Well, I messed up last night. I completely missed a trotting coyote. It wouldn't go down to the bait and trotted toward the cabin. I about ran out of swing to the left due to the window foam. A miss really hurts. Would have been #5 for the season. In hindsight I know what to do, but I guess I get so few chances that I haven’t broken my habit of quiet and stealth. Should have barked it to a stop, but I’m not used to doing that, and in the heat of the moment I had seconds to shoot before swinging the rifle as far as it would go. That hurts to miss, given my opportunities are so few. I have been doing this since 2011, and this is my first miss at the bait site.
Don't know what's wrong with these coyotes lately. They don't commit to the bait and then leave. The last one I got about 2 weeks ago was leaving and I got it as it exited the site. I baited heavily yesterday evening all the way up to the edge of the hay field. I may have to come up with a new strategy of covering the field above the bait site with sensors. I also seem to have a sensor problem. I used two different sensor units last night with completely different receivers. I used an old Driveway Patrol unit at the uppermost part of the bait site, and the new sensors lower down the hill. My reasoning was that a coyote coming from above (the direction they always approach from) would alarm with the DP, and any possum that comes from below would trigger the new sensors, allowing me to know where to look when a sensor goes off. Crazy thing is, the coyote didn’t set off the DP up high on the hill, but the lower sensor got it that wasn’t even point up hill. Bait was untouched with pieces scattered everywhere. Not sure what’s going on.