send words of profanity in the coyotes’ direction, it seemed the predators and man live out their lives in a sort of peace- ful coexistence. Our hunting actually took place south of the “real” Great
Salt Lake Desert. The Utah residents seem to group this entire area together, simply calling it the Western Desert. I’m not sure whether our area was a little more hospitable than the actual “labeled” Salt Lake Desert, but like all desert terrains sometimes there can be dramatic shifts in temperatures from day to night and for that reason a visitor is wise to prepare to encounter those extremes. Tim Brandt and Mike Holm, a couple of my close friends
employed by ATK’s Federal Ammunition Plant, had fl own in from Minnesota and had brought with them ammunition for the whole group. This provided a great opportunity to see how Federal’s new Premium ammunition loaded with the high-fragmenting non-lead TNT Green bullets would do on the Utah strain of critters. Because we all had pretty tight restraints on the amount of time we could devote to the hunt we decided to use the guide/outfi tter CODA Depredation Services. Some of us had hunted with Cory Lundberg of CODA in the past, but not in this particular locale. To go on a guided basis made sense in our particular situation, but it is important to note that a similar hunt could take place solely on a self-guided basis. This area is blanketed with public land and most ranchers and farmers in the area are usually happy to allow you to shoot their coyotes as long as you stop and ask for permission fi rst. It would be only a matter of doing a little research beforehand through the available published property ownership maps. Moving our camp on a daily basis allowed us to tap
into a much larger portion of the available hunting area. Each morning we would split our party into two groups, striking off in opposite directions. Cory generally took half with him and the other group piled into the truck with Kendell John- son, the second guide. Even though the cell phone reception left a lot to be desired we sometimes could make contact that way through the day. More often than not, though, we would have to wait until we met at the agreed upon campsite to compare notes. I had brought along my ol’ faithful Remington Model
700 VL SS TH in .22-250, while my compadres had brought a variety of other cartridges with them, including rifl es cham- bered for .223, .243, and a .204. We also brought a couple of Benelli Super Black Eagle 12-gauge shotguns that we stuffed full of Federal’s new 3-inch Coyote Load shells. In close quarter situations, as is sometimes encountered
in this area, it is good to have a shotgun along for that type of opportunistic shooting. Tim found that out on one particular occasion. We had set up overlooking a slight swell that was dominated by a patchwork of dense low sagebrush with a light spattering of juniper and piñon pine sparsely mixed in. There were openings in the brush, but these were limited and quite small in size. Because Tim had on this occasion left his rifl e behind in order to use his shotgun, he was positioned in the front and a bit closer to where we thought the action might come from. It didn’t take long. Almost before the echoes of the fi rst
calling had begun to wane I caught a blur of movement out of the corner of my eye. It turned out to be a very hungry
www.varminthunter.org Page 13
coyote looking for an easy meal of squealing rabbit. Seemingly oblivious to our presence, the coyote was at full stride and nearly in Tim’s lap before any of us knew what was happen- ing. Almost as a defensive tactic Tim jerked his shotgun to his shoulder and fi red at point blank range at the fast moving intruder. At the sound of the blast the coyote rolled in a cloud of dust nearly at Tim’s feet as Kendall yelled, “Good shot!” But no sooner had those words left Kendall’s lips then the coyote, after doing a complete summersault, was back on his feet and putting as much distance as possible between him and the unseen danger that he had stumbled into. In all my years of hunting I don’t believe I’ve ever seen
any critter that was more shocked at his circumstances than that coyote. By the time Tim was able to get back on his er- ratic zigzagging target the range had stretched out to the extreme limit for any shotgun, and he was gone. We were all fl ustered over the situation, but that didn’t hinder in the least the ribbing that followed and will likely follow Tim for many years to come. Though Tim’s encounter clearly didn’t go as we had
hoped, it certainly emphasized how a shotgun has a place in close quarter environments like those often encountered in the Utah Desert. Much of the terrain in this area is open, but I would venture to say about 10 to 15 percent is not. While an accurate rifl e capable of precise shot placement at 100 to 300 yards is a must, I wouldn’t leave your shotgun at home … for a couple of reasons. A good plan would be to take along some good shotshells, like Federal’s Coyote loads loaded with BB-size shot, for close-action coyote shooting. But, depend-
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166 |
Page 167 |
Page 168 |
Page 169 |
Page 170 |
Page 171 |
Page 172 |
Page 173 |
Page 174 |
Page 175 |
Page 176 |
Page 177 |
Page 178 |
Page 179 |
Page 180 |
Page 181 |
Page 182 |
Page 183 |
Page 184 |
Page 185 |
Page 186 |
Page 187 |
Page 188 |
Page 189 |
Page 190 |
Page 191 |
Page 192 |
Page 193 |
Page 194 |
Page 195 |
Page 196 |
Page 197 |
Page 198 |
Page 199 |
Page 200 |
Page 201 |
Page 202 |
Page 203 |
Page 204 |
Page 205 |
Page 206 |
Page 207 |
Page 208 |
Page 209 |
Page 210 |
Page 211 |
Page 212