...Mr. TBR doesn't like that.
I was hunting TBR up by Montague, Texas last evening, hoping for hogs. Mr. TBR had just cut hay and I did well last year at his place when that happened. Plus, I was only 20 minutes away from my place if hogs showed up there. I figured that I had stacked the odds in my favor fairly well, but I had not used a calculator to do my figuring.
Other than an armadillo, the first critters I saw were a momma doe and a tiny fawn. They came out into the pasture and picked around for a while before heading back into the tree line. The tiny fawn was doing that terribly cute, awkward prancing and running around the mother that would then run to catch up with the fawn or the fawn would run back to be close to momma. It was the only real excitement as about all else I was seeing was a couple of adult deer doing normal boring adult deer things in no particular hurry. I was not seeing any hogs either.
About 5 hours into it, I spied a coyote at about 200 yards to the north. It disappeared into the tree line before I could get my gun up, not that I was confident of making such a shot at that distance. Mr. TBR has me take out his major predators well as hogs, though I do not actively call predators. Anyway, maybe 10 minutes later, out of the same edge of woods, I saw a doe and fawn come out (on thermal). They were playing, or so it appeared, but they were moving too fast for playing. The fawn would run at the doe and the doe would chase the fawn.
Then I realized what I was seeing. It was the coyote going after the doe and the doe standing her ground and charging back. They covered well over 100 yards, working in my direction very fast. By the time the rifle was in the window and pointing in the right direction, the pair had come to a standoff about 5 yards from one another and about 60 yards from me. The coyote was sideways and a good target and so as soon as the crosshairs settled, I dropped it.
I expected the doe to run. She did not. She looked toward me, or toward the sound of the report, then went back to staring at the now dead coyote. She didn't know what had happened, but that the coyote wasn't upright anymore. Magic thunder had dropped the coyote. Her staring lasted maybe 2 minutes before she let out a series of snorts, bouncing sideways back and forth in front of the dead yote, and then bolted for the woods she had come out of earlier. That was the only time I heard her snort.
The bullet entered high on the right shoulder and exited through the lower left humerus on the opposite side, breaking the left leg. The coyote, a female, was DRT. No idea of the actual weight, but she was heavy enough to be a significant burden to drag 200 yards to the bone yard, LOL. She was clean, no heavy parasite load, and no sign that she had had pups.
Forgot to run the video. I was so caught up in the excitement of the spawning battle between the yote and doe, I never thought to turn it on. Errrr.
Grendel 6.5 123 gr. Hornady SST
Pulsar N750, UNV20IR illuminator
60 yards
female coyote
Its not a hog, so no cookies for the kids, but Mr. TBR is happy that his fawns will be a bit safer for a while.
I was hunting TBR up by Montague, Texas last evening, hoping for hogs. Mr. TBR had just cut hay and I did well last year at his place when that happened. Plus, I was only 20 minutes away from my place if hogs showed up there. I figured that I had stacked the odds in my favor fairly well, but I had not used a calculator to do my figuring.
Other than an armadillo, the first critters I saw were a momma doe and a tiny fawn. They came out into the pasture and picked around for a while before heading back into the tree line. The tiny fawn was doing that terribly cute, awkward prancing and running around the mother that would then run to catch up with the fawn or the fawn would run back to be close to momma. It was the only real excitement as about all else I was seeing was a couple of adult deer doing normal boring adult deer things in no particular hurry. I was not seeing any hogs either.
About 5 hours into it, I spied a coyote at about 200 yards to the north. It disappeared into the tree line before I could get my gun up, not that I was confident of making such a shot at that distance. Mr. TBR has me take out his major predators well as hogs, though I do not actively call predators. Anyway, maybe 10 minutes later, out of the same edge of woods, I saw a doe and fawn come out (on thermal). They were playing, or so it appeared, but they were moving too fast for playing. The fawn would run at the doe and the doe would chase the fawn.
Then I realized what I was seeing. It was the coyote going after the doe and the doe standing her ground and charging back. They covered well over 100 yards, working in my direction very fast. By the time the rifle was in the window and pointing in the right direction, the pair had come to a standoff about 5 yards from one another and about 60 yards from me. The coyote was sideways and a good target and so as soon as the crosshairs settled, I dropped it.
I expected the doe to run. She did not. She looked toward me, or toward the sound of the report, then went back to staring at the now dead coyote. She didn't know what had happened, but that the coyote wasn't upright anymore. Magic thunder had dropped the coyote. Her staring lasted maybe 2 minutes before she let out a series of snorts, bouncing sideways back and forth in front of the dead yote, and then bolted for the woods she had come out of earlier. That was the only time I heard her snort.
The bullet entered high on the right shoulder and exited through the lower left humerus on the opposite side, breaking the left leg. The coyote, a female, was DRT. No idea of the actual weight, but she was heavy enough to be a significant burden to drag 200 yards to the bone yard, LOL. She was clean, no heavy parasite load, and no sign that she had had pups.
Forgot to run the video. I was so caught up in the excitement of the spawning battle between the yote and doe, I never thought to turn it on. Errrr.
Grendel 6.5 123 gr. Hornady SST
Pulsar N750, UNV20IR illuminator
60 yards
female coyote
Its not a hog, so no cookies for the kids, but Mr. TBR is happy that his fawns will be a bit safer for a while.
