So yesterday AM while drinking my coffee and looking over the deer herd in the field by the house out comes a coyote. I had just let the dogs out for the AM potty break. I run for the gun and the wife goes for the dogs to get them back in. Knowing I have only seconds usually to get a crack at one right here I don't always have time to get the best rest. I chose the side mirror of my truck. Bad choice as I could geg settled and missed it clean at about 150. But....about 30 minutes later was able to get redemption when another popped out. A tad over 300 this time and trotting. This time I had the better angle and could bipod across the hood lol. The 168gn smk was not kind to him! Reemty, you said we have some dark ones, well look how dark and red this one is! Top teeth still good points but bottoms wore off some.
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
- Thread starter DSheetz
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Congrats they are dark....way to close the deal.
Day off today, took a while to locate a coyote after 1/2 hour or more glassing, left the truck and walked into an area of grass, canals and pivots. Spotted a male 700 yards off watched him a while till he laid down, thought I had him pinpointed and got within 400 yards. Set up Gun on Harris bipod and gave a few barks and a couple male challenge howls waited a while, nothing couple more.......long story short I thought he wasn't interested as I didn't see him, I found out in the snow that he came running in, paused at 150 yards off to my right and then approached to 75 yards before he winded me and busted.... I never saw him even though he was in reasonable sigh. Grass was 2' tall but thin overcast day and he was a little farther right than I thought and In a shallow swale and I was toooooo focused on where I thought he was...lesson learned.
Went over to an 1100 acre field that coyotes loveto layup in. Stopped pickup and started glassing right away see two about A mile out there, continued to glass for 20 minutes and see that there is 4 laying out there, 2 side by side and one on each side of them 75 yards each way. proceeded into a canal and started toward them heading west, they are 600-700 yards north of the canal and the wind is out of the northwest, canal is 5' deep and thin grass so I was covered, made it 1/2 mile or more and I see 2/3 of the way up a hill to the south is a 130 class whitetail buck these coyotes killed last night, it was covered with 6-8 eagles and 20+ ravens. I keep heading down the canal and still 400 yards from the deer, as I work in I keep and eye on the 4 coyotes, one that was laying off to the side gets up and comes to the pair and then starts heading south, I knew darn well he was heading to the deer, so I started double timing he had 1100 yards Togo and I had 200 but knew it would be close. The canal crossed a drainage and it had a wooden sluice over it so I crawled through at and once I was there I was behind a 4' bank and 192 yards from the deer. Coyote was out of site but about 2-3 minutes later he showed up south of the creek and heading to the carcass. It was very interesting watching him approach the carcass, he circled it, and also fed. He would eat and pull on it for 20-30 seconds and then swivel neck all around. I watched him for about 5 minutes hoping the other 3 would come too but no luck there. Decided to pop him and challenge howl with kiyi also...ka-pow dropped dead no twitch. Spun my head to the others, the pair jumped up and the single just laid there, keep in mind they were 800 yards away. The female decided she didn't like it and she trotted off to the north, the dominant male that was laying with her ( he was so dark he looked almost black in the sun) slowly followed her, she was really light colored. So all I had left was the one that laid there alert...I got out of canal and dropped into the creek it was 8' deep so easy to move 200 yards west and I was somewhere between 688-712 yards directly south of him, hard to get exact range in a fairly flat stubble field. Tried some challenge howls, male and female, he looked but not interested gave it 15-20 minutes no luck...soooo started doing the math on the reticle as I was going to try a Hail Mary shot.....4 hash marks down is 600 yards and with the wind I figured it would drift 4' range finder indicated closer to 700 so I held a hair more than 4 hash marks and 4 into the wind. Beauty ofthe204 is you can watch bullet impact. I let drive and I hit about 6-8" over that coyote and it got up and ran darn near right at me....
maybe I was getting better luck than earlier this morning.
Went over to an 1100 acre field that coyotes loveto layup in. Stopped pickup and started glassing right away see two about A mile out there, continued to glass for 20 minutes and see that there is 4 laying out there, 2 side by side and one on each side of them 75 yards each way. proceeded into a canal and started toward them heading west, they are 600-700 yards north of the canal and the wind is out of the northwest, canal is 5' deep and thin grass so I was covered, made it 1/2 mile or more and I see 2/3 of the way up a hill to the south is a 130 class whitetail buck these coyotes killed last night, it was covered with 6-8 eagles and 20+ ravens. I keep heading down the canal and still 400 yards from the deer, as I work in I keep and eye on the 4 coyotes, one that was laying off to the side gets up and comes to the pair and then starts heading south, I knew darn well he was heading to the deer, so I started double timing he had 1100 yards Togo and I had 200 but knew it would be close. The canal crossed a drainage and it had a wooden sluice over it so I crawled through at and once I was there I was behind a 4' bank and 192 yards from the deer. Coyote was out of site but about 2-3 minutes later he showed up south of the creek and heading to the carcass. It was very interesting watching him approach the carcass, he circled it, and also fed. He would eat and pull on it for 20-30 seconds and then swivel neck all around. I watched him for about 5 minutes hoping the other 3 would come too but no luck there. Decided to pop him and challenge howl with kiyi also...ka-pow dropped dead no twitch. Spun my head to the others, the pair jumped up and the single just laid there, keep in mind they were 800 yards away. The female decided she didn't like it and she trotted off to the north, the dominant male that was laying with her ( he was so dark he looked almost black in the sun) slowly followed her, she was really light colored. So all I had left was the one that laid there alert...I got out of canal and dropped into the creek it was 8' deep so easy to move 200 yards west and I was somewhere between 688-712 yards directly south of him, hard to get exact range in a fairly flat stubble field. Tried some challenge howls, male and female, he looked but not interested gave it 15-20 minutes no luck...soooo started doing the math on the reticle as I was going to try a Hail Mary shot.....4 hash marks down is 600 yards and with the wind I figured it would drift 4' range finder indicated closer to 700 so I held a hair more than 4 hash marks and 4 into the wind. Beauty ofthe204 is you can watch bullet impact. I let drive and I hit about 6-8" over that coyote and it got up and ran darn near right at me....
maybe I was getting better luck than earlier this morning.
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That coyote kept running toward me, stopped around 300-350 and kept swivel necking trying to figure out where I was. Then he dropped in a low spot, I kept watching and pretty soon he popped up a little over 200 away and started veering off to my left, put the cross hairs on him when he stopped, went to touch trigger and he started off, heard the pop and then a yip and knew I made a poor shot, right thru both back legs, big mess one more shot to kill him. So here is what I learned, the 4 coyotes were 3 males and a hot female, so they are just like white tails, all 3 males were mature, the two I killed were 2-3 years old and they were not the dominant one. I knew I had a sweet deal when I saw that carcass and was hoping to do a " Tim " (a quad) 
but only got two, but still a good day and a day I thanked HIM who gifted me with some blessings
dang I love to hunt these rascals......... that's 37 with the 204 one with shotgun, 32 of them since Oct.
but only got two, but still a good day and a day I thanked HIM who gifted me with some blessings dang I love to hunt these rascals......... that's 37 with the 204 one with shotgun, 32 of them since Oct.
Congrat'sDay off today, took a while to locate a coyote after 1/2 hour or more glassing, left the truck and walked into an area of grass, canals and pivots. Spotted a male 700 yards off watched him a while till he laid down, thought I had him pinpointed and got within 400 yards. Set up Gun on Harris bipod and gave a few barks and a couple male challenge howls waited a while, nothing couple more.......long story short I thought he wasn't interested as I didn't see him, I found out in the snow that he came running in, paused at 150 yards off to my right and then approached to 75 yards before he winded me and busted.... I never saw him even though he was in reasonable sigh. Grass was 2' tall but thin overcast day and he was a little farther right than I thought and In a shallow swale and I was toooooo focused on where I thought he was...lesson learned.
Went over to an 1100 acre field that coyotes loveto layup in. Stopped pickup and started glassing right away see two about A mile out there, continued to glass for 20 minutes and see that there is 4 laying out there, 2 side by side and one on each side of them 75 yards each way. proceeded into a canal and started toward them heading west, they are 600-700 yards north of the canal and the wind is out of the northwest, canal is 5' deep and thin grass so I was covered, made it 1/2 mile or more and I see 2/3 of the way up a hill to the south is a 130 class whitetail buck these coyotes killed last night, it was covered with 6-8 eagles and 20+ ravens. I keep heading down the canal and still 400 yards from the deer, as I work in I keep and eye on the 4 coyotes, one that was laying off to the side gets up and comes to the pair and then starts heading south, I knew darn well he was heading to the deer, so I started double timing he had 1100 yards Togo and I had 200 but knew it would be close. The canal crossed a drainage and it had a wooden sluice over it so I crawled through at and once I was there I was behind a 4' bank and 192 yards from the deer. Coyote was out of site but about 2-3 minutes later he showed up south of the creek and heading to the carcass. It was very interesting watching him approach the carcass, he circled it, and also fed. He would eat and pull on it for 20-30 seconds and then swivel neck all around. I watched him for about 5 minutes hoping the other 3 would come too but no luck there. Decided to pop him and challenge howl with kiyi also...ka-pow dropped dead no twitch. Spun my head to the others, the pair jumped up and the single just laid there, keep in mind they were 800 yards away. The female decided she didn't like it and she trotted off to the north, the dominant male that was laying with her ( he was so dark he looked almost black in the sun) slowly followed her, she was really light colored. So all I had left was the one that laid there alert...I got out of canal and dropped into the creek it was 8' deep so easy to move 200 yards west and I was somewhere between 688-712 yards directly south of him, hard to get exact range in a fairly flat stubble field. Tried some challenge howls, male and female, he looked but not interested gave it 15-20 minutes no luck...soooo started doing the math on the reticle as I was going to try a Hail Mary shot.....4 hash marks down is 600 yards and with the wind I figured it would drift 4' range finder indicated closer to 700 so I held a hair more than 4 hash marks and 4 into the wind. Beauty ofthe204 is you can watch bullet impact. I let drive and I hit about 6-8" over that coyote and it got up and ran darn near right at me....
74Honker , you do have some dark coyote back there but we do here as well . There are around 13 sub-specie of coyote according to studies done by the USDA. You did well . Reemty J well done it is that time of the year isn't it pups in 60 days or so always learning something more to learn then time to learn it but I still keep trying to learn more . ButterBean , I like the saying you have on your post it's so true . My parents moved me to Southern Indiana when I was 8 , I told them as soon as I got old enough I was going home and at 13 I came home . Nothing wrong with there it just wasn't my home .
A couple of months ago I had a friend that was looking for an AR upper in 223 . when I retired I started looking at the AR platform and trying to figure out how to make an accurate one so I had a couple of them I wasn't using . We got together and worked out a deal , he got a good upper and I got an older Ruger M77 mark2 chambered in 22-250 . The serial number said it was made in 2000 but it kind of looked like it may have been at least a hundred years old . It had lived it's life as a ranch truck gun and also had been a saddle gun for a time so the bluing was worn the stock had some dings but no bad cuts or gouges . I don't think it had ever been cleaned and he probably got what was left over of the two box's of ammo that came with it new when he got it . I like a challenge so we made the deal and both were happy . I took my new trophy home stripped it down cleaned the bore well and it then looked almost new . Stripped the bolt and got all the dirt and hay dust out of it , I use a good auto past wax here on my bolts as we have so much dust . I used to use graphite . I hot blued the barreled action and stripped the stock to bare wood . For fixing the dents in the wood I take a damp cloth and put it on the wood then use my wife's iron and iron them to raise the wood grains back up if they aren't broken . I then used a good wood floor finish on the stock as that's what I had that would stand up well with out spraying it on . A coat dry for 24 hours then 0000 steel cleaned it and did another coat for 6 coats . Then I turned some aluminum pillars fitted them to the action and installed them and bedded the action to the stock . I have found that a thin barrel in the Ruger's seem to shoot better for me if they have a pad of bedding near the fore end of the stock so I put one in there with out putting any stress on the barrel just some bedding for the barrel to be cradled in so it returned to the same spot after a round has been fired time after time . I then sealed the barrel channel well with several coats of Tung oil so it won't change with the weather . I decided that I would try the Burris adapters for mounting a scope on a Ruger action instead of the proprietary Ruger rings, with the Burris signature zee rings . I mounted the adaptors and trued them to the action then set up the 30 mm rings trued to the adaptors . I set the retical of the 30mm 8.5x25 target scope to the center of it's travel . Leveled the action and and mounted the scope trued it with my string line and adjusted it to center line of the rifle bore using the base adjustments . We've had some windy days so I waited for a nice day with little to no wind in the 40's to take it to the range . Using factory 45 gr. ammo the first round was 3" right and 1" low at 100 yards the next two were only about an inch and a half grouping in the same area so I made my adjustments . The same grouping but around the bulls eye with the next three . I went ahead and put a total of 20 rounds down range so I have some brass to work up a load seating depth ect. I also found that it needs a cheek riser for me and the scope mounting it has so that will be the next project for it . I'll build one with some walnut and purple heart I have then clean the stock off and mount it to the stock . It keeps me busy and I told Casey that when I want to get rid of it he can have it back for something else for me to play with .
I have a 1974 M77V my wife got for me, I had forgotten how beautiful they are and how well they shoot
I finished reading the whole thread last night, it was like reading a good book. Thanks again to all who have contributed so far.
Dave, I have refinished a few Winchester 52's and a 40XB Remington that I shoot in some fun 50 yard matches at my gun club. I use Minwax Wipe On Poly satin, it puts on a nice low sheen finish similar to a oil finish. A shooting buddy of mine has used True Oil for years but couldn't find any for a 40X centerfire he was working on so he tried the wipe on poly I had been using. He was impressed with the finish and the ease of use.
I too like to put a small pad either at the end of the fore arm or near it. I let the rifle tell me where it likes it best. Pieces of inner tube have worked well for me, I have several thickness. Some from tractor inner tubes to bicycle inner tubes, Even a piece of a live rubber inner tube from one of my old drag slicks. It doesn't take much preload in my experience to do the trick, again the rifle will tell you.
My U.S. marked 40XB .22lr with the Minwax finish.
Dave, I have refinished a few Winchester 52's and a 40XB Remington that I shoot in some fun 50 yard matches at my gun club. I use Minwax Wipe On Poly satin, it puts on a nice low sheen finish similar to a oil finish. A shooting buddy of mine has used True Oil for years but couldn't find any for a 40X centerfire he was working on so he tried the wipe on poly I had been using. He was impressed with the finish and the ease of use.
I too like to put a small pad either at the end of the fore arm or near it. I let the rifle tell me where it likes it best. Pieces of inner tube have worked well for me, I have several thickness. Some from tractor inner tubes to bicycle inner tubes, Even a piece of a live rubber inner tube from one of my old drag slicks. It doesn't take much preload in my experience to do the trick, again the rifle will tell you.
My U.S. marked 40XB .22lr with the Minwax finish.
looks very nice!
Justin that is kind of a poor looking gun, not near nice enough for a fine fellow like you, if you would just send that 40X .22 to Mondamtana, I will gladly take it off your hands and you could get a finer rifle for a fine fellow like you!!! 
We have to have some fun and put some smiles on faces!!!!!!!!!!
We have to have some fun and put some smiles on faces!!!!!!!!!!
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Thanks guys. I love to fool with these old target rifles, they put a smile on my face every time I pick one up. They were built by folks who took pride in their work.
Reemty J, that rifle far out classes me, LOL. I'm just a dumb ole country boy.
Reemty J, that rifle far out classes me, LOL. I'm just a dumb ole country boy.
