great story, Most of our areas in utah are no spotlighting. However when the ground is snow covered and a full moon I would bet you could read a news paper. I was wondering is it possible to hunt yotes in these conditions with no spot light.

Well it was not only the coldest night of the year so far here in SW Montana it was also the longest!

Our plans for an all night Coyote Hunt began with temperatures heading for 10 below zero! This type temperature brings with it a host of problems! Mainly with equipment. First off my battery in my decades old Johnny Stewart electronic Game Caller are just not up to performing long in sub zero weather! Even with constant recharging between stands it was next to useless! I guess I am in the market for one of the new fangled "computer" board models! Then a Varminter has to constantly switch hand held calls due to the nearly instant reed freezeup while calling! The old thaw'em out in the armpit method of bringing them back to useable condition gets old quick (and it lets in the cold air to ones trunk!). I had brought along a bag of at least 12 calls so they had time to thaw completely in between stands.

Despite the hardships we brought to bag 3 Coyotes and saw 9 more!

Speaking of despite, DESPITE the often repeated warnings from a couple of naysayers (suck easy's!) on this forum, my two Leupold variables performed well all night and into the morning despite repeated trips in and out of the warm and cozy (hot and muggy!) cab of the diesel powered VarmintMobile then into temperatures that were at times 42 degrees below freezing!!! No internal fogging, no haziness and no other problems observed with them what so ever! The favorite caliber on this Hunt was the 223 Remington. Two of the three Rifles along were in 223. All three scopes along were Leupolds though. Binoculars were by Burris and Nikon. Again no problems with the optics other than the temporary ice over when misdirected breath was allowed to hit a cold lense. My other Varmint Rifle along was a 22-250 also a limited edition stainless laminate Model 700 Remington.

Our Hunting method consisted of driving from one favored calling stand to another in a huge circle route! In between calling stands we cruised the remote roads and tracks with one and often two of our million candle power white lensed spotlights held out the windows checking for eyes! Once suspicious eyes were spotted we would stop and identify them then ascertain land status, and go into action if need be!

One lone Bobcat was seen while cruising in this manner but they of course are illegal to shoot at night and unfortunately the quota for Bobcats had been reached in that area already this year, so we did not return at sunrise to Hunt it as would have been our norm!

The profound cold also had me worrying about the diesel gelling in the VarmintMobiles tank! I had put the winterized diesel in a tankful earlier during the late Elk season but the next half tankful was obtained at a station without winterized diesel! Theres always something to worry about - I guess!

We called in two doubles on Coyotes in one long basin/valley and as luck would have it the 5 - 8 MPH winds were wrong for us! No luck bringing any of them to bag.

Our first kill was made near a remote corral along a long frozen over creek in a wide and sparsely saged valley! This area had 2 - 4 inches of snow and we were calling and watching without spotlights at this stand! This lone Coyote came at a trot across the flat and was first seen by me at about 250 yards with just my Nikon binos.

We were both calling at the time but I had to switch calls due to freezeup and when I squalled with the new call the Coyote stopped at 125 yards or so. Crack went my partners 223 and down went the Coyote in its tracks!

The Coyote was hung on the corral for "de-flea-ization and we would pick it up later when we returned down that valley. The fleas depart when the carcass cools dramatically and that apparently did not take long in the extreme cold.

My partner had previously "agreed" to let them get in real close in the moonlight before we would open up! Oh well I have been taken like this before!

The next two stands were dry but at the next one we had a Coyote coming in to us in about a minute! My Nightforce hand held spotlights red lense first showed his eyes at probably 350 yards distance and coming fast through the sage brush! I prefer to use the spotlights in sagey country even when the moon is full! It lets a person spot incoming targets sooner and allows one to get set up directionally while the Varmints are still far enough out that they usually will not hear or notice the movement neccessary to get adjusted for the shot.

I shut down the portable batteries rheostat on the Night Force red lense affixed spotlight and took the well furred male at about 100 yards with a frontal shot! This was first Coyote blood for this limited edition Remington 700 Varminter - it is an all stainless steel model in 223 Remington with the heavy 26" barrel and matching silver laminated stock. I am using the Nosler 50 gr. Ballistic Tips in this Rifle and was very pleased with the performance on that Coyote. My partner is a fur saver and this one was hung in a tree to de-flea!

What a beautiful night! Moon out most of the time and the Deer were plentiful as were the Antelope and we also distrurbed two Moose in our driving and spotting ventures. We only took a few of the amazingly abundant Jack Rabbits! Our primary mission was for Coyotes.

Our third Coyote was taken just an hour before sunrise and it was another call in victim. I was intermittently (between freeze-up and thaw outs!) using my favorite long range call a Primos Raspy Coaxer. This Coyote had been Hunting along a spring creek that was not frozen over for a couple miles from its source. Antelope were in large herds along this creek. One herd had at least 150 animals in it. This Coyote was double tapped by my partners 223 then my 22-250. I am using the great Coyote bullets made by Speer in this Rifle. The bullets are the 52 gr. Speer Flat Base Hollow Points. You Coyote Hunters should be sure and try these Speer bullets sometime as I have been very pleased with their lethality and fur friendliness on Coyotes.

Just after sunrise a Bald Eagle was seen flushing Ducks out of this creek. We saw the Eagle swoop down and lite on the creek as we were driving toward it. The Eagle took flight as we got to within 50 yards of it with not a Duck in its talons but a large Muskrat! The hapless creatures long tail was hanging down as the Eagle flew away!

I have see Eagles take all manner of fishes, Bullfrogs and Varmints but this was the first Muskrat I had ever seen "harvested" by an Eagle!

Full sunrise brought even colder temps and our worries increased due to the remoteness and the lack of any other human activity in this vast area. So we decided to head for home. Our amazingly enjoyable trip was tempered by the complete lack of sightings of Fox! The mange plague had wiped them out completely last year in this area and it was unsettling to not see even one during the long Hunt!

The Coyotes in the same area seem to somehow cope with the mange or avoid it?

Our trip home was also bouyed by a stop at a friends house and he relayed that another mutual friend of all of ours had harvested a large (151 pound male) Cougar the previous afternoon! This friend is quite a Hunter but had not taken a large Cougar in MANY years of trying. Well he's got one now!

I dropped my partner off along with the 3 bagged Coyotes at his place and we said good morning to his family. They looked at us like we were cuckoo for being out all night in the bitter cold.

They just don't understand the challenge and the excitement of Hunting predators!

Long live Montana!

Hold into the wind

VarmintGuy