Finally caught up with the haying...

S2H

New member
Finally got one to lay down and die where I could find it. Catching the haying cycle keeps them close to the field edges, if not in the field itself. I've seen three the last three sits, and put bullets into all three of them, but my shot placement hasn't been stellar and two have run off to die elsewhere.

I think initially brought to the field by some rabbit distress...this girl decided to skirt the entire fresh cut area. I was on her once, but she quickly ducked out of the scope. I thought I lost her for good, but looked directly across the field from me and see her head sticking up over the knoll. She continued on her way around the field, and when her full body came into the picture, I lip squeaked her to a stop. This one spun and spun until it finally just flopped over.



.223, 53gr Vmax, a little back and a little high...but a kill shot. This was one ugly specimen, missing most of the hair off her backside. Little tough taking the kill selfie when you need the flash.

 
Yes, very irritating when you can't find them. I guess this is why I shoot a swift and a 6mm rem. Just when I was thinking about going back to the milder .223 I read this thread......guess I will stick with over kill lol.
 
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Originally Posted By: JeepyjerTake a rifle in the swatter or baler you will see them come out or is that to easy.

This. I've shot several of them from the tractor when I was swathing. Kind of feels like cheating, though...
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Originally Posted By: jf1073nice going. was that a night hunt, or just dark by the time you were finished?

dark when I finally went to get her. I have from half hour before sunrise to half hour after sunset to hunt them.

She came out relatively early, but I sat and continued to call to the last minute.
 
Originally Posted By: JeepyjerTake a rifle in the swatter or baler you will see them come out or is that to easy.

I don't actually do any of the farming, but I'll take too easy all day, every day...helps offset the many blank stands I experience.
 
Originally Posted By: varminter .223Yes, very irritating when you can't find them. I guess this is why I shoot a swift and a 6mm rem. Just when I was thinking about going back to the milder .223 I read this thread......guess I will stick with over kill lol.

That's what I was thinking, my .222 just doesn't plant them the way a .243 does. It just seems like any decent hit it's over, the .222 gets spinners and ones that make it a few yards or more away.

And then there is wind drift that is much less with the 6mm...
 
Up until this year I have has the same experience. They would even follow my tractor as I cut and baled, chasing the field mice and rats that I would flush. But with all the flooding we had at Christmas and the first of the year, I did not see the first mouse or rat. My hunting buddy and I were out the night I cut hay and could not even get a coyote (or mouse for that matter) to answer a howl. It was like everyone had left town. Usually we would have seen three to five working the cut fields.
 
Congratulations S2H....I Love Coyote Hunting fresh cut Hay Fields,most Hunters don't know what their missing by not Hunting those nicely cut,open viewed Fields and sitting along the field edge out of tall thick grasses full of Ticks & Chiggers!
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