What a long night. Both of us not feeling so well but we pushed through. Rory was hurting. He’s definitely addicted to coyote hunting. He looked rough.
The second stand this guy was spotted walking the call in. He ran down into the ravine and after a few howls and agitating him a little he stepped out and gave us a 245 yard shot. We saw a few more but couldn’t get sights on them long enough. Dogs talking always keep you interested. We expected more but will take what we can get.
So plans changed in a hurry last night. A neighbor was swimming when the fire station siren went off and their hillside went nuts with coyotes. The sun dropped and two members of our crew moved in and setup. 10 minutes later we had a female come in. 5 yards from the caller and down she went. We will be back with more guns asap.
Cloudy night with a big moon equaled weird dogs tonight. At the end of the first set we had a quick shot at a late arriving dog and it sounded like a hard hit. Ended up running into the woods. That’s hunting. Later in the evening we had another late arrival and the stars were aligned. Rory was pointed that direction when a big ole male came in and stood at 53 yards. The old Colt AR dropped him right there. Nice shooting Rory! Met some very nice folks and their company made the night that much better.
Starting on a fresh property that’s sat since winter brought some eager dogs. We missed one walking in but didn’t skip a beat to finish strong. All shooting suppressed we dug in and started from the same spot. Wasn’t long before this nice male came in. He wasn’t so happy with Rory, John, and Garrett on the gun. He didn’t take another step.
Next stand brought no blood to the count but we saw two dogs working the area during setup.
Walking out we could hear a coyote howling near the first stand. We closed some distance and started talking back. She started answering and she was closing the gap. 20 minutes later she broke into the field and crossed to the corn. She was fired up marking her territory, barking and howling at us. She finally came in to a distance the guys felt comfortable with and down she went.
Time to leave here and move on. About 30 minutes in we nailed this nice male. He managed to get into the corn and we had some tracking to do. These guys don’t give up and we were rewarded for it.
We did one more stand and things just got quiet. Time for sleep if the brain will shut down. Rory on the camera taking some awesome pictures.
We ain’t no fancy group. Just a bunch of rag tag red necks (kidding) enjoying helping the community keep the predator population down. The group is a bunch of responsible professionals. Just a low keyed group of guys that just trying to get better at this tough type of hunting.
Our group uses various kinds of equipment to do this and some thermal setups with rifle and tripid over $10000! There’s always someone behind the scenes that sells this equipment and backs up your purchase easing your mind on spending that much cash. That man is Cameron Gonder of Thermal Optics Plus. Helluva good guy and takes care of his customers. We appreciate you!
Nice to get out and on a couple dogs. Second stand had one hang at 300 and she got tagged teamed by all 3. One shot made it ro the target before the other 2. The next stand we called in another single and miscommunication let this one get away. That’s hunting I guess and we will have to work harder to put that educated dog down but we will get it. Video taken with the Halo LR on 8x. She’s grainy but glad I had 8x available.
Last night we had too many people for transportation and safe hunting size groups so we split up for this evening. Can’t be more proud of Rory for calling in his first and putting lead on two. I think he’s hooked and he pays attention to detail. We’re going to put down many more dogs this year. Congrats Rory on a brute of a dog. That should be a 40lb dog guessing.
Trying to get a buddy on his first coyote on a farm that is very active with cattle. Calves were separated today and they were making a good bunch of noise. I picked up a dog near the calves and hit the caller. This girl started heading out away from us, cut hard and followed the tall hay before finally heading back to us. She finally slowed up and had that look like she was going to scatter. My buddy shooting a 22 Mag couldn’t get on her. She was dropped at 206 yards with the 22 Nosler and Halo LR. We’ll try another night to get that first. This dog wanted steaks tonight.
We hunt suppressed to keep noise down for property owners and confuse predators. Here’s an example of 5.56 not suppressed next to a hotter 22 Nosler round suppressed.
One last bucket list. Going to get an ole buddy on a dog to fulfill a personal goal. Fingers crossed we have some video and pics this weekend.