TreeStandMan
03-22-2016, 10:21 PM
My dad's property backs onto crown land. Coyotes have been after the house cats, and last year they took all the neighbour’s lambs, so we decided to have a go at reducing the population.
Dad has taken the odd coyote when he's seen them in the yard, but neither of us had ever targeted them. After reading a few threads here on HBC, I figured I could rig up my own call system with stuff I already had, mainly my cellphone and a portable Bluetooth speaker.
Shortly after 7:00 in the morning we set out on a short 2 km hike to what we figured was a likely location. I set up the speaker on a stump, and we each found places to hide, me about 50 yards off, and dad about 75 yards.
I found my phone could only connect to the speaker with line of sight, but after we let things calm down for a few minutes I started a calling sequence. I found that the phone would disconnect from the speaker if I set it down or held it the wrong way, but it seemed to work.
After about 40 minutes I was ready to pack it in, but decided instead to give it an even hour. Good thing too, because up through the clearing comes a coyote. I watched him come in from about 150 yards. At this point I decided to give another call to hopefully lure him into dad's shooting lane, but in my excitement didn’t realize that the phone had disconnected from the speaker, so my phone let out the noise. I was made. I did the only sensible thing: I shot.
Let me say here that the reason I was trying to get the coyote into dad's shooting lane is that I was using an unscoped 17 HMR that I had picked up two days before. I had tested it out with open sights, and felt fine about it, but dad is an excellent with his scoped 22 mag, so I thought he should take the shot.
It wasn't to be, though, and despite that I was aiming for a heart and lungs shot, I took the coyote a bit far back as he turned. Nevertheless, the animal was down, and I raced down the hill and finished him off.
http://i556.photobucket.com/albums/ss10/Ryan_Vernon/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0012_zpsj5txormo.jpg
This was the first time I hunted something that I didn't plan to eat, but on the way back home we bumped a group of mule deer, and at least one was very pregnant, and I'm glad to perhaps increase the survivability of the fawns, the cats, and the neighbour’s lambs.
Dad has taken the odd coyote when he's seen them in the yard, but neither of us had ever targeted them. After reading a few threads here on HBC, I figured I could rig up my own call system with stuff I already had, mainly my cellphone and a portable Bluetooth speaker.
Shortly after 7:00 in the morning we set out on a short 2 km hike to what we figured was a likely location. I set up the speaker on a stump, and we each found places to hide, me about 50 yards off, and dad about 75 yards.
I found my phone could only connect to the speaker with line of sight, but after we let things calm down for a few minutes I started a calling sequence. I found that the phone would disconnect from the speaker if I set it down or held it the wrong way, but it seemed to work.
After about 40 minutes I was ready to pack it in, but decided instead to give it an even hour. Good thing too, because up through the clearing comes a coyote. I watched him come in from about 150 yards. At this point I decided to give another call to hopefully lure him into dad's shooting lane, but in my excitement didn’t realize that the phone had disconnected from the speaker, so my phone let out the noise. I was made. I did the only sensible thing: I shot.
Let me say here that the reason I was trying to get the coyote into dad's shooting lane is that I was using an unscoped 17 HMR that I had picked up two days before. I had tested it out with open sights, and felt fine about it, but dad is an excellent with his scoped 22 mag, so I thought he should take the shot.
It wasn't to be, though, and despite that I was aiming for a heart and lungs shot, I took the coyote a bit far back as he turned. Nevertheless, the animal was down, and I raced down the hill and finished him off.
http://i556.photobucket.com/albums/ss10/Ryan_Vernon/Mobile%20Uploads/DSC_0012_zpsj5txormo.jpg
This was the first time I hunted something that I didn't plan to eat, but on the way back home we bumped a group of mule deer, and at least one was very pregnant, and I'm glad to perhaps increase the survivability of the fawns, the cats, and the neighbour’s lambs.