Double Naught Spy and I headed down to Bosque County earlier in the week hoping to hunt feral swine.
The game cam showed no visitations to the feeder we have situated next to water at the North end of the property. Surprising with the recent heat wave we had the prior week...
We moved to a freshly plowed oats field which abuts a harvested hay field and scented a couple of game trails with Code Blue Sow in Heat Urine.
3 hours later we had not seen or heard any porker activity so hopes began to dwindle for pigs.
As I spotted in one field , DNS spotted in the next. I spied a coyote about 150 yards off moving along a tree line.
Let’s pause for a moment and go back a few days to last Saturday: I was at a gun range attempting to figure out a safe charge weight for a new to me bullet , Maker 85 grain TReX AND see if i could strike ballistic gold and get these bullets to shoot near the same point of impact to another recently developed load - Speer 120gr GoldDot.
Below are the results of that venture :
I chose the 31.5 grain charge weightSo back to the field and coyote - I wasn’t absolutely confident in making a longer than 100 yard shot on a small statured song dog. So I lip squeaked and watched as she continued to move up the tree line which would eventually lead her into DNS field of view.
As I made a failed attempt to head her off at the fence line she grew weary and dipped into the woods.
I joined DNS and I reported my observation and he stated that the coyote was now in view.
I asked that he shoot with me based on my uncertainties with shooting the new load (Maker on top - in chamber with gold dots to follow).
We deployed an electronic game caller and continued to watch this yote skirt the perimeter of the field.
She finally moved to what we believed was about 150 - 180 yards (later verified by GPS as 185 yards) and we setup to shoot.
The countdown began at at 3 she turned from broadside to fully bladed presenting an even more significant challenge in terms of target area. The count continued to 1 and I gave it my best to remain centered.
Two shots rang out followed by two audible impact reports in quick succession. My 85 gr Maker is zipping along at 3000 FPS while DNS’ 90 gr TNT is hurling forward at 2800 FPS. I also squeezed the trigger before DNS but all this was of little effect as our ears heard the shots land on target in fairly quick succession (thwap-thwap).
Due to a non- optimal orientation at the time of being shot the yote required a final shot to pass into the next realm.
All in all I was happy to have connected with my intended target and it boosted my confidence with regards to developing the maker load to match the GoldDot - the cost of the makers are a bit more than the GoldDots so I’m
thinking ahead to when we are shooting at running targets in hog sounders....
Thanks DNS for putting this video together - it is a very good illustration of our methods and equipment features.
Also for anybody skipping the video Or “if your ‘puter is runnin’ slo and ya get poor internet” (colt 45). I’ll share that the maker stayed intact and expanded to about 3/4 of an inch - total penetration was good at 12 to 15 inches.
I look forward to trying them on more game in 6.5 Grendel.
Video time: