Bill Patterson | West Central Ohio

I was working on a new hunting blind on a beautiful October afternoon. My neighbor Rob called to advise me that he was shelling corn in his field less than ½ mile away and that a coyote was coming in and out of the unharvested corn. I hopped in my truck and went right over. He suggested that I ride with him and take a shot from the combine if Wiley appeared. Past experience has taught me that does not work very well. The machine vibrates too much for a steady shot. However, I did ride with him to the opposite end of the field where it was most likely that a fleeing coyote would exit.

I positioned myself in the weeds at the field edge and waited. Rob had about close to 10 acres left to shell in a 35-acre field. It was only a 20-minute wait as he worked the unharvested corn down to a smaller and smaller amount when a coyote exited the standing corn. It was an easy 40-yard shot. The 50-grain V-max from my suppressed .223 made a clean shot. When Rob came back around he looked at the dead coyote, and said, “That is much smaller than the one I saw.” I decided to stay put there in the weeds for awhile.

Sure enough, a few minutes later No. 2 came out on a run — and again the V-max found its mark. Later, with only six rows of corn left and Rob at the other end of the field, a third one came out at a fast walk. He had stayed put in those last rows as the combine passed within 10 to 12 feet of him. That one fell about 20 feet from me. It was the male. Three coyotes in less than 30 minutes! I can't say enough about the suppressed rifle. The quiet report unquestionably made this possible. The noise of the combine helped as well. I have used this procedure successfully in the past, but this was my first triple.

This setup is tricky to accomplish. The farmer has to hold you in high regard to allow you, the shooter, to fire a rifle in close proximity to him and his $500,000 combine and another $200,000 worth of grain-handling equipment. I am 68 years old and had to retire from farming early due to a lung disease. Farmers know me. They know that shooting coyotes is one of my favorite pastimes. They also know that I have spent over 56 years honing my shooting skills.

In fall of the year, when corn harvest is going on, this procedure works great on call-shy coyotes.