Originally Posted By: knockemdown
Jesse, I'd like to hear from you, too, since you run hounds. Do you run in the spring/summer? If so, how do you handle the denning aspect after an adult is taken?
Thanks...
Sorry, just now saw this.
Yes, we run all year round, spring summer fall and winter. But, running hounds is a totaly different ball game. We are free casting hounds into the woods. This time of year we all know the yotes are quite agressive. We all know why right? because they are protecting pups in the ground. You will never find a den without a coyote on guard somewhere close, and its not the wet female. So when you cast a dog, and gets close to a den, and is messing around making noise, there is going to be atleast one coyote there to intercept him. Again, usually not the wet female. Infact, it can be very hard to get a yote going this time of year because they stay fairly close to the den, and when a dog opens, they will all close in and push the dog away from the den. So when a smart old dog gets one infront of him, and gets him moving, the chances of it being a wet female are pretty slim to none.
But, we all know its not impossible. So lets just say the wet female ventured off a little farther than normal to feed, and our dogs stumbled apon her tracks, and now she is running for her life. Could Happen, But think about this. Between me and my brother in law, and the 7 hounds we ran most this year, we caught around 30 coyotes this winter. 4 of those were females. We ran lots of females, but caught only 4. A female runs alot better, and a hound has to honestly over take her, and catch her on her feet, where a male will run hard for only so long, get tired and decide that he needs to find a place to stop and fight. We dont shoot coyotes, so i would say the chances of our hounds catching a wet female this time of year is pretty slim.
Ok, so we have decided that the chances of catching a wet female are slim, but lets just say we did (in all the years i have spent running hounds i have seen two wet females caught) If i knew exactly where the den was, i might go dig it up, but probably not.
I have had the blessing to spend lots and lots of time with a man who as far as im concerned has more coyote sence than anyone i have ever met in my life. He has made his living on coyotes for over 50 years. I only ever shot one coyote while i was with him, and it was a wet female coming out of a den. He asked me to shoot her when we were having a similar conversation. Said he was going to teach me something. Well, i shot her, and threw her in the back of the truck. Well, he took me back to that very spot every day for a week, to show me a new coyote going in and out of the den. He took me back a few weeks later to show me all the little coyote pups running around the mouth of the den.
So long story short, i dont think its right to target wet females unless you are going to take care of the pups, but at the same time i dont think a guy should stop hunting because of the pups. Coyotes were made to survive, and there is none better fit to survive than a coyote. Coyote pups are pretty hard to kill, so for me, with limited coyotes in the area, and no need to reduce their numbers drasticly, i would rather give them a fighting chance at living, rather than diggin them up and thumping them.