I took a 4 " piece of 1/2 " pvc pipe drilled a hole near the middle of it put a 36" boot lace in the hole tied a knot in that end then made a slip loop in the other end of it . I put the loop over the top jaws canine teeth so that I can drag animals behind me to keep from getting so many fleas on me to take home for my wife to get up set about . When I needed to remove one from the field with out making a sent trail I carried a large black plastic garbage bar to put them in for that reason as well as to keep from getting too bloody .
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
- Thread starter DSheetz
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Over the years I've seen and heard coyote do some strange things compared to what we humans say and do it's maybe not so strange after all . After a couple of times of killing a coyote out of a pair and leaving it lay where it was shot then later that day or night hearing the other coyote get close to where the dead coyote was and do long mournful howls I told an older coyote hunter that I thought that coyote mourned their dead like we do . He told me that I was goofier then a f------pet coon so I just dropped that conversation . Latter , a few years , I was talking with a world known coyote hunter and trapper out of Montana he agreed with what I had observed as well he told me that if you left your dead coyote laying where you had shot or killed them the other coyote would avoid that area till the body had decayed to nothing . I tried that when we had snow on the ground for tracking and found it to be true . I killed a large male coyote with an M44 and his two female partners would leave the road before they got close to the site and travel around that area then return to the road latter after passing where he had died for the rest of their lives which wasn't really all that long , a couple of weeks . but I have also seen where the new coyote entering the area would find the dead coyote and then avoid the area also . I have taken the male from a denning pair or the female and left the other with the pups for awhile just to see what they would do . sometimes they would move the pups . But most of the time they would bring in a new coyote from another area to help raise the pups . I have killed the adults from a den of pups a few times and left the pups to see if my first findings were correct . I found that most times with in a day or two another pair , without pups , would come in and start raising the pups . But if they had pups of their own they often would move the pups closer to their den if not right with their own pups . I think that Reemty saw this happen a couple of springs ago with a den he took the female from the male brought in another female but when he shot the male the new female took the pups back to where she had come from that first night . I have been within a few feet of the den and laid down let out a couple of hurt puppy squeals , on my crittr call , and had the adults glair into my eyes with anger and hate showing on their faces . More times then I can count I have had both adults run from the den area and get out a few hundred yards stand and bark make short howls and in general make a show to try to draw the invading coyote away from the den hole with young pups in it . No they are not humans with all of our emotions . But if you have ever had a really good once in a life time dog as your friend and companion you can see what the majority of coyote act like . We have done a real good job of selective breeding with the coyote we as people kill the coyote we see when we can and they are often not the educated and cautious coyote . Those coyote live to pair up with and have pups with other coyote that are the same . Those pups are raised by adults that then show their pups to be the same as they are . Coyote are fast learners or are dead coyote that's just the way life is for a coyote . Not saying any thing bad about any person that hunts coyote we all take the coyote that we have the chance to . Alot of us just haven't been around the coyote enough to really get to see how they are if they are just being coyote and not called trapped or snared or at different times of the year when we normally are looking to call coyote in the winter .
I believe this also and think alot of animals are the same. Many if not all creatures of Mother Nature have been proven to mourn the loss if fellow herd/pack/flock members. I may have told this in the past but I've seen countless times in waterfowl hunting, especially Canada Geese, which is my forte, that to were very family oriented. Mate for life, older pairs will foster the younger pairs goslings, etc. When hunting them, if you call in a family group and don't shoot the best and some get away, the next flock you have working will all of a sudden be joined by those birds and then the gig is up and they all leave. See this happen all the time.
Well I blew it.....maybe. Had decent wind today to try for that female but not the best apparantly. Was only probably 150yd from the house, walked through the stock lot and through corner of pasture and noticed tracks not within 50yd of the shed. Went on through the narrow line of brush to where I wanted to setup and more tracks throughout brush also. All tracks were last nights or early this AMs. Brushline only 30yd wide but thick. Got where I wanted and just sat a few to settle in before calling when I seen it out on the ice walking down the drainage canal to my left and almost downwind. UUUGGGHHH! Of all the places for it to be. To my right was the large section of swamp and in front is a long wide open lane where it was at the end of just a few days before. Well it made its way on the ice and through the brush where I had no shot and couldn't see it the whole time. I assume it may have caught my wind a little. It didn't spook it just turned around and started going back the way it came. I knew to be ready as it could pop out in the open lane at any second and sure enough it did. About 100yd and I missed it clean. UUUGGGHHH!!! Among other fruitfull words. I knew right then something was wrong. I immediately went back to house for a handful of bullets and a target and to the bench I went. All of this is within 100yd of my house. 1st shot on target, about 6" low and 2" left of center at 100, well BEEP. I know it happens and stuff gets bumped but never fails to happen to me at the worst times lol. What I HOPE I have going for me is that I didn't call any so still have that in my pocket and these things are somewhat used to comotion and whatnot around the house here. They are used to hearing me shoot some as my range is right here and they are used to us and the livestock banging and clanging around all the time so maybe it aint too scared and will stick around, they usually do. Got the scope back where it needs to be so next time hopefully I wont miss! Definately NEED to get this one put down. This ones gutsy enough to get that close to the stock and shed with lambs in it, its gotta go!
Straight Shooter
Well-Known Member
Dave, a few years back I had a coyote come in quick to 19 yards. He caught me off guard. When he stopped to look back for his partner I raised up and shot him right behind the shoulder with my 17 Remington. I could see him turn and bite at his shoulder because of the light recoil. He took off back the way he had come and I didn't even jack another round in because I figured he was dead on his feet. Well, he kept running and running and got back into the rocky little coulee he had come out of. I couldn't believe it. I went and looked for blood and found none. I followed him back to the coulee and figured I would find him there dead. Nothing. I couldn't believe it. 19 yards. I wandered back to my calling spot and sat down to relive the experience and see if I could figure out what went wrong. As I was sitting there a coyote walked out on a hill 600 yards away and begin to howl. It was such a mournful howl that it made me feel terrible. Had to be the mate. I don't know where he ended up dying, but then I knew he had. I will never forget that.
Straight Shooter , 25 years ago I was out spotting for the Government plane one morning . I located 4 coyote called in the plane . They came in on the coyote while they were out in a pasture the plane got two as they made the first couple of passes and two of them made it to a hill side cover in sage brush where the plane lost sight of them . I looked the hill side over and spotted them gave the pilot a course and a mark when they were over the coyote . They spotted them and the coyote stayed in place as the plane came around to make another pass the pilot cut back on the throttle glided in and I heard two shots saw one coyote break and run the second fell . As the pilot gunned the engine and came around for the second coyote I heard the one that had been hit start to howl long mournful howls . They came in on the last coyote took it and I told them that the other coyote needed a couple more shots as it was still laying there howling those long mournful howls . They had other coyote located and needed to go to them so I drove over and took care of him with my 22 pistol . He was an old dog coyote probably 5 or six years old , he was shot in the back and couldn't use his back legs and would die but in the meantime he was letting out some long mournful howls for the other coyote to know there was trouble in the area .
In 1987 I had gone to do some coyote work for a ranch during the summer . I called and killed three coyote early in the day they had come in and I shot them at a reasonable distance averaging 50 yards or so . The forth coyote was a different story completely I let out a series of dyeing rabbit screams and hadn't even finished with it when I saw a coyote about 20 feet in front of me on a dead run my way . I raised my rifle saw a bunch of fur in the scope squeezed the trigger and the fur disappeared from view . As I lowered the rifle the coyote lay on the ground close enough that I touched it with my rifle barrel to make sure it wasn't going to bite me and didn't have to stretch to do so . The next set was about a mile down the road . As I made my way to the set a coyote ran out of the draw below me around 300 yards away . I howled at it as it came out of the draw and onto a small hill side it stopped . I gave it a couple of short howls and a bark . It stood howled and barked back at me . We exchanged insults and challenges for several minutes after probably 20 or 25 minutes it sat down beside a sage brush and continued to give me he-- . I got it in the scope and figured the distance to be a little over 500 yards . I wasn't real keen on making that long of a shot with a 223 and a 55 grain hollow point but there wasn't even a breeze so I settled down laid my rifle on top of the cut bank I was setting beside of put my cross hair on it's ear tips and centered the vertical hair on it's body . I squeezed the trigger the shot went off . In the scope I saw the coyote hump over and set into howling and yipping kicking and wallowing around . I made my way over to it found that the bullet had hit it low in the stomach near the pelvis . On my way over to it , it was doing some very mournful howls for several minutes before it died . The distance was over 550 yards when I got a range finder and checked it .
In 1985 I got a Remington 700 chambered in 17 Remington . The brass was necked down 222 Remington magnum brass , I could buy loaded ammo with a 25 grain hollow point bullet traveling at 4200 feet per second mv , or I could buy 25 grain hollow point bullets and reload my own . I bought the loaded ammo saved the brass , as I couldn't find brass for it and didn't want to size and neck turn 222 Rem brass . I decided to use 4320 powder to load my own and slow them down some to about 3500 fps mv . I had pretty good accuracy with a group of an inch at 100 yards . I couldn't at that time find any cleaning supplies for a 17 caliber in my area or in any of the catalogues I had access to , so at first I settled on using a string with a patch tied on it and JB paste to clean it till I made a rod out of a piece of brazing rod by setting it up in a milling machine and drilling holes in one end then cutting them out with a file to make a slot and milled flats one both sides for clarence for a patch . I cut it to over the length of the barrel and glued it in a wooden file handle and used that to clean it with . It did ok at killing prairie dogs most of the time till the wind started to gust then I couldn't hold minute of prairie dog out after 100 yards and then sometimes the bullet would just kind of disappear on it's way even with out any wind . But I decided to try it out on coyote , fox and bobcats any way . The first couple of coyote it worked well on but then I got to one in a snow storm we had snow flurries some wind gusts and the temperature was below zero . The coyote was broad side at 75 yards when I shot it bang it flopped down wallowed around jumped up started running I had already chambered another round , so I put another shot in him down he went . After I drug him back to the truck I started examining him and found on his side a place that had no fur on it about half an inch wide and an inch long where the first bullet had splashed and not penetrated . So then back to the range I went set up my target and put twenty rounds down range over an hours time so I wouldn't get it too hot . I went out gathered my target and there was only 17 holes in the target with some of them being elongated . Being young and not having much money I sold it and bought a Remington 788 chambered in 223 Remington instead of having it re-barreled . Today there has been a lot more study and innovations made in the world of bullet design and construction and I'm sure the 17's of today will be a better coyote rifle as are the 204's . When we get into a conflict and send our military to other countries some of them come back and they want something different out of their firearms . they aren't happy with what the factory has to offer so we get better rifles , better scopes , better bullets and bullet designs as well as better powders to propel the bullets with .
204 smokes the 17, not even in the same class……
I have killed coyotes from 40 to 600 yards with the 39 grain SBK you can't do that with a 17…. Brent the wolf killer from idaho can attest to this as he shoots steel to 800 yards with similar combo.
I have killed coyotes from 40 to 600 yards with the 39 grain SBK you can't do that with a 17…. Brent the wolf killer from idaho can attest to this as he shoots steel to 800 yards with similar combo.74 honker what bullets do you want to shoot in her 204, I can more than likely help you. 39 grain SBK with 29.6 grains AA2520 and you have 3850-3900 in 25.6" barrel. I have 40 grain Berger that shoots well in same load, also have some 32 grain SBK…. Been a poor snow winter, best day was 3 coyotes all spot and stalk, 51 last year 22 so far this year, lots of days warm and wind.
Well the plan is for the 39 SBK but like everything, hard to find. I have some A2230, H335, benchmark, and couple others to try. I can't let you give up your stash. We'll find some sooner or later lol. At least you're putting a few down. I'd be tickled with 22 right now!
