Happy New Year fellow CGN'rs. I always like getting out first thing on New Years day for a coyote hunt, this morning I was a little later than I wanted though, I was on pick up duty last night--my son was out to a party and I told him to call if he had too many, didn't get to bed until 130(ish) am. Got up at 715 and had a coffee, got the woodstove going, and gathered up my gear.
Hit my favourite spot right about 9am, cut three tracks in the fresh snow on my hike in so I knew they just went through likely minutes before my arrival--trouble was they were headed east and I had mainly a west wind. Not ideal, but the path they were on likely swung them north into the swamp/timber so maybe I would get lucky and they wouldn't get my wind. Played some cagie cottontail for 8-9 mins with no sightings, muted that and switched to a crow fight after a minute or so of silence, let that run for two minutes. I was getting a little fidgety as it was -17C with windchill taking it to -24C. While I was distracted, I heard some barking coming from the timber to my NE, took a few seconds to determine it was a coyote and not someone's dog. He was mad and giving me hell--so they did smell me! I played some challenge barks and howls back right on top of him, he moved up wind to my NW and kept giving me hell. Switched to just barks and he came back, but still inside the timber about 200 yards away. Heard him barking again and this time he was just inside the timber, so I switched it up to puppy screams, this was more than he could handle and he came up out of the timber and revealed himself 170 yards away looking straight at me (FoxPro was directly between me and him). I levelled the Tikka on him and held the crosshairs on his chin and touched it off, the 87 grain Vmax from the 243 hammered him right in the neck and entered his chest and didn't exit. He tipped over backwards and didn't twitch--other than the tail did a couple swivels. I chambered another round and watched for a couple minutes hoping one of the others would pop up to investigate all the racket but no luck.
He weighed 38.4 lbs and had clean pearly white teeth so I suspect he was just about 2 years old. I have hunted this spot for years, it produces multiple coyotes every winter, often times doubles and triples, but I have only ever taken a double once, and never a triple. Best thing about this spot is it is close to home (five min drive) and the walk in is only about ten mins. And the landowners almost always have coffee and breakfast for me when I come out.
Sorry I don't know how to add text to my pics yet! For reference the coyote is just under the V shaped tree above and left of the caller in the second picture.
Hit my favourite spot right about 9am, cut three tracks in the fresh snow on my hike in so I knew they just went through likely minutes before my arrival--trouble was they were headed east and I had mainly a west wind. Not ideal, but the path they were on likely swung them north into the swamp/timber so maybe I would get lucky and they wouldn't get my wind. Played some cagie cottontail for 8-9 mins with no sightings, muted that and switched to a crow fight after a minute or so of silence, let that run for two minutes. I was getting a little fidgety as it was -17C with windchill taking it to -24C. While I was distracted, I heard some barking coming from the timber to my NE, took a few seconds to determine it was a coyote and not someone's dog. He was mad and giving me hell--so they did smell me! I played some challenge barks and howls back right on top of him, he moved up wind to my NW and kept giving me hell. Switched to just barks and he came back, but still inside the timber about 200 yards away. Heard him barking again and this time he was just inside the timber, so I switched it up to puppy screams, this was more than he could handle and he came up out of the timber and revealed himself 170 yards away looking straight at me (FoxPro was directly between me and him). I levelled the Tikka on him and held the crosshairs on his chin and touched it off, the 87 grain Vmax from the 243 hammered him right in the neck and entered his chest and didn't exit. He tipped over backwards and didn't twitch--other than the tail did a couple swivels. I chambered another round and watched for a couple minutes hoping one of the others would pop up to investigate all the racket but no luck.
He weighed 38.4 lbs and had clean pearly white teeth so I suspect he was just about 2 years old. I have hunted this spot for years, it produces multiple coyotes every winter, often times doubles and triples, but I have only ever taken a double once, and never a triple. Best thing about this spot is it is close to home (five min drive) and the walk in is only about ten mins. And the landowners almost always have coffee and breakfast for me when I come out.
Sorry I don't know how to add text to my pics yet! For reference the coyote is just under the V shaped tree above and left of the caller in the second picture.
