Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

[DMP25-06]

Dave, when we met and talked you said we had to keep this thread going and I need to write some of my experiences. I hate to type, but here goes. I will give it a try.

The Story of a Coyote Named "Lucky"
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The story of Lucky began four years ago. I was calling a sagebrush flat just off the Missouri River where the sagebrush met some badlands like hills that ran for a couple of miles. Once you got up on top of the badland hills it was rolling pasture again. The coyotes like to bed and den in those badland type hills. I had tucked myself back against a clay bank on the hillside and started squealing. After a couple minutes here he came around the base of a knob that didn't quite jut out into the sagebrush. He was coming so hard I could hear his feet slapping the ground as he ran. He ran right at me and without even breaking stride or changing his speed he did an about face and ran away as I was barking trying to get him to stop. He ran around the knob into the next coulee and proceeded to bark at me. Should have taken him on the run. Lesson learned.

The next year I went to the same spot and set up and here he comes again. He does the same thing and I don't shoot. Lesson learned, again. I am a slow learner. Two years ago went back and set up in the same spot. However, he changed up on me. Instead or running around the knob which is only about 40 feet tall, he climbed it and also up came his girlfriend. There he was sky-lined, broadside, and looking down on me from about 80 yards away. I don't know how I could have missed, but I don't take shots on sky-lined animals especially when I am pointed directly at a farm. I was hoping he would step down below the skyline, but he didn't. He and his girlfriend bailed off the backside and took off. I called for a few minutes hoping I might entice a different coyote in, but no such luck. Strike three. That coyote is living a charmed life. Before I packed up I looked off to my right and about 600 yards away was his head stuck up just over the hill looking at me.

Now you might ask how do I know it is the same coyote. Lucky is a very big coyote. I have never seen a coyote that is as long from his hips to his shoulders. Looks like his mom putting on a stretching machine when he was younger. His length definitely sets him apart.

Well, last year the first morning at the farm I got up and decided to try the coulee next to the house as they have coyotes in the yard about every night. Walked up about a half a mile and set up at the head of the main coulee which is the result of three smaller coulees coming together off the flat. I sat with my back against some buckbrush and had a great view of everything. However, there was a short 30 yard long side coulee right at the top off to my left that if a coyote came down that he would go out of sight below a little rise off to my left and I wouldn't see it again until it was right on top of me and I hadn't brought the shotgun. You guessed it. After calling for about ten minutes a coyote comes out of that side coulee and stops on the hillside. When he charges down the hill toward me I can see it is Lucky. I notice his length right away. He goes out of sight and I scoot up a little to shoot around a piece of sagebrush. I can see his ears as he is trotting through the tall grass. My gun is up on my sticks. All of a sudden there his head is filling up my whole scope at 20 yards. I say to myself, "don't shoot him in the head you will make a bloody mess when you skin him. He will take a step up to get a better look and then I can just shoot him in the chest. You better shoot he is getting antsy". He was starting to look to his right and then his left and I knew he was going to take off. "You had better shoot. No don't make a mess". And then he was gone. I watched him run back across the skyline and by his length knew it was Lucky. Is there such a thing as strike four?

Well, I am headed back up there in a couple of weeks to see if Lucky and I can renew our relationship. I hope he is still alive and hasn't been run over, shot, trapped, or died of a disease. I sure look forward to another encounter. The saga of Lucky continues. Wish me luck.

Straight Shooter ,

That is a great story .

The only way that you possibly could have made your story any better was if you had said that "LUCKY" had only 3 legs , and NO BALLS , and that was why you had named him "LUCKY".

On the serious side , that is a smart coyote , and "LUCKY" that you adhere to firearm safety , in not taking the shot on the skyline .

Thank You for posting .
DMP25-06

 

[Reemty J]

Straightshooter, we will wait with baited breath, for the new episode of the " Lucky-the Weiner dog coyote" saga.............or is he short and squatty, no legs and all body??

 

[DSheetz]

Straight Shooter That Sir is a good one I'm glad that you adhere to hunter safety and don't do the sky line shots also that you have self discipline and if you don't want to skin a mess you don't make one . I've had a couple of those smart cagy ones also . I got one in for my son once that he shot at over 200 yards that didn't have any teeth left to speak of . I'm not sure about you but it's a good feeling when you get them after so long but also kind of disappointing as the challenge is done .

 

[Straight Shooter]

Yes, Dave, I look forward to the possibility of meeting him again. It will be a happy and sad day if I ever get him.
Dmp25-06, thank you.
Reempty, hopefully the saga will have a successful conclusion. Sure hope he is still around.

 

[1894C]

1894C ,

Fine looking rifle , and even better looking group on your target !!!

You have the stock full-length bedded , contacting the barrel , no free-floating ?

What is the barrel diameter at the muzzle ?

Thank You ,
DMP25-06

That is correct. Full length bedded without free floating. Muzzle diameter is .630

 

[DSheetz]

Ohlongarm , I'm sure you have some good experiences to share as well . What kind of things do you do to your rifles to make them better suited for your use . Do you do any reloading if so what extra steps do you use if any for accuracy . Thank You to all who contribute for our enjoyment we all have some very good experiences and we all know how exciting it is to hunt the coyote and other animals . It's so interesting to hear what you do with your hunting , camping , calling , to and with your rifles ect. . A good job done by all let us continue . We will be making new interesting experiences to share with each other as we continue our journeys in life .

 

[DSheetz]

1894C for some reason the 22-250 has some strange harmonics in the barrels as a general rule . I had a 25-06 that I ended up bedding full length ( I think mostly because the stock should have been replaced ) . I know that I have needed to bed the front of the barrels on two of them for them to shoot well .

 

[Straight Shooter]

Dave, I have a Ruger 22-250 I have had for about 20 years. The best I could ever get it to shoot was about an inch. Just for giggles I had a gunsmith bed it this summer. Still shoots about the same. It is good enough for a calling gun. For some reason when I shoot at something with it it usually goes down. My favorite coyote rifle even though I have a couple that are more accurate.

 

[DSheetz]

Straight Shooter Did he just bed the action ? What barrel do you have on it ? Is it an M77 or an American With the age of it I'm thinking it's an M77 or maybe a rear tang safety . I did an M77 for a friend this spring it had the sporter weight barrel looked like it had been carried around in the bed of the truck for a while in stead of the cab . It wouldn't shoot well at all so he tried to free float it . I'm not a gun smith but I enjoy a challenge . It didn't have the action bedded so I did a pillar bedding on it then bedded the front of the barrel . I cleaned it real good got a carbon ring out of the front of the chamber . Then I fire formed some brass and loaded some heaver bullets ( he was running white box Winchester 45 gr ) . I loaded up some 60 gr HP'S for it with Varget running moderate speeds found what seating depth it liked fine tuned the load then fine tuned the seating depth . Ruger 22-250 used to run 1 in 12 twist so they didn't normally do well with the 45 gr bullets for me . I got it shooting good then stripped it down and hot blued it as it had some pretty bad wear on the bluing all in all a nice bad weather muddy road project . When I got to really looking it over I think he bought a $200.00 rifle that some one had some spare parts and threw them together to sell . The bottom metal didn't fit the stock so I ended up inletting to get it to fit up I also ended up drilling out the hinge pin hole and putting in an oversized pin to tighten the hinge . It kept me in out of the weather for a few days . Any more I don't have to shoot one hole 5 shot groups I just need them to hit what I aim at dead is dead even if it's an inch from where I aimed and it's not real messy .

 

[DSheetz]

At my age it's more about the enjoyment then the challenge now , but I still like a challenge

 

[Straight Shooter]

Dave, it is an M77 with the newer lawyer safety. He said the next thing we can do is pillar bed it. I decided to leave it alone as it has been killing coyotes for 20 years. The way you talk you almost seem to be a gunsmith.

 

[DSheetz]

The M77 is a project to pillar bed . I'm kind of like you I think if your killing coyote with it and it's not grouping really bad it's good for me . I'm just a little anal and like with any thing else I do I want to be good at it so I have studied gunsmithing and there are parts of it I enjoy doing and some I don't . I enjoy the M77 and the model 70's they can be very accurate like the Mauser's they were patterned after . It kept me at it for years learning .

 

[DMP25-06]

Hello Gentlemen ,

Back on pages 46 and 47 , we were sharing opinions as to what were our preferred types of reticles in the scopes that we use while hunting predators .

My favorite reticle is the Leupold Dot hunting reticle that was offered during the 1980's and 1990's .
It was best described as Duplex-style thick crosshairs on the outer edges of the sight picture that gradually tapered down to very fine points at the intersection of the vertical and horizontal crosshairs , and there in the center was a dot that seemed to float .
On a Vari-X II , 4 x 12 power scope the dot was a size of 3 MOA @ 4x , 2 MOA @8x , and 1 MOA size at 12x power of magnification , which made it very useful when walking and stalking game , 4x with 3 MOA dot for quick target acquisition , or when you dialed up to maximum power of 12x it was 1 MOA size for more precision at longer ranges .
If you knew the average sizes of your targets , you could use it as an aid in estimating range . I had this scope mounted on a Ruger M77V in .220 Swift , shooting Nosler 55 gr. Ballistic Tip bullets at 3900 FPS .

One year while shooting Prairie Dogs in S.E. Colorado , I kept trying to extend the shot distances , and I spotted a large Prairie Dog on to of his mound at the back of the PD town where we were shooting . The 1 MOA dot looked like a bowling ball ( 8 3/8" diameter ) sitting on top of the dog's head , and knowing that a large PD was about 12" tall and 4" wide when standing , I guesstimated the range to be about 800 yards .
So , giving my best guess as to hold-over and windage ( no laser range-finders in the late 1980's ) , I let one fly . My brother , who was spotting said that I was about 2 feet low and 10 feet left of the dog , and that he was still on the mound . Making corrections in elevation and windage guesses , I touched off shot #2 , this time hitting just 1 foot to the left of the dog .
Down into the hole he went , About 5 minutes later , he came back on top of the mound , and shot #3 sent him to PD Heaven .
My brother and I got into our truck and drove out to where he lay , and it was just short of 1/2 mile by the truck odometer .

My favorite hunting scope with the Leupold Dot is the Vari-X III in 2.5 x 8 power , 1" tube . At the lowest power setting of 2.5x the dot is 4 MOA in size . Great for quick shooting at moving game .
When set at maximum 8x , the dot is 2 MOA in size , making it usable for precision shooting .
I probably have 6 Leupold Vari X III's and II's that I have sent to Leupold to have their custom shop change into the Leupold Dot. All of them were originally Duplex reticles , as Leupold had dis-continued the Leupold Dot hunting reticle as a reticle option on new scopes in the early 1990's .

Now , the 2 photos of the target with the group and dime for size reference was shot using my Olympic Arms Ultra Match AR-15 in .223 Remington , 20" cut rifled 1:8" twist barrel , shooting 55 gr. Nosler ballistic Tip bullets , with Varget powder , Win. Small Rifle primers , and WW brass , using my Leupold Vari-X III , 2.5 x 8 power scope with the Leupold Dot reticle .
I had just removed my 8 X 25 X 50 Target scope off the rifle and replaced it with my hunting scope , the 2.5 x 8 with Leupold Dot . The distance was 200 yards , and it took 5 shots to finally get the scope adjusted into the center black of the target . When the 5th shot struck just right of dead-center . I fired the remaining 5 cartridges , holding the same aiming point .
That is a 6 shot group at 200 yards , measuring .132" center to center , about .065 MOA , witnessed by my best friend Frankie H. , of pigeon hunting and train riding notoriety ( from an earlier story ) , shot on Jan. 26 , 2013 .
The dot size at 8x was 2 MOA , making it 4" diameter at 200 yards . The black diamond center of the target is 4" x 4" square , so I just set the dot into the center of the diamond , and continued shooting until I emptied the magazine .

My best group EVER .

DMP25-06

 

[DSheetz]

And they say gas guns can't be made as accurate as a bolt gun . LOL