First a little background. I havent hunted anything on 4 legs ever. I did some dove hunting about 20 years ago, but thats it for experience going into this. I decided to try hunting Coyote after a camping trip with my son. We heard them calling and I thought it would be a real challenge to hunt them at night, so a few months later I picked up a wireless caller at Cabellas. Prior to last night I have never even seen a Coyote before.
I have free access to a land owned by my wifes family 2 hours away, so I decided to check it out a few weeks ago and look for tracks etc. I found a lot of tracks and a clearing that looked promising. Keep in mind I have no idea what a good spot is other than "it looked good to me"
A friend of mine who has hunted yotes before went with me for the hunt and with him came a pair of PVS-7D night vision goggles and some experience on what the hell to do. Our strategy was to use red lens covers for the flashlights and scan the tree lines for the eyes reflecting back using the night vision. Before night fell, we did a recon of the clearing and decided to setup after dark. When we returned I put the caller about 25 yards in front and started calling. I would run the caller for a few minutes and then listen for anything moving. We ran it off and on for about 10 or so minutes and just when we were wondering if anything was out there, we heard a whole pack of dogs start howling louder than I have ever heard them and they couldnt have been more than 50 yards away.
When they stopped, I ran the "howl" call for about 5 seconds and shut it off. A coyote started howling back. I did this a couple of times and it was pretty freaking cool! We realized that we setup in a bad spot where the moonlight was behind us so we moved a short distance to the tree line in a shaded area. I ran the rabbit call a few times and eyes started showing up in the tree line. Since I hadnt shot a yote before, my friend ran the night vision and spotlight, I would run the caller and take the shot. Since we only had one pair of goggles, while he is scanning the treeline and watching the eyes, I am standing in place starting to freeze my ass off staring into the black void. within 10 minutes of moving to our new position he tells me there is a yote in the open and he is going to spot light it. At this point I realized we had a great position in the shade (the moon was pretty bright) , but I didnt have any support for the shot. When he litup the yote (using an LED Streamlight flashlight) I had 5 seconds to find the target and get a shot off. With my Eotech sight for optics, I made the standing unsupported unknown distance shot and fired. The shot went right over his back. (we failed to map out ranges prior to setting up but what would you excpect from FNG's anyway) Turned out he as about 100 yards away when I fired. After the shot my friend asked "What did you see him do" I said "run like hell just like they do in the Cabellas videos when the dumbasses miss"
The fact that I missed the coyote didnt bother me. Hell I was happy we made it this far on our first outing. Talk about an awesome stage for a competition... The night 5 second exposure, unknown distance, standing unsupported, horizontal E silouette stage
We learned a lot last night and know what to improve on. The next time we will have better lighting, support for the shot, and a second pair of night vision so each of us can track them. Hunting coyotes really is a challenge! On the earlier recon of the area, we came a cross a big doe grazing in the field not 100 yards away. I thought WOW... Deer hunting is easy.
We know where the Yotes are and we will be back!
(Had I shot him a picture would have been here)
I have free access to a land owned by my wifes family 2 hours away, so I decided to check it out a few weeks ago and look for tracks etc. I found a lot of tracks and a clearing that looked promising. Keep in mind I have no idea what a good spot is other than "it looked good to me"
A friend of mine who has hunted yotes before went with me for the hunt and with him came a pair of PVS-7D night vision goggles and some experience on what the hell to do. Our strategy was to use red lens covers for the flashlights and scan the tree lines for the eyes reflecting back using the night vision. Before night fell, we did a recon of the clearing and decided to setup after dark. When we returned I put the caller about 25 yards in front and started calling. I would run the caller for a few minutes and then listen for anything moving. We ran it off and on for about 10 or so minutes and just when we were wondering if anything was out there, we heard a whole pack of dogs start howling louder than I have ever heard them and they couldnt have been more than 50 yards away.
When they stopped, I ran the "howl" call for about 5 seconds and shut it off. A coyote started howling back. I did this a couple of times and it was pretty freaking cool! We realized that we setup in a bad spot where the moonlight was behind us so we moved a short distance to the tree line in a shaded area. I ran the rabbit call a few times and eyes started showing up in the tree line. Since I hadnt shot a yote before, my friend ran the night vision and spotlight, I would run the caller and take the shot. Since we only had one pair of goggles, while he is scanning the treeline and watching the eyes, I am standing in place starting to freeze my ass off staring into the black void. within 10 minutes of moving to our new position he tells me there is a yote in the open and he is going to spot light it. At this point I realized we had a great position in the shade (the moon was pretty bright) , but I didnt have any support for the shot. When he litup the yote (using an LED Streamlight flashlight) I had 5 seconds to find the target and get a shot off. With my Eotech sight for optics, I made the standing unsupported unknown distance shot and fired. The shot went right over his back. (we failed to map out ranges prior to setting up but what would you excpect from FNG's anyway) Turned out he as about 100 yards away when I fired. After the shot my friend asked "What did you see him do" I said "run like hell just like they do in the Cabellas videos when the dumbasses miss"
The fact that I missed the coyote didnt bother me. Hell I was happy we made it this far on our first outing. Talk about an awesome stage for a competition... The night 5 second exposure, unknown distance, standing unsupported, horizontal E silouette stage
We learned a lot last night and know what to improve on. The next time we will have better lighting, support for the shot, and a second pair of night vision so each of us can track them. Hunting coyotes really is a challenge! On the earlier recon of the area, we came a cross a big doe grazing in the field not 100 yards away. I thought WOW... Deer hunting is easy.
We know where the Yotes are and we will be back!
(Had I shot him a picture would have been here)
