Got this gorgeous big male with the Benelli yesterday.
A big coyote for my area, weighed him at 36 pounds. Just a beautiful coyote.
Stand was standard issue. Calling crosswind, my partner Tim behind me up the hill with a good view downwind covering us with his .243, me sitting down in the sage brush 10 yards in front of the caller. I saw a couple tweety birds flush out of the brush about 80 yards to my left (upwind), then a second later caught a coyote flashing through the brush on a line that put me perfectly between him and the caller. He checks up at 60 yards, like I said, he's headed for the caller and I'm on that line exactly, so he's seeing me and checks up. All I have is face and neck through a window in the sage at 60 yards. Not a typically ideal shot for a shotgun, in my opinion. But, my Benelli is loaded with 1-5/8 oz. of TSS #2. Which, through extensive pattern testing this summer and having killed about twenty coyotes with that load the past few weeks, I was actually very highly confident in taking the shot.
So, I put the bead on his nose and let 'er rip. He dropped instantly and was stone cold dead before he hit the ground. Peeled him later, counted 12 pellet strikes in his face and neck - the only part of him I could see when I shot. At 60 yards, a dozen hits in the face, penetrating the skull, that TSS is some bad ju-ju.
Yesterday was just a lot of fun. Calling was actually kind of slow, only three stands produced all day. But the whole day was just gravy anyway because I killed three (and missed one) on the first stand of the morning. And it was the first stand that really felt right so far this year - temperature was just below freezing, ground was frosty, little dusting of snow on the tops of some of the sage, had coyotes howling all over the place before starting the caller.
First solo triple of the year (had a couple tag team triples already), Tim was there but somehow didn't get any shooting on this stand while I killed three, missed one and had another come in and leave without getting a shot.
Then nothing for awhile before we killed another single each on the same stand.
Then nothing again for a while before I got the big boy with the shotgun at high noon.
And that turned out to be it for the day. Kept calling till dark but didn't see another coyote. Six is a good day though and it sure felt nice to need a coat all day, lol!
- DAA
A big coyote for my area, weighed him at 36 pounds. Just a beautiful coyote.
Stand was standard issue. Calling crosswind, my partner Tim behind me up the hill with a good view downwind covering us with his .243, me sitting down in the sage brush 10 yards in front of the caller. I saw a couple tweety birds flush out of the brush about 80 yards to my left (upwind), then a second later caught a coyote flashing through the brush on a line that put me perfectly between him and the caller. He checks up at 60 yards, like I said, he's headed for the caller and I'm on that line exactly, so he's seeing me and checks up. All I have is face and neck through a window in the sage at 60 yards. Not a typically ideal shot for a shotgun, in my opinion. But, my Benelli is loaded with 1-5/8 oz. of TSS #2. Which, through extensive pattern testing this summer and having killed about twenty coyotes with that load the past few weeks, I was actually very highly confident in taking the shot.
So, I put the bead on his nose and let 'er rip. He dropped instantly and was stone cold dead before he hit the ground. Peeled him later, counted 12 pellet strikes in his face and neck - the only part of him I could see when I shot. At 60 yards, a dozen hits in the face, penetrating the skull, that TSS is some bad ju-ju.
Yesterday was just a lot of fun. Calling was actually kind of slow, only three stands produced all day. But the whole day was just gravy anyway because I killed three (and missed one) on the first stand of the morning. And it was the first stand that really felt right so far this year - temperature was just below freezing, ground was frosty, little dusting of snow on the tops of some of the sage, had coyotes howling all over the place before starting the caller.
First solo triple of the year (had a couple tag team triples already), Tim was there but somehow didn't get any shooting on this stand while I killed three, missed one and had another come in and leave without getting a shot.
Then nothing for awhile before we killed another single each on the same stand.
Then nothing again for a while before I got the big boy with the shotgun at high noon.
And that turned out to be it for the day. Kept calling till dark but didn't see another coyote. Six is a good day though and it sure felt nice to need a coat all day, lol!
- DAA