Another Central California Coyote down...

[Colin]

I have permission on a large ranch in Central California. I headed out with the .243 70gr. BT handload. My second stand, looking over a field of slightly rolling hills, a coyote topped a hill at about 500 yards. He hung up at about 250 yards, broadside. I had a good solid rest and sqweezed off the shot, I missed. I checked my rifles zero and was hitting 7-8 inches high and 4-5 inches right. (I'm not liking the BSA scope I put on this gun!!!) Third stand, over looking a dry creek bed. I scanned over my right shoulder, down the creek bed about 2 minutes into the call. About 2 minutes and 10 seconds into the call I scanned back over my right shoulder. There stood a coyote not 15 yards from me. I turned as slowly as I could but he jumped and ran straight behind me. I spun, slid down the enbankment I was on and took an off hand shot, I missed.

Right as the sun was going down I climbed up on a dilapidated pile of hay and set out my electronic call. The call was on a lower part of the hay pile, maybe 4 feet off the ground and I was on the highest part, maybe 10 feet off the ground. After a few minutes of calling, a Red Tailed Hawk swooped in, grabbed and dropped my call. That was pretty cool. Awhile later a coyote came into about 250 yards, but I couldn't get a shot. About 10 minutes after that, I heard something below me. I looked over the edge and there stood a coyote, not 10 feet below me. I swung in the direction he was headed and shot him at 20 yards. Small entry and exit hole.

 

[R Flowers]

Colin, those coyotes can sure be fun. A few weekends back my dad and I saw eight and killed five on one morning.

We did not even get any calling, they were all shot as they were leaving dead cattle carcasses or when they were jumped up out of tall grass as we walked this huge pasture a friend has. All of them were shot on the run, pretty exciting.

In regard to the hawk picking up the call, I had a scary experience in Wyoming one time. We were prairie dog hunting and I decided to try to call a coyote one evening. I was sitting in the sage brush using a mouth call when a huge owl swooped down and knocked my hat off. I never heard it coming and it scared the hell out of me. Even after he figured out I was not a rabbit he flew around over my head squawking for several minutes.

 

[JD338]

Good job Colin.

JD338

 

[Colin]

R Flowers,

I love coyote hunting, been doing it for almost 20 years now. The great thing about California is the amount of coyotes we have. I had a ranch to hunt near the Hollister area (California Central Coast). The first time I went we saw 16 coyotes in a 4 hour period of time.

I have a 10,000+- acre ranch to hunt in the valley, here. One time we saw 17 coyotes, killed 5. The next time we saw 16 coyotes and killed 4. The other day on a ranch I have (maybe 800-1000 acres) I called in 4 coyotes within a couple of hours.

Couple of years ago, I took out a newbie to coyote calling. About a minute into the call a hawk swooped down and almost grabbed his hat. Gave him a pretty good start. He couldn't seem to sit still after that.