laid the rifle over the back of the ATV. Perfect! I dialed the scope up to 400 and a few yards and added about three min- utes of windage ... and fired. The coyote cartwheeled and slid down the steep hill but he was still moving. Another round in the gun and same windage and eleva- tion. Lights out! After congratulating myself over and over again about the great shooting, I pulled the ear muffs off that I had as a habit put on before the first shot. That was when the high fives stopped. Cold sweat beaded up on my whole body. What was that noise? The human mind is extremely quick when all the synapses are at high alert and firing. I instantly knew what that sound was. A rattlesnake was giving me a loud and distinct death threat! Holy cow! I had been running around the truck and had been so focused on this darned coyote that I had not been paying attention to the dangerous ones that crawl close to the ground. I froze and started looking for my new worst enemy. He was under the truck, recogniz-
ing that I had simply stepped up onto the tongue of the ATV trailer, and waited. I was out of striking distance at present but I couldn’t see him. I stepped up onto the edge of the trailer and crawled to the back and jumped off a distance to where I would be safe. I got down on my knees and looked under the trailer-truck com- bination. Oh! He was a huge rascal, all black and green, as big around as a beer can and he was coiled up ready to fight. I climbed back onto the trailer, then to the tongue, closed the back hatch on the Sub- urban, across the roof, and slid into the driver’s seat through the open window. I pulled away and got out of the vehicle, clutching the Benelli shotgun. When I got back to where he had been, I saw his tail disappear under a car-hood-sized flat boulder. All I could say was, “Next
year, big boy. I know where you live.“ A perfect ending to a September coyote hunt ... and I didn’t get bit!
CONTACTS:
FOXPRO Inc. 14 Hollow Drive Lewistown, PA. 17044 717-248-2507
www.gofoxpro.com
Remington Arms P.O. Box 700
Madison, NC 27025 800-243-9700
www.remingtonarms.com Benelli USA
17603 Indian Head Highway Accokeek, Md 20607 800-264-4962
www.benelliusa.com
Winchester Ammunition 600 Powder Mill Road East Alton, IL 62024 618-258-2365
www.winchester.com Sierra Bullets
1400 West Henry Street Sedalia, MO 65301 800-223-8799
www.sierrabullets.com
Harris Engineering Inc. (Bipods)
999 Broadway Barlow, KY 42024 270-334-3000
Federal Cartridge Company 900 Ehlen Dr.
Anoka, MN 55303-1778 763-421-7100
www.federalpremium.com
Polaris Industries 2100 Hwy. 55
Medina, MN 55340-9770 888-704-5290
www.polarisindustries.com. Cabela’s
Sidney, Nebraska
www.cabela'
s.com 800-237-4444
I am getting calls from fellow hunters asking me to give them advice about some aspects of predator hunting, so here goes.
We do most of our coyote/predator hunting in fall and winter months. Cold
weather months. Cold weather has an extreme effect on your shooting equipment, so here is my tip to you. Before you go afield, go to the range and shoot that coyote rifle that you developed loads for during sunny days and warm temperatures. Go shoot when the temperature is in the single digits, or estimate the average tem- perature of your winter hunting days and that is the temperature at which you go to the range. Let the rifle cool down to the outside temperature and fire that cold bore shot and see where it hits. You may be surprised at the change in point of impact. Remember, we live by that cold bore shot. One more thing to do. Put up a second target and shoot the second round to see where it hits. You may discover two big surprises in your life.
Page 186 Winter 2012
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