Hecouldgoalltheway
Well-known member
I jumped in at the last minute with a buddy into a tournament I've hunted the three previous years. The last 2 years it rained cats and dogs from daylight til dark and almost zero coyotes made it to check in. I went 0-2, no coyotes. I don't even think we made a full stand last year. I put over 500 miles on my truck trying to outrun the storm, but it was like it was chasing us. It's a good little local event that benefits a volunteer fire department, so I never mind paying the entry. A great bunch of guys there. Anyways, hunted this one with a friend of mine that I've only hunted with once before, and he was pretty green on coyote calling, so I thought I'd show him the ropes. I've been saving a couple thousand acres of great ground just for such an occasion, and we made a couple easy stands early in the morning to make sure he understood the format and the gear, and then we hit this virgin ground. On the second stand a pair came rolling in from behind us, swung in on the worst angle possible, got close to the call and winded it before they hit an opening. I was sure they were both going to make it back to Mayberry unscathed, but then one of them was a little too curious, and she flared towards me a bit, and ran back up the hill I was sitting on, split from her mate. I was on the side of a relatively steep hill, so I picked up my 6arc, swung 90°, and with one bipod leg on the ground and picking through the thick trees, I hit her hard at about 50y on the trot. The shot was a hair back (a habit I can't seem to break), but the 55gr ballistic tip did enough. As soon as I got to her to put the bite block in, I realized I had just shot the smallest adult coyote I've ever seen. She was tiny, like a grey fox. We made our video and hunted the rest of the day, never seeing another coyote. We hunted until the last second, hoping for a fat one, and came into the parking lot slinging gravel with 2 minutes to spare with what I knew would be the smallest coyote killed that day. There were only 8 coyotes killed in total between 22 teams, so needless to say, the fish weren't really biting anywhere that day. All 8 coyotes were weighed, with the winner at 37lbs+, and then one 4oz less, and the third heaviest was close to 36. Mine was weighed last, and she was a whopping...... 20.1lbs. Several people were shocked at how dainty she was. To beat it all, she appeared to be paired with a mate. Definitely last year's model too, short sharp teeth, really pretty, but just tiny.
