Grandson's first coyote

Airedale56

Member
My oldest grandson is 18. He's left eye and left hand dominant. Shot all his life on right handed guns. For his 18th birthday I bought him his first left side rifle, a Tikka T3 stainless .223. He picked out a Burris 4-14x scope to complete the combo.

My oldest daughter and her family have lived in OK until last year. 900 miles is a lot of distance between us. Last summer my SIL took a job in CO, just 58 minutes away from me. I'm trying to make up for lost time with three grandkids.

Lamb season is under way on a local sheep outfit. They haven't turned out to pasture yet.
Local coyotes are in full swing as well.

So, we went out late afternoon and slipped in to a spot with great views and little cover for us, other than a fence line. Rolling hill and prairie grass, the green has finally started up. We JUST got our first leaves to pop on the local trees in the past 2 weeks. 6200' stays behind the lower elevations in green-up, for sure. Spring come late to Wyoming.
On the way, we helped a local rancher and his son with a flat on a 4 wheeler. He had been spraying weeds and the right rear went down. Son had showed up with another tire and wheel, but didn't have a deep socket to get the lug nuts off. Dug around the toolbox on my pickup and we helped get him moving again.

We parked on the south side of a hill and slipped to the top of the ridge. A herd of pronghorns were grazing below us. Grandson slid to the top and glassed them for quite a while. When the sun went behind a cloud we slipped over the top and pulled in against the fence posts to break our outlines a bit.

The creek bottom was rolling. Snow melt has got it almost out of its banks. It was across the county road in one spot, about 2" deep. From our vantage point below the ridge crest, we could see for a mile or more to the west, north and northeast. We could see mule deer, prairie dogs, pronghorns, birds of all kinds enjoying the arrival of spring and the attendant warmth and sunlight. The breeze was light from the west. We watched for about an hour and as the animals got up and started moving around, I told Bladen it was time to try to call a coyote.


I got him set up to watch the downwind side. There was a tall ridge 200 yards east of us.
I pulled out a couple of open reed mouth calls that I bought from a member (john007) here. A Bunny Bomb and Howler / Distress by Bearmanric.
Let out a couple of female howls and shut up for 15 minutes. Glassed the area for a while, then hit puppy whines. I love open reed calls for the variety of sounds I can make with them.

At about the 35 minute mark, I heard an urgent whisper to my right, uphill and behind me.
"Grampa, Grampa!" I looked over my shoulder and Bladen had his rifle shouldered and resting on the Bog-pod tripod, looking through the scope at the ridge top to the east.
"There's one on top."

He was a picture of intensity, so I took one.





The coyote was on top of a ridge, sky-lined at 200 yards. I-25 was about a mile and half to the east of us. I told Bladen to hold up on shooting, to let me move the coyote off the ridge.

I puppy-whined softly on a call and he started downhill, low sun in his face. I woofed to stop him and he faced head-on into us. "Hold just below his chin." I whispered. 185 yards.
At the shot, the bullet impact was audible, the Hornady 55 grain SP/WC propelled by 27 grains of W748 and a Remington 7.5 primer. The coyote took a center chest shot and started spinning. He was dead on his feet and tumbled downhill to his final resting spot. It was 7:57 pm.

We stayed put and I kiyi'd for a bit. About 800 yards out east of us I saw a string of antelope come out from behind a low hill, strung out in a line and moving kind of quickly with their heads down. I pulled up my binocular and saw they were chasing the mate to Bladen's coyote.
We got to watch the festivities for a bit. I threw some puppy whine and female challenge howls at her, but the antelope wouldn't let her come to us. She eventually made her way back south, her posse in tow.

Bladen and I crossed the fence into the adjacent pasture and recovered his coyote. After some pictures we headed back back to the stand and heard her calling for him. We spotted the area she was calling from and will head back with my Spud Dog to find the den.



What a great evening with great young man.


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Kudos to grandpa and Bladen on a job well done. It just doesn't get any better than spending quality time with kids and grandkids. I hope you have many more such times together.
 
I see lots of memories in the making for a proud granddad! Great writeup and pics. Thanks for sharing.

Regards,
hm
 
We went back out to try to call the mate this evening.

No luck, but I took a picture of the setup looking north.

The tallest hill to the right is where he showed up...




Ended the evening with Spud grabbing a mouthful of skunk.

Took a shower with the stinky dog and baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and dawn dishwashing liquid.
 
Originally Posted By: 5spdSuper job you did getting the coyote coming in for your GS 1st, always the best one.


Thanks, Jim.
Wondering how you been.
 
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