coyote pups

J

jrnm

Member
I was cutting hay this week and spotted a pair of coyotes, one kept going to the same place and laying down, I thought it looked like something was wrong with it. As I kept cutting closer, it was still in the same spot, too many hours going around and around the field, I didn't even think it might have a den, just thought it was guarding something it was eating. I had been wanting to try my 17 fireball on coyote I stopped the swather, opened the door and popped it behind the front leg with a 20gr vmax. I saw it had something in its mouth and after I shot it donned on me it was a pup. She ran about 20 yards and was done. So I found the spot she had been going back to and found the nest she had made.

She looked healthy but unsucked, the pups were dry but weak. I doubt they lasted long when she wasn't there to keep them warm.

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I've seen some neat youtube videos of people with pet yotes, they sure can be beautiful animals. It would have been tempting for me to give it a whirl........albeit completely un practical.
 
Originally Posted By: shelton573Three in one shot! Good shooting!

Shelton

Actually 4 with one shot, when she left he nest, she had one in her mouth that I couldn't find in the wheat that I was swathing.

I believe they were only a few hours old, the blood on her back side had already turned black, if they had of been nursing I might of considered trying to save them, don't know why, but it was a thought.
 
Call me soft.
Or strange.
Or maybe it's just because I have never bothered coyotes this time of year.

But, even as a life-long coyote hunter, and former "farm boy", I feel saddened that the pups never had the opportunity to grow to at least their "teenage" phase.
Admittedly, come Fall, I wouldn't have hesitated to put a bullet in each of them if the chance arose.
So...what kind of screwed up person does that make me?

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I remember as a kid, some of the brome hay that we put up, was cut in field waterways.
Prior to my teen years, we didn't have a swather.
Instead, we used an old John Deere 3-point mounted, sickle bar-style hay mower, on the rear of the old 1959 Case 600 tractor.
(No cab, just a buggy top mounted to the fenders, for a bit of shade.)
As an adolescent, I used to "ride" along with Dad, with me standing between the seat & the left fender...in case I was needed to help "clear" the sickle whenever it got plugged up. (happened a lot)
{Also used to ride on the rear of the old square baler...standing on the rear draw bar...to keep watch on the twine knotters, in case they didn't tie. Dad hated to re-run untied bales, so he would have me stop him if I seen that one didn't tie, so we could hand-tie it while still in the baler.}

Anyway, I remember many times coming across pups laying in the grasses (in mid-June), and them getting caught up in the mower.
Not a pretty sight!!
Never seemed to bother my dad much. But, it both excited me to come across the pups...yet also saddened me to see them hurt & killed.
In those years, I never gave either feeling much thought. After all, I had been around coyote hunters from the day of my birth. And even as a child, I loved to hunt them.
But, looking back now, I can clearly remember having those differing feelings at the same time.

For those non-farm folks, who don't know what a sickle bar mower is, here's a link to a picture of an old John Deere mower just like the one we had.......

http://cdn3.volusion.com/deqaj.ahgeu/v/vspfiles/photos/7ftJD.Store.Pickup-2.jpg?1414010753

Although not our tractor, this is what ours looked like...right down to the propane fuel tank.

http://www.keystonetractorworks.com/assets/gallery/tractors/case/case-1959-712b-tractor-82-7.jpg

The baler was an old belt-driven 24T, with a Wisconsin motor, similar to this one. Loved that little motor, but hated that dang belt-drive wheel. It was always breaking shear pins......

http://www.tractorshed.com/gallery/iphotos/i4713.jpg

This picture shows the rear draw bar, similar to the one I used to stand "ride" on.....

http://static.auctionservices.com/images/55368536/054_large.jpg
 

Originally Posted By: canislatrans54Call me soft.
Or strange.
Or maybe it's just because I have never bothered coyotes this time of year.

But, even as a life-long coyote hunter, and former "farm boy", I feel saddened that the pups never had the opportunity to grow to at least their "teenage" phase.
Admittedly, come Fall, I wouldn't have hesitated to put a bullet in each of them if the chance arose.
So...what kind of screwed up person does that make me?

I guess that makes you more like me. I too can't seem to bring myself to shoot coyotes in the summer when I know they have pups. I'm not trying to imply that my way is right and those who do shoot them are wrong. That's just me. I have on occasion taken a coyote or two during that time, but anymore they get a pass.

Currently I have a nursing female coyote visiting my bait site, along with another coyote that I believe to be a male though can't positively identify it yet. My hunting has been tough going for some time now and I don't get many these days, but I won't shoot either since they are probably a mated pair, and no doubt there are pups in the den.

For those that are losing livestock, ie money, to coyotes, I fully understand their thoughts. But for me, I give them a pass and hope for some good hunting in the winter.

 
As much as I like to kill Coyotes it the challenge that gets me going. Nothing against the OP as he didn't have knowledge of the pups. Hard to explain to people how you can love to hunt in the fall but watch in the spring. They kill a ton of ducks around my house in the spring when they harvest the wheat and it bums me out but it's just part of the deal.
 
Coyotes kill 365 days a year...the nest was within 1/2 mile of calving cows. As I wrote above the pups were dry and weak. I have whelped dogs before and know they will try to nurse immediately and those that do not within an hour or two usually don't make it. The [beeep] was dry and still had no milk when I looked her over after I realized she was on a nest.

So, sport hunters, don't shoot them. But each one of those dead calves take around $1500 out of someone's pocket. They were not my cows, but it is very obvious where I am going to be calling at this fall as I have seen quite a few coyotes every day I have worked so far.
 
Originally Posted By: jrnm Coyotes kill 365 days a year...the nest was within 1/2 mile of calving cows. As I wrote above the pups were dry and weak. I have whelped dogs before and know they will try to nurse immediately and those that do not within an hour or two usually don't make it. The [beeep] was dry and still had no milk when I looked her over after I realized she was on a nest.

So, sport hunters, don't shoot them. But each one of those dead calves take around $1500 out of someone's pocket. They were not my cows, but it is very obvious where I am going to be calling at this fall as I have seen quite a few coyotes every day I have worked so far.


Sir, I sincerely hope that you didn't think I was implying disrespect.
That was never my intent.
Trust me, growing up on a farm, with cattle & horses (including newborn calves & new colts), I understand why you did what you did.
 
Originally Posted By: sandy hicksI dont miss that old sickle bar cutter or square baler one bit. Made a nickle per bale hauling hay in jr high and high school.

I would've loved a nickel a bale.
'Course, I guess my "pay" was much better...room & board.
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I don't miss that mower. Although, I must say that the old canvas-type New Holland swather that replaced it, wasn't much of an improvement, in my book.
Crimper kept binding up, because those canvases would throw the cut hay in too fast.
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Spent more time under the swather, unplugging that crimper , than time spent actually cutting.
I was never more glad, than when Dad finally replaced it after several years, with a John Deere.

The baler, well I hold no grudges against it. "Throwing" and stacking thousands of square bales as I grew up...sure helped me gain muscle.
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And I didn't mind throwing/stacking the brome bales. It was those heavier alfalfa bales that I didn't like much...between ages 10-16.
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I used to give Dad a bad time, after I left home (even though I would still help out on weekends most of the time). After I got married, and moved out, Dad finally bought a round baler, so he could stack hay with the tractor.
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I'm hunting this time of year in hopes of finding a pup to bring home. Albeit I'd have to get approval from a state agency, I have this notion I could train that pup to be one [beeep] of a decoy dog. What a crazy find.
 
Originally Posted By: jrnm So, sport hunters, don't shoot them. But each one of those dead calves take around $1500 out of someone's pocket.

I am with ya...

I can feel sorry for them but not very… my first memory of a coyote was when I was very young… I remember following my grandpa into the barn… walking by stacked bales of hay and then him pointing a gun thru a hole in the tin... I remember the gun being very loud… we walked out and around the barn and up to my first memory of coyote… it came to close to the house during daylight… probably to kill chickens or something, but it was definitely instilled in me that coyotes are no good… they destroy water melon crops, poultry, pets, calves, fawns and anything else they can get an edge on… people around here still have the same feelings toward coyotes...

I tell you who really hates coyotes and that is my 13 year old daughter... Her cats seem to live just long enough for her to get attached to them, then they go missing... So even the the next generation of these parts show signs of disdain for Ol' Wiley...

I kill as many as I can and have never seen a shortage of them... Around here as soon as you kill an Alpha/residential coyote another moves in to establish its territory...
 
I would love to have found those pups. I have bottle raised pups from day one that never received any colostrum from the mother. It is a pretty cool experience when they are that tiny.
 
I used to leave them alone, till I talked to the head Wild Life Biologist that said our deer herds were down 40% due to coyote depredation on fawns, and getting worse as the coyote population explodes.

Life is sometimes a cruel choice, root hog or die.
 
I shoot any and all when the opportunity presents itself. Nature is cruel and even the parents would tuck tail and run leaving pups for self preservation. I saw it first hand today with a possum. I caught one in a live trap and it had a baby on its back. Due to not having time to shoot em I took them to the outskirts of town and turned then lose. The mom ran towards the river while the baby clung to the inside of the cage. After a few minutes some furious shaking and a stick I finally got the little bastard out of my trap and it went a complete opposite direction of the mom. So if the parents have no qualms about leaving the young I have none either when theY are in my crosshairS
 
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