Sometimes while hunting, nothing goes correctly. Luckily, our brains are wired to forget those bad days and remember the good ones. Ah, the good days. We remember those like they happened yesterday. The times when everything falls into place are the stuff long-term memories are made of. They are also the stuff that make for good video, if you are fortunate enough to capture the action as it unfolds. Well, this was one of those days. This spot and stalk coyote hunt in Northern Nevada was one of those rare times. With me doing the stalking and shooting and CameraMan Tom doing the filming and some commentary, we got it all!
Although I do it in the video, let me lay the ground work of this spot and stalk. After a day of hunting, Tom and I were headed back to town to clean up and get something to eat. While driving down the last hill, I spotted a coyote mousing against a far hillside about 800 yards away. Because of the terrain and the area consisting only of tall grass, we determined that there would be no way to hide my truck well enough to make a successful stand. Instead, I drove down to the bottom of the hill and accessed the situation.
There was a slight breeze blowing from our right, meaning a stalk on the side where there was a slight rise, would be impossible. Instead, I decided to head slightly downwind, so I only had to worry about the coyote seeing my movement. Because it was very engaged in mousing, I knew there would be a good chance that I could cover the distance I needed to in order to have a high percentage shot.
I grabbed my Odin Works .22 Nosler build and my Bog-Pod Bipod and headed out. Tom stayed back at the truck to record everything that was about to unfold. I made my way slowly towards a spot I had already picked-out, approximately 300 yards away from the truck. That would allow me to re-access the location of the coyote and allow for me to make the second half of the stalk with the new information. When I reached the 300 yard mark, I started to adjust my sticks for the height of the grass. As I finished, I found the coyote in my scope and was surprised to see that it was working its way towards me! I know it didn’t see me, so I wondered what caused her to trot in my direction. While headed my way, the c0yote stopped and looked back up the hill a couple of times. As she closed the gap to around 125 yards from me, I decided that I would shoot it the next time it stopped to look back up the hill. Sure enough, at 100 yards the coyote looked back one final time. I put the crosshairs on the brain stem/neck area and dropped it with one shot!
I was very thankful to hear that Tom had captured the entire scenario as it played out! The video is below. **If you haven’t already subscribed to the Varminter Magazine Channel, please get on there and do it to help us out!**
