Maine coyote weights...

mainekiller

mainekiller

New member
I thought everyone would find this interesting.

I have accurate records for 170 coyotes taken in downeast and northern Maine over the last 10 years. These coyotes were trapped, shot and snared from 3rd week of October through March. This data will show how truly rare a 50 # coyote is and even a 40 pounder. This data is probably skewed to the heavier side. We try to weigh them all but we always make sure to weigh the larger coyotes.

90 females
Average weight of 28.111 pounds
Smallest was 16#s and the largest was 43#s (only 2 female coyotes went over 40#s, both killed in late march)

80 male coyotes
Average weight of 32.325 pounds
Smallest was 10.5#s and the largest was 46#s (only 10 out of 80 were over 40#s)

I know of many credible people that have killed 50#s in Maine but I have yet to see or weigh one on a scale I trust. I will have to see a 50# coyote to believe it just like I will have to see mountain lion and wolf tracks to believe it. Everyone that sees a coyote says it was a 50 pounder.....BS. Anyway, just some interesting info.
 
Not Maine but we've shot a handful over 50 and I consider myself credible. Look at the top of the page in the Storyboard. Shot a blackish one last week. There is a pic there of a Maine coyote that was over 60 lbs.
 
I have had 2 females weighed in officially for a contest that weighed 43 and 46 pounds. The 46 pound female was shot 2 weeks ago. These were very large females and not the norm. there is a pic of the 46lb female in the baiting thread on page 186.

Scott
 
Yup, agreed.
You probably saw my post on another forum about Maine coyote weights. We hunt them with hounds, trap and do some calling. In all the years of doing so our group has killed 3 that weighed 45 pounds, none bigger. Since that post I made a few weeks ago I asked a taxidermist friend of mine here in Maine how big of a coyote has he seen. He mounted a 52 pounder and a 57 pounder in all the years he has been in business. THOSE are big coyotes!

I have shot two out of the three 45 pounders we have killed. This was the most recent one. I shot him coming up a brook with one of the hounds not 10 feet off his tail. I had to wait for the coyote and the hound to put some distance between them to shoot.








The other one was from 2008, its the 4th one from the left. The one I am holding was 28 pounds. Many guys kill coyotes and think they weigh alot more than they do, especially first timers.



 
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I think there are regions of the country that have bigger coyotes than Maine such as PEI and upstate new York. Those coyotes your killing in PEI are probably bigger on average. My data would suggest that a 50 pounder comes along one time in 200+ coyotes in Maine. Any coyote over 35 pounds is large in my book.
 
My guess here in nny the big ones may go 35lbs. I shot this one last fall while deer hunting. I was a mile or so back in so this female stayed where she lay. I think this one went 40-45,very healthy and fat.
 
Great post. I could not agree more. I hear about 50,60 and 70 lb coyotes weekly but I have not seen one on the scale. I had a buddie call and say he had a coyote that was 50 maybe 60 lbs. I have sertified scales in my business so I told him to bring it over...43 lb male.
 
People tend to guess on the "Heavy" side.. Rarely is it the other way around..
I have always had a thing for weighing all my game..
I love it when someone shows me a pic of a spike buck with 8" pencil atlers and then they proceed to tell me it weighs 150 lbs..
Then they ask me what I got and I say I shot a 115 lb 4 point, to that they say,, "He was a little one"
I have learned not talk about weight..

Great write up..
 
i weigh all the ones that come home whole. lightest i have ever weighed was i think 26 or 27 pounds. most of the "big" ones i get run 37 or 38. i have killed a couple that i think were bigger, but i skin them on the spot. but, i think the biggest i have killed would NOT have been over 45.
i killed an really old male about 2 weeks ago, broken off canines, brown teeth, missing teeth, really big wide head, weighed 38 pounds.
 
Another thing to think about, is the area for those 200 coyotes as evenly harvested via hunting,trapping, running hounds(hunting).

The reason I say this is that the corner of the island I live on, no one has ever run them real hard with hounds. Once in a while over the years guys come down for a few days but that's it.

So for me, here I would say pretty much most adults are 37-44lbs. I don't weigh them anymore if I think they're mid 40's.

On the other hand not too far away where they would year in year out hunt the area hard running hounds their average weight was closer to 30lbs.

What made me think of this was an old member here used to shoot quite a few over 50lbs and he was only averaging prob 13 coyotes a year. Went by Sleddog. I think he was in Maine but not sure.
 
In Ontario Canada, the biggest I weight was just over 45 pounds... probably shot one a little bigger that may of went 50 pounds or more the previous year but didn't weight it, skinned it on site so who knows for sure. Of all the ones I weight 45 pounds and a few ounces is the biggest.... I have shot quite a few close to and just over the 40 pound mark. So I would say our most common big ones average between 38-42 pounds with a very rare 50 pounder taken by friend of a friend of a friend somewhere some place every year...
 
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