Bad timing...

[Max115]

The farmer has called me 3 days ago about coyote activity at his new burial pit that he constructed at the back of the property. So I showed up to look at the new pit and setup my trail cam on the concrete barrier.

I returned this late afternoon and found out my trail cam had failed to record with zero footage on the memory card. Of course the dead cow was dug up and eaten over the past three nights. I had no clue why the unit has failed but after spending some time resetting it, I was able to get it to record again. Hopefully it will capture something tonight.

I brought my blind and set it up 60 yards away. I then proceeded to do some test shots inside the blind using my tripod that I used in the past where I mounted the Impact on top. I used a low folding chair so that I could stay as long to the ground as possible. I told a few shots at the three potatoes that I placed on the mount. I hit and I missed. I thought maybe it was the strong head wind coming my way. But I continued to miss the potato which my Impact should not have missed that many shots. I have zeroed it two days ago and everything was working just fine.

I took out my shooting box with some bulleyes on the paper and proceeded to check my zero. To my horror, the POI was all over the paper. I couldn't even hold a decent 5 shots group. Some shots were low, left, right and high. I was puzzled and in disbelief. Maybe the head wind was pushing my slugs hard or the warmer temperature had increased the slugs velocity again.

Back in February, the H&N 25gr gen 2 slugs were averaging 966fps and 5 days ago, it was up to 984 fps which I had re-zero and created a new range tape to compensate for the increased velocity.

But today, something was not working and causing erratic groupings. So I decided to not doing the coyote hunt this evening and came home to check my Impact and cleaned the barrel. The barrel was dirty and I hope that was the case. I will need to return to the farm tomorrow to re-check my zero and chrony to see what is the current speed. Then hopefully I can make some minor adjustment to the valve to tighten the group. Maybe it was the new tin of slugs? No idea at the moment.

Fingers crossed that the trail cam will function and record something tonight. And me sorting out my Impact to shoot well again. Ya, bad timing...

In addition, the farmer had told me his neighbour has seen a large cougar in their farm area. Maybe this cougar also found this pit?

 

[Ezana4CE]

Keep us posted. If you have a backup trail camera, take one with you. I’ve had a couple take a crap on me when I needed them to function.

 

[Max115]

Yes, I will probably setup another trail cam there tomorrow. Will see what happens.

 

[kayaker]

Max, remember too wipe down the camera of human sent and good luck.

 

[Max115]

Thank you. I will do my best and hopefully to get lucky.

 

[BenjaminM]

Good luck figuring out the issue. I had a rash of scope mount issues one year. Never had any scope problems ever from age 14 to 33… then one year I had almost every scope in my safe developing issues… all Leupold and Nikon stuff. But two vortex scopes fell apart internally. I suspect it was from using them in winter up here in Alaska.

Going from indoor temps to -30F outdoor temps does not help fasteners stay tight apparently.

I bought a wheeler torque driver set and redid everything with loctite after thorough degreasing… things seem to be holding steady now.

 

[goldmaniam]

It is good that you waited instead of going for an inhumane kill.. Thank you for doing that.

 

[Chukar60]

If cleaning the barrel does not fix your issue, check your probe alignment. I just went through that with my M3 and fixed a friends MII that had the same issue. The tell tale was poor shooting and inconsistent velocities.
It is a relatively easy fix

 

[Max115]

Good luck figuring out the issue. I had a rash of scope mount issues one year. Never had any scope problems ever from age 14 to 33… then one year I had almost every scope in my safe developing issues… all Leupold and Nikon stuff. But two vortex scopes fell apart internally. I suspect it was from using them in winter up here in Alaska.

Going from indoor temps to -30F outdoor temps does not help fasteners stay tight apparently.

I bought a wheeler torque driver set and redid everything with loctite after thorough degreasing… things seem to be holding steady now.

Thanks. I will examine my scope today. I did check all the screws last night and everything seems to be on tight. I definitely need to chrony my gun today and see if the velocity has increased again or not.

 

[Max115]

It is good that you waited instead of going for an inhumane kill.. Thank you for doing that.

After the terrible groupings yesterday, I have lost my confidence and it would be a terrible mistake to try to hunt last night. Luckily I have patience, lol.
I will check my zero again today and see if I can get the accuracy back before attempting any hunt. Hopefully the trail cam captures something last night.

 

[Max115]

If cleaning the barrel does not fix your issue, check your probe alignment. I just went through that with my M3 and fixed a friends MII that had the same issue. The tell tale was poor shooting and inconsistent velocities.
It is a relatively easy fix

Thank you for the tip. I didn't think about the probe at all. I will check it today.

 

[Max115]

lol, I thought some of you might suggest that. I might have to if my Impact is not accurate. M60B with 17.5gr slugs only puts out 33ft.lb vs my Impact with 25gr slugs of 54ft.lb. I rather use the higher energy PCP if possible.

Farmer just texted me stating that the coyote was seen digging on the pile this morning around 9am. I guess it was hungry and bold.

 

[Max115]

Yes, I agree. I have shot my 1st coyote with my FX Crown shooting the 18gr JSB at 32 ft.lb with a head shot at 70 yards. I know it is capable, but obviously more power is better IMO. Since I have my Impact setup at 54ft.lb, I would like to use it instead. Well, as long as it hits the spot as intended, lol.

 

[Max115]

Spent about 3 hours at the farm today, tuning my Impact MK2. It was shooting between 977 to 1000 fps with the 25gr slugs over many strings of shots using my FX chrony. Initially I took 10 shots per group at a 60 yards target box then close in the adjustment valve by a small amount. Then took another 10 shots, recording the velocity and checking at the group size. I continued to make small adjustments to the valve and repeat the process.

The groups weren't great at all with POI moving around the bullseye, consistently but not on a good way. I must have fired at least 150 shots before finally got to a setting where I got "ok" group. Keep in mind that this location and direction I was shooting at was very windy and I am guessing as I typed this, that there must have been some turbulence wind at the target box area.

My shooting table was set at 60 yards to the target box which sits between two retaining walls with compose dirt towered over the target box. The retaining walls probably about 50-60 feet long. The distance from the front of retaining walls to my table was probably 45 yards to which a barn on the right and open field to the left. Lots of head wind coming towards me and I am sure there were turbulence wind created by all these structure.

My HS was always set at 5 and I got curious towards the end of my testings, and I shot 5 shots with the HS at Max. I was getting 1012fps with these 25gr slugs. The gun was violent and loud which I knew from before. The 5 shots group was nothing to brag about. So I turned back the HS to 5 and shot another 5 shots group. Well, to my surprise, the group was the best from all of the test groups I shot earlier.

I thought maybe it was a fluke and I proceeded to fire a few more shots. These slugs were staying together with less erratic POI. So I decided to stop it right there and call it quits. I moved the box closer to 50 yards so that I can have my typical 50 yards zero on my range tape. Took 5 shots, and they were inside the 3/4" bullseye. Okay, I finally made some progress.

I am not sure why turning the HS to Max and returning it to my original spot of 5 had made some changes to my grouping. But I was too tired to care. I was just happy that the group has shrunk.

While I was focusing on tuning my Impact so that I can be ready for my coyote hunt, I used my Snowpeak M60B with NSA 17.5gr slugs to shoot at pigeons that landed on the roof top 43-45 yards away. I fired 3 shots and 3 pigeons were killed on the spot. A couple of them got picked up by eagles and I threw the 3rd one back onto the roof after it was shot and felt to the ground. I am sure it has been claimed by eagle soon after I have left.

Anyway, I decided to take a few shots of the M60B from the table at the target box 50 yards away. The slugs were pushed to the left and they didn't group as they should have. That was when I realized it wasn't the Impact that wasn't shooting accurately. It was the wind factor I mentioned above that had caused most of the off target hits. The erratic POI I had with the Impact was mainly due to the wind condition and nothing else.

At least that was my assumption. I will have to go out on a calm day to verify my prediction. Fingers crossed that my Impact is back on par to shoot tight groups again.

 

[Max115]

On a footnote, my trail cam was working again. It didn't capture anything last night, but it did captured a small coyote running away from the mount as it was chased by the farm dogs. I will continue to monitor the pit and see what lurks in the dark before I do another hunt.

 

[Firewalker]

You would be AMAZED at the drift a 15mph crosswind causes at 50 & 10p yards.

 

[Max115]

@Firewalker. Yes, I was hoping the accuracy issue of my Impact was due to outside elements and not internal failure somehow. Shooting in a "wind tunnel" can be tricky. I might place some wind flags along the path to see how they move around and educate myself about the effects of cross wind and such.

 

[Max115]

Update: Trail cam captured a coyote at the new pit last couple of nights around 2-3am. It was digging for food and finally dug out the buried dead cow. I will drop by again at midnight tonight to get ready inside my blind. Hopefully it will show up around the same time as before.

Fingers crossed...

 

[Max115]

Well, I got skunked last night. 11-3am of nothing but cold and mind/body torture session that I am well too familiar with. Unless you have done such a long and strenuous hunt before where you sit quietly inside a blind for over 4 hours or more, you wouldn't understand how tough it would be.

I was hopeful but at the same time I knew it might not be that easy that the coyote would return another night again. They never had any schedule, it was just pure luck that I had encountered with the coyotes in the past. They are so random with their routine to savage for food. There is a good chance that this coyote will return to feed again, but timing is everything if I want to have a crack at it.

The first couple of hours were easy as I was excited and eager to get this coyote. I started a bit early because I thought I could outsmart it by being there beforehand and just sit and ambush. Then the night got colder by the minutes and my body started to ache and in discomfort in sitting too long on the chair without moving and making too much noise. The coyote could show up at any time, at least that was what I had hoped for.

I tried to rest my head on my shooting bench and close my eyes from time to time, but I could never rest completely because I could have dozed off and missed the encounter. I have forgotten to bring my Nikon binoculars so I had to rely on my handheld night vision NV100 to scan the area periodically. If you are familiar with night vision scope, you get temporary blindness to your dominant eye after looking thru the scope. My vision was terrible to begin with and with partlal blindness to one eye from the scope viewing, looking downrange for any moving objects was very difficult and nearly impossible.

Without my binoculars, my job was 100 times more difficult. Each time I turned on the NV unit, I risk exposing myself with the bright light of the screen. I had to press the eyepiece tight onto my eye before turning on the unit. Just too much movement each and every time I had to do that.

Maybe the coyote had already spotted me from miles away.

As I approached 1am, my body was trembling with cold and muscle aches. I was prepared with a wool blanket but it wasn't enough to shield myself from the cold knifing thru my skin and bone. I tried to shake my legs without making any noise and do minor body movement to generate some heat. But nothing seemed to work. I pressed on and I had set a time limit to 3am to quit regardless.

2am arrived and I got a second wind as I was anticipating the coyote would return in this time slot just as the previous two nights as captured by the trail cam footages. My adrenaline kicked in and I was alert with excitement and nervousness at the same time. I tried to stay positive and telling myself to remain calm and in focus if and when the coyote shows up. I have been here before multiple times with all the coyote hunts I have done in the past. I learned from my mistakes and applied what I have learned. Easily said than done, right?

I scanned nervously at the pit with my Pard 007S mounted on my Impact MK2. A 25gr H&N slug already chambered and I was ready to engage when the moment comes. At one point I did hear some ducks quacking in the field and I thought this was it. The coyote was coming. But, nothing came so I had to take another break from staring intensively into the bright light of my NV scope. I repeated the process of closing my eyes, trying to regain my vision back, a process I must have done so many countless time already in the past.

I would get back on the scope again and scan the pit in shorter interval. I didn't want to miss the chance if this illusive coyote would show up to feed on the partially exposed buried cow. Luck wasn't on my side tonight. Sadly and reluctantly, I had to quit at 3am. I figured it was a lost cause this night so I packed up and drove home.

Yes, it wasn't as easy as I had hoped for. No matter how prepared I was and how many times I have done this, each hunt has its own challenge and difficulty. The first hurdle to overcome is the luck with my timing, then hopefully the execution of the shot to hit where it needs to go.

I will not quit, just yet. So wish me luck and hopefully I will bring good news next time. Cheers.

 

[Ezana4CE]

@Max115 This is good news. You’re on the hunt. That’s what I’m here for. I get it. At least you didn’t fall asleep on your stand. Keep us posted with trail cam video.