After supper Monday night, I got a phone call from a Montana rancher friend who lives about 50 miles from Williston. He told me a bitch coyote and two pups had been hanging around just south of the farm place and they suspected them of being the culprits that had killed a couple of young calves. He asked if I would go out there and try to eliminate them. I decided I would go out there this morning since I wanted to do some work with my new rifle on Tuesday morning. I got up at 6:00 a.m. and was headed out to his ranch at 6:30 a.m. The wind was from the NW and there is no way I can approach his land from the SE (the neighbor won't let anyone on his land), so I headed to the SW corner of his land and approached it from there.
When I came over the rise I was going to set up in front of, there was a female antelope with twin babies, a male antelope and three other antelope just to the NE of me about 150 yards. They snorted and ran across the fence to the ENE of them, but stopped and stood around at maybe 300 yards from my position. I set up my FoxPro about 30 yards north of me and started out with some high pitched howls, followed by some puppy yelping.
After about a two minute time frame of silence, I started the woodpecker distress sound on the FoxPro. About 4 minutes into the stand the antelope took off running and headed south. I figured something must be coming. At the 4 1/2 minute mark I spotted a coyote coming up out of a little meandering draw. It wasn't very deep, but hid the coyote until he was about right in front of my location. He appeared to be about 250 yards away, and was NOT coming straight in to the FoxPro, but rather, he was kind of paralleling my position and didn't seem especially interested in coming any closer. So, I cranked up my scope to 14X, barked with my voice a couple times, and he stopped broadside with his head and ears facing me. I got the crosshairs right on the line of his back, just behind the right front shoulder and started to tighten up on the trigger--before I could finish squeezing off the shot, he moved back down into the little draw and he was headed away from me to the SE when he disappeared. I kept watching and he came up out of the draw. I barked again, he stopped, I held slightly above the line of his back and behind the right front shoulder and squeezed off the shot. WHOP!!! I could see his front legs jump up in the air and he tipped over sideways!!! I watched to see if he was down for the count and he didn't move. I began gathering up my butt pack, jacked in another shell, got my digital camera and began to walk toward him to take some photos to show the rancher. I left the FoxPro and butt pack right on the hillside so I wouldn't have the extra weight as I went to take the photo. Good thing I didn't leave my rifle, as you will read next!
I was counting my steps just to see how far the shot was--I estimated it to be about 300 yards (it was actually 270 yards). I got about 1/3 of the way to where he lay and up he got and hobbled about 30 yards. I could see that I had hit him just in front of and above the shoulder juncture on the neck. I couldn't believe he was still up and living!!! The field I was walking in was a field of wheat and was in the early boot stage, so there was now way I could lay down and still see him, plus the fence line ahead had weeds growing up under the bottom wire. So, I began to do a squat walk until I got up to the fence. I tried to get my rifle set up to take a shot at him as he laid out in the open on the prairie, but no matter how I set the gun up either the top of the barrel touched the bottom wire, or if I put the barrel over the wire, the bottom of the barrel touched the wire. I decided to crawl under the wire to get a better position. When I did that he moved about 20 yards and laid down behind some tall grass, but I could see his front shoulders, head and neck above the grass. I got settled in and popped him in the boiler room and that was the end of him.
I was using the 20 gr. V-Max bullets in my .17 Remington. I would have liked to have used the 30 gr. Starke bullets, but I had my rifle sighted in for the 20 gr. V-Max for prairie dogs and summer shooting. I hit the coyote way farther right than the spot I was aiming, but about right vertically. In all the excitement of calling him in and not getting him to come in closer, I had forgotten about the 10+ mph wind wafting from left to right and the bullet drifted about 10 inches to the right. I'd rather be lucky than good any day!!! The bullet seems to have exploded on the surface of the neck and not penetrated through. Remind me not to use the 20 gr. V-Max bullets on coyotes again.
I walked in to the east another half mile over a small ridge and set up and called for another 25 minutes, hoping I might get the female and two pups to come in and check out the howling, coyote pup yelping, and dying rabbit sounds. I got 16 yearling calves to come in to the calling. They stood about 50 yards from me, milling around the whole time I was calling. I didn't try to scare them away because I thought it was better to have 17 pairs of eyes watching for coyotes than just my two eyes. Nothing came in. I hiked back, drove up to the ranch house to talk to the hired man and get some suggestions on how to get SE of the buildings, but the fellow wasn't home. I decided not to venture out there without him knowing I was there. I'll try to get out there again early next week to see if I can eliminate the female and the pups.
There were some real nice flowers blooming on the prairie and I have attached a few photos of them for you.
Last one:
When I came over the rise I was going to set up in front of, there was a female antelope with twin babies, a male antelope and three other antelope just to the NE of me about 150 yards. They snorted and ran across the fence to the ENE of them, but stopped and stood around at maybe 300 yards from my position. I set up my FoxPro about 30 yards north of me and started out with some high pitched howls, followed by some puppy yelping.
After about a two minute time frame of silence, I started the woodpecker distress sound on the FoxPro. About 4 minutes into the stand the antelope took off running and headed south. I figured something must be coming. At the 4 1/2 minute mark I spotted a coyote coming up out of a little meandering draw. It wasn't very deep, but hid the coyote until he was about right in front of my location. He appeared to be about 250 yards away, and was NOT coming straight in to the FoxPro, but rather, he was kind of paralleling my position and didn't seem especially interested in coming any closer. So, I cranked up my scope to 14X, barked with my voice a couple times, and he stopped broadside with his head and ears facing me. I got the crosshairs right on the line of his back, just behind the right front shoulder and started to tighten up on the trigger--before I could finish squeezing off the shot, he moved back down into the little draw and he was headed away from me to the SE when he disappeared. I kept watching and he came up out of the draw. I barked again, he stopped, I held slightly above the line of his back and behind the right front shoulder and squeezed off the shot. WHOP!!! I could see his front legs jump up in the air and he tipped over sideways!!! I watched to see if he was down for the count and he didn't move. I began gathering up my butt pack, jacked in another shell, got my digital camera and began to walk toward him to take some photos to show the rancher. I left the FoxPro and butt pack right on the hillside so I wouldn't have the extra weight as I went to take the photo. Good thing I didn't leave my rifle, as you will read next!
I was counting my steps just to see how far the shot was--I estimated it to be about 300 yards (it was actually 270 yards). I got about 1/3 of the way to where he lay and up he got and hobbled about 30 yards. I could see that I had hit him just in front of and above the shoulder juncture on the neck. I couldn't believe he was still up and living!!! The field I was walking in was a field of wheat and was in the early boot stage, so there was now way I could lay down and still see him, plus the fence line ahead had weeds growing up under the bottom wire. So, I began to do a squat walk until I got up to the fence. I tried to get my rifle set up to take a shot at him as he laid out in the open on the prairie, but no matter how I set the gun up either the top of the barrel touched the bottom wire, or if I put the barrel over the wire, the bottom of the barrel touched the wire. I decided to crawl under the wire to get a better position. When I did that he moved about 20 yards and laid down behind some tall grass, but I could see his front shoulders, head and neck above the grass. I got settled in and popped him in the boiler room and that was the end of him.
I was using the 20 gr. V-Max bullets in my .17 Remington. I would have liked to have used the 30 gr. Starke bullets, but I had my rifle sighted in for the 20 gr. V-Max for prairie dogs and summer shooting. I hit the coyote way farther right than the spot I was aiming, but about right vertically. In all the excitement of calling him in and not getting him to come in closer, I had forgotten about the 10+ mph wind wafting from left to right and the bullet drifted about 10 inches to the right. I'd rather be lucky than good any day!!! The bullet seems to have exploded on the surface of the neck and not penetrated through. Remind me not to use the 20 gr. V-Max bullets on coyotes again.
I walked in to the east another half mile over a small ridge and set up and called for another 25 minutes, hoping I might get the female and two pups to come in and check out the howling, coyote pup yelping, and dying rabbit sounds. I got 16 yearling calves to come in to the calling. They stood about 50 yards from me, milling around the whole time I was calling. I didn't try to scare them away because I thought it was better to have 17 pairs of eyes watching for coyotes than just my two eyes. Nothing came in. I hiked back, drove up to the ranch house to talk to the hired man and get some suggestions on how to get SE of the buildings, but the fellow wasn't home. I decided not to venture out there without him knowing I was there. I'll try to get out there again early next week to see if I can eliminate the female and the pups.
There were some real nice flowers blooming on the prairie and I have attached a few photos of them for you.
Last one:
