...Mr. TBR doesn't like that.

I was hunting TBR (property name) up by Montague, Texas last evening, hoping for hogs. Mr. TBR had just cut hay and I did well last year at his place when that happened. Plus, I was only 20 minutes away from my place if hogs showed up there (cellular cams would send me images). I figured that I had stacked the odds in my favor fairly well, but I had not used a calculator to do my figuring.

Other than an armadillo, the first critters I saw were a momma doe and a tiny fawn. They came out into the pasture and picked around for a while before heading back into the tree line. The tiny fawn was doing that terribly cute, awkward prancing and running around the mother that would then run to catch up with the fawn or the fawn would run back to be close to momma. It was the only real excitement as about all else I was seeing was a couple of adult deer doing normal boring adult deer things in no particular hurry. I was not seeing any hogs either.

About 5 hours into it (around 1:00 am), I spied a coyote at about 200 yards to the north. It disappeared into the tree line before I could get my gun up, not that I was confident of making such a shot at that distance on a moving coyote. Mr. TBR has me take out his major predators well as hogs to help protect the deer and turkeys, though I do not actively call predators. Anyway, maybe 10 minutes later, out of the same edge of woods, I saw a doe and fawn come out (on thermal). They were playing, or so it appeared, but they were moving too fast for playing. The fawn would run at the doe and the doe would chase the fawn.

Then I realized what I was seeing. It was the coyote going after the doe and the doe standing her ground and then charging back. They covered well over 100 yards, working in my direction very fast. By the time the rifle was in the window and pointing in the right direction, the pair had come to a standoff about 5 yards from one another and about 60 yards from me. The coyote was sideways and a good target and so as soon as the crosshairs settled, I dropped it.

I expected the doe to run. She did not. She looked toward me, or toward the sound of the report, then went back to staring at the now dead coyote. She didn't know what had happened, but that the coyote wasn't upright anymore. Magic thunder had dropped the coyote for all she knew. At the time, there was lightning and thunder off to the NE. Her staring at the downed yote lasted maybe 2 minutes before she let out a series of snorts, bouncing sideways back and forth in front of it, and then bolted for the woods she had come out of earlier. That was the only time I heard her snort.

The bullet entered high on the right shoulder and exited through the lower left humerus on the opposite side, breaking the left leg. The coyote, a female, was DRT. No idea of the actual weight, but she was heavy enough to be a significant burden to drag 200 yards to the bone yard (designated area for carcasses), LOL. She was clean, no heavy parasite load, and no sign that she had had pups.

Forgot to run the video. I was so caught up in the excitement of the spawning battle between the yote and doe, I never thought to turn it on. Errrr.

Grendel 6.5 123 gr. Hornady SST
Pulsar N750, UNV20IR illuminator
FLIR PS32 thermal spotter
60 yards
female coyote

cool story!
good job on the yote.

Cool story and great going!

Fun story... I love hearing another yote bit the dust.

No video....

I'm filing a compliant with my ISP !

I upgraded my bandwith just to watch your videos, you got the switch (instant) on MDVR don't ya???

In all seriousness, this is another great story from your hunting experiences - thanks for sharing.

Yeah, HuntTXhogs, when you have a $200 situation and just 10 cent brain, even flipping one tiny, easy-to-use, conveniently located switch is sometimes just too much to remember. Maybe if the fawn had not seemingly metamorphosed into a coyote before my eyes, then maybe I would have gotten it right, LOL.

Your situation has actually led to a breakthrough.

I am calling Tyler at Ultimate Night Vision to have him workup a record switch that is integrated into your guns safety selector.

Will get you right just yet

I call dibs on that patent

Don't want to intrude on patent rights or anything


just want to comment what a cool story this was

Great write up and nice shot

That is a nice story and shot there. Good job saving the fawn.

Walter

good read, wish would have had my camera when got bluffed bye sow with piglets & then when had hog bout take my feet out from under me

Kill em all.

"Magic thunder" - love it. After reading this I wonder what excitement I have missed sleeping in the camper. Time for some night vision hunting at the lease.

Great story, I bet she thinks she scared it to death. There are no safe coyotes in that area.

Great story and nice shooting. I had a similar experience recently, mine was with a small doe and a yote. I was doing some night hunting for hogs. I heard some commotion off to my right, mainly just the sound of something walking through the brush. I scanned my spotlight in that direction and found a yote about to pounce on the doe. The yote spooked, not sure if I made a noise or they winded me. I had a shot or two at him/her, found a little blood but was unable to recover. Fingers crossed that it was his or her last potential venison meal.

Your story prompted some YouTube research, here is a video (NOT MINE) taken of deer vs coytotes

Yeah, the coyotes do better in packs than singly when dealing with larger prey.

Very cool video. I had not seen group defense like that as shown in the video.