My two oldest sons must have found my Christmas List. They surprised me with a Burris Fast Fire III and a Speed Bead mount! To top that off, one of them also got me a Mesa Tactical shotshell carrier that mounts to the side of the action. We got them all installed and dialed the FF III in the other evening so I couldn't help myself but to do some testing this morning. lightbulb I just read the Red Zone article on Desert Hunter so with new tactics fresh in mind, I headed out to a sea of sagebrush near my house.
The sun was up by the time I got to my first stand. I dropped the face mask on my Quick Camo hat and pulled up the hood on my wannabe ghillie jacket. Tucking what would fit of me into the shaded side of a telephone pole, I started the Shockwave with some Eastern Cottontail. I ramped the volume up after a couple of minutes and at the five minute mark a coyote, as if he had read the script, slipped in through the tall sage towards the edge of the more open area the call and MOJO Puppy were in. His head was just visible through the edge of a sage at 12 or 15 yards as he eyeballed the decoy. The beautiful bright red dot settled on his face and, "Boom", coyote down! He turned out to be a good sized male with beautiful, prime fur. I'm now pretty stoked about the new shotgun set-up!
Two stands later I'm on Adult Cottontail and again at around the five minute mark, I see a small coyote running through the sage towards the caller. She is coming hard and I'm sure she is going to head straight on into the "opening" but she turns and comes straight towards me through the edge of the tall brush. Had I been better acquainted with the FF III, she would have been dead ten yards from me but I'm still using it like a scope and don't get the shot off. I jumped to my feet and miss one more shot losing sight of her as she darts through the brush. I finally remind myself to open both eyes and, picking her up again, I miss one more time then finally roll her at, let's just say, it was a long shot for a scattergun! She appeared to be a rare-for-this-year yearling coyote. I made another three blank stands before heading back to the house.
Here is the new set-up. I'm pretty much digging it.
A better photo of the shell carrier.
My youngest son, Ben, and I went out and made another three stands this evening but I'm beginning to think he's bad luck. All we got was exercise which isn't all bad.
The sun was up by the time I got to my first stand. I dropped the face mask on my Quick Camo hat and pulled up the hood on my wannabe ghillie jacket. Tucking what would fit of me into the shaded side of a telephone pole, I started the Shockwave with some Eastern Cottontail. I ramped the volume up after a couple of minutes and at the five minute mark a coyote, as if he had read the script, slipped in through the tall sage towards the edge of the more open area the call and MOJO Puppy were in. His head was just visible through the edge of a sage at 12 or 15 yards as he eyeballed the decoy. The beautiful bright red dot settled on his face and, "Boom", coyote down! He turned out to be a good sized male with beautiful, prime fur. I'm now pretty stoked about the new shotgun set-up!
Two stands later I'm on Adult Cottontail and again at around the five minute mark, I see a small coyote running through the sage towards the caller. She is coming hard and I'm sure she is going to head straight on into the "opening" but she turns and comes straight towards me through the edge of the tall brush. Had I been better acquainted with the FF III, she would have been dead ten yards from me but I'm still using it like a scope and don't get the shot off. I jumped to my feet and miss one more shot losing sight of her as she darts through the brush. I finally remind myself to open both eyes and, picking her up again, I miss one more time then finally roll her at, let's just say, it was a long shot for a scattergun! She appeared to be a rare-for-this-year yearling coyote. I made another three blank stands before heading back to the house.
Here is the new set-up. I'm pretty much digging it.
A better photo of the shell carrier.
My youngest son, Ben, and I went out and made another three stands this evening but I'm beginning to think he's bad luck. All we got was exercise which isn't all bad.
