The weather has moderated to the point that the below zero temps have given way to low teens. I have gone out several mornings trying to call in some Coyotes, and have met with utter failure each time. Enough so that I have been catching up on my reading and unfortunately watching the steady decline of America on TV. There just aren't that many Coyotes this year. The only place that you can find them is with the Cows. There isn't enough food out there in the Sage to make it worth while, so they move into the ranches where the food supply concentrates.
Out of desperation I ordered a book off of Amazon for my Kindle that of course guaranteed that I could kill more Coyotes if I read it. What the heck, I was out of reading entertainment and anything to lower the learning curve of predator hunting would be a worthwhile pursuit.
One of the chapters concerned rifles and the best point to be sighted in. Now most rifles are sighted in for 100 yards. As most normal hunting situations are at distances like that or closer. Here the nearest tree or obstacle to sight is likely in a neighbors yard. As most of you know that the bullet as it leaves the barrel of a gun start lower than the line of sight, then arc above the line of sight, crossing again at predetermined distances and eventually dropping to the earth. How flat the bullet shoots is governed by weight, speed and ballistic co efficiency. I will not go into it in detail, but for instance a hunting rifle bullet can, with a 100 yard sight in, drop as much as 26 inches out at 300 yards. That of course makes it difficult to hit anything unless you know where it will cross the sighted line. The key of course is to know how much it drops at any given distance..
In essence there is a distance for sighting for each bullet by caliber, weight and speed that the bullet travels, that gives the least amount of variance. Coyotes are very cunning, as evidenced by history and Indian folklore. They do not willingly give up their hides. Lots of them hang up in the 200 and 300 yard range. If anything looks a bit out of order, they fade away without being seen. Sometimes what you do see is pretty small, so exact accuracy is of paramount importance.
I shoot a 22-250 rifle with a 40 grain explosive bullet that is traveling at 3672 feet per second. My reloading manual showed a 245 yard sight in as the best sight in range. That would mean that at 50 yards the bullet would be 3/4 of an inch high, 1 3/4 high at 100 yards, 2 1/2 high at 200 yards, and 3 1/2 inches low at 300 yards. The theory being that a straight on sighting would hit the kill zone on the Coyote no matter how far out it was. Sounds good- right?
My normal sight in is 100 yards. If they are further out then I hold a bit higher. So far this year I had not missed even out to 321 paces, but what the heck, I can handle improvement, most likely need it.
As you can imagine I was interested in trying all this out. Now, I have a good view of quite a bit of the area around me. I can see a 300 yard area below me that sometimes a Coyote will cross to get to the Creek, and up to 350 yards on the other side of the creek. I have been watching since early October and have seen nothing, other than Deer down there. So on a snowy morning I decide to go across the road and get set up before daylight to call there, I know that a local Bobcat sometimes hunts there and Coyotes use the area as well.
The temperature was 4 degrees. Now I used all my earnings from last year to get me set up for just this type of hunting. I can stay warm enough to spend 45 minutes sitting on the ground, but movement can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. I use a "stadium" type seat, and can lean back a bit, but sometimes the elevation that the Coyote shows up can cause a bit of a challenge to get the sights on the critter. Finally after about 45 minutes a Coyote appears on the creek bank below me at about 75 or so yards. I admit I was a bit shaky, but the sights were on the Coyotes shoulder when the trigger broke over. The Coyote squatted a bit and took off at high speed. Sometimes they will run a bit if the shot is not immediately fatal. If you can track them they will pile up after the adrenaline runs out. There was an inch of snow, so tracking was not going to be a problem.
I walked back to the truck, and drove to the other side of the creek and began my tracking, expecting to find the Coyote piled up in the heavy sage. Well there was no blood at all, and after about 500 yards or more he finally quit running and began walking to another part of the ranch where it was a bit less exciting. A total MISS! How in the hell did that happen? I just don't normally miss. Just ask my dog, she will tell you that. She thinks I never miss. The only thing I can imagine is that I was a bit high on the shoulder when the trigger broke, and the bullet just barely missed the top of the back. Well crap! That wasn't supposed to happen. Back to my cave to sulk.
I decided that the charts were wrong, and the bullet was not performing as it was reported to be. I shot groups at 100, and 200 yards and found that they matched the book exactly. A hard pill to swallow. Being of genuine W.VA. redneck stock, shooting has always been one of the things that I excel in and pride myself on. Oh well, I decided not to tell my dog.
Finally shame at my slothfulness crept in to the point that I could no longer ignore the guilt, so a new plan to hunt a new area that should have a bunch of critters that had never heard a varmint call before and would be waiting for me to come gather them up.
A bit of a glitch occurred when I woke the next morning to find that a pretty brisk wind had blown in about a half inch of snow. I decided to wait for daylight before I started out so that I could look the country over to find a good spot. The wind was of course in the wrong direction for what I had planned, so I was pretty sure that it was a waste, but what the hell, I was already dressed.
I started up the hill from the house just as the Sun came up, and immediately turned back for the camera that I had forgotten.
Already the day was better, just being able to see the Steens glowing with the rising Sun.
I spent an hour watching the empty landscape, suffering just enough to ease my conscious about my slothful ways.
I returned home determined to ignore the suspicion that I was growing old and worthless. About mid morning I decided to call an old friend from the area where we used to live. I spent about 10 minutes talking to his lovely wife, and had just began talking to him, when I see a Coyote pop out of the brush across the creek. At first I was a bit amazed at the sight. I have not even heard a Coyote howl for months. I hung up, grabbed my rifle and went out to the hot tub to use if for a rest. I know that the top of the hill is 350 yards away, so I figured him for 300 yards. I couldn't see enough of him at three power, so I cranked the scope up to 9 power, held just below the top of his back, thinking that it would drop at that range. I touched it off and could hear the "smack" of the bullet and see the Coyote drop. Better!
If any of you are wondering, a Coyote will supply 28 meals of hawk food, 30 if you don't blow them up. Its an ironic change of events that the top of the normal local food chain is now feeding those that he would normally prey on. First rule of Redneck- don't waste anything!
The hide fleshed quite well, and it only took 30 minutes or so to sew up the hole. Since the hide will be in a "tube shape" and turned hair side out, the missing part shouldn't matter all that much on the wall.
I think I will call him Frank. I just finished another fleshing session and will begin the tanning process this evening.
