I celebrated my 76th birthday during the first week of March and was so very thankful to God for the health to still go hunting and fishing. Anyway, during our meal out that night, I was thinking how nice it would be for a coyote to show up and give me a birthday present at my bait pile since I wouldn’t be going calling. I have a bait pile going at my house to keep the coyote numbers manageable here since it borders on one of the deer clubs we do control work for. I average about 15 coyotes per year here on my bait pile. This has been a very slow year for coyotes at my bait pile. Before turning in for bed, I decided to check the field with the handheld thermal, and there was a coyote. So, I had to get the rifle out and go through the process of loading and turning the scope on (Super Yoter). Weather was rain and wind as usual this year, and humidity was at 90% which is not good for the best thermal.


I started on black hot and then quickly progressed through red hot, colored hot, and white hot. Black hot was giving the best image to me with 90% humidity. When a coyote is under 150 yds. I usually stay on the SY’s native power of 3x, but beyond that I normally switch to 2x zoom or 6 power. In this case I had already seen the coyote feeding on a roadkill deer that I had placed in a field ditch at 216 yds. and knew she would go back to it.

Placing the carcass in a ditch makes it tough for the coyotes to drag it off until they get it eaten down enough to pull out of the ditch. It also keeps the birds pretty much at bay during the day. Coyotes on a roadkill in a ditch are very nervous since in order to eat they lose sight of their surroundings and are constantly jumping in and out of the ditch.

Patience is required here to not take a bad shot. I try to wait for a broadside opportunity with the coyote looking and listening before it jumps back into the ditch to feed some more. It is really just a matter of reading their body language and waiting for them to settle down enough for the shot. The video tells the rest of the story.




https://youtu.be/2LpFhL8g7fI

Here she is after I dragged her out of the ditch the next morning.

#36 by Double Up, on Flickr

And her ride out in the "Meat Wagon."

#36a by Double Up, on Flickr

Some have asked about the "Meat Wagon" that I use to retrieve the coyotes from the field, so I've included a couple of pictures.

IMG_20230317_081948479_HDR by Double Up, on Flickr

IMG_20230317_081928620_HDR by Double Up, on Flickr

Nice! Cool meat wagon also

Well done DU. While watching the video, I could almost feel my finger pulling the trigger about 8 times before you took the shot. Great patience and thanks for the post

Haha Burnsome, me too. I squeezed the trigger several times myself. Good job and good video.

DU has offered some great tips and tactics, so we moved it here into 101 so that predator hunters that are interested in getting into night hunting can learn from it.

Take it from me, night hunting is a whole other level of predator hunting that takes a LOT of time to really master.

Mo

Great tips on baiting too DU...I'm not sure newer hunters know what goes into successfully working a bait pile.

I know I can't work a bait pile like that. Since we can't use thermals or night vision in AZ you're giving me some insight as to their behaviors over bait.

Thanks...

Mo

I love the pics of your hunting rigs...lots of thought put into those vehicles.

More good video and pics to go with the spot on shooting. Well done all around DU, THANKS.