Coyote hunters around here don't call them in. They
surround a section and have drivers go through it to
scare the 'yotes out for the surrounders to shoot at.
If they don't get it, they just surround the next
section and do the same thing all over again, til
they either get it or drive it into an area like my
woods surrounded creek bottom. Well, they've driven
a couple of them in here, and we surely didn't want
them!!! The neighbor's cattle will be calving next
month and they could make short work of my rheas
& emus! Been seein' 'yote tracks in our north pasture
so when an old rhea passed away last week, I hauled
it down to the west end for 'yotie lunch (just so
happens to be 150 yards from the opening in my
haymow). This evening just a little after sundown
as I was sitting in an easy chair in the haymow,
one of them came out to check things out. Never
shot a coyote before -- more deer than I can count
but never a 'yote. Got buck fever worse than any
buck I ever pulled up on! Calmed down enough to
stop shaking and took a shot. Slammed her down
HARD -- she didn't even kick.

Was using the 33gr Vmax ahead of 25.1gr of H4198,
not the hottest charge, but still flying along at
about 4273fps. The outside damage wasn't anything
like I've heard the Vmax doing, just a little
entrance hole at the 3d to last rib. So I did a
little post mortem exploring -- yuck! Diaphram was
totally gone along with 25% of the lungs and the
front lobe of the liver was a hambergered mess!
Still can't quite figure why she died so fast with
such a shot, unless it was just shear shock.

Now, if the male will just show himself at the same
time of day............

Great story Dan,

How's the rhea & emu market there? Folks here won't even waste a .22LR on them anymore, and are just turning them out in the National forest. I've yet to see a live one, but have run across one that had been hit by an auto. I'd love to hear that story! "You won't believe what jumped out in front of me..."

Hi Mike,

The emu & rhea market is no better here than it is
there. I've just kept them around so I know they get
good treatment -- yes, they're wierd, but
interesting.

I heard about one rancher in Texas who raised
exotics and just let his emus out on the ranch to
fend for themselves, but they started killing and
eating some exotic antelope calves!

DannoBoone: Congratulations on the Coyote success! I have never Hunted Coyotes in an intentional "driving" situation! I understand that they do this in Alberta, Canada a lot also.
Wow those are some impressive velocities out of your .20! Keep after em!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

quote:

---

let his emus out on the ranch to
fend for themselves, but they started killing and
eating some exotic antelope calves!

---

Emus. Those are those big dumb looking birds, right? They ate antelope calves?!?!

The reason I'm so incredulous is that I saw an emu (if they actually ARE the big dumb looking birds that I'm thinking about) once at a "game farm". It was about 5 or 6 feet tall, and was totally cowed by an aggressive tom turkey that was also inside the fence. That turkey chased the emu all over the place. I figured that all he had to do was stomp on the turkey with those monster feet of his, and somebody would have had an early Thanksgiving dinner, but, he just kept running away.

What's a rhea?

Great yote story, BTW. Get the daddy.

R-WEST

Emus - Big dumb looking bird. Males can make great
pets. Females remain on Venus. One week they can be
afraid of their own shadow. Next week they may kill
anything that enters their pen. They're enough to
drive a psychologist nuts.

Rheas - Smaller dumb looking bird from South
America. No taming of either sex. Males can become
very aggressive during mating season. They're
sometimes called the South American Ostrich.

Haven't seen any new tracks of the male coyote
since last weekend. He may have been nearby when
I got the female, in which case he may not come
back to the bait. Oh well, he can't bear a half
dozen pups and the female would have.