Coyote John

When I retired from the Army, 23 yeas ago, I told my wife that I would never again pick up a military type rifle.  I hated them, hated the M-1 Garand so much that I bought one the day I retired and set it out in the backyard.  Every morning I would wake up and run out and pee on it — just to watch it rust.  Then  ole Zumbo had to go and make his silly statement about AR’s being a terrorist rifle and not fit for hunting.  Well that did it, I went out and bought an Armalite (www.armalite.com) and dressed it up with a Weaver 6-20×40 Grand Slam (www.weaveroptics.com).  I then started to buy factory ammo:  Remington (www.remington.com) Federal (www.federalpremium.com) and Winchester (www.winchesterguns.com).  All 3 shot satisfactory and were more than capable of hitting a coyote or bobcat at 100 yards, but just not quite as good as I wanted.  Off to the reloading bench, I have always liked and used Sierra (www.sierrabullets.com) and Accurate (www.accuratepowders.com) or Winchester powder, so I bought some 55gr Sierra HPBT’s and some BlitzKings, along with CCI BR Primers.  All my new reloads shot fairly well, but again not as good as I wanted.  Back to the bench, this time with some 60gr Sierra HP’s, Winchester cases, CCI BR Primers and 748.  Back to the range were I found out that this is the load for this rifle - - 3/4″ @ 100yards. 

Now to find some coyotes and/or a bobcat.  On my very first stand, using my FoxPro FX3 (www.gofoxpro.com) set on kitten in distress I had Mr. Coyote come over a ridge at about 500 yards.  This old guy was in no hurry, I assumed he had been called and shot at before.  He stopped right below the ridge line and sat down, looking over the landscape.  I would hit the call and he would take a step or two in my direction and again stop and check things out.  This went on for some time and at about 200 yards he again stopped and sat down, surveyed the area, got up and started back from were he came.  I decided to take the shot but first I would try to stop him.  I have a Primos Bulb Squeaker (www.primos.com) taped to the forearm of my rifle so I hit it a time or two and stop he did.  But he wasn’t looking my way, he was looking off to his left and was at full attention.  Then out of the bush a few yards below him came two coyotes hell bent for what they thought would be a free meal.  I don’t know how he did it but that slow moving old coyote caught up to those two and bowled one over as the second one continued on her quest for what she thought was a kitten.  At about 25 yards I tipped her over and swung to get on at least one of the remaining two.  Both were still there,  in an eye-to-eye stare down, growling and fangs showing.  I lined up on the intruder and put him down, the older guy looked my way turned and started to WALK off.  I put the crosshairs right behind his front shoulder and was ready to squeeze off a round when he stopped, turned around sat down and looked my way.  He then proceeded to give me a few barks, as to say “Thanks, but I could have handled that young’un by myself.”  I smiled, put the rifle down and watched him walk over the ridgeline.

The Black Rilfe had done the job in a very fine and admirable way.  I may just have to retire the Sako Vixen  as my primary predator gun and move the M15A4 to the front of the safe. 

P.S.  Did I mention I have been looking at the AR-10 (.308) to replace one of my deer rifles.