DMP25-06
Well-Known Member
That knife is looking really good !!!
How many hours from sketch to rough knife ?
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
- Thread starter DSheetz
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How many hours from sketch to rough knife ?
I have around three hours in it at this time, I have some hand file work in it as well as about 20 minutes of set up and milling machine work to go along with the grinding. I did some rough cutting with a cut off wheel then some smoothing up on my belt grinder and file work. At this time, I am thinking that I won't put scales on it just possibly paracord wrap on the handle.
Bucklowery
Well-Known Member
That's the days and skies I remember and long to visit again. Mr.Dave that is a nice start on a new knife
Thanks
Buck
Thanks
Buck
Last year a younger guy asked me if I could put a free-floating hand guard on his M4 barreled AR. I told him that I would. So, I got the hand guard, gas block, and disassembled his upper. I lapped his receiver barrel nut extension and fitted the new barrel nut torqued to spec. installed his low-profile gas block and hand guard. I mounted his scope sighted it in and everything was working as it should with under a MOA grouping. He told me latter that he was amazed at how well it shot just by changing the hand guard. I just smiled at him and said yes if things are put together well, they do better. I bought a side charging upper and bolt carrier group on sale, so I lapped it, and had it ready to put a barrel in it. I had the chance to buy a 20" Wylde S.S. heavy barrel for a really good price, less than 100.00, so I bought it and put it in the side charging upper, torqued it to spec. installed a long gas tube in a low-profile gas block that clamps to tighten it instead of being pinned or using set screws, put a nice free floating hand guard on it. I installed some Burres signature zee rings on it with a not so expensive Leupold scope sighted it in. I then asked the younger guy to take it out and try it out to see how he liked it, compared to his shorter barreled upper. I saw him a few days later and he said I want that other upper you have me trying out. It groups a lot better than my other one, is better balanced and handles my suppressor well. He and the other two sons - in- laws of the rancher went out calling this morning called in a triple he got two out of the three and one of the other guys got the third one. So, I guess it works pretty well for him. Knowing those three guys and liking them well I suspect that by about noon they were exhausted after the adrenalin rush wore off. It was around five or six years ago that I took them out and called in their first coyote for them.
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Straight Shooter
Well-Known Member
That middle coyote looks great.
The middle one was the first one he shot, the two with blood on their back ends were leaving for safer places. The barrel that I put on the Wylde was a 1:9 twist rate, because I wanted to be able to shoot 55 grain bullets as well as heaver ones, plus it was on sale, from a reputable barrel maker. The low-profile gas block was a Yanke Hill on this one, probably bought from Midway USA on sale. I buy a lot of things when they are on sale for later use. They have a split down the bottom, with a hole drilled to line them up with the normal divot for the set screw in a standard gas block, then two allen head cap screws that tighten it so that the split clamps it tighter. I use a drill bit as my guide to line it up with the divot and remove it when the clamp gets snug on it. I like the clamping gas block as to me they wouldn't add any stress points in the rifling. So many people have to really crank down on a screw as much as they can instead of the 15-inch pounds that it takes to hold them. The top one is pretty grey down the sides and the bottom one is pretty dark kind of black. All pups from this year and most likely from the same litter. I think that I killed mom and dad and two of their litter mates, last month because of where they called them in. None of them are as pretty as a good Montana pale but they aren't bad for down here. They will average 35 - 40 lbs. for the two lower ones, the top one is a smaller female that would run maybe 30 lbs.. They are doing pretty good it makes me happy that they learned some from me and are putting it to use.
Just a small bit of trivia for some thought. A lot of people will take the drop in hand guards off of their AR's replace the factory gas block with the front sight on it with a low-profile gas block. Then put a nice free floating hand guard on. How many people will measure the thickness of the front hand guard end cap for the drop in hand guard and check that the new gas block is properly aligned with the gas port in the barrel and not partially covering the hole due to setting farther back than the original? Some gas blocks take this into consideration, and some don't. Hum why isn't my BCG loading and functioning as it should. I use a .025 thousand shim to space the new gas block if the hole isn't drilled in it to allow for the difference in the gas port on a mill spec. barrel. I have replaced a few delta rings, drop in hand guards, and gas blocks. A lot of the people will not notice that they now have a small gap between their gas block and the shoulder of the barrel but it sure is noticeable if it's under gassed from having some of the gas port covered due to not having the end cap of the drop in hand guard spacing the gas block forward oops, I did that and learned about it that way a few years ago.
I often will talk about some things that a lot of people will shake their heads at and go what the heck that's just plain and simple if you are doing it or have been doing it for a while, but these are things that I talk about for the benefit of those that maybe have never done what I'm talking about or might have only done something once or twice or are just thinking they might want to try to do it and that I have learned about by doing it wrong so I say something to perhaps save them a little bit of trouble.
Straight Shooter
Well-Known Member
Shot the coyote in the second picture tonight with my 6creedmoor at 233 yards with a Berger 95 grain Classic Hunter. The reason I put the first picture up from one I shot a couple of weeks ago is so you could compare the color. The coyote in the first picture was shot 500 yards south of the Canadian border and is what is called a Montana Pale. This is a common color for the area. The coyote in the second picture was shot about 60 miles south of the coyote in the first picture and is a typical color for the area. The one I called in tonight took 25 minutes. I threw everything I had at him. Finally I just quit calling and waited for it to get a little darker so I could sneak out of my calling spot. As I sat there in the silence this coyote came out from a ridge about 250 yards away and started across the hillside in front of me. I turned the caller way down and turned the cotton tail back on. Here he came and when he got in the brush at the bottom of the coulee I sat up and moved my sticks to line up on him. Then he went running back out the way he came. I got on him and barked him to a stop. I don't know if he had been just sitting up on the ridge for a while watching or if when things got quiet he decided to investigate. I wondered how he had seen me move when he was in the brush. When I went to pick him up and I got down in the bottom of the coulee where he had turned back i learned the reason he had spooked. The wind had shifted over the last half hour and had hit my scent cone. I didn't feel the change where I had been sitting. I threw way too many sounds at him trying to get him before he showed up. I called one in earlier in the day that I shot at the 2 minute mark at about 95 yards. Go figure.
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I'm not a fan of the rusty red coyotes, they just don't compare to the looks of the good Montana pails. We get some of the redder colored coyotes here and quite a few with black coloration, some of the high-country coyotes will be big pale coyotes. Do you get any of the smaller pale sandhills coyote in that area? We will occasionally get a few of them here, the last ones that I got had traveled up the Cheyenne River from South Dacota during a period of extreme cold and snow in that area, the pads on their feet showed a lot of wear from traveling on icy hard ground. I have seen them hang up due to using too much volume due to the moisture content in the air and sounds traveling better at times here and I have also had them get my scent when they hit low ground because of the way air flows down the slopes of the hills into the valleys when it's moisture laden. I saw it in action one morning as a low layer of fog rolled over the side of a bluff and into the valley below, that was impressive. That's what keeps us thinking and sharp thou the challenge of it. Well done Straight Shooter.
Straight Shooter
Well-Known Member
Dave, I have shot some of the paler coyotes in the past, but the last couple of years the coyotes in this area have not looked as good.
