Baiting

thumbup.gif
thumbup.gif
Good work tj!
 
Last edited:
Well folks, absolutely the biggest circus I have ever had shooting coyotes on the bait. More on that in a bit.
Alarms go crazy on the 130yd at 8:05pm. Grab the thermal and deploy. I have a triple on the bait and I have my AR .243...Perfect. The coyote in the lower right part of the screen is on the pond ice and works his way out of sight. Now, disclaimer here, I did not know there was three until the wife saw the video and said "oh, there's three". Hmmm...I shoot the first one and they both exit the area lickity split. My scope nuc's just as they are leaving and I don't get a good look at where the one I shot went. Scan the area, and #2 comes back...okay, a double, awesome. Shoot #2 and he does the spin and works his way down into the creek and I stay on him. The third shot you hear and see is just a wish and hope, as I know it is through some thick brush and probably will not reach him.
So the circus begins...I jump in the Gator to go down and retrieve said coyotes. There is a good amount of snow on the ground, so I know I can track the first one...Wrong!!
As I approach the site, I see zero blood anywhere, NONE. I was able to see the tracks in the snow to see that the first coyote ran out across the pond...with no blood. As I am assessing this situation, I hear and see #2 jump up and crawl up the hill to my east. I really don't shoot this bad, and you can critique me in the video.
Continuing on with the circus...I now have to run back to the house and grab a rifle, as Coyote #2 was too active and too far away to shoot with the handgun I had with me. Back down to the site and I finish #2 with my .223. I go grab him and the damage from my first shot with the .243 is a disaster. I hit low and right and hit him in the right front leg, which then blew his whole chest out, and didn't kill him. What a night...
So, in conclusion, I never did find #1. Also, I am back to square one on this Hogster and it's POI/POA. I questioned it from the first time I shot it. I questioned the zoom function and POI shift and so on. I believe I posted here reference that along with never being able to talk to anybody at Bering. So we'll deal with that I guess.
On the lighter side...I have video folks! Enjoy!

https://vimeo.com/664568575

011022(5) by jrhranch, on Flickr

011022(6) by jrhranch, on Flickr
 
Wow thats a pretty exciting night there BP. Congrats on a wild one. Those yotes seemed pretty relaxed coming into the bait pile. The ones around here act like a cat on a hot tin roof and are skittish as all get out, but then again I've nicknamed my bait pile area the "death zone" and it is for the ones on the receiving end. At least you recovered one of them. I suspect you'll eventually find #1 unless your scope is off a bit as you mentioned. Looked like a good shot to me and the NUC didnt help seeing where it went perhaps. I check my POA/POI about every 3 months on my SH and it hasnt moved a bit and so far kills everything I shoot with it. Keep us posted on how things progress!
 
Last edited:
Will do Burn. Based on the hit on the second coyote, I'm now suspecting I shot undernieth the first one. Something odd to me though, I thought I could see the carnage blow out the back side of #1, but then, I could see the snow being spun up as he left. So, was that a low miss, and I saw the snow burst of bullet impact on the ground behind him??? Don't know. Frustrating.
 
Could be the dirt/snow kicking up from behind if it went low. I reviewed your shot from the video again and its hard to tell. He sure took off full tilt.

Are you shooting down from a higher elevation by chance? It might make a difference depending upon the distance to the target.
 
So I checked zero today. My scope is zeroed at 150 yds to cover my 130 and 170 yd sites. This also is a very good zero for the field while calling. I shot evrything on base mag for clarity.
This is my target from today. Started at the 130(circled holes). My cold bore shot was 2.75" low, and the two following were acceptable. Just a bit high and an inch.
Next is the 170(triangle holes). Elevation is acceptable at just a bit below center. The spread at 170 was 3.5". Not good, but dead coyote in my opinion.
Even my foil target was blooming terrible this afternoon, and I was basically shooting center mass of the bloom. I think one thing we all have to remeber is that these thermal scopes are absolutely not precision. The 3.5" spread I saw today at these distances could very well be attributed to where I was holding within the bloom. It doesn't take much at 170 yds.
In conclusion, I'm gonna stay right where I'm at for now. I think every hit on this target should have been a dead coyote. The mistakes last night were more than likely me. Total spread on this target from 130 - 170 yds with a non-precision site picture was 3.75"x3.5". Should kill a coyote.
Conventional glass...No way:).

0111test by jrhranch, on Flickr

Okay, I should be done yapping now...carry on.
 

Bait, yeah that nuc happened at the wrong time. That’s what I am afraid of with mine, so I have it set to manual.

That’s really frustrating about the scope. My bait site is only 60 yards, and the longest shot I have made was that recent one at 90 yards. Makes me wonder how my scope would do at the distance you shoot. That was a good view, though.
 
Thermal targets are a bit of a challenge I'm finding also. I have an idea, using foil faced foam board, cutting a 1" hole to start with in the center, and taping a handwarmer to the back side. The foil should show cold, and maybe the handwarmer on the back wouldn't bloom?
 
I have tried something similar to that AR. I built up in front of the hand warmer, so only an inch was showing...still bloomed pretty bad. I do think that on occasion, there may be shift issues, but, the more I read, I wonder if we aren't maybe expecting more than is possible with this technology in our price range(non military equip). What I mean is, we may tend to compare to conventional glass a bit to much, which is precision. These electronic scopes, we are not looking at a target, we are looking at a picture of a target. Then, with thermal, we are looking at a picture of a bloom with much less precise aiming points for repeatability. Stacked tolerances I guess is what I'm saying. Can we expect sub inch groups when we don't have repeatable aiming points? Just thinking out loud here...
It just seems I'm reading more and more on thermal targets, no matter make, model, price...
 
Originally Posted By: Burnsome...Targets look ok there BP. I cut out a 2" circular piece of reflective ducting tape for checking my zero and it works well.




I think they should work Burn. 170 is a long poke looking at a heat signature.
 
I have to turn the screen down almost dark to cut the bloom down on coyotes. I think someone also mentioned bumping adjustments up at night if sighted in daytime. I had to go up 2 clicks to keep from hitting low. Been money ever since
 
Originally Posted By: baitpileRolled a coon off the 170 last night, center punch, so... Must some operator error.
That should have put a bit of confidence back in your setup then.
 

Three nights ago another coyote showed up. The first night of hunting was unproductive, but he returned just before 3:00 AM this morning. Once again the Rattler 25 and Dtech 6x45 performed well. The Sierra 70 gr. Blitz King exited but was minimal and dropped him like a rock at 60 yards. This coyote was a heavy male, weighed at 36 pounds, 4 ounces. The last one I put in the freezer for taxidermy weighed right at 33 pounds. Now this one is in the freezer too. Both have the same color configuration with quite a bit of black color on their backs.

51819890002_ab968e64d7_b.jpg


51820836096_d8aa70325b_b.jpg


51820950648_227f761184_b.jpg








 
Back
Top