Well, it finally happened early this morning at 1:57am. I have been collecting trail cam footages and did a couple of stalkings of this coyote since April. First failed encounter was back in May when I accidentally "spotted" it with my headlights as I was leaving the farm after 4 hours of uneventful hunting. The second missed encounter was early June when my trail cam revealed that the coyote was at the bait station 30mins before my arrival for that evening hunt. That was a long and brutal night of staying up from 1:30am till 4:30am with nothing in sight. I figured the coyote was probably watching me as I pulled in and continued to watch me sitting inside of my truck, doing the ambush.
In preparation of this hunt, I have been shooting lots of pigeons and leaving them out as bait at the concrete pit where the farmer buried dead calf and chicken. So this pit is a hot spot for the coyote to dig for food. I have set up my TC02 trail cam 15 feet from the pit and I was able to capture valuable data of the time and date of its visits. However, there wasn't any set time that it returned, only a range of time from 9:30pm to 4:30am. Making it extremely difficult to time it right. Just pure luck to be there at the right time.
Prior to this hunt, the coyote has been returning between 10pm - 4am. It would grab a pigeon than ran away to the field about 60 yards from the pit to eat. That was its routine. So I have decided to use rats as bait this time, hoping that it would just stop at the spot and swallow the rats, giving me enough time to shoot.
Also, this was the first time I have used the loft on the second floor of the barn next to the pit. I saw the barn window was opened yesterday so I asked the farmer if I could shoot from there. He gave me a thumbs up so I cleared the area on the loft for me to shoot from. The barn window was probably 6 foot wide and 5 feet high with 3 feet ledge. And it was only 17 yards from the window to the top of the pit. Too close in my opinion, but it was the best option I had compared to sitting inside my truck 35 yards away from the pit. That shooting location wasn't ideal because the coyote would walked past my truck on its way to the pit. It would see or smell me before I would see it coming. I think that was the reason why my 2nd attempt was a failure.
Back to the hunt, so I have setup my tripod with a ball-head mount behind the right side of the window pointing downward at the pit below during the day. I did some test shots to make sure my POI at 17 yards was correct by hitting some small bone fragments on top of the dirt pile inside the pit. Everything was good to go. I then spent some time shooting pigeons and starlings on the farm. I had a great time popping 38 starlings at 52-55 yards with my Impact MK2 shooting the H&N Gen2 25gr slugs. Video to follow. Anyway, I dumped out the 7 rats I have shot the night before at another location and I went home satisfied with my day of shooting.
I arrived at the farm at 9:25pm and quickly setup at the loft. Mounted my gun on the tripod, chambered a round of slug, checked my night vision scope and IR torch. Everything looked good. So I began my stalking.
First hour went by quickly and nothing showed up. Because of the 3' high window ledge, I had to stand 6 feet away from the window so that I could see my trail cam and not exposing my position. My strategy was to use the trail cam as an indicator where it would light up when it detects motion. Simple plan and it had worked in my last two coyotes hunt. The problem was that I wasn't able to sit down and watch the trail cam from my viewing spot. So I had to stand up to watch with my binoculars as the night got darker and darker for my old eyes to see clearly. Needless to say, I was having a major legs and glutes workout by standing and sitting. The first two hours was okay, but soon after that my body was hurting like hell with sore back and cramp legs muscles. At one point I could hardly stand up properly.
I couldn't sit down for too long in fear that the coyote would show up and pick off all the rats. So how did I do this and not missing out any activities out there? Well, my trail cam was setup with 2 minutes of recording time and 30seconds of off time before the next motion detection. I would count to 60 seconds with my eyes closed while sitting down and then get up and peek at the trail cam. I would then sit down to rest and repeat this process thru out the night. Crazy, right? Well, there was no other way as I figure if the camera had detected motion, it would stay lit for 120 seconds to which I would see the lights during my rest and watch period.
As time ticked past quickly (slowly), 1am came around. I knew from the trail cam footages that this was the most recorded time slot so I was standing up longer and watching the trail cam with my binoculars more closely. Then at 1:03am, I saw a quick dash of movement zipped by the trail cam area. I knew that was the coyote even though there was a chance that I was hallucinating and my mind was playing tricks on me after 3-1/2 hours of waiting in the dark alone inside the barn where weird noises could be heard. Luckily I knew I was accompanied by two barn cats somewhere in the pitch black barn.
I quickly make my way to the gun without tripping over or stumbling over. I turned on my Pard007S that was mounted on my FX Impact MK2. To my horror, my external IR torch was dead with battery drained after I have left it on since 9:45pm. Why I left it on? In one of my previous failed hunt for coyote#5, I made the mistake of clicking on the IR torch and spoked the coyote away. That was why I left the IR light on and I didn't think that the battery would burn out so quickly. Panic set in and I had to make a decision to either replace the battery or just leave it for a bit. I was too eager to get this over with and I didn't want to loose the opportunity so I decided to change the battery. I slowly turned the lid off and unfortunately the gun was already positioned pointing downward. I wasn't able to fish out the battery without having to tip the gun upwards. I replaced the battery and got IR lights working, but nothing in view. My guess is that the coyote probably heard or saw movement and hightailed out of there.
That was around 1:13am. I sat in my chair with disappointment and anger of what had just transpired. How did I allowed a mistake with the IR battery and I thought I blew my chance once again with untimely mistake. I checked the time and encouraged myself that there was still time before it was I had to quite by 4am. Workers start their chores around that time so I didn't want to hang around and feeling embarrassed for yet another failed attempt. So coyote hunter right?
So I sucked it up and continued to monitor the trail cam and using my binoculars to scan the field in front of me. The ducks in the field nearby had alerted me before the coyote first appeared. So I was using that cue and kept my ears opened for any disturbance from the ducks. Finally around 1:55am I heard the ducks quacked. I stood up and saw the dim red lights of my trail cam lit up. I knew the coyote had returned! I quickly got on to my gun and powered up the Pard007S and simultaneously pressed record. As the night vision came to life, the coyote appeared in my view finder. It was, oddly enough, just finished pissing over the pile of rats I left for bait. A behaviour I later questioned and wondered why. It then moved about 3 feet to the left and just paused. It was facing away from me and I quickly squeezed off a shot sending the 25gr slug that was locked up in the breach for almost 4 hours, down the 600mm Slug A liner. With a speed of 984fps, the slug pieced thru the back of his skull at about 50 or 52 ft.lb of energy (muzzle energy of 54ft.lb), fracturing its skull and hemorrhaging its brain. It dropped instantly and died without much movement.
It all happened so quickly, 8 seconds from the moment I spotted it to me engaging the trigger. Needless to say, I was thrilled and I was full of energy and wide awake with surges of adrenaline. I quickly packed and took a couple of pictures before heading home to sleep. I woke up at 9am and what a bloody hangover feeling. But who cares, I finally got my coyote#7.
Video to follow soon. Cheers.
In preparation of this hunt, I have been shooting lots of pigeons and leaving them out as bait at the concrete pit where the farmer buried dead calf and chicken. So this pit is a hot spot for the coyote to dig for food. I have set up my TC02 trail cam 15 feet from the pit and I was able to capture valuable data of the time and date of its visits. However, there wasn't any set time that it returned, only a range of time from 9:30pm to 4:30am. Making it extremely difficult to time it right. Just pure luck to be there at the right time.
Prior to this hunt, the coyote has been returning between 10pm - 4am. It would grab a pigeon than ran away to the field about 60 yards from the pit to eat. That was its routine. So I have decided to use rats as bait this time, hoping that it would just stop at the spot and swallow the rats, giving me enough time to shoot.
Also, this was the first time I have used the loft on the second floor of the barn next to the pit. I saw the barn window was opened yesterday so I asked the farmer if I could shoot from there. He gave me a thumbs up so I cleared the area on the loft for me to shoot from. The barn window was probably 6 foot wide and 5 feet high with 3 feet ledge. And it was only 17 yards from the window to the top of the pit. Too close in my opinion, but it was the best option I had compared to sitting inside my truck 35 yards away from the pit. That shooting location wasn't ideal because the coyote would walked past my truck on its way to the pit. It would see or smell me before I would see it coming. I think that was the reason why my 2nd attempt was a failure.
Back to the hunt, so I have setup my tripod with a ball-head mount behind the right side of the window pointing downward at the pit below during the day. I did some test shots to make sure my POI at 17 yards was correct by hitting some small bone fragments on top of the dirt pile inside the pit. Everything was good to go. I then spent some time shooting pigeons and starlings on the farm. I had a great time popping 38 starlings at 52-55 yards with my Impact MK2 shooting the H&N Gen2 25gr slugs. Video to follow. Anyway, I dumped out the 7 rats I have shot the night before at another location and I went home satisfied with my day of shooting.
I arrived at the farm at 9:25pm and quickly setup at the loft. Mounted my gun on the tripod, chambered a round of slug, checked my night vision scope and IR torch. Everything looked good. So I began my stalking.
First hour went by quickly and nothing showed up. Because of the 3' high window ledge, I had to stand 6 feet away from the window so that I could see my trail cam and not exposing my position. My strategy was to use the trail cam as an indicator where it would light up when it detects motion. Simple plan and it had worked in my last two coyotes hunt. The problem was that I wasn't able to sit down and watch the trail cam from my viewing spot. So I had to stand up to watch with my binoculars as the night got darker and darker for my old eyes to see clearly. Needless to say, I was having a major legs and glutes workout by standing and sitting. The first two hours was okay, but soon after that my body was hurting like hell with sore back and cramp legs muscles. At one point I could hardly stand up properly.
I couldn't sit down for too long in fear that the coyote would show up and pick off all the rats. So how did I do this and not missing out any activities out there? Well, my trail cam was setup with 2 minutes of recording time and 30seconds of off time before the next motion detection. I would count to 60 seconds with my eyes closed while sitting down and then get up and peek at the trail cam. I would then sit down to rest and repeat this process thru out the night. Crazy, right? Well, there was no other way as I figure if the camera had detected motion, it would stay lit for 120 seconds to which I would see the lights during my rest and watch period.
As time ticked past quickly (slowly), 1am came around. I knew from the trail cam footages that this was the most recorded time slot so I was standing up longer and watching the trail cam with my binoculars more closely. Then at 1:03am, I saw a quick dash of movement zipped by the trail cam area. I knew that was the coyote even though there was a chance that I was hallucinating and my mind was playing tricks on me after 3-1/2 hours of waiting in the dark alone inside the barn where weird noises could be heard. Luckily I knew I was accompanied by two barn cats somewhere in the pitch black barn.
I quickly make my way to the gun without tripping over or stumbling over. I turned on my Pard007S that was mounted on my FX Impact MK2. To my horror, my external IR torch was dead with battery drained after I have left it on since 9:45pm. Why I left it on? In one of my previous failed hunt for coyote#5, I made the mistake of clicking on the IR torch and spoked the coyote away. That was why I left the IR light on and I didn't think that the battery would burn out so quickly. Panic set in and I had to make a decision to either replace the battery or just leave it for a bit. I was too eager to get this over with and I didn't want to loose the opportunity so I decided to change the battery. I slowly turned the lid off and unfortunately the gun was already positioned pointing downward. I wasn't able to fish out the battery without having to tip the gun upwards. I replaced the battery and got IR lights working, but nothing in view. My guess is that the coyote probably heard or saw movement and hightailed out of there.
That was around 1:13am. I sat in my chair with disappointment and anger of what had just transpired. How did I allowed a mistake with the IR battery and I thought I blew my chance once again with untimely mistake. I checked the time and encouraged myself that there was still time before it was I had to quite by 4am. Workers start their chores around that time so I didn't want to hang around and feeling embarrassed for yet another failed attempt. So coyote hunter right?
So I sucked it up and continued to monitor the trail cam and using my binoculars to scan the field in front of me. The ducks in the field nearby had alerted me before the coyote first appeared. So I was using that cue and kept my ears opened for any disturbance from the ducks. Finally around 1:55am I heard the ducks quacked. I stood up and saw the dim red lights of my trail cam lit up. I knew the coyote had returned! I quickly got on to my gun and powered up the Pard007S and simultaneously pressed record. As the night vision came to life, the coyote appeared in my view finder. It was, oddly enough, just finished pissing over the pile of rats I left for bait. A behaviour I later questioned and wondered why. It then moved about 3 feet to the left and just paused. It was facing away from me and I quickly squeezed off a shot sending the 25gr slug that was locked up in the breach for almost 4 hours, down the 600mm Slug A liner. With a speed of 984fps, the slug pieced thru the back of his skull at about 50 or 52 ft.lb of energy (muzzle energy of 54ft.lb), fracturing its skull and hemorrhaging its brain. It dropped instantly and died without much movement.
It all happened so quickly, 8 seconds from the moment I spotted it to me engaging the trigger. Needless to say, I was thrilled and I was full of energy and wide awake with surges of adrenaline. I quickly packed and took a couple of pictures before heading home to sleep. I woke up at 9am and what a bloody hangover feeling. But who cares, I finally got my coyote#7.
Video to follow soon. Cheers.
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