Henry Rifle Forums

I had the last three days off from work so I've been in my stand every morning. Tuesday morning I saw a coyote slinking along the game trail I over look. I had not unloaded my gun from my last hunt so I pulled back the hammer on my Big Boy 44 put him in the cross hairs and there was a loud click. Coyote jumped about 3 feet in the air and hit the ground running. I apparently had removed the bullets emptied the chamber and reloaded but hadn't chambered a round. I guess I was still pretty excited about my buck and didn't remember. Wednesday saw one buck I've already got mine so I let him pass. This morning at first light I see something running towards my stand, and I mean right at me. Turns out it was a red fox he didn't slow down, and kept hauling tail on past me right by my ladder and was still running when he went out of sight. We don't see many foxes here, or rabbits for that matter since the coyotes took over, I can remember when I was a boy about a half century ago the state of Indiana would give you a bounty of $5 for every pair of fox ears you took to your county extension office. Well anyway back to my hunt, I figured that fox was moving through the woods for one of two reasons. First would be that the young boys on the property next to mine went to their stand after sunrise and spooked him, or there was a coyote on his trail. Well it turned out to be the coyote, he came in about 5 minutes later and this meeting didn't work out so well for him. Put the cross hairs on his head at 30 yards through the brush and he hit the ground without a twitch. This was my first coyote kill, and I was surprised at how fat he was. He probably weighed 45# and didn't have that big of a body. My deer hunting is done until 12/26 when we have a special doe hunt for a week. Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.

Does your area have bounty on Coyote ?

We did, then they quit, and last I heard it was on again.

We have Coyotes but off in the distance. On my land we have plenty of Rabbits. I guess that is a good sign the Coyotes are staying away.

Deer killer down! That is a good hunt when you take a coyote out of the area. Congrats on getting that rascal. Small game and deer benefit every time you take out a coyote.

Great write-up, starrider, and congratulations on spoiling the coyote's day!

Yotes are invasive, non native here. Their populations are increasing, and deer populations are decreasing. DNR is begging hunters to take both feral hogs and yotes. Haven't seen one while out hunting yet, but we've heard them.

Cowboy Gun Fan wrote:Does your area have bounty on Coyote ?

We did, then they quit, and last I heard it was on again.

Not that I'm aware of. I've seen several the last few years on my little hunting spot. My eyes aren't what they used to be and I couldn't draw a bead on one before. Since I've added that Simmons scope it's like they are point blank range. I head shot that guy at 30 yards and I couldn't have done that with open sights. I probably could have taken him with my 12 gauge, but it would have been aiming center mass on his vitals.

Great story. I'm glad to see you got him.

Congratulations, nice shot! There are coyotes where we hunt deer and they do affect the deer herd. As far as forgetting to chamber a round, I have done that too. A few years back I was hunting with my Marlin 1894 and I loaded it just before dawn when I got to my stand. Lucky that I didn't have to take a shot that day because I was sitting all day with an empty chamber because I had put 5 in the magazine and had never levered one into the chamber. I was a bit surprised when I unloaded it around 5:00 PM.

Good shooting glad you took that big boy out of the gene pool.
We have them down here now and they are getting bolder. Prowling residential areas for a quick pet snack.

Deadwood Dutch wrote:Congratulations, nice shot! There are coyotes where we hunt deer and they do affect the deer herd. As far as forgetting to chamber a round, I have done that too. A few years back I was hunting with my Marlin 1894 and I loaded it just before dawn when I got to my stand. Lucky that I didn't have to take a shot that day because I was sitting all day with an empty chamber because I had put 5 in the magazine and had never levered one into the chamber. I was a bit surprised when I unloaded it around 5:00 PM.

Well, better to have it unexpectedly unloaded, than unexpectedly loaded.