Spring Coyote Kill

I hate it when I am lying in bed trying to get a few more minutes of sleep after my wife leaves the house for the day and the phone rings.  But this morning I ran out to the living found my cell and saw it was my wife calling. Since I was supposed to be awake already getting "The List" done I had to use my awake voice to say hello. My wife just called to tell me there was a coyote out in the field. Although she thought it was out of range she figured she would tell me anyway. So I quickly got dressed and got the Styre .308 with the bull barrel out. I got all set up on the back deck and started glassing looking for the coyote.  I finally saw it at about 500 yards walking through the alfalfa field.  It was slowly working its way from north to south, which was my right to left. I figured it was heading into the shady hillside where it was cool during the mid day heat. I noticed it was hunting as well so it was not moving quickly.  I folded up the bipod and slug the rifle over my shoulder and snuck to the road heading up the hill. Once I found some cover behind some leafy Aspens and walked up the road about 75 yards. I figured the sound of the creek and 200 yard of irrigation sprinkler between me and the coyote would cover any sound I make walking on the dirt road. From there I took an old cat track to where I thought the coyote would make its entrance into the woods. I found a small clearing between the trees that looked down into the field and proned out. I had to move multiple pinecones and had to put up with a few hundred pine needles  poking me . I could see the coyote about 150 yards in front of me with a 30 yard drop in elevation. I didn't take the shot at this point due to a ranch 500 yards behind it. Although the angle I was shooting down at and the up angle the ranch was from the coyote the shot would of been fine, but I decided to wait since it was heading my way anyhow. A few minutes later I watched the coyote jump the creek into some tall grass. I watched it pounce on a gopher or mouse then lay down and eat it. It was very hard to see while lying in the tall grass. Once it got up it moved to my right and behind the branches of a tree. At this point I was about 100 yards away still with about 30 yards of drop. I was just hoping that the coyote came back to my left giving me a shot. The coyote came back to the left turned and looked right at me and the 147 Grain FMJ boattail  center punched it at about 75 yards. The coyote just dropped like a sack of potatoes.


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