The coyotes were on the neighbor’s property tonight. Right as the sun set they came running in yipping and hollering like excited teenagers out on the town. They were fresh and full of energy. I was not in the mood. I was finishing up chores. Normally i’d go in the house and wait them out, give them a chance to pass through the property on the game trail the deer kept well worn into the rocky dirt. however, this particular night i was racing a freeze and i needed to get the trees thoroughly watered and the spigot covered again as soon as possible. I couldnt afford them the time. They were very close. They could be in the yard in a minute, so i ran back to the house (not a thing i’d normally do as you’re acting like a prey animal if you do this) and threw the dog run gate open. I didnt even have to say anything. The dogs knew what was up and glided silently onto the porch steps, waiting at the door. I opened it and let them in. I could hear the coyotes coming ever closer but i’d forgotten to cover the spigot and i didnt want to risk one of them trying to drink from it since it was my own drinking water source so i ran to the shed porch where i’d left the spigot cover and pulled it over the spigot. Then i ran back to the house.
Dogs and spigot secured, now it was time for me to find my rifle and quit acting like a prey animal lest they take me up on the identity. I retrieved and unzipped the rifle case. I laid it on the floor and went to the other side of the house where I kept the bullets to load it with. I wasnt playing today. I bypassed the rat-shot and grabbed the heavier box of bullets for use on coyotes. I measured out 5 in my hand, as that’s all the rifle would take at a time. I would need to keep track of how many times i’d fired to know how many bullets i still had left. I loaded the bullets one by one into the little magazine and pushed it back up into the rifle until i heard it click. I then shouldered the rifle and told the dogs to stay in the house. I went back outside to finish the chores. It had been a while since i had an opportunity to practice shooting. I figured i may be rusty and ought to use the first bullet to get back into the swing of things with the bolt action rifle…make sure i still remembered how to rack, eject, and reload without any forgotten steps or problems. Well, unbeknownst to me, this test shot into the ground near the porch was all the motivation the coyotes needed to change course. Once i was confident i remembered the steps and could fire the gun effectively if needed, there was no longer a need. I wondered if the coyotes remembered the noise from the times two of my neighbors shot and killed a coyote on separate nights, each time while it was trying to make off with one of their animals. Maybe they associated the noise of shooting with danger the way i associated their yips and howls with danger. I changed my course and so did they.
I finished the rest of the chores in relative peace. The fact that i needed a test shot to make sure i still remembered the process is exactly why the practice target i ordered is necessary. I put it off because its not cheap but with only 2 acres, i cant afford to practice shooting at anything other than the ground because depending on the material you shoot at and the distance from it, a bullet can go through something and keep going. If i dont want to have to go to a range, i need a target box that will stop a bullet because i no longer have friends with hundreds of acres who will just lend me a cliff of rocks to pick out and shoot at. As fun as it is watching rocks blow up…i know that time has ended and i need to find a way to not be rusty while making sure i can also keep my stuff and my neighbors’ stuff safe. I need to practice once in a while so its like muscle memory, so that i dont have to think about it. It is kind of cool though that with the help of the rifle i was able to change the course of the coyotes so i could finish the chores before the freeze. I enjoy the existence of that rifle on the homestead. It is a good tool.
Is there a railroad nearby?
My dad taught me to shoot starting at around age 9. For a backstop, dad talked some railroad workers out of a dozen old railroad ties that had been pulled out and replaced with new ones. We made a wall out of the horizontally stacked old ties. Bailing wire held everything in place and so it wouldn’t fall over, we secured (more bailing wire) the “wall” to a couple of scrap pieces of pipe driven into the ground.
The 22 rimfire rifle bullets went into the ties about 1/2 inch and stopped.
We dont have a railroad in our town though it would be cool if we did. We did have trains in the city where i grew up and the highway was right beside the tracks so if you caught a train right you could just drive along side it on the highway completely legal with the window open and smell the train and feel the heat and hear the engine.
That sounds like fun.
There is a railroad line that comes into the nearby town. The line connects up to the main transcontinental line about 40-50 miles away.
Unfortunately the track is about 1/2 mile away from the highway so the engineer can’t see us wave.