Decided to hunt the family farm this weekend and happy I did. Started out windy and cool with zero signs of life in the trees. I sat patiently on a hardwood hillside hoping a few fat squirrels would get hungry and come out. I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and started trying to find it among the trees. Spotted a beautiful yellow coyote trotting along the creek 150-175 yards below and across from me. She suddenly turned and crossed the creek traveling diagonally towards the hillside in front of me. I watched as she entered into a shooting lane that gave me a perfectly clear shot right at 75 yards. I barked once and she paused. I squeezed the trigger on my Maverick .30 sniper and watched her crumple in place. I was going for lungs because I was shooting hybrids and didn’t know if they’re capable of penetrating a coyote skull. I hit a little high and think I caught a piece of her spine. I’m happy with the outcome even though it wasn’t exactly a perfect shot. Everything happened so fast I feel lucky to have even had the opportunity and even luckier I was carrying enough rifle to pull it off cleanly. Either way our new beef calves hitting the ground over the past two weeks and the deer and turkey populations will have one less coyote to deal with. After taking photos and dragging her out I decided to change locations and continue trying to get a couple squirrels for the pot. Another stroke of luck hit me when I decided to try an area I hadn’t been in for 10-15 years. I settled in a draw about 20 feet deep on each side and had a small trickle of water running through the rocks. Didn’t take long to realize I was in a good spot. Shot 3 large males and then a female within minutes of settling in. Smoked another large male fox squirrel while I was retrieving the first 4. Never got a chance at the one more I needed to limit out but can’t complain after an amazing day in the woods. 
