First Coyote with a handgun!

The good looking furry one is the Coyote!

It all started when I was surfing the web and found the site predatormaster.com . That’s when I noticed a hunter by the name of Dan Mead who lived in Laramie, just over the pass from me in Cheyenne. I emailed him and he was nice enough to invite me to go Coyote hunting with him.

We went out on Tuesday (December 7th) morning before daylight. Dan took me to a stand (Pole Mountain, approximately 8000 feet) that he had previously taken Coyotes before. Trying to walk through the deep snow with 40+ mile per hour winds and 20 degree temp (without the wind chill factor) had me seriously wondering about my sanity, say nothing about my IQ.

We hiked in about 500 yards or so and setup near the top of a ravine looking down with the wind in our face. After getting setup Dan commenced calling with his mouth call. Not 5 minutes into his calling I noticed movement coming from the bottom of the ravine about a hundred yards where the sage brush ended. No sooner had I noticed him than he was on top of us, running full bore past me, straight at Dan. He was running so fast that he completely took me by surprise. If Dan hadn’t barked the Coyote would have literally ran him over. (We measured and the Coyote had stopped less than a foot from Dan!).

I don’t know who was more surprised, us or the Coyote. Dan’s 22 rifle jammed so he couldn’t get a shot off (I thought he was showing off to see how close he could get the Coyote in!). The Coyote than ran sideways up the side of the hill looking back at us wondering what had just happened. Just as he got to the top of the hill Dan called again and the Coyote stopped at about 40 yds. Mistake! I sent a 140 gr. Barnes XLC from my XP-100, 7mm IHMSA and rolled him, literally.

After congratulating each other, Dan for his excellent calling and me for shooting the Coyote, he asked me why I didn't shoot sooner? I told him I thought he was going to, but was going to wait and shoot him from his lap. He said "I like them close, but not that close!".

I was definitely hooked on calling in Coyotes, wind or no wind.

Funny, it wasn’t that cold either.

Awesome!! Up close and personal hunting, sounds great.

I'd like to try taking a coyote sometime.

absolutely awesome! love it! thanks

Great Job! congratulations

Fantastic!! I could feel my adrenaline rising just from the read! I'll bet it was just a blur.

Was the shot off hand or did ya have time to get a rest??

Man that coyote hunting thing really looks fun, just might have to try it sometime.

SS 308,

Great story, great pics, cool trophy... Guess you're hooked huh?...

$bob$

Great hunt and another great shot. I guess it should be expected from a marine. The pics are fantastic!

Congrats on the success there, Nice looking rig that you are packing there. Nothing like a little excitement to take the chill off.

U betchya'-- wish i would have been there with ya' SS-- would have loved to help u skin it, etc. Looks like a nice dog.

Congrats SS308,

There's nothing like predator hunt'in! Once it's in ya, your hooked!

Great story and a great dog!
Sharp looking XP too

I shot the Coyote from the top of my right knee laying down.
On the way in I lost my shooting sticks. Valuable lesson learned from this is I leave my Harris Bipod on in the future.

I also have a trick that I have used hunting with shooting sticks. I bought a leg rest that shotgunners use for turkey hunting for resting thier shotgun on. It works great for the butt of your handgun in conjunction with shooting sticks.

Man! Sounds like one heck of a hunt! Congrats.

Quote:

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I also have a trick that I have used hunting with shooting sticks. I bought a leg rest that shotgunners use for turkey hunting for resting thier shotgun on. It works great for the butt of your handgun in conjunction with shooting sticks.

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Good tip! Nice shooting, as well.