I have been after the coyotes on this sheep farm since October last year, virtually every Sat and Sun morning going out well before dawn and sitting quiet in my hide to ambush them as it gets light when they make moves on the sheep. I guess the activity from hunting season must have scared them, because I went from October to Dec before I even saw a single coyote. When they did show up, it was at 250 yards and I only wounded one which ran off never to be seen again (on neighboring property). I missed the second @ 350 yards.

That was about the sum total of sightings until a couple of weekends ago when we had the dense fog on Sat morning. Thats when I had a coyote show up in the middle of a group of turkeys I was observing at 80 yards... Meanwhile I have gone to a different rifle for the long range stuff, a Savage 10 1:9 twist, shooting 75gr match ammo. The ballistics of the 75gr ammo are quite different, particularly when zeroed for 250 yards, where I usually see/expect them. So when this coyote showed up at 80 yards, I held on the shoulder and missed... it gave me another shot at about 110yards and I missed again... Back home I consulted the ballistic calculator and it showed that with a 250 yard zero I was about 3" high at 80 and 100 yards. So I guess it was a lucky coyote... 3" from center of mass is close enough to give you a nick...

Next day I was back in the same place and the planets were aligned because a different coyote showed up in the same place and this time there was no fog. Based on my education, I held low and I saw the dog go down in the scope. I did not know what to expect from the 75gr match bullet, but it just destroyed the coyote. Exit wound was over 1" in diameter, huge wound cavity and it never took a step. So i guess not fur friendly, but to be fair I chose the bullet for knock down power at 250-400 yards, where it has more than double the energy of a 55gr Vmax.

I skinned it out and the fur is still salted, but I did something I had not done before, which is prep the skull for display.

So here it is, hope you like it..