king' s outdoor world - Index

king' s outdoor world - Best of 2007 Feb-March 2008 - Index

PHOTOS: AUTHOR
P
laystation
3, Xbox 360, Ipod,
chop the head off a dragon
game. These are the things I
was expecting when I asked my stepson,
Christopher, what he wanted for
his birthday. You see, Christopher is
a gamer. It consumes every aspect of
his life from the time he gets up to the
time he goes to bed. He loves to play
video games. So, imagine my surprise
when he told me that all he wanted for
his twelfth birthday was to shoot his
fi rst coyote. As you can imagine the
answer to that one was a no-brainer -
HECK YES!
So, the trip was planned and
off we went for a weekend of birthday
calling. We own a small piece of
property in eastern Oregon in the heart
of prime coyote country. I had wanted
to scout the area for a while, but had
never found the time. Now I not only
28 HUNTING ILLUSTRATED.com
PREDATORS
A Birthday To Remember
Even better than playing video games!
had the time, but the perfect excuse.
The evening of Day 1 we decided
to scout a nice little sage-covered area that
had the potential of holding some dogs.
It had lots of cover and tons of bunnies.
But, for whatever reason, we just couldn’t
fi nd any coyotes that afternoon. We made
four stands that evening and came up dry
on every one. However, it was a good
chance for me to run Christopher through
the basics of stand placement, movement
discipline and calling routines. While
Christopher did extremely well, I could
tell that after four stands he was having
his doubts about whether I could call in
a coyote for him. Little did he know, the
fun was about to begin – big time!
That night while sitting around
the campfi re, I tried to reassure him that
things would pick up. I explained to him
that every set and every day will bring new
chances. As usual, he rolled his eyes and
The author with a beautiful coyote
taken on a memorable morning of
hunting with his stepson
5PREDATORS5
David Miller
fi gured I was full of it. That is until
the next morning when we woke up to
a pack of coyotes howling outside the
tent. I tell you what, that boy jumped
out of his sleeping bag like his butt
was on fi re and his head was catchin’.
So, we grabbed a couple of candy
bars and soda pops for breakfast and
headed out for the morning hunt.
Christopher decided to
use a single-shot 223 that he got for
Christmas and I was using a Saber
Defense XR-15. Both of us were
using Hornady custom 55-grain V-max
bullets. Also along for the ride was a
Benelli super nova with a load of 3.5inch
dead coyote loads. I settled on
these ammo combinations for a couple
of reasons. The 55-grain V-max we
use has given excellent performance
when it comes to ease on pelts. The
majority of the coyotes I kill will have
a small entrance hole with no exit, just
what a pelt hunter wants. And, the
dead coyote is incredibly effective out
to 70 yards with an extra full choke.
If a coyote won’t stop and he is inside
that 70 yard circle, the Bennelli is a
slam dunk with the dead coyote load.
Stand 1: Tucked up next
to a long ridge behind our property
there is a sage-covered sand berm that
runs for about half a mile. This berm
provides an excellent wind break and
the area between it and the ridge is
outstanding hunting ground on windy
days. While this day wasn’t windy,
I felt it was worth giving the area a
shot. We set up on the berm about
fi fteen feet above a dry creek bed
that overlooked the entire sheltered
area. I used my DOA Custom African
Blackwood closed reed distress call
for this stand. I hadn’t gotten fi fteen
seconds into the fi rst set when a dog