Bonehead move, but I'm learning--long again!

Silverfox

New member
Just when I thought I had pulled about every bonehead stunt imaginable, I find a new one to pull! I went out to do some calling this morning. It was supposed to be pretty calm and dry today. It was snowing!!! Wind out of the WNW at about 10+ mph, but I haven't been out calling for a week and a half so I'm going anyway. I drove in to where an oil lease road turns into a prairie trail to get to 3 super good spots for calling in a WNW wind. The road is impassable—snow drifts at least 3 feet deep across the trail. I am over a mile away from the closest spot and 3+ miles from the farthest one on this circuit. So much for that plan.

I drive back out of that spot and head to a spot near a big microwave tower. The snow-fog is fairly dense, but I can still see over a quarter of a mile. I park the pickup, get the .17 Remington out, load a round into the chamber, put the safety on, and start my trek to my calling spot. I have called this spot one time before, but got no takers. I walked in about a half mile and found a good spot to set up in a little draw. The wind has picked up a bit and the snow is hitting me in the eyes and stings once in awhile. I worry about snow covering the front lens on the scope. I start my wristwatch timer and let out about a dozen plaintive screams on the Tally Ho. I wait about 30 seconds and repeat the series. My Tally Ho was getting full of spittle so I turn the bell end around and blow through it to clean out the moisture. I decide FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, to put the call inside my shooting hand glove. I put my glove back on and slip the call inside the glove next to the palm of my hand. My hand was getting pretty cold while calling with my glove off. I wait about 2 minutes, take my shooting hand glove off and then repeat the previous sequence. At the 6 minute mark I increase the volume and get wild on the call to reach out and touch any distant coyotes that may not have heard the first few series of calls. I check my watch a while later and 8 minutes have passed since I started calling. I have the Tally Ho inside my glove again and just then I spot a coyote’s head bobbing on the horizon to the WNW, then I see the whole coyote bounding through the snow. White plumes of snow are flying as the coyote pushes through the deep snow to get to me. The coyote is about 200 yards away when it stops to look over the situation and try to locate the wounded rabbit. I think to myself, “Self, you should probably take the Tally Ho out of your shooting hand now and get ready to pull the trigger soon.” Self says, “Ahh, you can make the shot with the Tally Ho in the palm of your hand, so just sit tight and wait.” What an idiot!!! I have NEVER shot a coyote with a call in the palm of my trigger finger hand. The coyote starts forward toward me, stopping about every 25 yards. It crosses under a fence about 100 yards from my position and stops. I put the crosshairs on her, but when I start to take up the slack on the trigger, the coyote moves toward me again. It takes a slight turn to my right and disappears in a little low spot behind a rock outcropping on the little rise to my right. I move my gun over, make sure the scope is down on 6x and get ready. The coyote pops up from behind the rock outcropping with its front feet up on the rocks. I am slightly above the coyote, so I aim a little low for this 75 yard shot. I hesitated--Man, that Tally Ho in my palm just doesn’t let me caress the palm swell or feel the trigger like I want to. It is too late to take the call out of my palm and in that instant, just as I am squeezing the trigger, the coyote moves her whole body up to the top of the rock. BANG, WHAP YIPE! YIPE! YIPE! and I can see fur flying on the WNW wind /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif I felt sick as the coyote tumbled backwards off the rock and out of sight. I was sure it WAS NOT a good solid hit! I jacked in another shell, watching intently for the coyote to come running out from behind the rock outcropping. Nothing! I took the call out of my palm and started doing the wounded coyote screams in case she had a partner out there. After about 3 minutes of that noise, I felt I needed to get down to that coyote quickly to dispatch it before it started to try to get away. I got up from my position, folded up my white plastic trash compactor bag and put it into the back pocket of my white coveralls and took about 4 steps forward. I looked up to the west and there was the coyote hobbling across the fence and heading out toward the west. I had nowhere to lay for a steady shot where I was at so I backed up to where I had taken the shot from earlier and laid down in the snow. I cranked up the power on my scope to about 12x, started doing the wounded coyote yelp with my voice and the coyote stopped about 200 yards away from me to look back. I had the crosshairs right behind the left front shoulder, in the heart lung area and squeezed off another shot. Down she went for the last time.

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I pushed through the deep snow to where she laid. I turned her over to look at the damage. OUCH! One chocolate mess, as my coyote calling partner from Bismarck calls em! The first shot had shattered her left front leg right below the shoulder. The bullet kept following the left side of her body and ripped through the skin at the bottom of the rib cage. After the bullet went through the rib cage area it hit the inside ham of her left leg as well. No wonder she was doing some yelping after I shot. The 30 gr. Starke RPV bullet would have put her down in her tracks had she not made that last move up to the top of the rock ledge as I shot. Her underside looks like someone took a skinning knife and started slitting her from the left front armpit down the rib cage and on into the inside of the left rear ham. I think I just turned a $15 to $20 coyote into maybe a $5 coyote, if I get that much.

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It took me about 25 minutes to pull her back to the pickup. It was real tough going in the deep snow pulling a coyote. I took a few pictures and then put her in the back of the pickup and headed for my next calling stand.

Here's a picture of the microwave tower. You can only see about the bottom 40% of the tower in the snow/fog.

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I pulled onto and east/west prairie trail and headed west into the wind. The trail wasn’t too bad, but you couldn’t drive on the north half of the trail because it had about 3 feet of snow on it. I got about a half mile in on the trail and spotted a coyote to the SW of me. There was nowhere for me to hide so I just stopped, picked up the binoculars and watched him disappear over the hill. I don’t have much luck getting nervous coyotes like this one to come back in, so I just headed another mile west on the trail. I could see what I thought were his tracks coming from the west and heading east. I was pretty sure there wouldn’t be another coyote where I was calling, but I set up and called anyway. No takers on this spot. The wind was picking up and the snow was still stinging the eyes. The objective end of the scope was nearly blocked with snow when I quit calling on this stand. I decided I had screwed up enough coyote hides for the day and drove back to town and took my wife out for lunch. A man has to earn some brownie points too ya know!
 
Man that had to hurt!! Amazing how much damage a little bullet can do at that speed. Yeah, I think the .17 will kill a coyote.
Glad you got another shot at that dog to finish it off. There is nothing worse than losing wounded ones, it is amazing how tough they are when they get a bad hit. I shot one this weekend and broke the backbone and he was still trying to get away, see my story posted today under (3 for 3).
Sounds like you had a good day.
 
Great story Silverfox. Looks real cold back there.

Those folks who say a .17 has no poop should really take a look at the picture.

I guess folks who don't trust their shooting skills would say a .17 isn't a good yote rifle.

Good shooting....... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
It is amazing how wild animals, somewhat like us humans, cling to life. Coyotes always amaze me. You can hit them in the boilermaker/lung area and they are dead, but don't know it--they just keep on going like the Energizer Bunny.

It really doesn't matter much what caliber you hit them with if you hit the edges. It is hard to put them down when you don't hit them right and I sure didn't hit this female in the right spot. Thank goodness I was able to put the finishing shot in the right place or I would have been in for a long hike tracking her down.
 
Glad you were able to get her. I shot a coyote last spring that was coming around dad's cattle while they were calving. It was a fairly long shot and I hit it low. It split its belly wide open. It took off running with most of its insides hanging below it. I was able to get a couple more shots at it but missed. I watched it for probably 10 minutes through the scope and it just kept going. It was probably 3/4 of a mile away before it laid down. When I got to it it was dead. I was surprised it went as far as it did as it had pretty well every thing hanging out. I felt pretty bad that it had to suffer like that. It is amazing how tough they are.

CLB
 
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