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Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

A job well done and a good example of just having a dog with you invites coyote to lose some of their caution and approach you closer. The dog doesn't need to act aggressive towards them or be trained to decoy them, they just want it out of their territory. I have watched coyote react to a dog but not cross into another area staying on the edge of their boundary lines setting and watching a dog, sometimes barking and doing yodels at them but mostly just watching them if they weren't in their area. Food for thought maybe? You do want a dog that listens to you and will respond to you calling it off, not your family pet for the most part. But my dogs were all family friendly and good pets also, I did have one or two that didn't allow other people in their truck unless I invited them in, and you didn't want to make sudden moves toward the family or enter the home. And I kind of wanted that.
 
The 6 Creed looks to be pretty effective with your bullet choice. At least if you don't save the hides. lol
This is a 25 creed with the 110 ELDX at 3130 fps. Very deadly out to 750 but definitely not fur friendly. My 135 Berger load at 2860 fps is pretty good for saving the pelt and better at longer ranges. I generally prefer the ELDX now as it's deadly even with marginal hits.
 
A good hit in the lower part of the chest on a coyote where their heart and lungs are, is always bloody. A lot of people don't take into account that gravity, and them walking on all fours has their heart and lungs lower than we would normally think they would be, but the same as with antelope, elk and deer they aren't close to the spine but lower. My preferred shot placement is mid chest behind the shoulder, and with the loads I make most of the time they go stiff legged and tip over to not regain consciousness with that placement. I don't worry about saving the fur most of the time, but I don't really like to make a big mess that I need to drag around and clean out of the bed of my truck, it does happen though. Dead is dead it's just a matter of how messy you make it. When you are doing longer range shots often the weight of the bullets that will do the best tend to make a mess of things that are smaller in size. When you get a call about a problem your main objective is to make the problem go away.
 
I took the Remington 700 SPS with the plastic stock chambered in 308 out and shot it with the Burris scope sighted it in. It did the best with Nosler 168 grain match grade rounds. I had a stock ordered for it, an At-1 from Boyds with red hawk bottom metal, bedded it then took it out and got less than 1-inch groups at 100 yards. I had a new 260 chambered 26" heavy remage barrel from EA Brown so I put it on the action set the head space and it runs less than the 308 groups with factory loads of Remington 140 grain core lok psp's . Now the 308 barrel will be set up and dialed in turned and threaded so that I can screw a barrel nut on it and make it a switch barrel. I like the Remington 260 round, it's a necked down 308 the same way a 7-mm 0 8 is and the predecessor of the 6.5 Creedmoor, it wasn't as well advertised but has some pretty interesting ballistics, a less steep shoulder angle, not the sharper shoulder angle of an AI cartridge. I do things like this just for the fun of it now and to keep me occupied and kind of out of trouble with my wife.
 

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Dave, how do you like that AT-1 stock? I recently got a CZ 457 in 17hmr, and thought about getting one of those. I ended up building my own out of cabinet grade plywood. It's patterned after the McMillan game warden LR-TG stocks on my long range rifles. It was my first attempt at inletting a stock and I made lots of mistakes, but it turned out pretty good and I'm very pleased with the fit and feel of it. My original plan was to learn on this and then get a McMillan flat top and inlet that myself, but this works so well that I may not change it. It's sure a fun trainer for practicing positions other than prone. I've been shooting quite a bit off a tripod, but as you saw, I need more practice because my shot on that coyote was low. That's what I like about the 110 ELDX—the shrapnel took his heart out anyway.

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I like it pretty well; it has a little more square corners than I preferer and some plastic inserts but overall is a good stock. I like the looks of your stock, you did well. The first one I made was out of some old American Walnut that had gotten brittle, but it turned out good and was mostly for learning. For me the learning is what I am looking for because that's what makes it so enjoyable for me. I like the loads I make up because of the shrapnel doing so much internal damage, as well the same as you do, but not leaving the body cavity, all of the energy is transferred to the animal. I have some 95 grain bullets that I will test drive before long.
 
The other evening, I went down and helped cook for a gathering. I like doing it as then I get to visit people that I might only see once or twice a year and giving a few hours of my time for a good cause is pleasurable as well. One of the younger guys always has a few questions for me, this time he asked me one of my friends down in Denver has an AR, he put a can on it but now he says it doesn't function like it should. He then showed me a picture of it. It was actually a pistol barreled version, he only had a 12" barrel on it, was running lake city surplus ammo. So, then I asked him a few questions of my own. What diameter is the gas port, did he put an adjustable gas block on it, did he change out the buffer and buffer spring? He looked at me like I had some sort of highly contagious disease. I then told him that as his friend was a LEO he might want to visit with their armorer and get some help from him. While there I got to visit with several of the local ranchers and they all had about the same observations as I did, the numbers of small rodents were higher this year, mice, rabbits and p-dogs were plentiful this year, all of the fruit trees had a lot of fruit. We had a good spring with good moisture and plentiful grass, lower numbers of antelope fawns but good deer fawn numbers, and a lot of fox and coyote young.
 
Yesterday my wife and I went to Cheyenne, they have been getting some rain down there and the grass has sprouted now, it was so dry that it didn't this spring. My neighbor texted me and asked me if I could help him and his friend this morning with his friend's new rifle. They had mounted a scope on it the way I had shown him awhile back, but it wasn't grouping. Yes, I will look at it with you bring it over. I pulled the bolt and magazine put it the gun vice and right away noticed that the action was moving in the stock. It has a plastic stock, and the stock is a little flimsy, I said have you checked the action screws and cleaned it. No why? I don't like the way they come, and need cleaned before you shoot them, and I like to check the action screws but that's just me. I reached down and got my allen wrench out of my torque wrench set put it in one of the action screws and unscrewed it with my fingers, the next one wasn't any tighter. Well, I think we have it figured out you guys. We set up the torque wrench for the specks and tightened them. I told them to go out and see how it does now. One of the bigger problems with the plastic stocks is that they compress, and the action screws loosen, and they move around easily to put pressure on your barrel if you don't watch how, you rest it. Both can be addressed, but I like to replace them when I can. I took a Remington 700 action apart and stripped it for re-bluing that will be a later date project, smoothing it getting the rust and old bluing off.
 
My wife's little dog was messing around in the backyard and came running in with a yellow jacket stuck on her lip. She only weighs 8 pounds, so we talked to the vet and gave her some Benadryl cut for her size. I've been playing with trapping them since then. I found one nest in a flower bed and eliminated it, but there are still a bunch around coming from other places. One of the best traps that I found was a simple designed one made by Terro, but I can't find refills for the attractant. Next best was called rescue and has some good attractant and available refills for it. I make treats for my dog using some lamb and rice dog food by putting some in a Ziploc bag adding some water then making a paste out of it mashing it then spread it out and dry it, then before it's too dry cut it into little bars an inch wide and two and a half to three inches long. He likes them a little moist best but will eat them dried and crunchy. A few days ago, I made Walts treats and had them drying outside and noticed that the yellow jackets and wasps were really attracted to it. This morning, I cleaned out my Terro trap and put some of the dog food and some choke cherries which they also like well, in it filled it to the water line with warm water two drops of dish soap as a wetting agent for their wings and hung it out where they have been swarming. In about 20 minutes I had already caught a dozen of them. It's working better at this time than the store-bought baits. And so far, I haven't caught any honeybees.
 
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