Well, I finally succeeded in getting a coyote last night at 7:35pm after three long months of multiple failed attempts in long cold nights.
I tagged one back in December of last year and there were still two coyotes that frequent this farm looking for food. Many rats were shot and left for bait and either I never saw them when I was there or they came and went without me having a go at them. Timing was the key factor here.
I was shooting from the loft of a barn facing the target area 30-40 yards away. A perfect setup really, but I have learned valuable mistakes of what to do or not to do. For instance, leaving my scent when I drop off the rats was probably one of the contributing factors. Staying motionless and quiet was also important. But most importantly, flashing light from my Scopecam was the culprit in which the coyote was spooked the night before last.
I was there this Friday night and after sitting in the dark for 2 hours, the coyote showed up. I have set up my trail cam on the fence 40 yards away, facing at me slightly to the right. I found this positioning of the trail cam was the best because I could see the IR lights tripped when motion was detected. There were a couple of times when a rabbit had hopped in front of the TC and gave me heart attacks thinking the coyote was there. So when the coyote showed up, I quickly turned on the recording on my Pard007S mounted on my Impact with the new Element Helix 2-16x50mm.
Now I had to invest on this new Helix scope because my previous scope was the Helix 6-24x50mm and the Field of View was too zoomed in especially the Pard007S has a multiplier with the zoom. The tight zoom was very difficult to scan and spot the target. Therefore, I bought the 2-16x50mm model and I was very happy with the wider Field of View when the scope was at 2X. A lot easier to see what was downrange.
Back to the coyote, it was very edgy, cautious and it was constantly looking up at my direction. I was tracking it in my scope cam and follow it around the area. Unfortunately, I didn't chamber a slug before hand and I was hesitant to cock the gun because they have good hearing and this one was onto me already. So I had my finger on the cocking level but I couldn't force myself to cock the gun in fear that it would hear me and ran off like it did in the past. Any slight sound made inside the loft would get amplified in the dead of night.
So I gambled and hoping that it would find the rats and started to feed on them. Well, that was my hope and wrong assumption. It was in the area for 5 minutes and I would have had a chance to squeeze off a shot, but not without a slug in the chamber. Of course the coyote decided to leave as it didn't feel safe.
So I sat there for another hour and a half, praying and hoping that it would return but it never did. I had spent many nights typically 4-6 hours enduring and suffering the cold and back pain from sitting. Another wasted opportunity and failed attempt this evening.
Lots of thoughts came to mind. I finally concluded that it was the blinking blue light from the night vision scope when it was in a recording mode. My forehead must have been beaconing like the lighthouse in a dark stormy night. I was seated inside the dark loft of a barn. I guess from the coyote's point of view, a steady flashing light, possibly outlining my shape, must have spooked it. Another sleepless night for me.
The farmer texted me the next morning (Saturday) that the six rats were gone. The trail cam footages confirmed that the coyote did return at 12:40am after I have left at 11:30pm. I arrived at 7pm to leave out a bunch of rats that I shot and collected at another farm on Friday night. I quickly went up to the loft and set up. I covered the flashing light on my Pard007S with an electrical tape and I draped a dark cloth over the scope to help conceal my head. I also mounted an IR light on the neck of the tripod so that it was on and pointed directly at the bait station in a stationary position. This way I would not need to use the IR light attached to the side of my Impact; no moving IR lights from my gun when I was panning or moving the gun around. An H&N Gen2 25gr slug was chambered and I was ready. I was determined to get this coyote once and for all, even if that means I would be in a zombie state as the night gets longer.
Well, luck was on my side this evening. Shortly after 30mins of settling in, the red IR lights from the trail cam came on. I was quick to the gun which was mounted on my new tripod with a ball-head clamp, a hands free setup. The Pard007S began recording and I could see the coyote thru the IR from the trail cam and the stationary IR from my tripod. Everything happened so quickly that I didn't have time to think but I knew what needed to be done. When it paused, the trigger would send off the slug traveling at 950fps downrange into the top of its head.
A loud thwack was heard. The slug connected with the coyote's forehead sending it to the ground. I did some follow up shots to make sure it wasn't going to run off just in case. It wasn't getting up.
I found my breathing and I exhaled with a great sight of relieve. I finally did it. After all the long cold nights of stalking, of which must have shorten some of my life, the end result was satisfying. This coyote was in bad shape as it was very mangy and skinny. I helped out the farmer to control these relentless pests that target his livestocks and I put it out of its misery as well.
I will post the video when I get it done. Thank you all for chiming in. I will rest for a week and get on to the next coyote hunt at another location where the farmer had left a still born calf in the field. The body had been visited by coyotes and I have setup my trail cam today to see what lurks in the dark.
Stay tuned. Cheers.
