|
Author
|
Topic: Krusty shoots mountain coyote...
|
scruffy
Knows what it's all about
Member # 725
|
posted February 20, 2006 07:00 PM
Krusty, I'm sorry to hear that!!! That really sucks, losing any coyote sucks, but your first has to suck worse. But the next one, holding it up, howling at the sky, will feel that much higher.
I missed a boat load of the first ones I called in, coyote fever I guess, but the feelings of all the ones I missed I think rolled up into the positive feelings I felt when I nailed one. My first called and hit coyote I hit with my .270, and it don't mess around. Like leonard said, a marginal shot with a -06 of some sort will put them down hard where a 22 centerfire will have them getting back up to run off. My .270 hit was an inch or two ahead of the last rib, way back in the boiler room, the coyote never took a step, he was 125 yards. He dropped straight down and then after a second tried to get himself pulled up with his front legs but his back half was dead. I tried for another shot in his neck but as I pulled the trigger his head and neck dropped to the ground dead, one less hole in him I guess. That same hit with my .223 or 22-250 would quite possibly resulted in a runner. Actually most of my 22 centerfire kills have resulted in runners or spinners (mostly spinners) but I've also had alot more kills over the years with my .270 than my .223 (my 22-250 is still new) because my .223 was so unreliable because it kept breaking scopes... (mini14) With my .270 I had one spinner and one runner out of my last dozen, the rest were bang flops. There's just no comparison in authority.
That said, I love my 22-250, it's accurate, light, not near as loud, not near the recoil. And since the 22-250, and any 22 centerfire for that matter, has less killing power the bullet that's used becomes much more important. I've been picking bullets for penetration. I want a bullet/load that will push completely through a broadside coyote and a long ways on a frontal or running away coyote (texas heart shot ![[Wink]](wink.gif) ). But that's my preference. I've used "varmint" bullets in my .223 and had them blow up in the shoulder, splash up close, etc. Others have used them with great success. To each their own.
If you don't mind me asking, what load/bullet was the duece spitting?
And if there was one thing I learned from all my misses and hits and losses and kills, that I've learned more from my misses than my kills. When I make a kill I try to do the same thing the next time out. When I have a miss or loss I change what would have made that last miss or loss a kill, thereby upping my skill level.
I know you know all this and already have plans to make the next opportunity a kill instead of a hit or miss. I'm just a rambler, LOL. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
Good luck on the next one. You'll find another needle in a haystack, or I should say the needle will find you. ![[Cool]](cool.gif)
later,
scruffy
--------------------
Git R Done
Posts: 361 | From: south central Iowa | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
|
posted February 20, 2006 10:31 PM
2D,
Thanks, I actually enjoyed living it, even as bitter a pill as it was to swallow.
Without bad, there cannot be good.
It wasn't so much that I didn't think he needed another round, as much as I just didn't think. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Kokopelli,
It's a bummer, and a really cool thing, all at once.
What I did is a major accomplishment, combined with a huge stroke of luck, that kinda thing doesn't happen to a guy very many times in his life.
One or the other, but rarely both.
Danny,
I agree, I am making small steps towards my goal, as opposed to backwards.
Next time, just like the next stand (yesterday) might not be it, but I know no matter what, if I keep after it eventually I'll get one (or I won't... that's the true fun in it, the gamble).
Loren,
It's back to my workaday world, I tried to bail out and go back today, but it wasn't happening.
And Leonard and Red are right, he's not there, he's far away (and maybe still moving, which is the only part I can't find anything good about).
Leonard,
I didn't psych myself up, it's the first time I ever really got coyote fever (the instant I saw it), and I was able to talk myself back down (because that coyote had "no clue", and I then had time to work through it).
A "track" on him would have been a short one, and I would have to have been facing 180° the other way already.
I'm thankful I had time to turn around, crunching sticks and debris, swing the rifle around, calm myself down, turn some more, and settle in and get a good rest.
He did his part, well.
The bullet hit about 3/4" above the spot I tried to put it.
My mistake, was trying to put it there, at all.
He was slightly quartered to my right, maybe 20° or so (not nearly like the HM coyote picture), and (I believe from lookin at my dog) that I poked, through and through, just inside the humorous and below the shoulder socket without hitting his ribs (or any other bones).
Not a very good anchoring shot at all (my bad).
I should have placed my bullet (to my) left a ways (to just inside his right shoulder/humorous) and slightly lower.
But, any way you slice it, a coyote's vitals are not a very big target.
From now on, I'll look at a critter with "x-ray vision", trying to keep in mind a course straight through the boiler.
The ki-yi's were for a companion.
I figured he had come down the road, and fled up the branch road... if he had a companion, I expected it to follow him. The main road curved to my left, and the branch to my right, I only had a good view of a narrow section of the intersection itself.
There was also the possibilty his companion was in Red's view, so I figured to make it stop or turn and maybe present him with a shot I didn't know about.
It can't hurt, can it?
From when I fired the first round, to when the coyote disappeared, wasn't very much time at all, even with my (now) fairly familiar M-44 I doubt I coulda got two shots off, and I chambered a round as soon as I let off the ki-yi.
And other than limping a bit more (which he hardly was), a shot with one of the 30 cals might not have done much more.
Like you say, "you know by how much blood"... right from the get go, I could tell, Red could tell I was screwed (and later told me so).
I obviously need to re-think which rifle to leave the truck with (especially when hunting country like this).
Andy,
This is just a drop of suck, in a big ass bucket of suck.
It has sucked before, and it will probably suck again.
When you try to do something very hard, you don't succeed a lot... until you are very very good at it.
I dunno if I'll ever get to be very very good, I'm okay just trying to be better than last time.
No medals, no glory, no pats on the back... I'm just a (dumb) guy with a really hard head, beating the hell out of a big brick wall.
Sruffy,
This is my fourth "first coyote", it's getting easier (and harder) to take at the same time.
The bullet? Hmmm green box, Sierra 50 gr spitzer wants to jump out, in fairly new Winny cases with CCI match primers, on top of 20 grs (for sure) of (I think) 4198, going about 3250fps (out of our long bbl'd rifle).
Krusty 
--------------------
Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
|
posted February 21, 2006 04:33 AM
Krusty,
Frustrating, ain't it? Anyoner here that tries to act like the same thing doesn't still happen to them more than they care to endure is lying. It happened to me once this year when I called in a litter of four and the one I picked out of the bunch to be the first of a hellacious quadruple took the hit further back than I intended and was gone. Absolutely pissed all over an otherwise great experience. But, the truth of the matter is that you picked a spot, you shot a coyote you called and you had evidence of a hit. If you hit where you think you hit, at that range, with that bullet going that sppeed, he should have gone down. He just didn't. Shit happens. Hydrostatic shock in the thorax should have collapsed at least one or two lobes of the lungs, but they don't need lungs.
Of those four I called that day, we managed to get three of them thru the season. One of them I called and it ran across in front of Matt. At thirty yards, he hit it in the same area of the right shoulder as you described using a 22-250, 45 grn BTHP's. That coyote rolled, got up and ran forty to fifty yards before piling up. The blood smear (much more than a trail) was a foot and a half wide. When I got to him, I rolled him over and his thorax was completely vacated as seen thru the gaping 8-inch hole in his sternum. That damned coyote ran that far with no heart and no lungs. How tough do you have to be to do that?
Sounds to me like you did everything right. It just didn't work out and it should have. As far as I'm concerned, you're over the hump and you are now an official coyote caller. Good job and you'll get wet next time. Remember, it' snot about the kill. It's about counting coup on the toughest little bastard in the woods.
--------------------
I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Bryan J
Cap and Trade Weenie
Member # 106
|
posted February 21, 2006 07:46 AM
Krusy, I’m happy for you and bummed out for you at the same time. I have had two that tipped over in their tracks and after I got back on the call looked over to see them running off. It sucks! It seems to me that if I were to put my predator calling learning curve on a graph it wouldn’t be a true curve but a series of steps, some bigger than others. This one had to be huge for you regardless of the out come.
Posts: 599 | From: Utah | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
|
posted February 21, 2006 08:49 AM
Look at it this way, K. You are getting a lot of "ink" for losing a cripple, and it's not negative.
Also, I notice how you are bonding with Lance.
Good hunting. LB
--------------------
EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31465 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
|
posted February 21, 2006 11:44 AM
Lance,
Yes it is frustrating, mostly the "not knowing" part.
I dunno if I did everything right, or just got lucky?
I don't feel any more official today, than I did four years ago, when I called in a double and my brother wounded one (which we didn't look nearly as hard for). Or two years ago, when I called one in using these same calls, and fired a round that wasn't matched to the scope's settings, and missed.
I did everything right on both of those days too.
I might have taken a few laps, but I haven't made it to the checkered flag yet.
This was a failure, like the rest, I crashed on the last lap (this time), instead of crashing in the pits, or on the start.
But thanks, anyways.
Bryan,
I agree it feels like steps, up to the next plateau, a breakthrough of sorts.
I needed this "break" right now, for sure, I was running out of motivation in a big way.
It hasn't changed the way I see the game, I still know I am up against a huge challenge, it just doesn't seem completely futile anymore.
I knocked a tiny chunk off the brick wall.
The real difference in this case, is making a drastic change from the "routine" I and everyone else around here has.
I didn't go east, to the scablands, I went to the largest tract of nothing I could find, in the "working timber".
This coyote was 20+ miles from the closest paved road, farther than that from any homes, and I'd bet a million dollars NOBODY has ever called around here.
Leonard,
I'm not an ink hunter. (*and topics I start often go a couple pages, or more)
It doesn't matter to me, if the ink is positive or negative, it matters to me how I feel about me (and what I did).
It was negative.
I wounded a coyote, because I shot it in the wrong place, and I never found it.
Not a dang good thing about that.
You guys can never chew my ass as hard as I already have been, I am my own harshest critic.
I'd just be inclined to agree, with anything negative, and look for ways to learn from my mistakes.
Krusty
--------------------
Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
scruffy
Knows what it's all about
Member # 725
|
posted February 21, 2006 12:05 PM
So I can learn from this event and not aim at the wrong place, where would I aim on the HM coyote pic (similar to krusty's coyote angle?) in the upper left of this page? With my 22-250 I'd aim for his front shoulder to my left (his right). Would the 55 grain PSP punch through the shoulder into the vitals? Is there a better shot to take?
later,
scruffy
[ February 21, 2006, 12:06 PM: Message edited by: scruffy ]
--------------------
Git R Done
Posts: 361 | From: south central Iowa | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
|
posted February 21, 2006 12:40 PM
Without getting too technical: center of mass works for me. LB
--------------------
EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31465 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
2dogs
Knows what it's all about
Member # 649
|
posted February 21, 2006 02:44 PM
Scruff,
You need an AR...[point & spray], BRRRRRRURP!
Wished I lived out West, where [Whip] lives. Coulda laid on the engine hood the other day & ripped on that pr, 50yrds away .
Posts: 1034 | From: central Iowa | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
TRnCO
FUTURE HALL OF FAMER
Member # 690
|
posted February 22, 2006 05:31 PM
KK, you're one hard headed coyote callin' fool!! If I ever go 2, 3, or 4 years and only call in and see 4 coyotes and only get a shot opportuntity at one of them, I'll be buying some golf clubs and hoping for warm weather!!
Congrats!!
--------------------
Is it hunting season yet? I hate summer!
Posts: 996 | From: Elizabeth, CO | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Tim Behle
Administrator MacNeal Sector
Member # 209
|
posted February 22, 2006 05:50 PM
quote:
I'll be buying some golf clubs and hoping for warm weather!!
So what's wrong with golf? Have you ever seen a Beer Cart Girl While coyote hunting?
--------------------
Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take
an ass kickin'.
Posts: 3160 | From: Five Miles East of Vic, AZ | Registered: Jun 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
TRnCO
FUTURE HALL OF FAMER
Member # 690
|
posted February 23, 2006 03:35 PM
Never said anything was wrong with playing the game, but thanks for showing me what I have to look forward to if and when I can't call more than 4 coyotes in 3 years!
Some of those girls could use some camo., if ya know what I mean!!
--------------------
Is it hunting season yet? I hate summer!
Posts: 996 | From: Elizabeth, CO | Registered: Aug 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
MULE
Knows what it's all about
Member # 63
|
posted February 24, 2006 09:26 AM
Well Tim convinced me.
Gonna sell my guns and buy some clubs
--------------------
Kickin' it on the Steppes. Livin' in my Yurt
My Hockey Mom can beat up your Community Organizer
Posts: 334 | From: Ulan Bator | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
|
posted February 24, 2006 09:54 AM
So, we see what floats your boat, MULE. It's those beer cart girls, aint it?
Danger there, amigo. Soon, they will have you painting and fixing, with no time for golf; let alone, hunting.
Don't be a victim.
God hunting. LB
--------------------
EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31465 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
MULE
Knows what it's all about
Member # 63
|
posted February 24, 2006 05:48 PM
Leonard,
Somethings are way more important than coyotes
Case in point
--------------------
Kickin' it on the Steppes. Livin' in my Yurt
My Hockey Mom can beat up your Community Organizer
Posts: 334 | From: Ulan Bator | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
scruffy
Knows what it's all about
Member # 725
|
posted February 25, 2006 12:44 PM
Wow, Krusty is the only person I know who can miss a coyote, make a post about it, and a picture of a beautiful woman gets posted and people are selling their guns and buying golf clubs!!! ![[Eek!]](eek.gif)
I'm almost scared to think about what well happen when Krusty connects with one (coyote, not beer girl ![[Razz]](tongue.gif) )!!!
later,
scruffy
--------------------
Git R Done
Posts: 361 | From: south central Iowa | Registered: Nov 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
|
posted February 25, 2006 10:23 PM
What's wrong with golf?
(1) Golf courses take up land that could be wildlife habitat or field archery ranges.
(2) I can never get the ball past the blades on the windmill.
--------------------
And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 7582 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
| IP: Logged
|
|
Krustyklimber
prefers the bunny hugger pronunciation: ky o tee
Member # 72
|
posted February 25, 2006 11:37 PM
3) Because, all golf courses should be motocross tracks.
Krusty
--------------------
Think about how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are stupider than that!
Posts: 1912 | From: Deep in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged
|
|
|
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
