Changing Weather: KC Ep 123: If there is one thing I have learned to Trust when hunting coyotes in the MidWest, is "Do Not Trust The Forecast". The forecast always seems to be different than what the reality of the conditions are, at least for an entire night. The night started off with 90% humidity and decent conditions. As the night continued, fog rolled in and visibility made it difficult to drive. Bering thermals still produce in these types of conditions.

That's what I call making it happen, as usual!

Good stuff Korey! Thanks for sharing.

It still amazes me how quickly you seem to obtain your target and break a shot.  We all know that most times coyotes don't stay still too long and that skill of quick target acquisition is a big plus.  Is this something you practice or just perfected over years of repetition? It's not one of mine stronger attributes so I'll take any advise you can provide. Thanks

Thank you. I would like to tell you it is part of some grand process that I have developed, but it isn't the case. I have to be careful as I also have been known to rush my shots, so there is a fine line. Rushed shots can sometimes mean jerking vs a nice clean trigger pull. I personally don't practice this, but I would think if you set up numerous targets where you can practice moving from target to target, it may help. You will probably notice that when I stop a coyote, I don't wait long. The reason being is they have now been alerted to something. If a coyote just happens to stop and check things out and maybe even sit down, I am taking the time to decide if I want to try to get them closer or take them where they stopped. I am far more patient in that situation.  

You are correct that often coyotes don't stop for very long. I don't really practice it. I just checked my calling logs, and I am just shy of 1500 coyotes taken in the last 4 hunting seasons. This means lots of trigger time on live coyotes. I tend to shoot quicker when a coyote is exiting, and I get them to stop one last time to take a look. They aren't going to stick around for long. A good tripod and a good head (ballhead, leveling head, etc) help. The more stable you are, the easier it is to let the shot go.

I realize I do the following subconsciously. If you see a coyote quartering me or approaching from the side, you will often see me follow the leg up until you see the glowing spot on the coyote. It looks like the shoulder but because a coyote's leg actually tilts forward, it ends up being right behind it, but it is like a glowing target to me. You will see this if you watch the 3 coyotes killed from 1:07 to 2:47. I don't think about it at the time, but when I watch videos, I realize I do this almost every time, so I guess it is just a habit. If you don't get as much trigger time on live coyotes, then practice, practice, practice.

I guess I will be in that practice x3 group. Another fine episode with more precision "rug jerking".