Coyote Hunting

[RallySoob]

Nice pix yothunter... Is that rattler still alive when you took that pic?

 

[yotehunter]

yeah they dont seem to die to quick. right after the picture though i used a .410 to it's head.

 

[usmc0311]

I went out a few weeks back calling yotes, but came out empty handed..the only one I saw was running down the freeway about 5 am. Maybe I'll run over him next time

It was a ton of fun just being out there and my partner was great, and showed me a lot!

Saw a bunch of sign, and to top it off 3 antlerless black tail's within about 25-40 yds. A great outing and can't wait to do it again!

 

[Butcher45]

I went out a few weeks back calling yotes, but came out empty handed..the only one I saw was running down the freeway about 5 am. Maybe I'll run over him next time

It was a ton of fun just being out there and my partner was great, and showed me a lot!

Saw a bunch of sign, and to top it off 3 antlerless black tail's within about 25-40 yds. A great outing and can't wait to do it again!

I had a good time as well! Let me know when you are free to go hunting again. I think all the blacktails may be antlerless at this time of year. All three of them were pretty big-bodied!

Remember, don't tell a soul what area we went to hehe. We'll go knock down a trophy blacktail or two come fall.

I might have gotten an elk on camera while taking a picture of a clearcut yesterday, that I didn't even see until reviewing the pictures at home! It was WAY out there.

 

[ORBrit]

I get to go try coyote hunting tomorrow evening. A friend of mine has another friend who has access to land where they've had cattle and even a pet dog killed by coyotes in the last month.
I'm just tagging along but it should be a good experience to see how they use the calls and position themselves in relation to the tracks or dens.

 

[Scott]

I might have gotten an elk on camera while taking a picture of a clearcut yesterday, that I didn't even see until reviewing the pictures at home! It was WAY out there.[/QUOTE]

So these from coming back from coyote hunting.

Scott

failed to load pics but anyways there were 2 herds of Elk and I got with in 40 yards of them. Cool animal.

Scott

 

[ORBrit]

I tagged along on an attempted Coyote hunt today on private land in Jasper. We went at a strange time - based on availability of the property owner. It was 80 degrees at about 4pm at the hottest part of the day. We didn't think we'd see any and we were right!
We went to an area with actual sightings - and even saw fresh sign. There's been recent activity - some domestic dogs were killed in their kennels up on top of the hill, less than 100 yards from where we tried to call them.
Some calves were also killed in the area.
We'll try and head back at dawn or dusk sometime these next couple weeks.

 

[ORBrit]

My friend and I (both complete novice hunters) went out this morning and set up in the same draw we were last time. This time we got up there at about 5:30 am, and actually set up on top of a hill where there is a rock quarry. This gave us excellent visibility out to about 500 yards although we were about 200 feet above the bottom of the valley.
Dawn arrived and we began calling.
A couple deer wondered past about 20 minutes later.
5 minutes after they cleared the area, I adjusted my position and knelt up to check that there wasn't anything directly below us and I saw the coyote trotting along, left to right about 125 yards away but 200 feet below us.
It was already past the middle of our field of view headed towards a tree line 50 yards further to the right.
I grabbed my rifle (Savage .22-250) and told my friend to try calling it to stop it.
It stopped and half turned, almost giving me a perfect side view. I squeezed...

... and missed. It bolted to the treeline before I could get a second shot in.

Wow, what a rush! We're stoked that we got to be there and successfully call in a coyote. In retrospect I should have held low shooting from that elevation - it was probably a 40 - 45 degree down angle.
I'm so new to all of this that I'm still learning as I go.
I know that the Savage is a tack driver at the range but hunting is a whole different ball game. It all happened so quick from spotting the yote to it disappearing!

Looking forward to the next opportunity.

 

[Butcher45]

My friend and I (both complete novice hunters) went out this morning and set up in the same draw we were last time. This time we got up there at about 5:30 am, and actually set up on top of a hill where there is a rock quarry. This gave us excellent visibility out to about 500 yards although we were about 200 feet above the bottom of the valley.
Dawn arrived and we began calling.
A couple deer wondered past about 20 minutes later.
5 minutes after they cleared the area, I adjusted my position and knelt up to check that there wasn't anything directly below us and I saw the coyote trotting along, left to right about 125 yards away but 200 feet below us.
It was already past the middle of our field of view headed towards a tree line 50 yards further to the right.
I grabbed my rifle (Savage .22-250) and told my friend to try calling it to stop it.
It stopped and half turned, almost giving me a perfect side view. I squeezed...

... and missed. It bolted to the treeline before I could get a second shot in.

Wow, what a rush! We're stoked that we got to be there and successfully call in a coyote. In retrospect I should have held low shooting from that elevation - it was probably a 40 - 45 degree down angle.
I'm so new to all of this that I'm still learning as I go.
I know that the Savage is a tack driver at the range but hunting is a whole different ball game. It all happened so quick from spotting the yote to it disappearing!

Looking forward to the next opportunity.

Right on! What a RUSH, huh?

Are you absolutely certain you missed? I'm not trying to be hard on you, but if you didn't go look for blood, I suggest going back out there and doing so. Coyotes can take a long time to die when not hit perfectly. Your trophy may be out there waiting for you.

Coyotes are small, but they are extremely tough for their size. The one I shot was very close to me, and didn't make so much as a whimper when hit. They have been known to run a long ways when hit with all sorts of centerfire rifles.

I suggest that you mentally mark the spot you last saw the coyote immediately after taking the shot, and checking for blood any time you take a shot at one (or any animal for that matter). Never make the assumption that you missed, or expect them to just fall over, no matter what rifle/load is used.

 

[ORBrit]

Yeah a rush for sure! I remember thinking "this is going to be loud" as I did not have hearing protection in but barely heard the shot. It could be that I'm deaf to those frequencies though from 11 years of infantry training. but I think it was the adrenaline.

If I hadn't knelt up at that moment it would probably have gone right by unseen! It was a small coyote (so my friend tells me) - the first I've seen in real life.

I think I'm going to try and shoot at some crude targets from that position on the hill to see how the bullet behaves at different ranges.

I'm saving that brass case- my first shot fired hunting!

A question for you experienced hunters:
Once that shot has been fired and the yote has escaped and you've determined it was a miss, is it even worth trying to move and set up another stand further away or is that pretty much your one shot?

 

[yotehunter]

pretty much your only shot that yote will be call shy wait a few days and/ or find another spot. But i do agree with Butcher i have shot yotes and the keep moving for a long time till they die.

 

[Butcher45]

Yeah a rush for sure! I remember thinking "this is going to be loud" as I did not have hearing protection in but barely heard the shot. It could be that I'm deaf to those frequencies though from 11 years of infantry training. but I think it was the adrenaline.

If I hadn't knelt up at that moment it would probably have gone right by unseen! It was a small coyote (so my friend tells me) - the first I've seen in real life.

I think I'm going to try and shoot at some crude targets from that position on the hill to see how the bullet behaves at different ranges.

I'm saving that brass case- my first shot fired hunting!

A question for you experienced hunters:
Once that shot has been fired and the yote has escaped and you've determined it was a miss, is it even worth trying to move and set up another stand further away or is that pretty much your one shot?

Still have to wonder if you checked for blood. From your (lack of) response, I'm taking it as a "no".

 

[Twodogs]

If anybodys in the PDX area and wants to go hunting or just alittle learning shoot me a PM.

Gary

 

[ORBrit]

Still have to wonder if you checked for blood. From your (lack of) response, I'm taking it as a "no".

No - we didn't check for blood, we saw birds taking off from the next treeline about 50 yards past where the yote first went out of sight so we figured he was long gone.
We're heading back tomorrow morning, and I have done a lot more research on types of calls to use and frequency, volume and duration.
It's a wonder we ever got the coyote to show up in the first place as our calls were definitely of the "wailing baby" category!

I'm also going to be more patient - we should have attempted to recall him when he'd gone past our position instead of taking the shot. I think we may also place the shooter half way down the slope.
Calling from the top of the rock quarry seemed to work and I think it confused him too.

Also need to make sure my scope is set to a lower magnification just incase I need to do the follow up shot. It took me too long to reacquire the target for the second shot last time.

It's all a learning experience. In a way I'm glad we missed our first one as that would have made me over confident and complacent - and I certainly would not be learning as much as I am!

 

[Butcher45]

No - we didn't check for blood, we saw birds taking off from the next treeline about 50 yards past where the yote first went out of sight so we figured he was long gone.

This sort of thing really makes me mad. I'm gonna have to lay into you a bit here.

You said yourself you are both new to hunting, so there are things you need to know if you are going to be shooting animals.

They (any animal) don't always drop dead where they stand like they are in a movie. They also don't always show any obvious sign of being hit. A coyote can run for hundreds of yards with it's lung, and guts hanging out of it's side.

There is a lot more to hunting that gadgets, accessories, and taking a shot on an animal. Tracking is a big part of hunting.

ORBRit, the fact is that you don't have any clue as to whether you missed, or hit that coyote. Why don't you know? Because you failed to take the time to walk a lousy 150 yards to take a GOOD look around and actually find out. You may very well have hit that coyote, and just left it to die a slow death if the vitals were not hit.

Seeing birds fly off 50 yards into the treeline means absolutely NOTHING. What is that supposed to mean?

Taking a shot on an animal is a RESPONSIBILITY. Part of that responsibility is following up on any shot taken by going to where you last saw the animal, and spending some time looking around for blood.

A hunter owes it to the animal, to do everything in his ability to do that animal right (even if it is "just a coyote"). Respect the game you are pursuing.

If you are wanting to be a true hunter, and not just some slob with a rifle, PLEASE be a responsible one, and don't assume ANYTHING after pulling that trigger. Take the time to verify it!

I didn't see any blood after shooting my coyote until I went another 5 yards or so into the woods from where I last saw it. I tracked it through thick timber on my hands and knees for about 100 yards before finding it piled up dead.

I shot it at around 11AM, and was prepared to track it until it got dark if that is what I had to do. If I didn't find it by then, I probably would have come back the following morning if I had reason to believe it could still be alive and suffering. That is what being a responsible hunter is all about. Following up.

If you are not prepared to do the same, you should NOT be hunting. That's all there is to it.

 

[ORBrit]

Let me clarify here - here is the sequence of events in detail.

Shot fired, coyote bolted into the stand of trees 50 yards away. We had clear visibility left and right but could not see the space between that stand of trees and the next one. We saw and heard the birds taking off in the next stand of trees.
We ran through the options and sequence of events and decided to try and see if we could get far enough past the trees to try and flush him back out into our shooting lane.

I drove down from the top of the rock quarry (only way down is by access road about a 1/2 mile long to the bottom of the hill on the opposite side from the draw we were looking into) and drove around and parked up on the road about 500 yards from the original stand of trees, in the only direction the coyote could have gone without being seen, and my friend stayed on top.

The plan was if the coyote was still in the trees between the road and the open ground that I would be able to push him back out into the open (or I was hoping in the back of my mind I would find him dead).

I went through two small stands of trees, and back to the treeline where we had last seen the coyote enter.
From the ground I could not determine the exact position the coyote had entered.
I went back up to get my friend, and then we rewalked the area I had just gone through and out to where we thought the shot had been made, and we were checking for prints to try and see which direction he had gone. We didn't consciously check for blood as we were pretty sure we would have noticed that looking for prints - and at the time we were pretty sure I'd missed. I was still trying to find the live coyote.
We did see prints up by the road, but all it showed was that a coyote (not necessarily the same one) had crossed through the fence and over the road - we had no way to track it beyond that.

Believe me I wanted so much to believe I had hit the coyote. I didn't just dismiss it and leave. I do take this seriously. I think my choice of caliber demonstrates that. It's not like I'm out there using a .22LR taking potshots at everything that moves.

I'd have to question my weapon choice if more often than not, tracking an injured animal became the norm.

 

[Butcher45]

In your last post you made it sound like it you were like "aw shucks I missed" and left it at that, when you said: "No - we didn't check for blood, we saw birds taking off from the next treeline about 50 yards past where the yote first went out of sight so we figured he was long gone." That sounded like you called it a wrap at that point.

You did make a good choice for a coyote cartridge for sure. My own gun is a lot like hunting them with a bow, so I'm ready to do some tracking. Assuming I do my part and put a shot into the vitals, even if he runs the coyote will be dead on his feet for certain. I'm going to use a much better slug in the future.

This is what I'll be shooting my next time out: 235grain Hollowpointed Keith #454424. They probably won't expand much if at all, but they won't really need to, and likely won't deflect like the roundball did. The next one will hopefully die a bit quicker as a result (though running 100 yards, then falling down dead isn't such a bad outcome).

Shot at 50 yards off a mono-pod while kneeling. I kinda lost control of the monopod for the second shot that is all by it's lonesome. I had just gotten this boolit sighted in when my ride showed up at work, so I didn't have time to shoot another group using this design. Next time I'll get them all together.

I'll be using 240grain WFN slugs just as soon as I can get more.

 

[ORBrit]

Sorry - looking back at my posts I can see how it looked like I just took a shot and left!
We actually spent more time after the shot than we did in the stand. I covered over a mile going back and forth from the road to the draw where I took the shot (twice).

I do appreciate the post even though I felt thoroughly chastised! You're obviously a more experienced hunter and so I hope to learn as much as I can from all sources available to me.