SmallCaliberCentral

I had the good fortune of meeting up with some great guys from another board to hunt coyotes this past week. We hunted hard all day & told the lies til midnight!! We were in SE Kentucky. Just a couple miles north of the Tennessee/Virginia border in the Daniel Boone Nat'l Forest on the Red Bird WMA. This place has over 200,000 acres to hunt. It is rugged but beautiful country. The Elk population is stable & very healthy. Altho I didn't get to see any my hunting partner seen a nice 6X6. There was sign every where too. We ended up dropping the hammer on 5 coyotes. The 6th got away bleeding. We all hate to lose critters like this but also realize it happens & re-avow to not let it happen again. Maybe Al shoulda had a 204 instead of a 223 huh?? Anyway I thought I would share a few pics of the area & the big male I 2-0-floored with a 40gr Berger at about 55yds. I caught him in the ribs on the right back just a tad little bit to insure busting at least one shoulder & taking out his 4 wheel drive capabilities. This is very important at nearly 4000 feet above sea level where they can run down into those 2000 foot deep hollows. At the shot he spun & flipped at the same time then did it again & fell 4 feet from where he was hit. After being skinned out there was a 1/2" exit wound so this fella goes to the tanning shop. He has a nice black tip on his tail & a lot of black on his back & neck that doesn't show in my picture.

Enough from me for now. Lets see what the camera has to show.

Beautiful place to set & watch the sun go down.


Here's the coyote from the exit side.


A few guys there estimated this big male to be between 30 & 35lbs.


He is a beautiful coyote & the fur is very thick. He should make a nice addition to my small collection of hunting trophies. Thanks for looking!!

Glen: Glad to hear the trip went well. The fact that you busted a very nice male is just icing on the cake. He's quite a healthy looking bugger too.....nice. I was hoping that trip went well for you.

It's interesting looking at that great hunting country compared to our high desert and alpine forests here. The hills, canyons and fingers/breaks look the same, except for lack of winter foilage on all those trees. We've got both conifers here in the mountains and junipers all over the high desert, so the trees never look "naked" as that country does. I bet you can really see more game in those conditions because of the lack of winter foilage. We have trouble seeing elk when they're 50 yards away sometimes! We call it "black timber", and for good reason.

Thanks for posting, I bet those memories will stay with you for a long time to come. (Oh by the way, I'm doubting any of my .223's will ever see coyote shooting again, now with three 204's in the safe! )

Nice stuff!

In Christ,

Song Dog

It sure is a nice place to hunt. The mountains are rugged tho. Some of those have naturals drops of nearly vertical for several hundred feet. I'm just glad I was only hunting small game. I've seen those hunting shows where you can't see a 700lb Elk 50yds away. In a way it's really cool. Yet in another it could be frustrating to be that close & not be able to shoot. But fun nonetheless. And I will remember this trip for a long time.

Thanks Songdog.

Nice color on that one. Good job! Great looking country. Thanks for the pictures it looks like a great place to hunt.

Thanks Ryan!! And yes it is nice country. It can be rough to hunt in some areas but usually the views made up for it. When I get the hide done I'll post pics of it so you can see it better.

nice coyote now you need to go get one of thoes bulls!

Thanks Steve!! If I were to hunt one of those things I can tell you right now that if it ran over the side of one of those mountains I would walk away from it.

Glen: Speaking of big bulls and what they can do.....my buddy who is now known as "JC" (for Johnny Cat.....) who is the cougar hunter friend, we were talking about elk and the antics they can muster when being hunted last week. We've seen them literally jump off of sheer steep rock faces as far as 40' straight down, land on their feet and haul the freight for as far as they need to go. Truly amazing animals, ones I have the highest respect for, and I don't blame you for your statement about 'walking away' if one bailed off into one of those steep canyons you have there.

Murphy's Law always applies to elk.....if/when you shoot the biggest bull of your life, it's almost guaranteed he'll have any lack of courtesy and die as far away from a road as possible, and die at the bottom of the deepest canyon in the entire county!

While I would enjoy hunting them I'm sure,, I just don't know if I have it in me to pack one of those bad boys out of there tho. I most certainly wouldn't go on a hunt alone.

Glen: I'm with you on that! The last time I shot a big boy, he died about 1.5 miles uphill from camp on a steep sidehill. By the time I skinned him out, dressed and quartered him, called my buddies on the walkie, we were all back in camp around 02:30, and more ready for sleep than I can remember. Dang, that's hard work, and the older I get, the harder it gets, as well as the hills seem to get steeper.....

The up-side to all this, is that it creates a good excuse for a new, much lighter elk rifle.....

From personal experience its all hard work getting them out but when your all done i.ts worth the pain.IT only takes a few hours after to start planning your next trip.

With my failing back & neck it would certainly be a chore. I would probably cheat & use a 4 wheeler as much as possible. I also have no doubt that if I were to shoot one I would want to go back & do it again. I would carry the 60cal muzzleloader if it's legal too. 300grs of lead & copper should work well.

Glen,

That's some neat looking country you have there. Congrads on the coyote.

Hi Melvin. That's down in Kentucky. Where I'm from were flat compared to that stuff!! I think our high point is 1300' above sea level. That place was 4000'!! But beautiful nonetheless.

Thanks!!