bushpilotmexico
New member
This is going to be a long story but I'll try and keep it interesting.
I have good news then bad news and then good news.
First the good news, after I shot my double earlier in the week(#19 and #20) I noticed a carcass on the side hill that hadn't been there before. I went to look afterwards and it was a cow that died during calving, I guess the calf was turned sideways and she couldn't deliver it.
Now it's important to remember that I'm still in my glory hole that in two weeks I've taken 9 coyotes out of. Here is a picture of my stand.....the rancher uses large truck tires for fencing (not a bad idea).
This is the stand I have been shooting out of for the last two weeks....nice and comfy with a board inside to rest my rear end on.
Here comes the bad news....I'm not really a carcass hunter because I enjoy using hand calls and coaxing them close enough for a shot. BUT what the heck, I made up my mind Monday evening that I would go back yesterday morning and see if the carcass would bring any results. Now I made the fateful, wrong decision. I decided that because the carcass was 400 yards away from my tire stand I would leave the old faithful Sako L579 in the gun safe and use my Savage 12 FV which has a Bell and Carlson stock, PacNor match 6BR barrel, 12 oz trigger and a Nightforce 8-32 NXS sitting on top.
This is the rifle that won me a 1000 metre shoot last June BUT I've had tracking problems with the scope ever since I bought it in 2006 and it was returned to Nightforce for warranty work in 2007.
I said this was going to be a long yarn!
Anyway I crept into my tire stand before daylight Tuesday morning with my Savage and the lemon NXS scope. Sure enough just at daylight thru my binos I could see 5 coyotes fighting over dinner rights on the carcass. To dark to shoot but fun watching the pecking order....I watched one yote in particular who must have been the alpha male as he kept guarding the carcass and running off the 4 others.
I decided this was the yote I was going to shoot. I ranged the carcass again just to make certain and confirmed that it was around 400 yards plus or minus a couple. Checked my ballistic table, which I always attach to the scope with elastic bands, and confirmed that with the 105 grain Hornady A-max I was shooting I would have to crank on 6.25 MoA. I adjusted the scope accordingly and cranked it up to 32 power.
Once light enough to shoot I located the alpha male, centred him in the cross hairs and squeezed off the shot. Those A-max bullets don't give you the audable hit that a V-max gives you. Once I recovered from the slight recoil I looked thru the scope expecting to see 4 legs sticking up in the air. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.....a clean miss. That yote should have been dead.
A cold north wind was also blowing and even with the protection of the tires my 68 year old bones were starting to shiver so I decided to abandon my stand and check out the carcass thinking that maybe he had run off a few yards and then dropped.
Needless to say a close examination of the area produced absolutely nothing. Frustrated I decided on the way home I would visit our local range and reconfirm my 100 yard zero.
I know to make a long story shorter it's best not to tell it
and I hope no one is getting bored with my tale?
I fired a shot at the range at 100 yards and the bullet never touched either the target or the back board. I removed the bolt, bore sighted the barrel on the target and looked thru the $1700 Nightforce. The scope was pointing 3 1/2' left and 2 1/2' high, no wonder I didn't hit the alpha male. The piece of junk is now on it's way back to Lightforce in Idaho. I told them either fix it or replace it. Even if it comes back repaired I don't think I'll ever be able to trust it again!
Okay, hopefully no one has fallen asleep reading my story?
Now for the good news.....I went back out this morning with my trustworthy Sako and guess what? Yup, the same old 5 yotes chewing on the carcass. Not the same fighting and pecking order as the day before and I couldn't exactly locate the alpha male.
I settled on one chewing on the carcass, cranked up my Nikon Buckmaster scope 5 1/4 MoA, turned it up to 18x, centred her in the crosshairs and let fly. I heard the 75 grain V-max hit and she collapsed like a ton of bricks. She was a dry female.
The next photo shows a black arrow pointing to my tire stand from where I took the shot.
Here's a picture of me with # 21 of the season and the 10th I taken out of the glory hole.
Hopefully my yarn hasn't been too boring?
I have good news then bad news and then good news.
First the good news, after I shot my double earlier in the week(#19 and #20) I noticed a carcass on the side hill that hadn't been there before. I went to look afterwards and it was a cow that died during calving, I guess the calf was turned sideways and she couldn't deliver it.
Now it's important to remember that I'm still in my glory hole that in two weeks I've taken 9 coyotes out of. Here is a picture of my stand.....the rancher uses large truck tires for fencing (not a bad idea).
This is the stand I have been shooting out of for the last two weeks....nice and comfy with a board inside to rest my rear end on.
Here comes the bad news....I'm not really a carcass hunter because I enjoy using hand calls and coaxing them close enough for a shot. BUT what the heck, I made up my mind Monday evening that I would go back yesterday morning and see if the carcass would bring any results. Now I made the fateful, wrong decision. I decided that because the carcass was 400 yards away from my tire stand I would leave the old faithful Sako L579 in the gun safe and use my Savage 12 FV which has a Bell and Carlson stock, PacNor match 6BR barrel, 12 oz trigger and a Nightforce 8-32 NXS sitting on top.
This is the rifle that won me a 1000 metre shoot last June BUT I've had tracking problems with the scope ever since I bought it in 2006 and it was returned to Nightforce for warranty work in 2007.
I said this was going to be a long yarn!
Anyway I crept into my tire stand before daylight Tuesday morning with my Savage and the lemon NXS scope. Sure enough just at daylight thru my binos I could see 5 coyotes fighting over dinner rights on the carcass. To dark to shoot but fun watching the pecking order....I watched one yote in particular who must have been the alpha male as he kept guarding the carcass and running off the 4 others.
I decided this was the yote I was going to shoot. I ranged the carcass again just to make certain and confirmed that it was around 400 yards plus or minus a couple. Checked my ballistic table, which I always attach to the scope with elastic bands, and confirmed that with the 105 grain Hornady A-max I was shooting I would have to crank on 6.25 MoA. I adjusted the scope accordingly and cranked it up to 32 power.
Once light enough to shoot I located the alpha male, centred him in the cross hairs and squeezed off the shot. Those A-max bullets don't give you the audable hit that a V-max gives you. Once I recovered from the slight recoil I looked thru the scope expecting to see 4 legs sticking up in the air. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.....a clean miss. That yote should have been dead.
A cold north wind was also blowing and even with the protection of the tires my 68 year old bones were starting to shiver so I decided to abandon my stand and check out the carcass thinking that maybe he had run off a few yards and then dropped.
Needless to say a close examination of the area produced absolutely nothing. Frustrated I decided on the way home I would visit our local range and reconfirm my 100 yard zero.
I know to make a long story shorter it's best not to tell it
and I hope no one is getting bored with my tale?
I fired a shot at the range at 100 yards and the bullet never touched either the target or the back board. I removed the bolt, bore sighted the barrel on the target and looked thru the $1700 Nightforce. The scope was pointing 3 1/2' left and 2 1/2' high, no wonder I didn't hit the alpha male. The piece of junk is now on it's way back to Lightforce in Idaho. I told them either fix it or replace it. Even if it comes back repaired I don't think I'll ever be able to trust it again!
Okay, hopefully no one has fallen asleep reading my story?
Now for the good news.....I went back out this morning with my trustworthy Sako and guess what? Yup, the same old 5 yotes chewing on the carcass. Not the same fighting and pecking order as the day before and I couldn't exactly locate the alpha male.
I settled on one chewing on the carcass, cranked up my Nikon Buckmaster scope 5 1/4 MoA, turned it up to 18x, centred her in the crosshairs and let fly. I heard the 75 grain V-max hit and she collapsed like a ton of bricks. She was a dry female.
The next photo shows a black arrow pointing to my tire stand from where I took the shot.
Here's a picture of me with # 21 of the season and the 10th I taken out of the glory hole.
Hopefully my yarn hasn't been too boring?
