Predator257Roy
New member
My wife has a long time friend who has taken in a niece and nephew on weekends in the hopes of helping them out in what has been a difficult time. One of the local big horse barns was doing a Dog and Pony "fun show" which my wife, daughter, dog, and horses went to along with her friend and friends niece. This was a great opportunity to take the nephew, Darren hunting. He had been hunting with his dad in the past but had never gotton one of his own.
Darren is 15, on the schools rifle team and in ROTC. Last week he showed me his shooting skills with my AR and blasted targets no problem at 250 yards.
This morning we headed out at 6:00 for what we hoped would be his first deer. We hunted from my elevated box blind which gives a good view of the valley and a wooded hillside. It was getting decent light on what was an overcast and windy morning (6:30-6:40ish). I was expecting to have seen something move by now but the day just didn't seem to be all that good, especially because of the wind. The thought went through my head that a coyote would be nice to see, and was going to tell Darren to blast one if he wanted to, but it may spook the deer so it would be his choice. Needless to say, I didn't tell Darren and about three minutes went by and here came a coyote through the woods, across the fence, and into the field dead in front of us. Wind was in our favor, coyote was about 75 yards away occupied by something in the grass. I told Darren to blast it but it may spook the deer or could get things moving too, never know. He had pleny of time to open scope caps, flip out the bipod and make well placed hit (60gr V-Max)that dropped the coyote dead in it's tracks with not so much as a twitch. I gave him the high five and "way to go" and all that stuff while I chuckled, going on about how he smoked him his first coyote and really dropped the hammer on him. It was pretty cool, didn't call him in but he wound up a dead yote, no complains there!
We waited a while longer only to see a small doe with an even smaller one by her side come out into the field briefly. We decided not to shoot but I knew he was ready to get him a deer. We were restless and a little cold by around 9:00. We headed up the hill to see if we could luck up on something in the field above us that ran the ridge line. After not seeing anything I was wondering what to do next as far as deer go and suggested we check out his coyote and I'd try to think of something. Checked out the coyote and finally found the entry hole, right on target, but suprisingly no exit hole. The bullet must have expanded and transferred all it's energy to the coyote resulting in a very dead dog.
So now I'm taking some pics and thinking again to myself that some deer crossing through the middle of the field right now sure would be nice. Not three minutes later, from the ridge we were just on came 6 or 7 does, down into my valley. I quicky say "DEER!" Darren is slightly panicked and can't find them with the 20x on the AR. I'm carrying my .257wby and it was laid out on the bipod and on 8.5x pointing the right direction. I say "use this one" and Darren placed a shot a little off, partly my fault, I should have told him to go a little low since it wasn't a far shot for the .257. The shot was good enough to put her down a short distance from the initial shot. Darren made a clean head shot with the AR to quickly finish her off and officially bag his fist deer. Great job Darren on a big Tennessee doe and a great looking coyote!
Hope this wasn't too long. Enjoy the pics!
Our vantage point from the blind.
Darren with his first coyote.
Darren with his first deer.
Great morning results!
Darren is 15, on the schools rifle team and in ROTC. Last week he showed me his shooting skills with my AR and blasted targets no problem at 250 yards.
This morning we headed out at 6:00 for what we hoped would be his first deer. We hunted from my elevated box blind which gives a good view of the valley and a wooded hillside. It was getting decent light on what was an overcast and windy morning (6:30-6:40ish). I was expecting to have seen something move by now but the day just didn't seem to be all that good, especially because of the wind. The thought went through my head that a coyote would be nice to see, and was going to tell Darren to blast one if he wanted to, but it may spook the deer so it would be his choice. Needless to say, I didn't tell Darren and about three minutes went by and here came a coyote through the woods, across the fence, and into the field dead in front of us. Wind was in our favor, coyote was about 75 yards away occupied by something in the grass. I told Darren to blast it but it may spook the deer or could get things moving too, never know. He had pleny of time to open scope caps, flip out the bipod and make well placed hit (60gr V-Max)that dropped the coyote dead in it's tracks with not so much as a twitch. I gave him the high five and "way to go" and all that stuff while I chuckled, going on about how he smoked him his first coyote and really dropped the hammer on him. It was pretty cool, didn't call him in but he wound up a dead yote, no complains there!
We waited a while longer only to see a small doe with an even smaller one by her side come out into the field briefly. We decided not to shoot but I knew he was ready to get him a deer. We were restless and a little cold by around 9:00. We headed up the hill to see if we could luck up on something in the field above us that ran the ridge line. After not seeing anything I was wondering what to do next as far as deer go and suggested we check out his coyote and I'd try to think of something. Checked out the coyote and finally found the entry hole, right on target, but suprisingly no exit hole. The bullet must have expanded and transferred all it's energy to the coyote resulting in a very dead dog.
So now I'm taking some pics and thinking again to myself that some deer crossing through the middle of the field right now sure would be nice. Not three minutes later, from the ridge we were just on came 6 or 7 does, down into my valley. I quicky say "DEER!" Darren is slightly panicked and can't find them with the 20x on the AR. I'm carrying my .257wby and it was laid out on the bipod and on 8.5x pointing the right direction. I say "use this one" and Darren placed a shot a little off, partly my fault, I should have told him to go a little low since it wasn't a far shot for the .257. The shot was good enough to put her down a short distance from the initial shot. Darren made a clean head shot with the AR to quickly finish her off and officially bag his fist deer. Great job Darren on a big Tennessee doe and a great looking coyote!
Hope this wasn't too long. Enjoy the pics!
Our vantage point from the blind.
Darren with his first coyote.
Darren with his first deer.
Great morning results!
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