Baiting

Hey Jim, the 75's shot really good in my Savage bolt with 1x9 twist. I was handloading and could get about 2,800 fps using H4895. They shot in the .3 to .4's pretty consistently. Wish now that I had tried them on some game so that I could tell you more about how hard they hit and expand. You might do a search on here and get some info on them. I'm sure some of these guys have tried them and posted about it at some point.
 
Looks pretty impressive for sure. I also found this video while looking at the other one of a hit on a pork shoulder with the 75.

 
Well, I was able to clear out a bit more growth cleared out, and I was able to shoot a line with the range-finder. A grand total of 23 yards. I knew it was short, but not quite that short. I will be able to shift over to the right a little and get a longer shot as well as a better line-up on the shed. Thick growth all the way back, though. More sticker vines, grape vines, and small trees.
 
DoubleUp,
The shed is only about 6-8 feet from the wood line. 23 yards total from just in front of the root ball to the back of the shed. There is another downed tree/root ball about 5-6 yards beyond the first one. Isabel sure did a number on the trees a few years ago. Rotating the lane a bit to the right will work out better in the long run as it will line up better to the shed. Down side is that the two root balls will give the critters some cover on the left side of the lane.
 
Coz, I think you'll have to get a longer lane for sure. I don't remember how your layout looked when you posted it. Is that the only direction you can shoot? Do you have cleared land to the left or right? Is there a window available on either of those sides?
 

FEMALE COYOTE DOWN!!

Yesterday evening I settled into the cabin, reattached the NV apparatus and shot one time to check zero. It was right there, just a tad bit high, less than 1/2" at 60 yards.

Around 1:30 AM the sensor went off. I got out of bed and into shooting position, turned on the NV outfit and IR light. It was a possum. The coyote had been visiting during that time most nights, but I suspected a possum by the way the alarm sounded. I watched the possum for maybe a couple of minutes, basically playing around with lights and positioning the crosshair on him, when suddenly he ran fast down the hill. I didn't know a possum could run so fast.

I thought to myself, what the heck! I'll bet that coyote is coming. I waited a few more minutes and nothing, so I returned to bed. I had just got zipped up in the sleeping bag and settled in good when the alarm went off again. This time the alarm acted differently. It was the coyote. I squeezed the trigger at 1:48 AM.

I can generally tell when a coyote is at the site vs a possum. Possums move around slowly and don't ring the alarm as much or often, whereas a coyote is jittery most of the time and moves around a lot. The sensors tend to go off more steadily when a coyote is present.

The Wildgame Innovations Crush 3 trail camera provided IR, but I turned on the 940nm light which really helped. The crush is aiming more toward the cabin, and the 940 light illuminated the side of the coyote that I shot. Illumination was great.

Problem is, I shot just as the camera turned off, so no kill on video. The Bushnell trail camera didn't earn it's keep this time and never got a single coyote video last night. Don't know what's going on with it lately.

At the shot, the coyote almost fell, but tried to stay on it's feet. Basically it was down but trying to stay up. It jumped around three or four times going down hill and fell. That was it.


First photo is a view from the cabin door.
















The Eagle Tac light really provided great illumination for me last night, though I didn't use it when I shot the coyote. Just by itself it was great, but was even enhanced more with the aid of the 940nm light. The bullet camera mounted behind the scope ocular could see so well and bright. I was amazed and very pleased with the illumination.

I had the scope set to 8X this time, which caused some loss of field of view. However, on 8X I could see very, very well to place the crosshair just right. Set on 6X to 7X is plenty and actually provides a bit more brightness as well as better field of view.

You can see in the photo where the bullet hit the coyote. There was a patch of blood on the offside, but I searched and searched and could not find an exit at all. When I pressed on the coyote's ribs, I could hear mush inside, and also felt something hard just under the skin, more like bone. I'm thinking a bone or something just barely made a pin hole in the offside and caused some drops of blood to ooze out. That coyote went to pieces inside from the little Hornady 25 gr. HP out of the CZ .17 Remington.

This coyote makes number 8 taken from the cabin / bait site area with night vision, the last two of which were with the home-made version.

The Bushnell scope with it's parallax adjustment seems to have solved the POI issue that I had earlier with the other scope. However, seems I continue to have problems sighting the scope in via the LCD monitor. Once sighted, it appears (at least for now) to be holding zero and POI fairly well. Aiming is not quite as precise as looking through a traditional daytime scope, but it's plenty close enough for reasonable distances.

I was disappointed that I didn't get the shot on video, but I plan to remedy that. I plan to get a small DVR that will hook into the bullet camera and will record what is seen through the scope.

My thoughts about the home-made night vision took a turn for the better last night. I think I can now recommend it to anyone who might be interested in the same. It's cheap to put together and it works much better than my Gen 1 scope. It does need illumination, however, but with that I would venture a guess that it's as good as a Gen 2. Just guessing since I've never looked through a Gen 2.


 

I mounted the Eagle Tac to the PVC pipe that's extended outside the cabin. The PVC allows the scope to "see" outside the cabin, and is just slipped
onto the objective end of the scope and then pushed through the cutout in the window foam. I used a small Weaver base, screwed into the pipe.
I then ran the wired control to the inside of the cabin. That Eagle Tac is the cat's meow for this little bullet camera. The camera sees much better
with it than the Gen 1 ATN Spartan NV scope does.

I can't see outside the cabin in any way with this setup, and rely on the Driveway Patrol sensor to tell me when to turn the unit on and take a peek.
That's why I like multiple sensors at the bait site, so that nothing gets through without being detected.











Here's a look at the remote control box and battery box mounted on the post where the 940nm light is.
It's a simple matter to turn the light on and off from the cabin when I need it. That coyote never paid
any attention to the light at all - it couldn't see any illumination.














The main focus point of the 940nm light was just a bit off last night, with the brightest area of illumination to the left of the bait site itself.
This morning I put a ladder up and rotated it right just a bit. It's easy to adjust after I placed it on that wheel-type deal.


 
nice going! congratulations 6mm06. I have been pretty happy the way things are going here -- nights have gotten cold and the game camera is showing yotes between 4:30 and 6:30 a.m. looks like a male and female. the male has some size so this should be fun. we did a pig roast over the weekend and I have all the bones for bait. this is turning out to be a nice start to season now we need to put some on the ground
 
06, you certainly had your A-game on with that one. I know it was very gratifying to you. You have put a monumental amount of effort into getting your setup and equipment right and now it is paying off yet again. Thanks for all the help you've given me and others in the baiting section.
 
06, that's great news on the DIY NV setup. Good to see you have the POI issue worked out. I downloaded the YouTube guy's spreadsheet of parts, so I may start gathering parts for a similar setup. I want to get my lane and site setup first, though.

DoubleUp, I do have cleared land to the left, but it's not my property. I can rotate my lane a little to the right to clear the downed trees and get the distance, and it will actually line up better on the shed I intend to shoot from. The other shed has a couple of larger trees behind it, and I want to keep those. Hopefully I will get a chance to do a little more site-work over the next few days.

Question: I have a lot of briers and vines to clear out. Would piling these up on the left side of the lane in the area between the root balls be a good idea? I would think it would help keep the critters from hiding out there. The roots balls will end up being about mid-way down range.
 
Coz, I don't see where it would hurt anything to pile them there. Might give the rabbits a place to hide.
smile.gif
 
Congrats David on another fine shot from the cabin. Of all the times I need to save money, you get this home made NV setup going and start tempting me. If you were to need to be mobile, say on foot for night hunting, would this setup still work in your opinion?
 

Corey, the NV outfit will work being mobile too. The wire leads can be gathered up and tied off to form one out-going lead to a battery. There are pocket-sized batteries available on Ebay (through China) to operate this unit. Roland shows it in his YouTube videos. I'm using a 12-volt Cabela's battery that sits on the table. It's a bit heavy but could still fit into a back pack and be carried if need be.

The only real problems I see that might be a problem, is (1) the back light from the LCD screen into your face. Another potential problem (2) is that you have to be careful when carrying the rifle since the LCD is sitting on the rail and can easily be caught on something and broken off. Rifle transport requires a bit more care with it than a normal scope. Cradled in your arm, the outfit should be safe. You also could take the NV outfit off the daytime scope and carry it, then replace it for shooting. So far mine has returned to zero (essentially) after removing and reattaching, but there remains a potential that it might not. I think having parallax adjusted properly would be more critical. But, at bait site hunting from a known distance, and sighted in at that distance, the problem is eliminated. One last problem (3) might be that when you turn the bullet camera on, it sometimes flickers on and off a few times (not always, but sometimes) before it remains on. That would cause the LCD screen to flicker bright light on and off a few times, which could alarm animals. You could solve that issue easy enough by placing a thick, dark cloth over the LCD when turning it on.

I understand that some guys place a red filter over the LCD screen to cut down on glare in your face. I haven't tried that and don't know how well it would work.

Other than those issues, I can't see any other problems with it. I do believe it's better suited for shooting from a stationary position, but can be used under certain conditions in the field.

The Eagle Tac illuminator sells for something like $70 or thereabouts. It's a good light and plenty bright enough for shots up to 100 yards, but a bit closer is probably better.

Including the Eagle Tac, the entire NV outfit should cost give or take $300, not counting your daytime scope of course which you will already have.

One other thing to consider with this outfit is that you can use it as a scanner without having it attached to a rifle scope. You could configure a hand-held platform of some sort and mount the bullet camera and illuminator to it, such as a pistol grip or something. The little bullet camera will see very well as indicated by one of Roland's YouTube videos where he used it as a scanner.

The previous post I made showing photos of the home-made job is on page 118 (link below), just in case you want to look it again.

http://www.predatormastersforums.com/for...16&page=118


 
You have quite the setup there. That's pretty cool how you just wake up and shoot. I love the cabin you built too. Is that a piece of hunting property you own, or just way back on your land where you live?
 

Well guys, I would like to take credit for this NV deal, but I can't. I learned about it while searching the Internet for just such a device, thinking there must be something that someone has put together. Check out Rolaids Night Vision 1.0 on YouTube. Here's a link:



I originally saw the Nite Site that is manufactured in the UK and had at one time considered trying to save up and get one. BUT - it costs around $1,000 US. It works on the same principal as the unit I put together. I put this little deal together for slightly over $200 since I already had the Eagle Tac illuminator. It's a bit unconventional, but hey, it works and it works very well. You would be amazed at how well you can see with this little deal and some IR light.

Catskinner, my little hobo-shack of a cabin sits on my family farm. The land is posted and my son and I are the only ones who hunt it, something around 86 acres. I purchased the storage building from a local dealer. It's small, 8X12' but it works quite well. In hindsight I would have purchased one just a bit larger, but I was skimping on money and trying to spend just enough to get by. I insulated and paneled the ceiling area and the sides too, and underpinned the bottom. I have a heater and a very warm sleeping bag that rests on a nice air bed, which has memory foam under the bag. I have stayed down there with temps well below 20 degrees and rested quite well. I've been awakened many times from a good rest by the sensor going off. It's a lot of enjoyment, peace and solitude not to mention some good coyote shooting from time to time.

We don't have a large population of coyotes here, so sometimes I may go for months inbetween opportunities. I relish each shot and thus far have accounted for 8 downed coyotes at each trigger pull. I hope to keep it that way.

I have taken 6 coyotes with an ATN Spartan 410 dedicated Gen 1 NV scope, and the last 2 yotes with this home-made deal. I actually enjoy the home-made version much better. I can see a lot better with it than the Gen 1 scope.


 
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