- Joined
- May 2, 2001
- Messages
- 7,490
This past Saturday I was hunting with my new friends, Cory and Dave, near Sydney, Montana. That morning we had had a good day so far, called a bunch and killed a couple. Spectacular country. I just love it out there.
We were on a ranch road 20 yards from a shear bluff that was 100 feet above the river. They knew a little about long range hunting and were curious. They also knew I really was hoping for a 500 yard shot on this trip.
Suddenly Dave said, "Len, there's your 500 yard shot".
We jumped out of the truck and headed to the edge of the bluff. I got set up as Dave was spotting for me. The river was frozen. Just off to the right from a large island was a tiny sand bar surrounded by ice. It was about 30 yards long and 5 to 10 feet wide.
On it was a coyote who seemed to be mousing.I fumbled a bit to find him in my 20 power scope as Dave said the coyote had moved slightly off the sandbar away from us. I ranged it as 517 yards. The G7 rangefinder told me the elevation needed was 8.1 MOA. The wind was in my face.
I squeezed the trigger and saw the coyote go down, hit hard. The Montana boys seemed pretty impressed and I was pretty happy. Dave said that in his binoculars he could see a red mist when the bullet exited.
After a few high fives we noticed the coyote was still alive.
I said "I'll shoot it again".
Cory said "if you can hit it again I'll be pretty amazed".
So I shot it again. gun) And he seemed pretty amazed.
So far it was a pretty neat experience but then....
After my second shot about a thousand geese took off and circled our position. Meanwhile the first of 3 more coyotes individually appeared from 3 different directions. The boys took a few running shots at them hundreds of yards off down below on the ice and I even took one unsuccessful shot at one.
Quite a crazy mental picture.... gun)
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We were on a ranch road 20 yards from a shear bluff that was 100 feet above the river. They knew a little about long range hunting and were curious. They also knew I really was hoping for a 500 yard shot on this trip.
Suddenly Dave said, "Len, there's your 500 yard shot".
We jumped out of the truck and headed to the edge of the bluff. I got set up as Dave was spotting for me. The river was frozen. Just off to the right from a large island was a tiny sand bar surrounded by ice. It was about 30 yards long and 5 to 10 feet wide.
On it was a coyote who seemed to be mousing.I fumbled a bit to find him in my 20 power scope as Dave said the coyote had moved slightly off the sandbar away from us. I ranged it as 517 yards. The G7 rangefinder told me the elevation needed was 8.1 MOA. The wind was in my face.
I squeezed the trigger and saw the coyote go down, hit hard. The Montana boys seemed pretty impressed and I was pretty happy. Dave said that in his binoculars he could see a red mist when the bullet exited.
After a few high fives we noticed the coyote was still alive.
I said "I'll shoot it again".
Cory said "if you can hit it again I'll be pretty amazed".
So I shot it again. gun) And he seemed pretty amazed.
So far it was a pretty neat experience but then....
After my second shot about a thousand geese took off and circled our position. Meanwhile the first of 3 more coyotes individually appeared from 3 different directions. The boys took a few running shots at them hundreds of yards off down below on the ice and I even took one unsuccessful shot at one.
Quite a crazy mental picture.... gun)
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