# Best of the West (Cont.)



## Mo Mo (Sep 16, 2016)

All,

I feel this thread needs to be re-opened. This is not to start bickering. I was at fault just as much as anybody. Sometimes we forget that we are all on here because we like to hunt predators, though we may have different ideas of how it should be done, we must realize that we all bring something to the table and offer good information.

I would like to take this moment to apologize to AZ Sheepdog for ribbing you when you were just trying to get people excited about something you are excited about.

So the floor is yours Sheepdog. Could you tell us some past experiences at some of your competitions? What was the terrain like, the weather, how were the dogs acting and what calls were you using? What rifle do you use?


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

Thanks for stepping up TC. I agree that AZ Sheepdog most assuredly has a lot to share and we all might learn a trick or two, should of coarse, we give the guy a chance. At the least we might learn he's the good guy I suspect he is.

Carry on !


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## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

Fair enough!


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## az sheepdog (Jun 13, 2015)

Appreciate it TC, no hard feelings here.

I did two contest last year, one here in az and then another one in southern nm. The one here in az was rough and we didn't do as well as we had hoped, it was fairly warm, we were hunting in the flats and we killed every coyote with a shotgun. I use a stoeger m3500 with and extended tube, my partner uses his Mossber jm pro. Day one was rough and we only managed to kill 4, day two will killed 5 which we knew wasn't gonna be enough to place and we were right we ended up with 9 for fourth place. 1st had 16 2nd had 15 and 3rd had 13. So ya we got stomped pretty good but we did manage to win big dog with a 36 pound coyote so we made our money back and some with that coyote.

I entered another contest in nm and it was late January. I was having trouble finding a partner that could do it with me so I ended up asking one of my old friends that I grew up playing baseball with if he was interested. He had never done a contest before and to be honest I think he had only killed two coyotes in his whole life. I called him and he was all for it and he couldn't have been more excited to do it. I had the areas I wanted to hunt already made up in my mind so we didn't have to do too much scouting because I knew there would be coyotes in these areas or so I thought.

Day one of that contest we drove 2.5 hours to get to were we wanted to hunt, my friend is jacked up and ready to rock and roll. I gave him the low down on how things are gonna go during the day and to just follow my lead. Very first stand of the day we called in a bobcat and two coyotes, the bobcat came all the way to the call and my friend has never shot a bobcat much less seen one. So the bobcat was right on top of the call and the coyotes were hanging out about 75 yards behind him. I look at my friend and tell him to shoot the bobcat, I figured he won't get a chance to shoot one again for awhile and I have shot my fair share of cats. He kills the bobcat and the spots on that sucker were unbelievable, I have never shot a cat as pretty as this one so he was pretty lucky for that to be his first cat. After the excitement was over I tell him coyote only from here on out since cats don't count. We ended up with 6 coyotes and a bobcat that day, we alternaternated taking turns with a shotgun and Ar15 on stand and it seemed to work well for us. Day two we had an hour drive and got to our spot, the day started slow and I started to second guess myself for the location I picked but we kept grinding and ended up killing 5 on day two. Hauled ass to check in 2 hours away and got beat AGAIN. 1st has 15 2nd had 12 and we got 3rd with 11.

My friend had a blast and is officially hooked, every time a contest comes up on FB he will call or text me asking if we are gonna enter it haha. We are gonna hunt the best of the west in nm together and we are actually going in a scouting trip this coming weekend to get our day two stuff lined up.

I'm not the best story teller so I hope this is what you were wanting to hear and I hope you guys don't think I'm boasting or bragging I'm just telling the story of the most recent contests I have done. Trust me I have had my fair share of 1-4 coyote weekends during a contest, I think it gives me motivation to scout and hunt harder.


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## az sheepdog (Jun 13, 2015)

Calls we use are foxpro, lucky duck and southwest game calls out of nm. No fancy sounds or anything special, I am a firm believer that the sounds aren’t as important as coyote population in the areas you are hunting. The calibers we use for contest hunting are 12g, 223 and 243. Most of the coyotes we call in during a contest come to the call under 4-5 minutes. We don’t take breaks to have lunch we just eat in the truck as we go and we hunt our asses off. I like to stay on main roads and not branch off into an area that would take us awhile to get out of if we had to because if the coyotes aren’t responding to the call I will shag ass into another area to change things up and get some coyotes killed.


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## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

Good stuff, Sheepdog! What shot size in the scatter guns?


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## az sheepdog (Jun 13, 2015)

Bb or #4 buck. The new fad that everybody is doing is shooting the tss (tungsten super shot) its harder and penetrates better. I know a few guys in Cali and Utah have been using it for a few years now and they say that can smash a coyote comfortably at 70-80 yards with complete pass through. I haven’t shot any yet but I’m dying to get my hands on some, it is a little pricey though.


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## youngdon (Mar 10, 2010)

70-80 yds. Dang. You better have them patterned well.


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## az sheepdog (Jun 13, 2015)

Yes sir I agree.


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## glenway (Mar 27, 2011)

Take a look at the Winchester Varmint X BB loads. The same Shot-Lock technology used in its turkey loads. They throw an extremely tight pattern at those ranges with copper plated lead and cost much less. Only offered in BBs, though. I don't know about 80 yards, either, but 60 is doable, based on patterns I've shot. Never tried the stuff on coyotes yet.


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## Mo Mo (Sep 16, 2016)

What round are you shooting out of the .223 and .243?


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## az sheepdog (Jun 13, 2015)

I have heard really good things about that Winchester varmint bb, I need to get my hands on some.

223 I use the 55 grains vmax and the 243 I use 70 grain nosler.


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