How many?

OKRattler

Well-known member
I doubt there will be very many,if anyone that knows the answer to this question but how many predators have you killed since you've started hunting them? Does anyone keep a record of their kills in log book or anything?

I used to keep track of every varmint/predator I shot and so did one of my buddies. When we were kids we started that as sort of a competition to see who could shoot the most birds with out pellet guns. We'll still see who can shoot the most prairie dogs out of a box of 50 bullets or whatever but we don't write down everything we shoot. I used to have a kill log I kept but I haven't in a long time. The last time I remember writing in it I had 23 bobcats if remember right and a ridiculous amount of skunks. Other than that I don't remember.

Basically I can't even answer my own question. There was a time in my life when I killed everything that I could legally kill regardless of what I was hunting for. I'm still a little like that but not really. I can usually get through a day of turkey huntin without shooting a varmint. I say that....I shot a beaver last turkey season...and an armadillo. Alright nevermind....Turkey huntin gets boring what can I say?
 
I really have been trying to think of how many coyotes I've killed in my life. I don't think anyone's gonna be able to put an exact number on theirs either. Hundreds,thousands,tens of thousands....If you've killed ten thousand predators in your lifetime......tell me where you hunt so I never go there. There ain't even crickets chirping on that ground.lol
 
I have killed just 4 since 2009 and they were during the Nebraska rifle season for deer. However, since I plan on actually hunting them just to have more time in the field and feed my addiction to gun powder, I will keep track.
 
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My dad logged all of his. 507 coyotes and 26 bobcats that he actually confirmed dead. Probably a few more than that which were not confirmed. That was in right at 20 years of calling. I have a ways to go to catch up with him.
 
Originally Posted By: JTPinTXMy dad logged all of his. 507 coyotes and 26 bobcats that he actually confirmed dead. Probably a few more than that which were not confirmed. That was in right at 20 years of calling. I have a ways to go to catch up with him.
It's very cool that you have that. He killed a whole passel of them no doubt.
 
I don't know because we didn't take pictures way back when. My brother and I were talking about this yesterday after our hunt on Saturday, just wonder how many coyotes him and me have killed. He has an 8 year old son and he's going to keep a record of everything he kills.

My dad is really good at taking pics or videos of my brother and me hunting but we've killed just too many in the past 20+ years to track.
 
I know of the first coyote I killed and probably if I thought really hard about it I could remember every bobcat I've shot maybe. The first coyote I ever killed came in to a box call while me and my buddy were turkey huntin. Shot it at 35 yards with 3" #4 shot out of my buddies Mossberg 500 20 gauge. I went back some time later and just happened to wonder across the skull. I have the two empties I shot it with too.

I call in or have called just as many coyotes for other people as I have for myself. There's no way I can remember how many coyotes my brother has killed and I've gotten a few of my buddies on their first coyote and then some. It's hard tellin how many I've called in.
 
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No idea. I don't keep a written log.

I do recall the most in a 12 month period was 36 but that # is disputed by my hunting partner; he says 39 due to the different date which we each started counting. I used calender year, he used deer season to deer season. It didn't hurt that this was our first year hunting three large private ranches that had very little pressure on coyotes. Didn't take long for those annual numbers to diminish, though.

I would guess that the average/year (starting w/year 2) when I was hunting regularly was 15-16.

Unfortunately, no trouble remembering the score for last year. Only got out 4 times; I shot two, my partner & son shot 1 ea. I missed one, partner missed 2 & son missed 1. Obviously we all need more practice.
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Population is certainly up; hope to get back for a few more hunts this coming year to remedy that.

Regards,
hm
 
I started keeping a log just 4 seasons ago. As much to keep track of where I hunted, with whom I hunted, what the conditions were and what sounds the coyotes liked on that day. Also been keeping track of male/female numbers and how many with mange, etc.
I wish I would've started keeping these logs many years ago because I already am finding myself looking back through them to see what was going on during the same time period in the years past.

Three of the last four years I killed over 90. Not going to do that this year unless I pick up the pace.
 
Originally Posted By: OKRattlerOriginally Posted By: JTPinTXMy dad logged all of his. 507 coyotes and 26 bobcats that he actually confirmed dead. Probably a few more than that which were not confirmed. That was in right at 20 years of calling. I have a ways to go to catch up with him.
It's very cool that you have that. He killed a whole passel of them no doubt.

I like reading back through his log, seeing what places he killed them on, sounds he used, dates and conditions, things like that. How he went back and was able to kill coyotes that had gotten away from him by using different tactics. It is a very good learning tool for me, effectively increasing my experience. I say that because I know the places he is talking about, and being able to see the sets with my own eyes, both good and bad ones, opens my eyes to things that otherwise would have taken me many more years to figure out. It helps me to try things that otherwise I might not have, steepening my learning curve.

I keep a log of my own now ever since his death and me really getting back into predator calling again. Maybe, someday, one or all of my kids might enjoy reading mine the way I enjoy reading my fathers.

Besides the actual coyote information involved I like reading those logs just because they were dads. We were very close, my father and I. Reading them helps me remember him and not forget his ways and mannerisms. He never called contests and like me did most of his calling alone. I would go with him some, he had some other guys he would take some too. I am the same way. I take my kids (2 grown boys, and a 10 year old daughter) when I can and when schedules line up. I have a couple friends that go every now and then as well. But most times it is just me. It keeps me close to the memory of my father, walking the same properties he did, calling the same way he did. It really isn't about numbers and keeping score (it wasn't for him, and isn't for me). It is about recording the memories and helping not to forget. If there is a competition then it is either within, or against the coyotes themselves.
 
Since 1985 me, my son and some friends have killed 1204 coyotes. So we have averaged 37.6 coyotes per year for 32 years.

I started counting these coyotes when I started trapping and calling coyotes in 1985. I only trapped coyotes for about 8 years.

I have always counted the total coyotes that we took each day so I would guess that my son and friends have taken about 200 of those coyotes. I do hunt by myself way more often than I hunt with someone.

I always write down the date and the number of coyotes taken with a rifle and a shotgun and I write down who was with me. It is pretty cool to look back through some of my note books, it really brings back some great memories.

Around here the coyote population is always going up or down so my yearly totals are not very consistent. One year I went from 104 coyotes taken to 16 coyotes the following year. If we don't get rainfall in the spring our wildlife population really goes down fast when there is no grass or ground cover. From what I have seen the coyotes don't have any pups during the second, third or fourth year of drought conditions. If they do have pups they must eat them because I never see any of them.


I probabley killed 15 to 20 coyotes before I started keeping track of the numbers of coyotes.
 
I have never kept a log, however recently Jeff and I send each other coyote emojis for each of our kills. I went back and counted those from Jan 1, 2017 - Jan 1, 2018. For 2017 I shot and recovered 68 coyotes. Not a lot by some standards...
 
All I can tell you for sure is the years that I've had a woman from November until the end of February my number of kills weren't as consistent with the years that I didn't. That's my own fault.
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Over the past three years I've caught over 500 pounds of snakes. That's just rattlesnakes that I kept. I don't keep any harmless snakes or little rattlesnakes. They're a predator so I guess that's got to count for something.
 
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Originally Posted By: Infidel 762I have never kept a log, however recently Jeff and I send each other coyote emojis for each of our kills. I went back and counted those from Jan 1, 2017 - Jan 1, 2018. For 2017 I shot and recovered 68 coyotes. Not a lot by some standards...

I knew you were doing good Jeremy, I didn't know you did that good. Dad had a 6-8 year streak late 90's/early 2000's where he was killing 40-50 a year. The last few years of his life he didn't kill but 8-10 a year. The last few years with everything I have going on I am killing 15-20 a year. Gonna try and work on that number this year though.
 
Originally Posted By: JTPinTXOriginally Posted By: OKRattlerOriginally Posted By: JTPinTXMy dad logged all of his. 507 coyotes and 26 bobcats that he actually confirmed dead. Probably a few more than that which were not confirmed. That was in right at 20 years of calling. I have a ways to go to catch up with him.
It's very cool that you have that. He killed a whole passel of them no doubt.

I like reading back through his log, seeing what places he killed them on, sounds he used, dates and conditions, things like that. How he went back and was able to kill coyotes that had gotten away from him by using different tactics. It is a very good learning tool for me, effectively increasing my experience. I say that because I know the places he is talking about, and being able to see the sets with my own eyes, both good and bad ones, opens my eyes to things that otherwise would have taken me many more years to figure out. It helps me to try things that otherwise I might not have, steepening my learning curve.

I keep a log of my own now ever since his death and me really getting back into predator calling again. Maybe, someday, one or all of my kids might enjoy reading mine the way I enjoy reading my fathers.

Besides the actual coyote information involved I like reading those logs just because they were dads. We were very close, my father and I. Reading them helps me remember him and not forget his ways and mannerisms. He never called contests and like me did most of his calling alone. I would go with him some, he had some other guys he would take some too. I am the same way. I take my kids (2 grown boys, and a 10 year old daughter) when I can and when schedules line up. I have a couple friends that go every now and then as well. But most times it is just me. It keeps me close to the memory of my father, walking the same properties he did, calling the same way he did. It really isn't about numbers and keeping score (it wasn't for him, and isn't for me). It is about recording the memories and helping not to forget. If there is a competition then it is either within, or against the coyotes themselves.
I'm sorry for your loss sir. It's so awesome that you get to hunt the same stands,the same way he once did. Being able to keep his memory alive through his notes and the land he hunted on is incredible. I'm sure he wouldn't have it any other way. From the sounds of it he was quite the predator hunter.
 
After I started hunting with calls in Dec. '95, I started keeping a log book. (Prior to that, I had been hunting a different way, with my dad. And we never kept track.)

In the log, I kept track of the number of coyotes called; coyotes taken; the property locations; the date; the time of day; the various weather info I could; also any other animal sightings, from upland birds to deer. (I was still hunting rabbits/squirrels/pheasant/deer back then.)

That log has long since been sent to the dust bin of history.

But, there are a few things that I still recall, simply because of their importance to me.

Between Dec.'95 and mid-Feb. '96, I recall that I took 6 or 7 coyotes. It was enough to convince me to continue to learn how to use mouth calls.

From Fall '96--late Winter '04, I recall only being able to hunt on Saturdays. (Wife I had at the time, insisted that Sundays were to be spent with her, and at church.)
I don't recall exact numbers, but between '99 and '04, I believe I averaged around 30-32 coyotes per "season".

Then, after getting divorced in Summer '04, the Fall/Winter '04-'05, I know I took 47 coyotes. That has always stayed with me, due to the odd number.

Between Nov. 1, '05 and Mar. 1, '06...Thanks to having a night job where I worked 3 nights on/3 nights off, 4 nights on/4 nights off, and no one to tell me to stay home during the days...I hunted 100 of 120 days.
(Yes, some of those days were only half days.)
I hunted not only local properties that i had permission for, but also Kansas' WIHA tracts throughout 14 counties in northern Kansas.
I don't recall how many stands I made, or how many total number of coyotes I called. But, I do know that I took 108 coyotes.
That was the only "season" that I had ever hunted more than 35 days. And the only time I took more than 100 coyotes.

Between the Fall of '06 and the Spring of '08, I know that I took a single bobcat (the only one I ever took)...and averaged around 35 coyotes per "season".

October 12 '08 thru January 26, '09...I Know I took a total of 49 coyotes. I recall, because I had hoped to break 50 again. But, due to my truck breaking down, and never being able to get back out, I didn't.

I don't recall any numbers for 2009 thru 2011. But I know I took a few, although I hunted much less, as my health was starting to go downhill.

Between 2012-present, due to my health (and lack of funds to "play" most of the time), I have probably only hunted around 30 days.
And, most of those were during the Fall of 2013.
While I have called in coyotes at times, these last few years, I don't know how many. And, I have probably only taken, myself, maybe 5 or 6.
Most of those called in during these last few years, I have called for others. Or called for myself, but missed the shots.


And, no, I don't have any photos. Back when I was hunting, I didn't own a camera.

So.....Estimated number of coyotes taken since '95 = 475-ish. And 1 bobcat.
 
Originally Posted By: JTPinTXVery interesting Will. Thanks for sharing that.


Glad you thought so.
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The ol' memory ain't what it once was. But, I don't know, some things just seem to stay with me if I have found them important enough.
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When I think about those years past, and then think about the health issues that are keeping me from getting out there now (many of them caused or exacerbated by my weight)...it's almost depressing.

Thankfully, I can keep my hand in, by making calls...and living vicariously through all of you guys.
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