This afternoon my buddy and I headed to one of the farms I have permission on to pull my blind that I had set up for late season deer. I figured that I might as well try a coyote set while we were there. It was a perfect day for it, about 0 degrees and really light NW winds.
Here's a picture of the setup. The coyote is actually laying in the field if you zoom right in on the tree line, but it gets really blurry.
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I was set up on a fence line, tucked into a little cedar tree. The view above looks Northwest. My buddy was just on the other side of the fence to watch for anything sneaking around downwind.
About 4:20 pm I started on the dying rabbit mouth call. About 15 to 20 seconds of longer wails, followed by a pause, and another 15 to 20 seconds of shorter faster and more frantic wails. I just tucked the call into my pocket when I saw movement coming out of the bush straight towards me. I could tell that it was a coyote and just the movement of me making adjustments to get my head behind the scope was noticeable to her. As soon as the scope was on her I could see that she had stopped in her tracks and was looking at me. The scope was on 4x, I would have liked it higher but I always leave it set low and move it up if I can. It was then or never. After the shot she started doing the spin thing, but not knowing how well she was hit or if she was at all, I shot (and missed) twice while she was spinning. After the 4th, she went down.
I gave it a few minutes, then we decided we would go get her. When I got up from my hiding spot I noticed her head was up again and she was looking up at us. The cedar rail fence wouldn't give me a steady enough rest so I got back on the shooting sticks and shot again. When I looked up from the scope she had gotten up and run off into the bush! Unbelievable!
This is what we found when we got down there (glove is for scale). I can't believe she was still going.
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We started into the bush on the track and found a few blood pools where she had laid down. Eventually I just stopped and listened and could hear her not far ahead. I caught up to her and shot her again from about 20 yards.
Here's the end result. Can't say I'm too proud of the shooting, but I guess they can't all be textbook finishes.
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The first shot when she was head-on caught her in the hip/hind leg. The one that put her down when she was spinning hit her at an angle near the right eye. I think I missed on the one where she jumped up. The 20 yard shot in the bush got her in the opposite side and made a real mess. When I paced off the distance going back to where I sat, the original shooting was from 175 yards.
The landowner was really happy. She has a hobby farm, a few horses, ponies, dogs and children. She appreciates us hunting the coyotes there, even more so when we get them.
I was shooting my 243 with Hornady 58 grain v-max. They sure do some damage.
Looking forward to getting out more often this winter!
PS, sorry about the sideways pics. It seems to only like "landscape" photos.
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