got a chance to shoot a coyote with the 27.8 gr. Hammett bullets. I need to shoot a few more with that load before I form a solid opinion on how they perform, but this coyote isn’t complaining!!!! The entrance and exit wounds were tiny, so the bullet worked good from that aspect. While the bullet did not anchor the coyote on the spot, the coyote was not going to live more than a few seconds after the shot. I'm not sure that my .204 Ruger would have put that coyote down on the spot either, but then we'll never know!!!
. A couple noticed a lump in the hedge row so here come 15-20 lick and sniff.
I also shoot lots of prairie dogs in the summer and fall months which does help in range estimation. However, the coyote that I shot, was on the side of a tall hill and I was to the south of that on another hill. The hill I was on dropped off below me very steeply and the hill the coyote was on was also a very steep drop. With only a deep valley between me and the coyote, I think I did pretty good at guesstimating the distance. It is very difficult for me to gauge distances in a situation like I just described. How about you? Do you lose some sense of distance when you have no points of reference like the situation I was in?
