Well it is that time of year again. This time there is a score to settle. A friend near Milford NH is quite upset. He let his Beagles out the other day and a Big male coyote ran across his yard a snatched his prize male, it was dusk at the time. He already got his night time and baiting permits (new this year), so 3 of us are going to bait and ambush this pack of Coyotes. I'll be using my DCM w/ 5 round mags. There are six to seven in the pack. We plan on getting them all. January 10, 2008 is the date. I do dislike coyotes so much. The Bunny population is all but gone, upland birds are pretty thin, the just destroy everything. I've got some pig hearts and livers in my freezer, good bait! Jim

Never set out to deliberately hunt coyotes - normally just happened across them when hunting something else. Nailed a big dog coyote while hunting deer/hawgs last year on TPV's lease. He didn't do much after absorbing a 6.5-06 pill at about 60 yds! :p

Those are some bold coyotes jp, give-'em heck! In addition to giving the small game a break, coyotes provide some good offhand shooting practice. Whether harvesting the pelts, or not, there is some benefit to keeping these varmints in check.

I've been hunting coyotes for 45 years now JP and it's probably my favorite thing to do. Good luck on whacking that pack, but be prepared for more to come in and fill their place. There seems to be a never ending supply. I've been shooting in one 30 mile square area ever since I started and though I'm only taking a few a year now I used to take 50 or better a year out and there never was a lack of them to shoot. I don't hunt during the pupping season now, but do the year round thing otherwise. If your bait pile don't work pick up a couple of inexpensive calls and try them.

Here's a place to look for more coyote hunting ideas.

http://www.predatormastersforums.com/index.shtml


No guts to dump, no skinning to do and everyone you shoot helps the deer population and feeds some other needy animals. Go for it.

I won't be dumping the guts, I let them sit a few days on a sealed plastic bucket in my basement, dump them in a 35lb nylon onion sack and stake them in the middle of a clearing. They start fighting and that is when you start shooting. The snow here is already over 2 feet deep, so they can't run very fast. One of our little party, Anton, traps. So he will sell the pelts. No shot will be over 80 yards or so. It seems Milford, like my town is restricted to .22 rimfire, shotgun or archery, so the .22mag will be coming out and headshots the order of the day. Thanks for the link Bob, Maybe a trip to Wildlife Taxidermy for a call is in order. Jim

I guided yote hunters(and other critters) in Maine for some 20 years after I retired from the military. I was in the western mountains where they were big and plentiful. Between the guiding I had time to hunt on my own and was frequently joined by a older gentleman that had been hunting yotes in Maine since the day that there were very few. I shot 35-50 per year.

He didn't mind me asking questions and I learned alot fom that gentleman. He took some 80-100 per year, both from trapping and hunting.

When I hear a deer hunter complaining about the lack of game,I immediately ask him if he ever hunts coyotes. About 75% of them say,"huh,what,well.......no".

A few observations/opinions >>>>>
* Always use a autoloader to hunt yotes
* Set up as far away from your bait as you can see, during the first light and the last light
* Almost anything will do for bait, but BY FAR, the beaver carcuss is the best. This,frozen hard and wired to a stake.
* COMPLETE camo is mandantory. Nothing that shines or glares is acceptable. I even used a ARD for my 50mm Leupold.
* To avoid pelt damage,the most explosive bullet,at the highest speed possible,is the very best.(with a well placed shot)
* For some real quick action on more than one yote......on the snow,find a deer kill using crows/ravens. Set up on it in the afternoon, with at least two hunters using auto shotguns,stuffed with nothing smaller than #2 shot(lead). If the yotes have fed on the carcuss for a couple of nights,you can expect to have at least 3 yotes arrive at the meal. I have seen as many as 9.
* Dress very warmly. You will move less.
* If calling yotes,remember,a coyote can tell the source of a call to within 10yds,@ a half mile. He KNOWS exactly where that "dyin' rabbit" is located.
* Change calls frequently to keep the yote from gettin' a free "education".
* If the yote barks(like a dog) at you from close range,your made. Might as well leave the area.

If legal in your area, an electronic call with remote will help take more yotes. I used a FoxPro along with a homemade decoy. Winter=piece of white silk on a small rod. Summer=brown an tan silk. (silk cuz it moves very easily in the wind) Now they have battery driven deeks that will jump and twitch. Never used one, but I hear they are great.

Good luck with the yotes. Important to remember that you will NEVER kill 'em all. When one is taken,another moves in to take it's place. I never saw a decline of yotes in my area. -----pruhdlr

It does seems like when you kill some other come to fill the vacancies. I have been calling for a couple of years now and there never seems to be a shortage. I will admit that I had very little success for the first while until I honed my Calling and learned how to/how not to get them to come in.

To be even mildly sucessful at calling yotes,is alot more that most people would believe. Especially the "great white hunters" that have never hunted yotes.

One reason that I got into it so heavily is that it started to get easy to kill a nice deer. Try that with a 50lb coyote.

Once that I got my sports "indoctrinated" as to the challenge of a big NE coyote,I did alot of guiding for them. People that had killed African game wanted the challenge of the coyote.

I even hunted wolves in Quebec and they were easier to call/kill than a call shy coyote. Even baiting w/o calling was difficult. Especially due to the WX. Heck,you'd have to be a survivalist to call yotes during the night hunting season(Jan,Feb,Mar,Apr) in western Maine.

But the rewards !! Standing over one of the bigger male coyotes,knowing that,"this one you won" was a real thrill. -----pruhdlr

Have a good time hunting those coyotes. They sure can be a rush to hunt. Q

Do not count the juvenile poultry population till the proper process of incubation has materialized.

or to paraphrase--dont skin and sell the coyotes till you kill them.

I've pretty much eliminated the coyote population on our property. I was out hunting pheasants on a friends property about a month ago and a red fox ran right in front of me. I loaded him up with 3 solid hits of #4 Steel from my 12 gauge, it wasn't enough to kill him, but it definetly changed his plans of eating pheasant for the day. Saw a 'yote, about 400 yards out, but nothing to touch him.

Matt I've been hunting a 30 mile square area for 45 years now and found that no matter how many you kill new ones will move in pretty soon. I used to get thru Billings a bunch when I was driving truck, boy that looks like great coyote country. If I couldn't live here in Idaho I'd sure be over there in Montana. Got some family that lives in Swan Lake and til my health went to heck got over to Kicking Horse lake every summer for the Bass fishing. It's just South of Ronan.

I'm just getting ready to try my hand at coyote hunting. I'm needing all the tips I can get. I've seen them while deer/elk hunting but they were always in high gear and smokin by the time I saw them. Gosh, I didn't know they could run so fast. Wanting to get set up with a .223 for just this purpose.

Bob, that is true that they will refill the area, but I keep them in check. I'd like to get into trapping, but the 'yotes will chew their own leg off if you let them sit for more than about 8 hours, and I just wouldn't be able to get to them in time, and I really don't like to see animals suffer, even a coyote.

Chew offs is apparently thought of as a much bigger problem then it really is. I know successful coyote trappers that go a whole season and not have a chew off. In my state foot hold traps have a mandatory 24 hr check.

Chew offs is apparently thought of as a much bigger problem then it really is. I know successful coyote trappers that go a whole season and not have a chew off. In my state foot hold traps have a mandatory 24 hr check.

My fur buyer also traps. I was dropping some stuff off the other day and he told me that he caught a North Dakota coyote. Asked him how he knew it was from ND. He said it chewed off three legs and was still caught. LOL

Well, to paraphrase what King aAgrippa said to Paul, "Almost thou pursuadest me to be a [coyote hunter]"
Over the 50 years I have lived in Idaho, I have never hunted coyotes. Over the years, the number of mule deer seems to have fallen, at least I don't see nearly as many as I remember when I was 15 hunting with my father. I have always placed the blame on over-hunting by man, but coyotes is certainly a possibility too.
I have heard many complaints that the deer and elk population have fallen over the last few years since the reintroduction of the wolf and am looking forward to seeing legal season to keep the wolf population in check. (What is the matter with the animal activist liberals, don't they know we killed those wolves for a reason?)
Anyway, though I may never go coyote hunting myself, I will certainly think more kindly upon those who profess to do it.
I have a scoped Savage Model 219 in .219 Zipper caliber that has been looking for the right sized game for a number of years. (Think .30-30 cartridge with a .22 bullet at 3200 fps.) Though I hunted deer with it in my youth, I use a larger caliber rifle now.
Thank you for your posts, I have learned something new.
Clarence

Have trapped coyotes in Maine for quite a few years, never heard of a chew out.

I'm just getting ready to try my hand at coyote hunting. I'm needing all the tips I can get. I've seen them while deer/elk hunting but they were always in high gear and smokin by the time I saw them. Gosh, I didn't know they could run so fast. Wanting to get set up with a .223 for just this purpose.

Check Monte's post above for your answer to the chew off problem, just don't trap in North Dakota. All kidding aside I've got friends whom trap and it's not a problem if you check your traps at least every 24 hours. For some good trapping info go over to the Predator Master's forum and check here.

http://www.predatormastersforums.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=0&Board=14

As far as coyote hunting there are two ways to do it. Here in Idaho you can just drive around the farm roads/field roads and often you'll find them in the fields hunting. This makes for some vary challenging running shots. You can also pick up a couple of mouth calls and start calling. Here the trick is to hunt the edges, call and stay still. Movement is usually what gets a caller busted before a coyote gets within shooting range. Check out the link above for lots of really good coyote calling info. Lots of folks that just hunt coyotes over there and detailed discussions on guns, bullets, scopes and techniques on taking coyotes.