Last night, a friend tipped me off that there were coyotes on a leftover deer carcass. I grabbed my gear and rushed over, arriving about 30 minutes after they’d been spotted. Unfortunately, by the time I got there, the coyotes were long gone. Determined to salvage the trip, I set up and played a series of howls and coyote fight sounds, hoping to lure them back. Despite my efforts, they never came in. Disappointed but not discouraged, I packed up and headed home, already thinking about my next move.
The following day, on my way home from wrestling practice, a new idea struck me. Maybe if I got to the bait pile before the coyotes showed up and played coyote sounds, they might get territorial and come in to investigate. The key was timing—I needed to arrive early to make them think another coyote was already there. I decided to give it a shot.
That evening, I geared up and headed back out. With my Pulsar Telos LRF XL50 in hand, I scanned the field carefully—nothing yet. But that’s what the Telos does best: give you a complete thermal overview so you know exactly what’s out there, long before anything moves into visible range. Confident the area was clear, I set up my tripod and mounted my rifle, topped with the Pulsar Thermion 2 LRF XP50 Pro. The clarity of the image through the Thermion was unmatched—razor-sharp thermal definition that turned the dark field into a well-lit stage.
Once everything was in place, I started playing howls through my caller.
Just two minutes in, a heat signature appeared on the Telos—clear as day. A coyote was cautiously making its way toward the sound. My heart pounded as I tracked its slow approach. With a regular scope, it might’ve blended into the landscape, but through the Telos and Thermion, I could see every step, every head turn, every hesitation. At around 150 yards, I switched to a distressed baby cottontail. That did the trick—the coyote picked up the pace, closing to about 100 yards.
I stayed locked in through the Thermion. The image was so crisp, I could see the subtle body language shift as she paused, then turned her attention to something behind her. A second heat signature—faint but there—registered deeper in the woods. Without thermal, I never would’ve seen it. I held off, hoping for a double. But the hesitation gave her just enough time to get spooked.
Before disappearing, she paused one last time—quartering away. I settled, breathed out, and took the shot.
And missed.
Everything had gone right—strategy, setup, approach. My Pulsar gear performed flawlessly. The Telos gave me early detection, the Thermion gave me a crystal-clear shot window, and together they revealed a whole layer of the hunt that would’ve been invisible otherwise.
The miss is mine. But I left that field more confident than ever in my equipment—and more determined than ever to make the next shot count.
