Coyotes of 2017

[Double Naught Spy]

Here is a medley of my coyote kills for the year. They ranged in distance from <25 yards to 255 yards, all shot at night with thermal optics. I had video for most of the kills and spliced them together. You can see some of my mistakes as well. In general, I find coyotes to be a challenging quarry, both in calling them in to shooting range and hitting their relatively petite bodies in all that fur. I didn't keep track of my misses like I do my kills, but I probably outright missed somewhere between 8 and 15 coyotes, longer distance, motion, the shakes being the most common reasons why. Of course, some of those were running full speed in a serpentine fashion to get away after a buddy was killed. There were also 2 coyotes that were hit but went unrecovered. These are not included.

While I did call in quite a few coyotes, a lot of the coyotes were simply spotted as I was waiting for hogs and I lipsqueaked or used a call to bring them in closer for a shot. Several were called in using an electronic caller where I was trying to call in hogs. Only about 10 were called in with an electronic caller where I as trying to call in coyotes.

All were shot with 6.5 Grendel. Most were with my 20" upper, one was with a 22" upper, 3 or 4 with a 16" upper, and the last few were with my new 18" piston upper. I used 3 or 4 different types of ammo, but most of the time I was using Hornady SST 123 gr. factory ammo.

[Bigs28]

Nice blood splatter on the truck.

[Ed Baker]

That's a great set video clips.....thanks for taking the time to put it together.

[TomSawyerNW]

Great shots. Which thermal optics do you use, or recommend?

[Jakal]

Great compilation!

In general, over the 37 kills; what would the average time of day be? Do you find more movement at a certain time of day / moon cycle?

I have finally got set up for night hunting. Picked up an Armasight Nemesis 4x and a FLIR Scout 320. As soon as this below-zero weather moves on I will get out there!

Next scope will be a thermal but, I need to save up for that one.

[Double Naught Spy]

Tom, I hesitate to make suggestions on thermal without a lot of information as it is so pricey...sort of like asking, "What sort of car do you recommend?" Well, maybe not that bad, but you get the idea. Most folks hunt at distances ranging from contact to 150 yards and most of the thermal on the market will handle that range. The higher the resolution, bigger the objective lens, and greater the base magnification, the greater the cost.

I sold my middle child and bought a (now) Trijicon IR Hunter MKIII 60mm with 4.5x base magnification. It is what most of the video you saw was. It works well for larger fields and such.

Jakal, sounds like a very workable setup. Having a thermal to scan will have you finding a lot more things than you might have realized were there. As for the coyotes, I hunt from just before dark and into the night/morning. Most of the time, I don't see movement before sundown. Remember, I don't spend a lot of time calling coyotes. So they may be active before sundown, but I don't see them very often. I don't think I made any daylight coyote kills this year.

I have not tried to correlate moon phases with coyotes. I have been unimpressed with such for hogs. I know people that swear by solunar tables and don't hunt except during peak and near peak periods. All I know is that if you aren't out hunting, then you aren't getting any opportunities to shoot. Solunar tables were developed for fishing and nobody has shown where typical terrestrial fauna operate on the same sorts of cycles as the fish. And to be perfectly honest, I like to hunt on the darkest nights (not that I get to choose) when either there is no moon or there is a lot of cloud cover such that the excellent eye system of the animals no longer gives them an advantage.

Somebody may chime in how solunar tables or certain moon phases work for them and that is fine. The way I see it, the coyotes and hogs gotta eat. They are going to be moving regardless of what the moon is doing. The only question is whether or not I am there where they are moving.

I have a buddy that hunts about 30 miles from me and we exchange texts. There are nights when I see absolutely nothing other than some cattle, deer, and a coon or two and he shoots 3 or 4 hogs or a coyote or bobcat. Some times, it is the other way around. The night I got the triple coyotes in one stand actually was a night where I shot a total of 4 coyotes and two hogs. He shot a raccoon. So why the moon favored me and not him is troubling, assuming the moon had anything to do with it.

[Rugerfan.64]

Love the chupacabra reference! Looks like you have had a productive year.

[Jakal]

Damn, nice scope!

I've always said you don't know if you don't go! Turkey are the same way, always out and moving.

I have noticed that with deer hunting; Scoutoutlookhunting is pretty close on movement times. After years of tracking deer kills I have found quarter moons in the evening is when I make most of my kills.

Wasn't sure if you could pattern coyotes like you can deer. It does make sense to hunt dark nights and I hadn't about it that way. I always heard hunt the full moon for coyotes cause they can see their prey better.

Good to know about the day time kills. Just reinforces the need to hunt during the night.

30 miles from where I hunt everything changes, terrain flattens out and the weather is different so I can see how geographic despersion can be a factor.

Thanks for the feedback and have a great New Year!

[Double Naught Spy]

Yeah, all I know is that if you aren't hunting, then you aren't getting any kills. Darn the torpedoes and full speed ahead!

[Texas]

Once again, thank you for sharing your hunts with the excellent videos. I have stopped shooting coyote and bobcat on my place since a rat chewed a transmission wire to my 4x4 hunting truck, and it took over a month to find it. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.

[dammitman]

that is a great video.

[jackwagon]

Nice work as always. Thanks for sharing.

[Les]

Looking good DNS, not even fair. lol

[TomSawyerNW]

Thanks, Spy. I just realized I hadn't thanked you for your reply. I fully understand your point on recommending scopes, being pretty much an open ended question, and having a lot to do with a person's specific needs and wants. I am not quite ready to make that purchase, but eventually I think that will be something I'll be investing in. As I find my interest in thermal optics building, your comments in general have been quite helpful.

[LRRPF52]

That was an awesome collection of shoots.

Thanks for your contributions!