Where's my rifle

Hunter55

Well-known member
Where’s my rifle​

Tuesday I went down and done a meet and greet with the land owners, and they’re the nicest down to earth folks you’d ever want to meet. So, last night I hunted their farm for the 1st time. They farm some corn and beans, and raise some hogs, chickens, goats, etc.

There are a few deceased critters on the Easterly corner which made for an inviting supper to Mr. Coyote.

The harvested bean field looked about like a freshly cut lawn which was great for shooting and scanning but, provided a challenge for a setup. There was an old concrete well casing about 150 yards from the barn but, that made for a long shot on out to the corner where I figured they would hang and have dinner.

The sky was clear temp around 55, and the Halloween moon with an orange tint was at 91% and just rising good when I setup at 8:30.

I setup my ecaller between me and the corner, waited awhile, and then lit into a lone howl. Paused, howled again and two groups blew up, one to the SW and another to the SE. We exchanged howling for a couple minutes or so and then it got silent.

About 10:30 I spot 3 heat signatures coming in from the NE as I watched them get closer one disappeared into a low spot never to be seen again, the other two kept coming as I lit into a low volume high pitched squeal. Closer and closer until they hung up at the dinner pile around 400+ yards, I was afraid of that, a longer shot than I wanted to launch. I muted the caller and changed the calls a couple times but they were already in decision where they would dine.

Well it was the 1st time using this ballistic calculator with the LRF so I pressed the button dialed the scope into 406 yards and squeezed the trigger only to find the .204r 40gr Vmax to find its home as the coyote danced the circle of death. He disappeared into a low spot so I figured I’d walk up close enough to see if I needed another shot and sure enough after walking 300 yards I launched an anchor shot.

Now I needed to go back and get the RZR so I left my gun and tripod setup as a reference point and started walking, bad mistake! As I was driving the RZR back to my tripod I stopped about 150 yards out to scan, always scanning, and for God’s sake there’s a coyote between me and my gun! I’m driving slowly without my head lights and I just keep it slow and steady until I reach my gun. I get out, mount my rifle and here’s a coyote at 230 yards and with all the excitement I miss the 1st shot and connect with the 2nd one. 2nd coyote runs a ways and then slips into the corn right before I squeeze one off. Now, I have 2 coyotes down one to the East of me and one to the North in a 450 yard row of corn.

Screenshot (518).png


 
Hey Bob, same to you. Hope you have a great season. Things are slow here with three coyotes in August and that’s it. But, it usually picks up after the snow flies after the first of the year. Stay in touch.
 
6mm06 ..
here i do more reading than posting .. i know from past posts your luck will pick up at the same time mine slows down ! 🤣
i coon hunted with hounds for 40+ years and over the years i had my share of cold nights , due to health issues i no longer walk well enough to follow the dogs ..
i no longer enjoy long cold nights freezing my toes off so i coyote hunt early season before cold weather sets in then i hunt the late season months after the weather warms up some .. those cold nights when the snow is falling you are collecting coyotes while i am inside wishing it would warm up some ! 🤣
since mid october when the harvest began i have been able to hunt 5 nights and collect 5 coyotes so far .. halloween night i made 5 stands , 3 stands that produced and 2 blank stands .. i saw 5 coyotes total , on the 3 productive stands i collected a single , a double , shot at one and missed and saw a coyote that i never got a shot at .. i used mfk cmere lonely howls , primos young answer howls , primos pup serenade , foxpro nutty nuthatch , lighting jack and snowshoe hp .. of the 5 i saw 3 came drifting in and i had 2 hard chargers .. it was a good night in my area of southeastern indiana ..
 
Back
Top