Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

New equipment this year— the leoptima tripod, 5-20x56 nightfirce SHV rifle scope and 15x56mm sworvaskis binoculars and these binos are amazing, compact, clear they really pull the coyotes out of the background. The rifle scope is the same one I have on my 6.5 PRC and my 7mmSTW, took this one off my 6XC that I no longer use since the 204. The tripod adjusts fast and easy on uneven ground and once it is set for height your golden. I cannot emphasize enough the amount of time I spend glassing, it is nothing to sit in a spot and glass for 20 minutes or more, many times I have spotted a coyote 1-2 miles away and able to get in position to intercept or call it without it knowing I am around.
 
It's amazing isn't it . The feeling you get when you have done it right and gotten that close without being detected is hard to explain . It never changes but you get to the place you can control it till the shot is taken . As you say Reemty J. taking the time to see what is there to be seen pays off .
 
Have any of you guys looked at the 408 Chetac , and the 416 Barrett bullet designs ? Every part of them are aireldynamicly designed even the bearing surfaces are designed for low drag thus they can and do reach out farther then the average bullets . Barrett even went so far as to blend a powder just for use in their long range 416 . I know it would be cost prohibitive but I think that using a CNC machine and turning out a few 308 bullets with similar design would produce some interesting results from a 30-06 or a 308 win. .

Hammer Bullets in Montana makes solid copper Cnc machined Bullets and they turned out to be very nice
I will taking them to Montana next week to try for elk. Been waiting 20 something years for this

Thanks

Buck
 
Yes they are CNC machined but look at the difference between the hammer bullets and the 408 and 416 bullets . The hammer bullets are made of gliding copper and don't have the same design in the bearing surface area as the other ones . The 408 and 416 's are made out of a brass alloy and have less bearing surface . The hammer bullets have some groves in the bearing surface area to reduce the surface area but the 408 and 416 have less bearing surface and are machined with more of a taper in the grooved area to reduce air drag . The boat tail of the 408 and 416 bullets is rebated so as to reduce drag as well , kind of like the back of a race car compared to the back of a simi. trailer . All in all they are an improvement in the dynamics of the bullet design and I think the hammer bullets should work very well also . Let us know how they preform on your upcoming hunt in Montana . In the last few years the bullet manufactures have been looking more at the design and dynamics to reduce drag better then in the past . We started out with round balls then went to to a mini ball round nosed bullet now look at where we are with the bullet designs as well as the powders we have to push them to our targets . A few years back I ran some cutting edge bullets , they were CNC machined also , and I couldn't find the right combination for my rifle with them . They were fine bullets but my rifle , powder and them just didn't do well together .
 
Where you headed buck?
Choteau, MT or west of there in the Bob Marshall wilderness. I drew a combo tag but looking for elk but if a deer happens by welllll. We shall wait and see what God has planned. We will have a great time regardless. Pray for traveling as it is a poke from Florida

Thanks

Buck
 
The tripod is a Leofoto, I used it this am, was glassing a little over a mile away, could see a dead cow and the ravens and magpies were sitting on posts, we all know what that means….someone came to dinner. Wind was out of the southwest so I drove around to the north was able to keep out of sight, walked behind a canal bank for couple hundred yards and there was a plank foot bridge to cross canal. As I was easing over the bank I could see a coyote feeding on carcass, range 247 yards, set up the tripod, clamped gun in, man is that steady. Took the safe off, set the trigger, one shot and dead flop, juvenile male, probably litter mate of the one yesterday. This carbon fiber tripod is going with me on coyotes every time, makes a bipod look sick, real game changer.
 
Buck , have safe journeys there and back again . Good hunting to you . Reemty J. it sounds to me that you have found a new piece of equipment and it is working beyond your expectations . I have used one for my spotting scopes but not on my rifles that I will have to do soon . As I've said I made an adapter for one of my rifle scopes so I could use a window mount or tri pod and use it as a spotting scope so then I will build an adapter so my rifle will mount to the tripod I have , and find the balance point for the rifle I plan to shoot from it then be able to mount it to the tri pod .
 
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For me life is about learning new things , I don't care who or what I learn from I'm just hungry for knowledge . I read a lot and look at what others have to say about things here on this site in the different posts . We each and every one of us have had different experiences even with the same things in our lives . I have found for me I like a 223 with 55 grain sierra hollow point rounds running at 2900 feet per second muzzle velocity . Where Reenty J. likes his 204 with 39 grain bullets running with a faster foot per second . I have worked with people of different back grounds and religious beliefs and often when I ask them some questions about their beliefs they will become defensive as they don't know that I want to know about their beliefs not make fun of them for their beliefs . I studied how beaver will dam a stream with several smaller dams up stream of the larger dam . They do this so that when there are fast moving flood waters it will slow down the flow and not breach their main dam . But I've watched people build one larger dam in a stream that washed out with the first flood because they didn't believe me when I said they needed some smaller dams to slow the flow of flood waters like the beaver do . Look at the way rabbits run and evade a beagle by running in a circle then ducking into a bramble patch . Then look at the beagle and how after they have hunted rabbits for some time they learn what the rabbit normally does . I like to learn and pass on some of what I have learned to others that also want to learn different things then what we grew up being taught about . We don't gain wisdom by being critical of others thoughts and beliefs or by not learning from the animals that we are raising or hunting we gain it from being open to learning from all other life forms . I have found that the coyote is one creature that I have learned a lot from and that by letting myself act more like them I can hunt them more successfully .just as Reemty J . stated the other day , but not just the coyote all of the other animals that I have hunted were easier to hunt by being more like a coyote on the hunt then a human . The indigenous people that I have worked with knew this and taught me about this that's the way they survived . I hope that every one has a good hunt this season no matter what it is they may be hunting and that they may feel free to share their hunts with the rest of us so we too can experience their hunt and the enjoyment they got from it . Be safe and enjoy .
 
I got to looking at different bullet manufactures and I found some that are nearly the same design of the 408 and 416 bullets and not very bad price wise when they are back in stock I think I will be testing them in my 06 . The company that I found is called Lehigh Defense , around 70 cents per bullet for the 308's they also make some 224's in 62 grain for the 223 chambering I was wanting to try out as well .
 
Buck I also ordered some of the hammer bullets to try out in my 06 as well . I will try some 4350 and 4831 sc powders with them as well as varying seating depths . Did you find the need to use a jump or near the lands for the best performance in your case ?
 
Left town with an hour of light, glassed for a while and spotted no coyotes decided to drive a couple miles away and make a call on a drainage. Set up looking north, top of a draw, wind south East so down wind was to my forward left. Toe ridge to my left 200 yards straight left to 300 yards forward left, stubble field below me and toe ridge to my right 250 yards. Sat a while and enjoyed weather, sun was left rear behind me. Made a few soft rabbit sounds ( hand call ) did 3 to 4 short series in 10 minutes. Pretty soon i hear a coyote barking at me, downwind but I had a draw between us and wind was going down hill so no chance of him smelling me. He was out of sight but I could tell he was within 400 yards or so, decided to grab tripod cross the draw and peek over as he was still barking at me, stationary. Looked over the rise and he was across the draw 253 yards away, set up tripod to barely see over rise, had to kneel to get gun lined up. She lay real steady in the clamp, lined up and killed him. He was an older male, light was fading fast drug him up the hill and pretty soon the female starts barking at me, she was just on the other side below him out of sight, pretty sure if I had more light I could have peeked over and killed her too as she was waiting for the male. Felt when I was calling and he started barking he wasn't coming any closer and have had good luck moving in on them, as long as you are completely out of site. I enjoy combining glassing, calling and spot and stalk. That tripod is sure a steady game changer.
 
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