I saw something last night that I never thought I would see, and thought you guys might be interested. I saw what I thought was two coyotes about 10:30 last night out in the field behind my house apparently stalking several deer in the field. Both of the coyotes were lying down with just their heads appearing on the thermal. Eventually one of them got up and started working to the north while the other one stayed put.
I figured the one working to the north was trying to get around behind a group of deer and panic them to run back toward the other coyote which was still hiding. That didn't pan out as the deer kept moving ahead of the herder, and he came back and went to the bait that I had in the field. About that time a big yellow tom cat that frequents my bait pile also arrived at the bait. I thought as soon as the cat saw the coyote that he would haul butt, but he didn't.
Instead the coyote was on one side of the ditch and the tom cat on the pond side where I also put out some chicken scraps. The cat didn't run from the coyote and they both held their ground a long time (over 15 minutes) while eating. So I shot some video with the thermal and the Photon both. The coyote did jump a couple of times like he wanted the cat to run, but he wasn't having any part of it.
The other coyote eventually moved off out of my sight and let out a howl. The one I had been watching immediately left the bait pile and howled back before starting toward the other one that I could not see out behind my shop. It was most interesting. I could have killed the one on the bait easily, but will get him later hopefully. I'd really love to get the two coyotes lined up and kill two with one shot. The 55 gr. Nosler BT's always shoot through a coyote using the 6x45 (6mm Parvo) while the 58 v-max almost never exits using the 243. If I can get them lined up I'll go for the 6x45 otherwise probably use the 243 with the added magnification.
I hope you guys enjoy the short pieces of video. I had several minutes but shortened it a lot to avoid a long upload time. You will even notice some deer moving back behind the coyote. They were moving back in the direction of the second coyote, so I don't know if it caught one of the deer and that was why it howled and the other one immediately went to it.