Las Cruces, NM Coyote Calling Issues

Grasshoppers are easy to catch, high in protein, and have a high fat content. I think it does the coyotes good to eat them....Coyotes don't get much fat in their diet. Rabbits hardly have any at all.

Interesting thing I saw a couple of years ago, was when it started freezing hard you would walk by the hoppers frozen to the longer grass stems at first light. I even picked one off, and sure enough, frozen solid. Thought that would kill them all....Boy, was I wrong!

By 9:30 or 10:00 am the sun was out and the hoppers just thawed out and went back to hopping. I surmise that the hoppers have to have a more extended freeze time before it stops their clock. When the winter finally DID freeze the hoppers, it didn't stop the coyotes from eating them. The dead hoppers were laying all over the ground just waiting to be eaten by the coyotes, and the coyotes didn't even have to work for the meal. Just walk around & take as many as you wanted.
 
Ya, the public land around Las Cruces gets called alot. Sure there are educated coyotes, but the guys around there do a good job of killing the coyotes that they call, compared to some other areas in the state. The coyotes are more scarce than educated in my opinion. Yes we have a lot of contests in NM, and there are a lot of local contests in the area that most don't hear about. And it makes me wonder why PM chose this locale for their annual hunt?
 
Maybe they're scarce in the area immediately suurounding 'Cruces, but based on the amount of sign I've seen in the outlying areas, there is no shortage of coyotes in SW NM. I was at a friend's house last weekend. He lives off of Baylor Canyon Rd. Each night, the coyotes were so loud they woke me up. There were lots of them, too. In short, I believe there are plenty coyotes in the general area and the country is too vast for it to all be heavily called.
 
No doubt there are still coyotes. Doesn't mean the calling is good, easy, or that the coyotes are even legally huntable. I consider the the Baylor Canyon Road in the immediate area of Las Cruces. Not to many years ago all that country was huntable, now with so many homes in that area it is difficult to hunt or immpossible to hunt (legally).
 
Baylor Canyon is real built-up, but that was just an example. Still lots of coyotes, they've adapted to living in neighborhoods and are pretty much untouchable in that area.

Things may have changed in the last couple of years but when I was roaming the areas around Santa 'T, Cruces, Deming, and Lordsburg, they were crawling with coyotes. They and the other animals always seemed completely unpressured.
For instance, the rabbits around here (Artesia) are harassed mercilessly. They'll break cover at a dead run sometimes a hundred yards out. I was real surprised by that behavior when I first moved out this way. Whenever I was out on foot further west, say Columbus or Hachita, they and the deer would usually just move out of your path and watch you go by. Coyotes moving, unconcerned about people, in the early daylight hours was real common, too. Nearby 'Cruces, it may be getting beat up, but there is still lots of really remote country; it just takes way more gas money to call it.
 
looks like the weather is gonna break next tues into wed....nuttin cold cold but sumthin different.....i haven't been out this season but temps are dippin into the 40's and i'm feelin the urge.
last year even after thanxgivin i watched coyotes munchin on hoppers-from a long ways off-......could not get their interest until i chirped on an estrus call....even then the old female was still chasing the hoppers as she made her way slowly into range.....she was FULL of grasshoppers....2 days later it snowed 6-8"......
 
I've seen a bunch of coyotes loping around and crossing dirt roads. They will often stop and just stare at me and many don't seem to be afraid or know what to make of a human.

With regard to have PM hunt here, logistically it makes sense. There is a ton of public land within a short distance of an large airport and reasonable lodging. Seems like a good combination.
 
All the same. There is lot of country to hunt in Southern NM. But I understand what NMdoghunter is getting at. And to be clear we are all talking about public country. I can understand the frustration that can happen when you could find some decent calling not 15 minute drive from your house, and now you need to drive and hour or more to find the same experience (from one season to the next). It sucks. Yet there was a nationally advertised hunt/seminar in the same area last season. I know what I would blame first for the decrease in calling success. Especially if I knew the area, critters and trends in local calling methods.

By the way, It doesn't really affect me, as all my calling is on private land. But it wasn't always that way, I entered a lot of contests doing my best to place while hunting public ground.

Either way it sucks to have your backyard (even it be public land) advertised as a coyote calling mecca.
 
I don't really know what NMdoghunter is talking about. With in half hour of town (or easily less depending on where in Cruces you live) there is fine coyote hunting area. I've even called in a couple 'yotes off of Baylor canyon road last year just to show a friend. We were out rabbit hunting w/.22 pistols on BLM, and he was saying the same thing about hearing them, but not being able to call them.(Didn't call them in too close, but close enough for a good rifle shot then let them wander off).

One thing I did find odd is east of town by the dump near the end of Lohman about a year to 8 months ago I had heard all kinds of coyotes, but a month ago I went out there and couldn't get anything to speak to me at all. Right around sundown when I heard all commotion too. Another 5 minutes drive east and didn't even have to call to hear them.
 
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