Meet Jezebel, the reactive coyote target...

JTPinTX

Custom Call Maker
I made her for my 6 year old daughter to learn where to shoot a coyote. I know I am no artist and the paint could be a lot more realistic, but I figure it beats just a black silhouette. I figure a couple practice runs with Jezebel and my CZ-527 and we will be ready to try calling one up for my daughter.

Jezebel is actual size, right around 17"-18" at the shoulder. The vital zone has a 4"x1/2" thick piece of AR-500 steel hung on two chains. The body is made out of 3/8" thick copoly polypropylene, very tough and not brittle. I used it instead of plywood because it won't splinter or fall apart in the rain. I found the life-size coyote on the internet somewhere, it prints out on 13 sheets of paper and you tape it together. I used that as a pattern, and modified it slightly.

 
I have a set of five like yours that we use at our club shoot. The gong on mine is the size of the heart lung area of a coyote and we set them up at various range out to 300 yards.


The one in the front here is a pop up and comes up after your last shot on the gongs, it needs to be scored as I couldn't get a gong to pop up too heavy



Before I modified them in to gong backed, I bought a full sized coyote target and cut it out for a pattern.

 
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That's cool, I have been thinking about making a second one. If I do I will use a 6" piece of steel and move it back an inch and up half an inch. That would actually be more realistic I think. For my daughter though, I wanted to teach her to be precise with her shooting because I figure during the excitement of the hunt things are going to open up!
 
I had one cut from Ar550-5/8 it is more wolf size than coyote no good for ranging with recital but figure the real thing is aim small miss small, pick a spot and hit that spot.
 
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Hey this was a great idea to get your daughter practiced up on shooting coyotes. You can also use these for calling coyotes.

Take a look at my Handcrafted Coyote Decoy

My first decoy for calling was a standing coyote silhouette cut out of plywood. Several callers in SD even used a mounted coyote for their decoy. They preferred a sitting coyote and most coyotes called in would approach the decoy from the back side.

I wanted to make a rabbit decoy using a remote car or truck to provide some movement but never got this project done.
 
Those are sweet! The shop at the tech school in town is always looking for projects, and since I don't have the gear to make something like that I might just ask them to build me a few this fall for materials and a couple rounds of pizza.
 
So, we tried her out last night. My baby started with her .22 at 40 yards, she had never shot that far before. She kind of scattered a few around with it, but still managed about 50% or so on the steel. She can shoot better than that, but was just hurrying too much.

Then I got out the CZ. I have modified it with a Tubb adjustable buttstock that will will adjust down to a 12.5" LOP, I mounted a Burris Fastfire II on the side of the scope as a co-witness sight, and have some special downloaded rounds that pretty much approximate factory 22 Hornet. She is used to shooting the Fastfire, that is what is on her 10/22. She was nervous about the CZ at first, but hit her first shot at 40 yards. She loved it! Then she wanted to shoot and shoot. She ended up putting 12 rounds down range before we started loosing light and had to go. She had about 50% hits, but that was my fault. The red dot is zeroed just a little bit low for her, I need to bring it up about 1.5" to have it right. I really think if it had been zeroed right she would have gotten all twelve on the steel. You can see the "Hornet" loads, they are the darker black ones right below the bull. I am pretty proud of her!



 
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I think that load will do it as long as we keep it under 100 yards. Speer 40 grain spire point, 11.5 grains Blue Dot, CCI small pistol mag primer. It runs about 2740 fps, no pressure signs, for about 620 FPE. That is about half the FPE of what a full power .223 runs, and nearly exactly what factory 22 Hornet specs are. It is also easily sub MOA all the way to 100.

Once she gets comfortable with it I will just swap to a minimum charge on a fast rifle powder like 4198, then go from there to full power. The goal is full power loads by fall, and I have a place she can shoot a deer with it at less than 75 yards (probably closer to 30 or 40). I have a good deer load for that rifle using a 60 grain Nosler Solid Base. They are a great little bullet for that, I have a stash of them I protect since they are long discontinued. Of course the 64 Winchester is great as well, and I have a stash of those too.
 
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