3/12/11 coyote
Posted: Sun Mar 13, 2011 8:26 pm
I haven’t been out coyote hunting for the past two weekends so I went out yesterday morning to the creek bottom where coyotes had been feeding on a dead cow. I got out there just as it was starting to get light and sat on the same hill side where Lucas and I had shot some coyotes recently. I had gotten half way down to the bottom when I realized I had forgotten my shooting sticks back at the truck but since it was starting to get light I didn’t go back to get them. The sun was almost up when three coyotes came in from the north of the cow and starting eating. I scooted over next to a buckeye tree and leaned the rifle up against the tree to take a look at the coyotes. The wind was quartering into me from the southwest about 15-20 mph and I was facing west. I laid the crosshairs on the top of one coyote’s back and squeezed the trigger. I heard the whack of the bullet but all three coyotes took off running, one to the south and two to the north. I forgot to hold for the wind and apparently hit a sapling beside the coyote.
I was having a pretty stern conversation with myself about not allowing for the wind when one of the coyotes that had gone to the north came back. The buckeye tree had a fork in it near the ground so I lay down on my belly and used the fork for a rest. I was on the coyote as it walked on past where the cow was and headed the same way the other one had run to the south. I howled real loud with my voice and the coyote stopped broadside and looked my way. This time I held the crosshairs into the wind and on top of its back. I pulled the trigger and the coyote dropped on the spot. I kept watching through the scope and it didn’t move. I ranged the coyote seven times and got readings between 321 and 323 yards so I’m calling it a 322 yard shot.
Here’s a picture of the tree where I shot from and to where the coyote was.
Zoomed in for a closer look. The coyote is the light colored spot just to the right of the black dot.
The coyote was a male and was the nicest furred coyote I have shot this year. I didn’t have my scales with me but I think it would have weighed in the upper 30's.
I had a hard time finding the entrance or the exit wound so I started pushing on the coyote’s rib cage repeatedly and finally found some blood on the entrance side. The 39 Sierra B.K. didn’t exit.
I was having a pretty stern conversation with myself about not allowing for the wind when one of the coyotes that had gone to the north came back. The buckeye tree had a fork in it near the ground so I lay down on my belly and used the fork for a rest. I was on the coyote as it walked on past where the cow was and headed the same way the other one had run to the south. I howled real loud with my voice and the coyote stopped broadside and looked my way. This time I held the crosshairs into the wind and on top of its back. I pulled the trigger and the coyote dropped on the spot. I kept watching through the scope and it didn’t move. I ranged the coyote seven times and got readings between 321 and 323 yards so I’m calling it a 322 yard shot.
Here’s a picture of the tree where I shot from and to where the coyote was.
Zoomed in for a closer look. The coyote is the light colored spot just to the right of the black dot.
The coyote was a male and was the nicest furred coyote I have shot this year. I didn’t have my scales with me but I think it would have weighed in the upper 30's.
I had a hard time finding the entrance or the exit wound so I started pushing on the coyote’s rib cage repeatedly and finally found some blood on the entrance side. The 39 Sierra B.K. didn’t exit.
