headed for my favorite coyote hunting grounds on christmas day(updated with pic)

[jasnt]

It was September last time I was there. I've only gotten 8 coyote sofar this year so im high hoped to get that number up before new years.  Ill be packing the 300wm again but this time no 185gr Berger's. Ill be testing a new bullet. 125gr sst chrono'ed @ 3350.  This will be a pack in hunt. Ill update with some pics and story when I get back.

[sebek556]

  good luck, if you need a partner any other time let me know. I'm a little north of you 

[jasnt]

Well today went like Murphy's law. Pulled up to my parking spot a little after sunrise. Was hoping a little more snow had melted.  1" and crunchy! I figured itd be a slow paced day sneaking threw the sagebrush littered draws trying in vain to be quiet. The wind and sun where in my favor.  I fought the urges to hurry and worked up the back side of a huge hill I planned to call the other side. As I get close to my spot I realized I didn't have a good view of the bottom of the draw. As I sit down to assess my plan a group of coyotes start a serenade right where I can't see in the draw. Im thinking is this an other hunter? I hunt coyote on Christmas cause most times im the only soul for miles.  So I fire back a female invite as they finish up.  All goes quiet.  I sit there for a moment then answer my self with a young answer howl. Then I notice a huge dog across the draw.its just sitting there looking my way. I range him by resting my finder on top my rifle to steady. 832 yards.  I fire up a ki-yi and still he sits. So I sit still for a while watching him and scanning for the other coyotes,after 10 min I hit the jackrabbit frenzy. It just lays down.  By this time im sure I got spotted so I pull out my phone and run the numbers in my balistics. I've verified its correct out to500 but I've never shot 800. I dial up 21.5 min and crank it up to 20x  held 4 min up wind( guessed at 3-5mph wind) coyote sits back up and i touched it off. At 830 yards this bullet has a flight time of 1.24 sec so I was easly able to watch the bullet smack the hill right next to him.( should have held 5min up wind. As you can imagine he took off like a rocket.  Afterwards i also noticed at about 820 my bullet goes subsonic at today's temp.  Mile later im on stand #2 im about to hit play and i hear a howl again off in distance....this time it's a warning howl . He kept it up for a good 20 min while i did my best to tell him just how pissed i was too(challenge howls).  He was safe on the private land so i finished the day scouting my stands for next time and ended with a porcupine .


took him down with the 22lr

[jasnt]

Sebek
Sounds good ill pm ya when I plan my next hunt,prob January

[YoteSlayer61]

That would have been a sweet shot bet it scared the crap out of that Yote!

[jasnt]

That would have been a sweet shot bet it scared the crap out of that Yote!

i would have been very proud of my self on that one.  Looking back tho I wish I would have just backed out of there and moved to a different spot and try again.  Im thinking all I did was educate him.  Lession learned the hard way as usual.

[YoteSlayer61]

I missed one last weekend  at around 400 yds... I messed up as well. All the dogs I have shot so far were right around 200 yards so I had not missed. It was my first shot so far this season I was a bit rusty and rushed it a bit two things have happened since then. I got one of my dads rangefinders and I looked up ballistics on my 223. I found out my bullet drop after 275 yards for every 25 yards out to 500. Did some calculations and wrote down how many clicks of MOA I need for every 25 yards I'm going to print them laminate them and tape it inside scope cover. I hate missing scope has 1/4 moa adjustments. If it turns out I can't get them to come any closer than 400 yards I'm going to start taking a bigger gun!!

[jasnt]

I'd verify that drop chart before going crazy with it. If got some great data and some really poor. Even with the same calculator and different loads. From my experience if it's correct out to 400 its normally pretty darn close out farther.  I like to practice on pop cans and gallons out to 500. great fun and perfect practice!