10 replies to this topic

[Bill D.]

The morning started out bad with a strong SE wind as a front was approaching from the NW. Spent the day catching up with domestic chores but about 3 pm the wind stopped and the air was cool but not cold. There was a heavy overcast but it didn't feel like rain so I hopped on the scooter. My plan was to scout as much country as possible where grassland and crops come together and look for coyotes. I had been cruising around for about an hour with no luck and decided to travel a couple miles further from home. I was driving a ditch bank and to my right was a big green pasture but a line of willow trees was obstructing my view. As I passed an opening, I spotted what appeared to be a cow carcass about 400 yards away but didn't see anything else. As I approached the next opening through the trees, I decided to stop for a better look. I see something move and grabbed the rifle for a closer look through the scope. There are 3 coyotes slowly drifting away from the carcass and looking right at me. Since I was busted, I figured what the heck and as soon as one stopped, I held 3 or 4 feet over and lobed a 55 gr. Hornady SXSP from the Duece. Wow, was I surprised when I saw the yote go down and then heard the whop a second later. He jumped to his feet and did the spin and bite routine before dropping dead. The angus carcass was a great landmark to find the yote and I paced 426 yards to my kill. Another mangy dog and his two compadres looked mangy as well in the scope. I think this is a personal best for me on coyotes at a distance. I knocked one down just about as far a few months ago but never found it. Always nice to have a little luck now and then.  coy_bernard1.jpg   85.88K   18 downloads

[MojaveJ]

How do you know how far to hold over or do you just guess and hope for the best?

[ShooterJohn]

How do you know how far to hold over or do you just guess and hope for the best?

It's plain old experience and some luck, wouldn't you agree Bill? Like Kentucky Windage, just something you develop from shooting experience. It takes a lot of shooting to feel reasonably comfortable making this sort of shot. I know Bill has the experience to do it. Practice practice. Lots of blood from that range. That bullet must not have had enough energy to expand like it would up close. Mangy dog, but he's not feeling any pain now. Nice shot by the way! I'm with you, if you don't make a reasonable effort you're never going to get them.Was that mangy dog on the same property as the last mange ridden dog you took?

[Bill D.]

How do you know how far to hold over or do you just guess and hope for the best?

A lot of squirrel shooting experience with a given rifle at distance helps a lot. I use to shoot this load in this rifle a lot at prairie dogs in Texas. I got lucky on the estimated range. I could tell the coyote wasn't going to hang around long and I didn't have a lot of time to think about the shot. I knew the bullet would drop like a rock after 300 yards so I just pulled over 3 or 4 feet and let fly. I actually saw the coyote go down in the scope before the sound of the hit reached my ears.....reflected light traveling at 186,000 miles per second vs sound traveling at 1,100 fps. From the coyote's perspective, he didn't hear the gun shot until a little over a second after the bullet hit him.

Was that mangy dog on the same property as the last mange ridden dog you took?

Unfortunately no so it seems there is a lot of mange around the valley and foothills. Kind of strange how I was killing lots of pretty coyotes and now all I am seeing is mangy ones.

[Rimrock]

Nice shot, Bill. No white tipped tail on this one.

[Bill D.]

It's plain old experience and some luck, wouldn't you agree Bill? Like Kentucky Windage, just something you develop from shooting experience. It takes a lot of shooting to feel reasonably comfortable making this sort of shot. I know Bill has the experience to do it. Practice practice. Lots of blood from that range. That bullet must not have had enough energy to expand like it would up close. Mangy dog, but he's not feeling any pain now. Nice shot by the way! I'm with you, if you don't make a reasonable effort you're never going to get them.

Yep John - when I left the house without the caller, I was in a spray and pray mood. I have called all the area close to the casa a lot and already taken the easy ones. The ones out there now require artillery tactics...haha. Years ago while driving around with my boss, we spotted a coyote hauling ass at 200 yards. By the time he got out of the truck and a shell in the chamber, the yote was at least 300 yards and going mach 3.......my boss unloaded a 30-06. When the shooting was done, I asked him why he was shooting so far. He looked at me with a smirk and said, "if you ain't slinging lead, you ain't got no chance at all"

[Braz]

Nice shot in putting an ugly, mangy yote out of his misery!

[Thumper Dunker]

Nice shot got alot of mange around here this year to. hey bill do you kiss them like bass fishermen do yucko

[Bill D.]

Nice shot! Is there a lot of mange over in that area? I was watching one of my videos the other day and they said mange is mother natures way of population control, but I would think your taking care of that for them well enough. Congrats on your new personal best.

There seems to be more mange in the Valley than in the foothills but lately, I have killed a couple of mangy ones in the hills as well. Once mange gets started in a population, it seems to hang around forever especially in mild climates because the hosts live too long and keep passing it on. Hunters probably take less than 5% of the coyote population so sooner or later, density dependent factors like mange, parasites, disease, etc. will start removing the excess animals. Coyotes can easily withstand 50% annual mortality and pop right back each year. The healthiest populations I ever saw was in the 80's when there was a lot of pressure due to good fur prices. Hunters and trappers were taking a lot of animals and it was allowing the survivors to flourish with more food and larger liter sizes. Most folks just don't understand that animals with a high reproductive rate need to be knocked down hard annually for their own good. If we don't do it, mother nature will. When nature is the only controlling factor, you end up with huge population fluctuations and a lot of suffering from inflictions like mange.

[onecoyote]

Good shot Bill........I'd rather be lucky then good any day. Example, I went to the casion two days ago and got lucky, $600 worth, made my wife real happy lol. PS, next time I won't tell her.