Well I finally got my first coyote!!!
And HUGE props to "predatorpro" (Vince) for getting me hooked up! Couldnt have done it without him getting me on them!
I headed over to Quincy for the weekend and hunted with Vince (p-pro) and we found this girl dinking around out in a field and took her. She was out quite a ways when I shot, I say like 650yds or so.... OK, Vince says she was maybe only 175 or so but I think it was closer to 200-250 - either way for a west-side'n city boy it seemed like a lonnnng ways out there.
But she kind of caught us by surprise and I didnt have my rifle loaded & ready so I had to use P-pro's CZ (550?) rifle in 22-250 before she got away. So he set me up with his gun and I took the shot pretty quick and since I never shot it before I wasnt used to the trigger and it dropped before I expected so I think I may have pulled it a little (thats the excuse I'm going with
) and as we found out later I hit her in the rear hind quarter when I was aiming for her front shoulder. But she spun around and dropped and we were all high-fiving and waiting for a sec to walk out when she got up and started to walk off - not even looking hurt!
So I shot again real quick and hit low then shot again
and it looked like I nicked her front leg or something, she had a nick on her ear too. Yeah I missed, but hey 650yds with a rifle I never shot before, gimmie a break!
But then Vinny reloaded and took a shot but she jumped into the tall grass. Anyway, we tracked down the blood trail and Vince found her hiding in the grass and she jumped and took off but her gave the coupe-de-gras
behind the right ear and it was lights out - nice quick shot running at about 30yds and caught by surprise.
All in all we saw 4 dogs - this one, we jumped one that took off at mach 5 running thru a field, a smart one that was on private property and would not come in, and I called one in on my own on the 1st day, in the 1st 10 min of the 1st stand, which was cool. But I didnt take the shot and it got in too close and got my wind or something and took off.
P-pro had to work on Friday so he sent me out to a spot and after I got all set up out there I called with my Power Dogg once and looked around with the binocs and saw one playing in the grass on a hillside like waaaaaay far away - so far at first I could even tell what it was in the 7x binocs. But I turned the Power Dogg up all the way and hit pup distress and he stared for a minute then went back to playing. So changed it to cottontail distress and same thing, he looked but didnt care then sat down in the shade next to sage bush. So then I called some cottontail distresswith the green mouth piece of my Primos lil dog and instantly he started trotting my way - it was just like on TV!! It was REALLY cool knowing I had called him in with my mouth call.
I also had a Quiver Critter rabbit decoy setup about 30yds down the hill from me and once he got closer he was totally focused on that - he didnt even look my way once at all - even when I was calling!
So he came in pretty quick, just trotting along and tried to circle down wind but I pretty much had the wind in my favor most of the time. But I was nervous - heart all pounding and didnt want to miss so I kept waiting for him to get closer. Finally he came inside about 75yds and I was thinking 'as soon as he comes over this rise I'm gonna shoot him' and waited for him to come thru the grass but the next thing I saw was him heading out the opposite way, disappearing off between the shrubs and I didnt want to shoot at him blindly. I barked but he didnt stop and I lost him. I think the wind swirled around and he got wind of the decoy cuz he was pretty much in line and down wind of it. So I blew it being 'gun-shy' and getting too greedy.
But pulling the trigger was the easy part, seeing him and calling him in that close was the hard part and I got that done - oh well next time.
I'm hunting in a farm later this week where the yote's have been stealing chickens & turkeys plus at another field the owner saw them in so hopefully numbers 2 & 3 will be soon to follow!
We also did a night hunt and the pics show the moon coming up behind me. It doesnt look that dark in the pic without the flash but you can see how dark it is in the one with the flash. I had a great time this weekend and got some GREAT experience out in the field. BIGTIME thanks to predatorpro for setting me up and taking me under his wings!
