A Fun Night Hunting Coyotes at the Ranch

Last Thursday night I was hunting with a buddy on a cattle ranch. We started hunting at about 8:30 in the evening. All the rains we’ve had have really changed the landscape of the ranch because what used to be barren rolling hills is now fully grass covered and about waist high. Even the ranch roads that snake through the pastures are overgrown. If the owner of the ranch had not been with us, staying on the road would have been difficult because without local knowledge you wouldn’t know there was a road there at all. That fact alone could have caused big problems because many of the roads have steep drop-offs into canyons. The roads were also very slippery due to the wet grass but my old 1981 Jeep Cherokee hunt rig did a great job of getting us anywhere we wanted to go.


Our first stand was on top of a ridge, looking out over several grass laden rolling hills. The Jeep was on a rather uncomfortable angle as we positioned ourselves and began to call and light. My buddy was on the gun and I was doing the calling with a RedHunterLLC cow horn coyote howler, a BackStabber sound port mouth call and lighting with a RedHunterLLC lateral beam light. Within about 10-minutes or so, I picked up a set of eyes on a distant ridge. I kept the animal’s eyes in the halo of the lateral-beam light so as not to spook him. I kept calling, hoping he would come in closer so my partner could have a better shot at him. Time passed and I guess we messed around with him for at least 10-minutes or so. He was playing peek-a-boo with us and it seemed evident that he wasn’t going to come in any closer. I was concerned that he would leave so I urged the shooter to get on the eyes and take the shot.


My partner leveled his accurate 22-250 CZ with a sweet Millett 4 X 16 illuminated reticle scope but he was having difficulty picking up the eyes. I changed the light’s angle and we fussed and fussed but under the dim red light, he just couldn’t find the coyote’s eyes with his scope. I guess he got tired of me verbally harassing him and handed me his rifle and said, “Here, you shoot the damn thing.” We swapped positions and I took his rifle. He grabbed the light, illuminated the animal’s eyes and as he said, “Can you…..” BOOM, I fired and I heard that unmistakable “thwap” of a bullet hitting flesh. “I think I got him.” I said. My buddy looked at me and said, “I didn’t hear anything.” The ranch owner up in the passenger seat said, “I heard it for sure too.” So, the hunt was on and the relentless teasing began.
We set my powerful green laser up to mark the path to the kill and the ranch owner and I began the task of trying to get to the animal. Down a hill, through a barbed wire fence, up a hill, down a hill and then we encountered faults from a recent landslide. That was no fun because the night was dark, the grass was nearly waist high and trying to navigate to the area where I hoped to find my animal was getting a bit dangerous. It would have been easy to slip on the wet grass and fall into one of the many concealed ravines. We were two-thirds of the way there but it just became too hairy of a trip. It wasn’t worth a broken leg, or worse. We ended up working our way back to my old Jeep hunt rig.


Naturally, my hunting partner teased me (it’s part of the fun) about missing the coyote. We did several more stands and picked up four more sets of eyes. They played with us and wouldn’t present us with an opportunity for a shot. The ranch owner finally got off a shot on a distant yote but we couldn’t get to that location either. My partner never did get another opportunity for a shot. We called it an evening at about 11 PM because the rancher gets up a 4:30 in the morning. It was a fun night though and what could be better than hunting coyotes with a couple of buddies.
Today was Monday and since I had left my cell phone in my car through the weekend, I did not get ranch owner’s voice message until today. On Friday, the ranch owner went out there in the daylight to where he knew the coyote might be. There it was, DOA. Weeeeeeee Haaaaaa!! My bullet had entered the coyote’s skull smack between his eyes. It passed through his head and killed the coyote before he heard the shot. The Ranch owner also sent me two photos of the kill via e-mail. The ranch owner’s friend laser-ranged the shot and it was a 275-yard trip from the Jeep’s location to the kill.


My thanks to the ranch owner for letting us hunt his ranch and thanks to my partner for letting me take the shot with his dialed in 22-250. The combination of precise 22-250 loads and my buddy’s CZ rifle topped with a clear, illuminated reticle Millet scope put the round right where I pointed it. I was so happy to finally know for sure that the coyote was mine.





Predator hunting and night shooting sharpens your shooting skills like nothing else. My partner will surely nail one next time. In the meantime, I get to relentlessly taunt him.


Coyote hunting sure beats the hell out of a sport like golf. I am so hooked on this action packed sport, it’s pathetic. I can’t wait to get out again and hunt the hunters.