Heretic
Active member
Yesterday morning my pal Tom and I figure on seeing if anything is moving around a few of our favorite spots.
First stand was dry and after 30 minutes we bail out.
Second stand about 4 miles away we set up facing west sitting in some junipers. Wind is coming from the south to the north. I set the call about 30yds ahead of us and start off with some interrogation howls. Nothing answering back. But I'm thinking with this wind we may not hear anything.
Tom took a spot to my right about 5 yds at about 30 degrees turned away from me. I wanted him to get a shot if anything came out so he was facing down wind.
Let me take this opportunity to say that except for one time in the year I've been hunting with Tom we always see something when we're out. He has the uncanny ability to see movement and colors that I can't. I'm colorblind and hunting in the desert with desert colored animals is a challenge. Everything blends in.
At about the 20 minutes mark I hear from Tom, "one o'clock." My heart skips a beat because I'm thinking did he mean his one o'clock or mine? I turn my eyes and don't see anything. I slightly turn my head and I catch a glimpse of movement about 40 yds out. I had my rifle on my trigger stick pointed in the right spot. She must have seen or winded us because she starts to trot away towards the southwest.
I had been playing rabbit distress and but switched to game bird, magpies and ground hog distress when she showed up.
At about 50 yds I lip squeak and she stops. I send one at her thinking it was a good shot. This whole event took maybe 6 seconds from when Tom said "one o'clock."
She spins around about 4 times and then we see nothing. We wait about 2 minutes to make sure she's down. I hate, really really hate walking up to an animal that isn't dead yet. As we stand up to go get her, she pops up and starts trotting away from us up a ridge. Tom says her belly is coated in blood and I'm thinking "rats, a gut shot."
Tom stays where I made the shot and I go off looking for her. I find her under some brush about 15 feet from where I shot her. She's not doing well so I put a .22 in her CPU to shut her down.
Tom comes over and pokes her with a stick. She's done. I see no wound so I'm wondering where the blood trail came from. I flip her over and her guts from the diaphragm down to her intestines are laying under her. A Sierra #1390 55grn HPBT under 23.6grns of 3031 is evidently too much at 50yds . Exit wound the size of a grapefruit.
We made one more stand but I was too distracted thinking about the coyote in the truck. We waited 30 minutes and when nothing showed up, we called it a day.
Thanks for reading!
First stand was dry and after 30 minutes we bail out.
Second stand about 4 miles away we set up facing west sitting in some junipers. Wind is coming from the south to the north. I set the call about 30yds ahead of us and start off with some interrogation howls. Nothing answering back. But I'm thinking with this wind we may not hear anything.
Tom took a spot to my right about 5 yds at about 30 degrees turned away from me. I wanted him to get a shot if anything came out so he was facing down wind.
Let me take this opportunity to say that except for one time in the year I've been hunting with Tom we always see something when we're out. He has the uncanny ability to see movement and colors that I can't. I'm colorblind and hunting in the desert with desert colored animals is a challenge. Everything blends in.
At about the 20 minutes mark I hear from Tom, "one o'clock." My heart skips a beat because I'm thinking did he mean his one o'clock or mine? I turn my eyes and don't see anything. I slightly turn my head and I catch a glimpse of movement about 40 yds out. I had my rifle on my trigger stick pointed in the right spot. She must have seen or winded us because she starts to trot away towards the southwest.
I had been playing rabbit distress and but switched to game bird, magpies and ground hog distress when she showed up.
At about 50 yds I lip squeak and she stops. I send one at her thinking it was a good shot. This whole event took maybe 6 seconds from when Tom said "one o'clock."
She spins around about 4 times and then we see nothing. We wait about 2 minutes to make sure she's down. I hate, really really hate walking up to an animal that isn't dead yet. As we stand up to go get her, she pops up and starts trotting away from us up a ridge. Tom says her belly is coated in blood and I'm thinking "rats, a gut shot."
Tom stays where I made the shot and I go off looking for her. I find her under some brush about 15 feet from where I shot her. She's not doing well so I put a .22 in her CPU to shut her down.
Tom comes over and pokes her with a stick. She's done. I see no wound so I'm wondering where the blood trail came from. I flip her over and her guts from the diaphragm down to her intestines are laying under her. A Sierra #1390 55grn HPBT under 23.6grns of 3031 is evidently too much at 50yds . Exit wound the size of a grapefruit.
We made one more stand but I was too distracted thinking about the coyote in the truck. We waited 30 minutes and when nothing showed up, we called it a day.
Thanks for reading!
