Long range coyotes

[bobh918]

I just wanted to ask how others are hunting coyotes at long range, i.e. >300yds. Are you guys just driving around scouting, spot and stalk, or are you calling them? I've always been curious how guys are getting these long shots on yotes'. Thanks for your input!

 

[westcliffe01]

Usually it involves some sort of elevation difference to get good line of sight. Coyotes like to stay in cover or at most right in front of it in the eastern US. So in an agricultural setting, they will use the hedge rows around fields to cover their movements and you have to have the ability to spot them coming by observing those areas.

Where I live there is a lot of hunting pressure on private land during the hunting season, followed by scouting activity intermittently from Jan to September when hunting season is back on. So I have yet to call in a single coyote using a caller, even though I can snipe them fine from the same position. That tells me I am doing fine on my technique getting into my spot.

What works best for me (and validated with my trail cameras) is to go in 1 hour before dawn when it is pitch black, set up and wait for it gradually to lighten. I have always spotted the coyotes coming back from their nocturnal hunting and on the way to their dens (on land I am not allowed to enter).

To begin with, the coyotes were using a "draw" through the property to cover their movement from adjacent land towards the barn where the sheep are in the morning. I would be on high ground to the west, mostly with the wind in my face, them moving left to right along the edge of a pond that is in the draw. The closest point to me was 250 yards. As they headed up the slope to the barn the distance increased to 350 yards and just west of the barn is a hill that was at 450 yards. In the opposite direction was a line of woods at about 140 yards that they would hug, after I killed those so bold as to head straight for the barn. I killed 3 coyotes in the last year approaching just in front of that wood line. From that position, they would hit the flock while they were grazing in the 2 fields to the west. I spent a lot of time in those 2 fields last summer with my loader backhoe clearing brush to cut down on places they could set their ambush, but there is still much to be done.

This is not my farm, BTW, this is what I do for hunting privileges.

 

[tomestone]

I live in a irrigation area,the irrigation pivots points are 440yds to the center of the field ,+30yds to the center of road. There are roads,to regulate water flow ,around every field,since I am doing a drive by, I like the Ballistc Pix best. Range Finder is the,pivot point, shut truck off ,rifle on hood, lots of practice at the range,missed a lot, but got 59 some over 500yds. Field shooting is not same as range shooting, targets are not a set distances,I practice a lot to run and gun.