A few misses.......and lots of coyotes.....
So took out my neighbours boy (21,22 yrs old now) out Thursday afternoon in hopes of him getting his first coyote. I have been mentoring him over the years.... getting him his first turkey, crossbow deer, shotgun buck, duck, goose and even a raccoon.... Now it's time for his first coyote.............
We setup at a farm Thursday evening just before 4:45 pm..... I had him sitting to my right about 4 yds away along a tree line setup with my shooting sticks, pointing the rifle in the direction I think the coyote will come out from.......I let him get comfortable and settled in..... Once he is ready I wait a few minutes and begin calling.... About 20 minutes into the set, a coyote steps out 25 yds from the bush-line we are in and walks out right in front of him.... I wolf it to stop for him and I watch him as he lines up the coyote and takes the shot......... To my surprise the coyote starts to run away and goes right back into the bush it came from....... WTF.......We look for blood, hair, none to be found..... Long story short, turns out he had his scope on 9x and couldn't really see the crosshairs on the coyote, just saw hair..... We are thinking he must have shot over it...... It was a bummer but a good lesson learned.....Keep your scope on minimum power, only turn it up if the coyote stays way out there.......
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...c40d1e08_c.jpg
Today (Sunday).... We go to one farm, do a 30 minute set at first light but nothing shows up.... Pack our gear and head to another farm not too far away....
We get setup just before 9am.... I set him up about 4 yds to my left....I start calling and after about 5 minutes I see one coyote, then two coyotes.... I tell my partner to look over to the right, two coyotes 400yds out... He sees them... I tell him not to move.... Then a few seconds later they start moving right to left but not strait toward the caller... We loose sight of them over the rise.... A few seconds later the original two come over the rise and continue heading left (wind is shifting bad on us as and they seem to be heading downwind).... I let me partner know to get ready and shoot the front one as soon as it stops..... As we are watching these two, I notice two more coyotes come over the rise, so now 4 coyotes are heading closer toward us.... The original 2 are heading downwind.... The other two are heading toward the caller.decoy but are further back.... As the original two coyotes get closer the front one stops at about the 80 yd mark. I tell him to shoot it as I know any second its going to be over (they will wind us).... Unfortunately before he could pull the trigger, they must have winded us because it turns and starts to run away..... At this point we got the original two turning and running away from us.....Not sure what the other two are doing at this point as we are both focusing on the original two...... I pick the further back one and take a shot, I think I hear impact as I loose sight of it over the rise..... I turn to the others that are running away, take a shot and miss... :( My partner is shooting at the same time as well, unfortunately he misses his coyote(s) too...He was so focused on the original two, he did not even see the other 2 that came in..... Excitement at its best right there......
It turns out we must have been shooting blanks because we could not find any blood or hair.. Lots of action but no physical results :(
It`s days like this that make me want to quit and go back at the same time :)
https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...1456bf63_c.jpg
I hate missing but the poor boy, action doesn't get much better than this..... Maybe next time out we will both do better...
