Up at 430am to go p-dogging only. Arrived at the ranch about 505am, still dark AM. I load my gun, take my pack and walk 400 yards to the top of a hill that overlooks valleys on both sides & run 1000 yards each way or more, this way I have an eagles roost on zillions of p-dogs as they pop out for the morning sun & to eat.
So I'm thinking I have seen coyotes around here so I pull out my blue foxpro reed coyote call and proceed to howl, going from low to high, slow to mixed & fast with whimpers for about 6 minutes or so. I kind hear some way off in the creek that runs below the next hill about 1900 yards and think they aint a coming up here. I'm waiting for p-dogs still since its now busting daylight, make some more howls but nothing in return I don't expect to see anything.
Well I'm here to just shoot p-dogs today and is my main reason for going. As I see my 1st target and about to pop it I look over my scope and HOLY MOLY I see a COYOTE about 260 yards on the next hill from me and in perfect line of fire & its looking for what was howling 15 minutes ago. I am prone in camo with my gillie head cover on. I wiggle into position get it in the scope and BOOM.....thwap...goes down, gets up and bites at the hit and I lay it out with the second shot to insure its anchored....FLOP!
Awesome start today for p-dogging & its still before the sun is coming over the horizon...615 am.
I drag it 900 yards to the truck, see its a female as I inspect it, take pics & head back to my roost for p-dogs, sun is coming up.
So here I am shooting p-dogs all around me and have shot 57 and I look up and see ANOTHER coyote about 380 yards off and right above the spot I've popped 14 p-dogs so Im dialed in already. Now its 730ish AM. I never saw it come over the hill and never expected one to show up in the spot I've been shooting steady for an hour now & walk down about 80 yards this side of the other hill. I move and it busts into a full out run along the hill going over the top....BOOM...dust I see it kind of sort flip its tail (more on that coming up).
Its gone and about a mile away I see about 10 Antelope move fast, stop, look back...run...so I'm thinking it ran in that direction to freedom. So back to popping p-dogs and its about 830 & I say I'm leaving at 10 to take care of other stuff today. I'm shooting steady for 60 rounds or more, dialed in at 800 yards (who says the .223 cant drop em at long range) and popping them off way the heck out there and decide to turn and shoot the valley I walked through to get to my roost as its now busting with p-dogs. I'm turned and shooting like crazy and run out of ammo, my pack is 8 feet to my rear just beyond my feet and holy crudoly as I turn to get my ammo the is a COYOTE at 300 yards behind me scarfing on the dead ones I just shot a few minutes ago.
OK now I'm out of ammo & my pack is 6 feet from me. I'm sure it had to of seen me up on top of the hill. I belly crawl to my pack almost shaking as I'm so darn excited at this second coyote. I make it to my pack & trying NOT to make any move that it will spot me, I reach into the pack....cant find the ammo....dang it I have 300 more in there. I get my hand on a box thinking it has to see me, but its back is to me...I literally fumble 4 rounds into my chamber....man this is taking forever!
I'm laughing at myself for the way everything is happening...man I'm going to really dink this up...hahahahah
I'm dialed in already, so I get it in my scope, it finally makes me I think, turns to give me a side shot, crosshair just behind the front shoulders.....BOOM...thwap, goes down, gets up, bites at the hit, BOOM...FLOP!
Darn I'm so excited as I trot out to it, 280 yards later and I'm taking another picture, made my day and its a bit after 9am!
Time for me to pack it up and go home I just now had the most exciting morning in a very long time!!
This makes my 3rd coyote in 3 days.
I get home to take the heads/tails & disect to see my shot damage.
My gun today is my Savage FP10 in .223 topped with a BSA 30mm tactical scope, taget dials & SF.
My load is 28g W748 behind the 50g Vmax at about 3400 FPS. The bullets never made it through the bodies, the rounds blew up inside, all I found were very small fragments of the bullets.
Both were hit high behind the shoulders right under the spine & forward of the intestines thats why the bit at the hit and could not run, but I gave them both a second FLOP down shot.
After deboning the tails I saw a hole in the tail of the large female coyote. I didn't slice it, but looking closer I saw that I had hit it earlier thus the reason I had seen it flip its tail, the tailbone has a red spot where the bullet smacked a part of it.
Stomaches on both are full of p-dogs/grasshoppers/red berries.
http://i321.photobucket.com/albums/n...9-21-10024.jpg
