NoName1
New member
I hunted this field about a month ago and it was a blank stand. Got up early this morning and had the right wind for how I wanted to try it. Looking at the map pic...the blue circle is where I had to park. The pink arrow was wind direction. The red dot was my shooting position, orange dot was the caller facing the back corner of the field. The yellow dot is where the coyote came out, the line was his route, the black star is where I shot him and the green star is where the pups found him piled up. I wanted to be able to walk in with the wind in my face and in case they circled downwind of the call the hope was that they would use the powerline to do it and come right to me.
I got everything set up, started the call at 4:45 and played baby cottontail off and on for about 15 minutes. The pups ran around the field and into the powerline on both sides. I was scanning with the thermal and hoping for a hot spot to pop out. I saw 3 deer come into the powerline on the right side and almost had a heart attack until I saw they were deer. After about 5 minutes of silence I howled twice, waited a couple minutes and gave a couple barks and a howl. Both pups were just meandering around in the field in front of me about 20 yards at this point and then both went to running big circles and bouncing around the field, running off toward the right. I thought they were playing grabazz with each other until I scanned the field and saw a white hot spot in the back right corner, which was about 175 yards out and upwind so I wasn't too worried about getting busted. It turned broadside and instantly could ID coyote as he trotted right to left. I clicked the night vision on and even though fog was rolling in I could make him out as he turned and started coming toward me down the row. One of the pups whined and he turned and started trotting back to the right again. I woofed to stop him and he stopped, quartering toward me slightly...I flipped on the IR illuminator so I could see him better and then didn't realize how much crosshairs could really jump around!! I tried to let them settle behind the shoulder and touched it off...heard the "wop" sound of a hit and he started the spin. I was so amped up that thought of a follow up shot didn't even occur until I couldn't see him anymore. Pup distress didn't bring out any others so I packed up and got the dogs back in the truck. The black pup (Tuff) has seen a couple, but it was the first coyote for the white dog (Cody). He is a Carolina Dog/Jack Russel cross that we "adopted" and I didn't know what he would do. I pulled down closer and figured I would look for the yote, tracks or blood first since I didn't see him laying in the field with the thermal. There wasn't much bare ground so I couldn't find tracks and didn't see blood. Instead of waiting for daylight I figured might as well let the pups see if they can find him, at least they might show me where he went back in. I dumped them out and they went strait to where it was at...Tuff with his nose to the ground followed where it came through, followed the scent and went strait to it...He came out wagging his tail off and went back in the same spot, then did it again, then Cody went in and started yapping and bouncing around. I figured that was it and crawled up in the brush with them, sure enough 'ol yoyo was piled up behind a log just inside the treeline. I pulled it out into the field and Cody realized that it was something he could chew on...pretty sure he might do well enough to ride in the box again and see if he can figure it out. I was happy with Tuff, even if he doesn't turn out to chase them, as long as he keeps his nose on the ground and finds them for me at night like that he will be ok.
Also…it was the first of anything that I shot with the 17 WSM and I was pleasantly surprised. It was about 150 yards and slightly quartering to, went in just behind the bone in the front shoulder, passed through vitals and exited through the ribs. I wasn’t expecting an exit hole from that round after hitting cartilage/meat in the shoulder, but the coyote barely went 20 yards so I’ll take it. I shot both the 20 and 25 grain loads when sighting it in. The 20 gr load wouldn’t group better than 3 inches at 100, but the 25 stayed right around an inch. I was having doubts about it being enough pop and bullet for a body shot at 100+ yards, but it did well enough that I’ll try it again.
Sorry for the long read…still running on adrenaline.
I got everything set up, started the call at 4:45 and played baby cottontail off and on for about 15 minutes. The pups ran around the field and into the powerline on both sides. I was scanning with the thermal and hoping for a hot spot to pop out. I saw 3 deer come into the powerline on the right side and almost had a heart attack until I saw they were deer. After about 5 minutes of silence I howled twice, waited a couple minutes and gave a couple barks and a howl. Both pups were just meandering around in the field in front of me about 20 yards at this point and then both went to running big circles and bouncing around the field, running off toward the right. I thought they were playing grabazz with each other until I scanned the field and saw a white hot spot in the back right corner, which was about 175 yards out and upwind so I wasn't too worried about getting busted. It turned broadside and instantly could ID coyote as he trotted right to left. I clicked the night vision on and even though fog was rolling in I could make him out as he turned and started coming toward me down the row. One of the pups whined and he turned and started trotting back to the right again. I woofed to stop him and he stopped, quartering toward me slightly...I flipped on the IR illuminator so I could see him better and then didn't realize how much crosshairs could really jump around!! I tried to let them settle behind the shoulder and touched it off...heard the "wop" sound of a hit and he started the spin. I was so amped up that thought of a follow up shot didn't even occur until I couldn't see him anymore. Pup distress didn't bring out any others so I packed up and got the dogs back in the truck. The black pup (Tuff) has seen a couple, but it was the first coyote for the white dog (Cody). He is a Carolina Dog/Jack Russel cross that we "adopted" and I didn't know what he would do. I pulled down closer and figured I would look for the yote, tracks or blood first since I didn't see him laying in the field with the thermal. There wasn't much bare ground so I couldn't find tracks and didn't see blood. Instead of waiting for daylight I figured might as well let the pups see if they can find him, at least they might show me where he went back in. I dumped them out and they went strait to where it was at...Tuff with his nose to the ground followed where it came through, followed the scent and went strait to it...He came out wagging his tail off and went back in the same spot, then did it again, then Cody went in and started yapping and bouncing around. I figured that was it and crawled up in the brush with them, sure enough 'ol yoyo was piled up behind a log just inside the treeline. I pulled it out into the field and Cody realized that it was something he could chew on...pretty sure he might do well enough to ride in the box again and see if he can figure it out. I was happy with Tuff, even if he doesn't turn out to chase them, as long as he keeps his nose on the ground and finds them for me at night like that he will be ok.
Also…it was the first of anything that I shot with the 17 WSM and I was pleasantly surprised. It was about 150 yards and slightly quartering to, went in just behind the bone in the front shoulder, passed through vitals and exited through the ribs. I wasn’t expecting an exit hole from that round after hitting cartilage/meat in the shoulder, but the coyote barely went 20 yards so I’ll take it. I shot both the 20 and 25 grain loads when sighting it in. The 20 gr load wouldn’t group better than 3 inches at 100, but the 25 stayed right around an inch. I was having doubts about it being enough pop and bullet for a body shot at 100+ yards, but it did well enough that I’ll try it again.
Sorry for the long read…still running on adrenaline.
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