Sons First Coyote With An AR
Posted: Sun Jan 08, 2012 9:34 pm
My son Colton is 13 and this season we've been able to do more coyote hunting together. He's proven to be a pretty good shot with whatever he's packing at the time but up til now it's been a bolt gun. Today he was carrying my AR and it looks like he can shoot it too.
We have had quite a bit of snow and it's started to warm up so now we have lots of good old red clay mud(slick as snot). We called a few stands in the last week but it's tough trying to get off the main county roads. Today we went to a place we always find a few coyotes and at the beginning it looked to have dried up some. The farther we went the worse it got until I was afraid to stop or turn around. We slipped and slid for over a mile and finally reached a high point in the road that had gotten some sun and pulled to the top to look. The road beyond was an absolute swamp. I had a spot in mind to call but we couldn't get there. We backed up a little to hide the truck and walked down the side of a ridge to get the wind right.
We slipped over and sat down over looking a large cactus flat that led to a dried up lake bed filled with willows and brush. It always seems to produce and this would be our last set for the day. I was going to use a couple of hand calls to do some howling but with so little cover I decided to put the e-call up wind about 50 yards.
I started with fox distress off and on for about 5 minutes and then added a coyote challenge. We waited a while and did a few female invitation howls. It was a long way to the heavy cover where I expected them to come from so I started looking with my bino's and saw we had one headed our way. Colton was on my left about 10 yards and I told him where the coyote was. He was coming straight to us but when he reached a patch of soapweed he turned down wind. We sat watching hoping he would come a little closer but he was headed to our left. If he continued he would either get up on the ridge and see the truck or get our wind. I was using a squeaker and he would stop and look but kept going. I whispered to Colton not to let him get too far or he would bust us.
About the time I got that said Colton laid him out with a perfect shot right above the top of the leg. I heard the bullet hit, the coyote spun once or twice and was down. When we went to pick him up I counted 200 paces to a beautifully furred coyote. We don't get many pretty hides but this one will be tanned for the wall.
My huntin' buddy is getting good on the trigger and I couldn't be any more proud of him. He's shot the AR for practice at home but this was the first time on a live target and he did it like he was suppose too. I miss being able to shoot but this is almost as much fun.
Thanks for looking and sorry for being so long winded.
We have had quite a bit of snow and it's started to warm up so now we have lots of good old red clay mud(slick as snot). We called a few stands in the last week but it's tough trying to get off the main county roads. Today we went to a place we always find a few coyotes and at the beginning it looked to have dried up some. The farther we went the worse it got until I was afraid to stop or turn around. We slipped and slid for over a mile and finally reached a high point in the road that had gotten some sun and pulled to the top to look. The road beyond was an absolute swamp. I had a spot in mind to call but we couldn't get there. We backed up a little to hide the truck and walked down the side of a ridge to get the wind right.
We slipped over and sat down over looking a large cactus flat that led to a dried up lake bed filled with willows and brush. It always seems to produce and this would be our last set for the day. I was going to use a couple of hand calls to do some howling but with so little cover I decided to put the e-call up wind about 50 yards.
I started with fox distress off and on for about 5 minutes and then added a coyote challenge. We waited a while and did a few female invitation howls. It was a long way to the heavy cover where I expected them to come from so I started looking with my bino's and saw we had one headed our way. Colton was on my left about 10 yards and I told him where the coyote was. He was coming straight to us but when he reached a patch of soapweed he turned down wind. We sat watching hoping he would come a little closer but he was headed to our left. If he continued he would either get up on the ridge and see the truck or get our wind. I was using a squeaker and he would stop and look but kept going. I whispered to Colton not to let him get too far or he would bust us.
About the time I got that said Colton laid him out with a perfect shot right above the top of the leg. I heard the bullet hit, the coyote spun once or twice and was down. When we went to pick him up I counted 200 paces to a beautifully furred coyote. We don't get many pretty hides but this one will be tanned for the wall.
My huntin' buddy is getting good on the trigger and I couldn't be any more proud of him. He's shot the AR for practice at home but this was the first time on a live target and he did it like he was suppose too. I miss being able to shoot but this is almost as much fun.
Thanks for looking and sorry for being so long winded.
, but it is very exciting to watch them shoot.