This is the second and final part of The Coyote Chronicles. If you haven�t read Part 1 it is around �here� somewhere.

The prairie exploded by the �yote�s right foot. The �yote wheeled around and turned on the afterburners. I fired at him again and once more the prairie exploded to the left of him but I was close enough to get his attention and he made an abrupt turn to the right. By this time Tail-in-Pants was firing at him too, but luckily for me he was missing also. I was using my AR and had only put 10 rounds in the mag, but that was still not enough. The �yote disappeared over the rise, kicking up dust as he went. Tail-in-Pants swears I hit him but we found no convincing evidence.

I, of course, was mildly disappointed. I replayed the scenario in my mind over and over and could not figure out what happened. Of course, Tail-in-Pants was so gracious about the whole event. As soon as we got back to the pickup he tried to call everyone he knew to tell them I had missed a �yote. (I do have somewhat of a reputation of not missing �yotes and dogs). I had a hell of a time wrestling the cell phone out of his hand while he was driving, but I finally did get it and hid the phone in my backpack so he couldn�t defile my rep any longer.

We set up on another valley and started to call. Tail-in-Pants figured howling was working and didn�t even give a distress call. We sat for almost an hour and by this time the heat was starting to build and I was starting to get a little tired. It�s the weirdest thing, I was laying there looking up and all I saw was these large birds circling around me. Still not sure what this means when they do this....

I knew Tail-in-Pants was getting really tired also, so I didn�t resist much when he woke me up to tell me it was time to move on. Now, I have to go on record as being the slow moving guy just to make sure there is not a �yote that you haven�t seen yet, but Tale-in-Pants is kind of excitable and stood up before I checked out the area and gave him the OK to move. Sure enough, there was a �yote coming over the ridge to our left and as Tail-in-Pants stood up he spooked the �yote. I was (supposedly) responsible for that area but once again, he should have checked with me before standing up. Tail-in-Pants took aim at him and fired, but did not hit him.

Hhhmmmmm......that�s a miss, damn, where did I put his cell phone? I follow the Golden Rule when ever possible. Do unto others as they do to you. It�s something like that isn�t it?? Well anyway, the cell phone finally ended up in the box of the pickup so neither of us could get at it.

I can�t tell you the tension that those two �yotes built up in us. So when we crested a hill and saw a juvinile �yote standing in a pd town, we both bailed out of the pickup. The �yote was broadside to us and facing 9 o�clock. I took aim across the hood of the pickup, (luckily remembering the last hole I put in a hood and holding the gun up a bit) put the cross hairs on his chest and squeezed off a round. Tail-in-Pants shot a split second before I did. In my scope I saw the �yote get hit in the chest and then watched his head disappear behind his body as he dropped to the prairie.

We walked over to check out the kill. Both of us were shooting 55 grain pd bullets, and the effect they had on the �yote was as expected. The chest wound (explosion ??) was about 5 inches in diameter and there was little penetration beyond the ribs. On the same side as the chest wound was a head wound. The bullet had removed a 2 inch circular area of skull bone, but left the underlying brain material totally intact. I asked Tail-in-Pants where he was aiming when he shot and he said right on the chest.

The little light bulb in the brain went on and I replayed all the previous misses I had made that day and everything fell into place. I was guessing my bullet was hitting about a foot to the left at 100 yards. I picked out a dark spot on the prairie about 100 yards out and fired at it and sure enough, the dust flew about a foot to the left.

We were done for the day so I really didn�t need to trouble shoot the problem, but after getting back in the pickup I grabbed the scope and rail assembly and found out I could force the mounting rail ever so slightly to the left or right inside the groove of the carrying handle. Possibly the result of hard gun cases being pushed up against the soft case around the AR on the trip out. At the time of this writing the problem is fixed.

Tail-in-Pants and I headed out for the prairie dog towns and spent the rest of the day shooting and telling stories. He is due to ship out with the reserves soon. I hope things go OK with him and we are able to hunt together again.

Later, pdhntr

Pdhntr1: I enjoyed your tales of the Hunt! A good Varminting buddy is a fine thing to have and enjoy!
Yikes on the moving rail. I am glad it was easily identified and corrected.
I just returned from a Varmint Safari myself and saw 4 juvenile Coyotes and just one adult in our travels. One of the juveniles was real skinny and was Hunting at noon-ish time on a very warm day!
I have Hunted alongside the AR type Rifles not only for Coyotes but in the Colony Varmint fields as well. They are a formidable arm for Varminting and capable of amazing (to me anyway) accuracy.
I have never owned one though fearing my time at the loading bench will be even longer once one of these fine Rifles gets into my arsenal.
Again thanks for the posting on the misses as well as the hits!
Yes, lets hope your partner makes it home from deployment well and soon!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Great story PD I enjoyed it very much.I felt like I was there.Do you got anymore?