Hawk-eye
New member
Thought I'd take a second to share a hunt I had yesterday with a good friend since it was an interesting day afield.
The day started off with a hunt on an unexpected target. On our way to our first calling location I spotted a coyote mousing thru a field just off the highway we were on at low light as darkness was just starting to give way to light. I backed up and my partner lip squeaked him closer to the truck within 30 yards of us. I was busy checking the plat book for the owner of the land. I didn't know who that landowner was but I did have permission from the landowner who owned the ground around this piece. Here's a picture my partner took of the coyote interested in our truck. Low light didn't help the quality of the photo.
So after the coyote melted back into a draw several hundred yards to our south we made it over west where we could go in and walked back in there to the where the same draw traveled through on this guy's land and set up quickly. I love spot/stalking and calling coyotes. It's a deadly way to hunt them I've found. Here's a photo of the scene. My partner Mark is stationed to the left in the photo and looking straight east. I'm pointing my gun almost directly at the sun peeking over the hill to the SE.
I put the camera down, and blew a little distress for about 30-45 seconds adding a couple of short higher pitched, louder shrieks in as well in case the coyote had headed south and farther away from us instead of coming up the draw towards us. It didn't take but a minute and all of sudden there he was!!!
The photo is washed out because this coyote came in directly underneath the sun as it was rising while I was trying to take the picture. He was there so quick and lined up with the sun that even though he was right there in front of us neither of us noticed him enter the field at first. My partner and I make a pretty good team and I had told Mark that I'd be pointing my gun the the SE and I was hoping he'd remember that and not try to swing on this coyote and alert him since I was already pointed right at him. I had no more time for silly picture taking, it was time to put this coyote down.
The sun seemed to be shining right into the scope with my eye as I took aim but I felt well enough about the target and fired. At the shot, the coyote took off running. At first I thought I had missed somehow? The coyote ran down into the draw behind him and when he came out on the other side he had another coyote in tow! Two coyotes now fanned out in an ever widening V-pattern across the adjacent hillside across from us scooting along as fast as their legs could carry them. I lined up on the lead coyote and just as I fired heard the bang from Mark's rifle go off as well. The coyote plowed into the ground skidding to an abrupt halt! I remember thinking that it was Marks's shot that hit home and not mine.
One down!!!
Alright, now where's the second one? I acquired the second target headed up the sidehill more straight away from us but with a little of a quartering away angle, held high and to the right a bit and he ran right into the bullet piling up himself. He flopped to his butt and was doing the tail spin/ butt/flop dance and worried he'd come to his senses and get away I centered him again and pulled the trigger once more. "CLICK" Nothing. Out of ammo! My Tikka mag holds three.
"Hey Mark can you see that coyote and put him down for me, I'm out of ammo!" I yelled over with urgency as I dug at my cartridge holder on my belt for another round. He replied that the coyote was down. I looked up and couldn't see the coyote any longer at the top of the hill. But when I stood up I could still then see that the coyote was still flopping and failing a little. Mark had only seen the one coyote and didn't know what I was talking about? He had centered his eye in the scope of the first one and never saw that there were two. He thought I wanted to shoot the only coyote he knew of again even though it was dead and couldn't figure out what I was talking about. LOL I scurried across the draw and up the hill and discovered that the coyote had expired before I arrived thank goodness. I had hit the coyote on the first shot as it turned out but it wasn't a killing shot. The second one anchored the runner at 257 yards. Mark's shot on his runner was near 200 yards. Here's a view of the hillside. You can see the one coyote off to the right hand side of the picture. It's that dark lump behind the tree limbs. The other coyote is out of view clear to the left side of the photo on the top of that hill.
Here's a shot of the two of us and our coyotes. I'm on the left.
We hunted a couple of spots with no customers and then we headed to a place where I shot my bobcat a couple of weeks ago. I had a good feeling that there'd be another kitty hanging around in there and my partner hadn't filled his bobcat tag for the year. He set up where I had when I killed my my tom and within minutes of beginning his calling I heard his rifle go off. Minutes later my phone rang and I answered by asking coyote or cat? He said it was a bobcat but to come up the hill to him because we were going to have to track it. I was a bit concerned because I knew if the cat headed south it would be hard tracking in very rough country and Mark was set up not far from that tough stuff. The good news was that the cat had headed West to begin with thru waist high grass.
The cat had came to the extreme right of Mark and they had a staring contest from 30 yards for several minutes because the cat caught Mark with his gun pointed away from the cat. Everytime he'd move the cat would turn it's head back to Mark. Finally the cat began to move off and he swung on the cat and hit it just as it began to run. There was a ton of hair at the scene of the shot along with some muscle and meat around the immediate area where the cat ran. I also found some small bone fragments. Not a good sign. No blood to follow at all and Mark thought his shot was far back. We did some sweeps of the grass field and along the field edge on the opposite side a couple of hundred yards away I found two patches of white/grey fur where the cat might have stopped to dig at the wound. Backtracking I cut three cat tracks in the mud that lead to those pieces of fur I found. The cat was likely headed for country that would require a crawl in most places to make it thru the cover. Further looking turned up nothing and we knew we had a cat still very much alive but with a wound that would kill it within the day or a little more. Reluctantly we walked out and I felt bad for Mark. Neither of us like losing a critter especially when wounded.
At another spot I had called for a little over twenty minutes when a coyote popped out of a field corner at the opposite end of the bean field we were overlooking. The coyote meandered down the fenceline and I had a 330+ plus shot that I could have taken at any time. That was a fair poke at a coyote with my .223 and I had no reason to believe that this coyote wouldn't just follow the field edge right around to me in time. The coyote stopped at a run thru the weeds that lead under the fence, began sniffing around and then entered the run and went thru the fence disappearing from view. I figured that eventually this coyote would lose interest in what ever it was and come back. Further calling wouldn't bring him back however and we needed to keep moving to get to the last spot before darkness fell. It probably didn't help us that we called this spot with the wind coming from him to us and it was a long way for him to come to get around us for a whiff.
Here's a look at the scene. The coyote came up that far wooded fenceline running perpendicular to the field edge that leads to me.
So it was a day filled with some predators dying, some predators getting away, and some that will die unfortunately.
The day started off with a hunt on an unexpected target. On our way to our first calling location I spotted a coyote mousing thru a field just off the highway we were on at low light as darkness was just starting to give way to light. I backed up and my partner lip squeaked him closer to the truck within 30 yards of us. I was busy checking the plat book for the owner of the land. I didn't know who that landowner was but I did have permission from the landowner who owned the ground around this piece. Here's a picture my partner took of the coyote interested in our truck. Low light didn't help the quality of the photo.
So after the coyote melted back into a draw several hundred yards to our south we made it over west where we could go in and walked back in there to the where the same draw traveled through on this guy's land and set up quickly. I love spot/stalking and calling coyotes. It's a deadly way to hunt them I've found. Here's a photo of the scene. My partner Mark is stationed to the left in the photo and looking straight east. I'm pointing my gun almost directly at the sun peeking over the hill to the SE.
I put the camera down, and blew a little distress for about 30-45 seconds adding a couple of short higher pitched, louder shrieks in as well in case the coyote had headed south and farther away from us instead of coming up the draw towards us. It didn't take but a minute and all of sudden there he was!!!
The photo is washed out because this coyote came in directly underneath the sun as it was rising while I was trying to take the picture. He was there so quick and lined up with the sun that even though he was right there in front of us neither of us noticed him enter the field at first. My partner and I make a pretty good team and I had told Mark that I'd be pointing my gun the the SE and I was hoping he'd remember that and not try to swing on this coyote and alert him since I was already pointed right at him. I had no more time for silly picture taking, it was time to put this coyote down.
The sun seemed to be shining right into the scope with my eye as I took aim but I felt well enough about the target and fired. At the shot, the coyote took off running. At first I thought I had missed somehow? The coyote ran down into the draw behind him and when he came out on the other side he had another coyote in tow! Two coyotes now fanned out in an ever widening V-pattern across the adjacent hillside across from us scooting along as fast as their legs could carry them. I lined up on the lead coyote and just as I fired heard the bang from Mark's rifle go off as well. The coyote plowed into the ground skidding to an abrupt halt! I remember thinking that it was Marks's shot that hit home and not mine.
One down!!!
Alright, now where's the second one? I acquired the second target headed up the sidehill more straight away from us but with a little of a quartering away angle, held high and to the right a bit and he ran right into the bullet piling up himself. He flopped to his butt and was doing the tail spin/ butt/flop dance and worried he'd come to his senses and get away I centered him again and pulled the trigger once more. "CLICK" Nothing. Out of ammo! My Tikka mag holds three.
"Hey Mark can you see that coyote and put him down for me, I'm out of ammo!" I yelled over with urgency as I dug at my cartridge holder on my belt for another round. He replied that the coyote was down. I looked up and couldn't see the coyote any longer at the top of the hill. But when I stood up I could still then see that the coyote was still flopping and failing a little. Mark had only seen the one coyote and didn't know what I was talking about? He had centered his eye in the scope of the first one and never saw that there were two. He thought I wanted to shoot the only coyote he knew of again even though it was dead and couldn't figure out what I was talking about. LOL I scurried across the draw and up the hill and discovered that the coyote had expired before I arrived thank goodness. I had hit the coyote on the first shot as it turned out but it wasn't a killing shot. The second one anchored the runner at 257 yards. Mark's shot on his runner was near 200 yards. Here's a view of the hillside. You can see the one coyote off to the right hand side of the picture. It's that dark lump behind the tree limbs. The other coyote is out of view clear to the left side of the photo on the top of that hill.
Here's a shot of the two of us and our coyotes. I'm on the left.
We hunted a couple of spots with no customers and then we headed to a place where I shot my bobcat a couple of weeks ago. I had a good feeling that there'd be another kitty hanging around in there and my partner hadn't filled his bobcat tag for the year. He set up where I had when I killed my my tom and within minutes of beginning his calling I heard his rifle go off. Minutes later my phone rang and I answered by asking coyote or cat? He said it was a bobcat but to come up the hill to him because we were going to have to track it. I was a bit concerned because I knew if the cat headed south it would be hard tracking in very rough country and Mark was set up not far from that tough stuff. The good news was that the cat had headed West to begin with thru waist high grass.
The cat had came to the extreme right of Mark and they had a staring contest from 30 yards for several minutes because the cat caught Mark with his gun pointed away from the cat. Everytime he'd move the cat would turn it's head back to Mark. Finally the cat began to move off and he swung on the cat and hit it just as it began to run. There was a ton of hair at the scene of the shot along with some muscle and meat around the immediate area where the cat ran. I also found some small bone fragments. Not a good sign. No blood to follow at all and Mark thought his shot was far back. We did some sweeps of the grass field and along the field edge on the opposite side a couple of hundred yards away I found two patches of white/grey fur where the cat might have stopped to dig at the wound. Backtracking I cut three cat tracks in the mud that lead to those pieces of fur I found. The cat was likely headed for country that would require a crawl in most places to make it thru the cover. Further looking turned up nothing and we knew we had a cat still very much alive but with a wound that would kill it within the day or a little more. Reluctantly we walked out and I felt bad for Mark. Neither of us like losing a critter especially when wounded.
At another spot I had called for a little over twenty minutes when a coyote popped out of a field corner at the opposite end of the bean field we were overlooking. The coyote meandered down the fenceline and I had a 330+ plus shot that I could have taken at any time. That was a fair poke at a coyote with my .223 and I had no reason to believe that this coyote wouldn't just follow the field edge right around to me in time. The coyote stopped at a run thru the weeds that lead under the fence, began sniffing around and then entered the run and went thru the fence disappearing from view. I figured that eventually this coyote would lose interest in what ever it was and come back. Further calling wouldn't bring him back however and we needed to keep moving to get to the last spot before darkness fell. It probably didn't help us that we called this spot with the wind coming from him to us and it was a long way for him to come to get around us for a whiff.
Here's a look at the scene. The coyote came up that far wooded fenceline running perpendicular to the field edge that leads to me.
So it was a day filled with some predators dying, some predators getting away, and some that will die unfortunately.
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