Any florida coyote hunters out there?

Grumpy,
I bought the Predation for the trips to Kansas I make every year. The wife is not good with my being gone every Saturday morning anymore since we had the kids (Girls ages 4 and 9mos). Therefore, we have an agreement of sorts that I will not hunt much except maybe squirrel a day or two and turkey a day or two. Instead, i get to go to Kansas for deer season every year for a week.

Now, on to the caller subject, my Mother-in-Law is the assistant to the NW Florida director of the FWCC. Therefore, I am a phone call away from the man who makes the calls. That said, electronic calls are legal for Yotes but not much else.

The problem arises with the rimfire qualifier. When in KS, I will be shooting Yotes with a 7mm mag only because they are a nuisance on the Dad's place. Down here, I will have to use a 10/22 I have set up with the bull barrel and all of the goodies. I can drive tacks at 60 yards literally. I know the 22 may not be quite enough but due to the timber we deal with here, a long shot will be 40 yards or so. If that gets me into trouble, I will switch to a .17hmr and I guess there is no need to get into that discussion again. Shot placement is critical...

Now, I live in Tallahassee but the subdivision I am building in is in Crawfordville which is 30 miles south of here. 15 of that 30 miles is through the national forest which is loaded with Yotes and nobody hunts them. Now, the wife said I am not allowed to go on the weekends as I have to spend time with the offspring but she never said a stand or two on the way home from work was out of the question.

If anyone has any specific questions about the rules in Florida, shoot me an email and I will ask the M-I-L's bass as he should know if anyone does.
 
I had the same conversation with the Fla Game & Fish - electronic calls are ok for yotes. Sure wish we could hunt them at night (legally). I've been wanting to pick up a Lightforce 170. Oh well....
Grumpy, where do you go calling? WMA's
 
Davestarbuck,

Frankie talked to the wrong person. If he had quoted exactly who he was talking to I'd have a talk with them. They misinformed him. If you ask a state employee about the law make a big show of writing down their name and they usually won't be so willing to guess if they don't really know.

Also the "ranger" you talked to told you wrong. The only people likely to know are the biologist and maybe some of their helpers at a managment area (including check station staff) and wildlife officers but they often only know the law pertaining what they need to know every day and that's not an issue that one of them is likely to ever encounter as there are VERY few handgun hunters in Florida. In fact I've NEVER enountered one in the woods here in almost 30 years of hunting here.

You need to talk to Eddie White in Tallahassee. He's over all the wildlife management areas and is the final word on rules and regs. He can be reached at (850)488-8573.

Eddie has told both grumpy and myself that centerfire pistols are allowed unless specifically mentioned when they say that centerfire rifles aren't allowed.

If an employee doesn't know they always say no so they don't get in trouble for telling you that you can do something that you can't legally do.

As far as recorded game calls.... You absolutely can't use them at any time on any state wildlife management area for any hunting purpose unless the brochure specifically says you can and I'm pretty sure they ALL say no.

If you just want to grab a camera for a photo and leave your gun at home it's OK to use a recorded game call in a wildlife management area but expect any wildlife officer that "catches you" to have a hissy fit.

$bob$
 
This is one of the biggest problems I've seen since I came down here. There is no communication between the wildlife commission and the game officers, so most of the game officers interperate the rules how they see fit. I was told pointblank by the biologist at the Northeast Regional office after about 4 hours of conversations with several people at verious levels in that office that centerfire pistols where legal. The regulations state clearly that, "centerfire rifles" are prohibited. It is possible that the different regions may interperate this rule differently, but I wanted to make absolutely sure and had them give me names and phone numbers of the people that made this decision so I could give it to the officer if there were any questions, and they were more than happy to comply.
But just to see what kind of reply we would get, maybe you could get your mother in law to see what their response is in Tallahassee. The questions I asked where direct, meaning I ask for an exact ruling and that the regulations do say that "centerfire rifles" are prohibited but they do not say that "centerfire pistols" are. Also, the regulations state that for shotguns you cannot have any shotsize larger than #6, but I was told by the Northeast Regional office that you could use any size shot you wanted for coyotes.
Concerning tha e-callers, when asked, they told me that no electronic calls are allowed in the state of Florida.
If your mother in law could get someone there to clerify this, see if she could get names and numbers there also. Maybe she could even get it in writting if it isn't too much trouble.
 
noleball,

Eddie White has been my contact for years for WMA rules and regs.

Who is your contact?

As far as I know I'm the only actual coyote hunter in the National Forest on the East side of the Ocklockonee River. At least I've never met another or another handgun hunter. I've been doing it for 7 years now with mixed results. Your mileage my vary.

BUT!!! Hunting deer with hounds is extremely popular there and hounds quite often end up chasing 'yotes and the hunters will willingly blast them if they see them so they are pretty shy.

I don't think they're very call shy... Just unwilling to leave thick cover in the daytime due to all the hunters in the woods and their immediate aggressive reaction any time they see a yote. Since they showed up about 7 years ago (first time I started seeing coyoet tracks and was able to "howl them up") the fawn "crop" has been going downhill fast.

We used to see almost all our does with 2 fawns and now that's a rarity and often our does don't even have one with them at all... Now you know why the locals hate 'yotes...

By the way... Rusty McKeithen is another good contact for rules. He's the president of the Florida Dog Hunter's Association and goes to ALL the Commission meetings. He's a very good friend of mine and we can muster hundreds of hunters when a rule that we don't like is up for consideration. Rusty is in the Crawfordville phone book and lives on Bloxham Cutoff.

$bob$
 
Grumpy,

Sorry... I thought you had talked to Eddie White too... I remember that I gave you the wrong number the first time but I thought I got it straight after that. Call him... He makes it easy and simple and is fun to talk to.

btw.. I probably won't be able to hunt any weekends during January in Ocala so proceed without me... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

$bob$
 
Sorry to hear you can't make it Bob, maybe in February. Well, that leaves me hunting solo, not that it will stop me, but if any of the rest of you are interested in doing some calling this weekend, send me an e-mail. I will attempt to contact Mr. White this week for clerifications and see if I can get any of this in writting.
 
The Ma-In-Law works for Loius Roberson who is the NW Director. I have been told that the calls are legal for Yotes but maybe I was mis-informed. Now that the subject has arisen again, I will definately be making a call tomorrow to see exactly what the real story is. I have his name and number so if he says it is OK and I get "caught", I will be directing the officer to him.

Unfortunately, I have found that one individual may tell you one thing and the other may not agree among law enforcement officers.

Years back while shrimping in the bay in Panama City, we were boarded and the sizes of our shrimp were checked. The officer told us that they were borderline and asked us to quit for the night and give thema few more days and he let us go with our shrimp.

Two nights later, we were boarded again by another officer, and he not only told us they were fine, but he also helped us cull the pile for a few minutes and picked out a few undersized trout and flounder and told us we should "keep 'em and eat 'em".

That said, it is like drawing straws down here or so we have found. The officer that comes up on you will likely not know the answer when it gets down to it.
 
Ok let's see what we came up with...

1.No e-callers: I need to practice with my Tally Ho. Idhunter have you all had any success with a fawn distress call in your area?

2.Centerfire pistols are legal: My Ruger Blackhawk 357 Mag hasn't seen any action lately..

Thanks guys this has turned out to be a great discussion...

-dave
 
Noleball,

Remember that the rules are VERY different between the "general" rules and those that apply to WMA's.

Also rules can vary widely between different WMA's.

$bob$
 
davestarbuck,

The only thing I've ever called in with fawn distress is bobcats and irate does so far but haven't used it that much.

I'll share on of my secrets.

Sit on a road or powerline during the week when the doghunters are working and you'll see more "game" than any other way or time.

Then you can stalk or try to call. Saves a LOT of unproductive time.

The palmettos and pines dampen noise and it doesn't travel well especially when the wind blows and makes all the noise.

Calm days in the National Forest seem to be the only real productive days for me but all that being said.

I'd be asking grumpy for advice more than me. From our phone and email conversations he has Florida 'yotes figured out way better than me...

$bob$
 
hey grumpy, i'm ready to go coyote hunting any day, any time, anywhere. i live just outside the ocala national forrest, just got the new western rivers call. i have never done this before but hunted all my life, i'm sure i can pick it up pretty quick. gimme a chance, i'll buy breakfast. just moved hear a year ago july. have seen those lil bastards in the ocala national forrest, missed a long bow shot during deer season, now i'm ready to take a few down. say the word and i'm there.
 
The regulation variations you speak of are very likely the difference between hunting on privately owned lands and hunting on state owned lands. There is usually a difference.

BTW, I hunt private land in Volusia County and we have plenty of coyotes. I have killed one, other club members have killed others. All coyote kills have been accidents as they were not called in. I would like to learn how to call them in but because the terrian is brushy, it may be a chore to see one. We usually only get an occasional glimpse.

The coyotes have been seen all over the area and tracks cover many of the dirt roads over night. Seems like they are alot of them out there. I have seen two of them chasing a full grown doe, then found the eaten carcuss the next day. Have seen a couple when trying to call turkeys during the spring gobbler season.

Dave1
 
Dave, on private land you can hunt any time, coyotes are not considered a game animal and as such have no true regulations. Night hunting on private land would be a unique opportunity. If your club doesn't have a problem with it, I would be glad to show you how this works. By the way, does this club have any openings?
 
grumpy,

After reading the FWC hunting handbook carefully it appears the only hunting that can be done at night without a permit is for raccoon and opossum. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif

Otherwise here's what the handbook says....

"A permit to use a gun and light at night or a permit to use padded jaw steel traps may be obtained from the appropriate FWC regional office."

So it looks like you'll have to apply for a permit from FWC regional to hunt even coyotes at night. Also look for neighbors, other hunters, campers, local law enforcement, etc. to call a wildlife officer on you almost any time they hear a shot at night.... :rolleyes:

My guess it that you'll find it more trouble than it's worth to obtain the permit and use it without constant aggravation. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

BUT!!! It DOES sound like FUN huh?... /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

$bob$
 
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