820 yard Coyote
The truck thermometer read 28° as we stepped out of the truck into the crisp morning air. Zac and I loaded up our coyote gear into our backpacks and strapped the rifles on just before the morning sun crested over the eastern mountains. The hike to the calling spot was just under one mile and got our heart rates up enough to take the chill out of the morning air.
After about ¾ of a mile we slowly crested a hill and were greeted with a gorgeous view of a few acres of stubble fields. We both spent some time glassing the fields and didn’t turn up any coyotes, so we quietly hiked the last few hundred yards to the calling spot. Arriving at a tree we dropped our packs and I began to scan the surrounding scenery. Zac had hunted the area many times before and gave me a quick lay of the land, as well as all the locations where he had previously seen coyotes come to a call.
I set up with my back to the sun and placed my rifle besides me pointing up towards the foothills directly west of me. Zac crept down to the edge of a nearby clearing and placed the call and decoy far enough away to keep the dog’s attention off us. While I waited for Zac, I pulled out my 8×32 Swaro EL’s and began scanning the terrain. I let my binos run up the grass filled draw to my left and then proceeded to do some quick grid glassing from left to right in the CRP and stubble fields while glassing back down towards our shooting location. I was in my third pass with the binos when I suddenly spotted something that looked out of place. I blinked a few times to clear up my contact lenses and with the crisper vision I was able to positively identify a coyote near the edge of the upper stubble field.
“Pssst” I hissed at Zac, but he didn’t hear me. I tried to get his attention a few more times but he was just far enough away he couldn’t hear me while he finished setting up the call. As he hiked back, I motioned to him that I had found a coyote. He snuck up to my position and we quickly decided that we should shoot at the coyote now instead of trying to call him in. I grabbed the Sig 2400ABS and it returned a reading of 820 yards. I laid down behind my 7 SAUM and dialed in the necessary elevation correction into my Kahles and left the windage turret at zero due to no detectable wind. Zac took up a position behind me to provide spotting support as the coyote started to walk towards the tall CRP grass.
I did a few kissing noises to get the coyote to stop but I failed to consider that the coyote was half a mile away and likely wouldn’t hear them. I let out a loud bark and immediately the dog stopped just a few feet from the edge of the field and looked our direction. I centered up the death dot of the MOAK reticle right behind his front shoulder and kicked off the ignition sequence with the flick of the TriggerTech Diamond. The 180 grain Hornady ELDM was violently shaken from its peaceful slumber as it was rapidly accelerated down the barrel of my 7 SAUM and the loud crack of the shot echoed across the frozen landscape as the bullet began its icy flight. Roughly one second after the shot, the unsuspecting coyote felt the fiery burn of the red tipped missile ripping though his abdominal cavity. The violent impact of the bullet left a huge hole in the coyote and he frantically bit at the site of the impact as he twirled round and around. With no relief coming, the coyote raced across the field while leaving behind a red carpet of blood and visceral parts.
I watched in amazement as the coyote continued to scamper across the stubble field and I let one more shot fly as a Hail Mary before he disappeared into a small depression. Not surprisingly, I didn’t see an impact from the running shot and the coyote dropped out of sight. “Did you see all that blood?!” Zac whispered. I sure had! I could see chunks of the intestine and a fountain of blood emanating from his side immediately after the impact. We couldn’t believe the coyote had run a few hundred yards after seeing all that damage.
We decided we might as well run the call to make sure nothing else was in the area and we let loose on some coyote howls. We completed the stand and made one other without any further success. We strapped our rifles back on to our packs and headed back to the site of the kill to try and find my coyote.
As is usually the case, finding the spot where the animal was standing when I shot it, is never as easy as it seems. I was able to use my rangefinder to help narrow in on the location by ranging back to the tree where I had shot from. Once I was around 820 yards away, it didn’t take long to find the carnage. However, much to my surprise, the visible blood trail disappeared after only a few yards. I continued along the line the coyote had been on and dropped down the hill into the small depression where we had last seen him. There was one small section of uncut grass in the bottom and I figured I’d walk up and down along the edge of the grass to try and find any further sign. Zac had moved to the other side of the depression and was going to be looking for similar signs in the grass on that side.
I had walked about 15 yards down the grass line when I turned around to look where I had just come from with a different perspective. I immediately spotted blood-covered grass stems just a few yards away that were now easily visible with the sun at my back instead of in my eyes. The blood trail continued for a few more yards and led right to the dead coyote that was piled up under a bush. I pulled the coyote out of the bush and Zac came over to help me snap a few photos. The postmortem revealed the shot had hit 5-6” back from my aiming point and had landed squarely in his abdominal cavity. Neither Zac or I know if he happened to take a step right after I shot, or if the impact was off due to spin drift or a slight breeze along the bullet’s path that I just didn’t see.
It’s awful hard to describe how proud I am of making a first round hit on a coyote at just shy of half a mile. It took me years of hunting them before I was able to shoot my first coyote and since then they’ve continued to be one of the hardest animals for me to kill. My previous personal best was shot at around 600 yards, with the same rifle, and to stretch it out to 820 is an accomplishment that I’m very proud of. I can’t wait to try to extend it to 1,000 yards or further in the future.