Killing Well Educated Coyotes

Flesh Eater

Flesh Eater

New member
I'm at my wits end with my local pack. I've tried just about everything. Hunting open fields at night, setting up in the woods at day break, at last light, everything, from many different angles.

Yesterday I was on the phone with a landowner acquiring permission for a new parcel to hunt groundhogs and fox when I heard faint yipping coming from behind the house. So, I packed up my gear and headed out, thinking they were a little more southeast than normal. Well, I guessed wrong. I set up further southeast than I normally would with a NNW wind. Started the set non-aggressively with three female howls, with about 8-10 second rest between. Less than 100 yards west of me, upwind, the pups started howling like crazy. Thinking pup distress might bring one of them in, I played pup screams. Then mom challenged/threat howled, so I returned the response. That was the last I heard.

Had I set up where I normally would have, I would've been right on top of them. Would that have done any good? Who knows.

I've called to these coyotes maybe six or eight times over the past year or so, but a lot of other callers have been hitting my one spot as well. I've also inadvertently called them in while targeting fox and coon. Usually on those nights they come to the wood line and howl, which at least let me know no fox were in the area.

Anyways, my only other thought is to keep an ear out for them, or sneak in on suspected den sites and call very quietly with a wood mouse or some other rodent distress (maybe grey squirrel or groundhog), and see if that brings them in. I'm not chasing these coyotes again until October/November, though. Maybe January will bring better luck with vocals.

Thoughts?
 
One thing that's always worked for me was shutting up after they responded, which I believe makes them curious and doesn't give them enough information about you for them to get spooked. Starting with the howls is a smart play but after they respond, or even if they don't respond, pause it for a good 5-10 minutes and just watch. You might be surprised what happens. They can pinpoint where that sound came from to within a few feet.

Think about it, the more sounds you continually throw at them the more they can sit back and pick apart those sounds. You caught their attention with the howls, let them do the work to come see what it was. My whole area is pretty pressured and most of the time less calling works better and i'll shoot them within the first 5 minutes after playing that initial howl then sitting there in silence.
 
you're absolutely right on the silence, but the way they're beating me is to circle me wide and completely and eventually come to my track walking in or just get my wind. the answer is a drone
don
 
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I've tried stretches of silence up to almost 20 minutes, then put out another sound, and they'll respond from the exact same location. I've even moved on them, and nothing. Heck, I've even gone out and sat in a field for over an hour after the farmer has cut fresh hay, and nothing. Ha-ha!

What Don said is precisely what concerns me in these thick woods where sight is limited to 20 yards or less. It's too easy for them to wind me, so I try pissing them off to the point of throwing caution to the wind. It hasn't worked, though.

Yesterday our wind was .5-1 mph, so almost non-existent. I did manage to call in a giant owl with quiet rabbit distress. After that I packed it up and left. I've been hellbent on killing one of these coyotes near my house, but I'm going to give them a long break, and go chase coyotes elsewhere. This winter I discovered every single parcel of land I hunt has coyotes, due to the tracks. It's just a matter of right place, right time in the winter months.



 
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the one thing that works is a well placed road killed deer. it's got to be legal where you are and the land owner has to be on board. it must be 150 yds from your shooting position, and you must be able to approach your stand without being seen from the bait. the idea is to hold them in the area and give them something else to think about and to protect. even smart coyotes make mistakes and you just gotta be there when they do. PERSISTENCE!!!!!!
 
Originally Posted By: donlynchthe one thing that works is a well placed road killed deer. it's got to be legal where you are and the land owner has to be on board. it must be 150 yds from your shooting position, and you must be able to approach your stand without being seen from the bait. the idea is to hold them in the area and give them something else to think about and to protect. even smart coyotes make mistakes and you just gotta be there when they do. PERSISTENCE!!!!!!

Nope. Won't work. Been there, done that. My deer I killed last deer season laid out behind the house for a month or two. The only tracks there were deer tracks, and it wasn't until late in the season that my rottweiler went out there and ate all the frozen deer meat.

Even the groundhogs I've been shooting in farmer's fields are just laying, untouched. The hawks, crows, and turkey vultures are the only thing eating them. Directly around my house the red and grey fox will take the groundhogs within the first 6 hours. Coyotes won't touch bait. A lot of the dog runners used to leave bait piles out, then the dogs would pick up their tracks off that. Ever since then I haven't seen a coyote touch a dead animal. I've even set cameras up over bait. Nothing but fox, coon, and opossums.
 
well you sure can't argue with experience, you've certainly tried. there must be a soup kitchen for coyotes hidden in the woods near you
 
Originally Posted By: donlynchwell you sure can't argue with experience, you've certainly tried. there must be a soup kitchen for coyotes hidden in the woods near you

Our woods are littered, literally, with wood mice, chipmunks, squirrels, groundhogs, turkeys, fawns, and rabbits. Rabbits EVERYWHERE. The coyotes here don't seem to bother with the following: fawns, deer, chickens, ducks, cows/calfs, sheep, or goats. I haven't had a single farmer complain about coyotes. In fact, most tell me they don't care if I kill them or not, but for the love of god kill the groundhogs and coons! Ha-ha!

Fox on the other hand wreak havoc on chickens and ducks.
 
Originally Posted By: Flesh EaterOriginally Posted By: donlynchwell you sure can't argue with experience, you've certainly tried. there must be a soup kitchen for coyotes hidden in the woods near you

Our woods are littered, literally, with wood mice, chipmunks, squirrels, groundhogs, turkeys, fawns, and rabbits. Rabbits EVERYWHERE. The coyotes here don't seem to bother with the following: fawns, deer, chickens, ducks, cows/calfs, sheep, or goats. I haven't had a single farmer complain about coyotes. In fact, most tell me they don't care if I kill them or not, but for the love of god kill the groundhogs and coons! Ha-ha!

Fox on the other hand wreak havoc on chickens and ducks.

Then don't even bother with prey distress, it's never worked for me on a coyote except once and we set right ontop of him and he died at 10 yards 20 seconds into lightning jack.
 
Best thing to do in my opinion, is not marry yourself to that pack. I don’t care what tactic and sounds one comes up with, once coyotes know that they’re being hunted, the gig is up. You called to them 6-8 times in the last year and mentioned others call to the same pack. That’s way to much pressure for one area. Any call that they hear is automatically arousing suspicion.
 
As I have said before, if it were easy everyone would be doing it ! If I kept track of the hours I have spent pursuing Wiley and not seen or heard anything, I should have quit many years ago ! IT IS STILL NOT EASY

I would guess about 2% of the coyote hunters kill about 80% of the coyotes. They do it in the outdoors, not from the couch, lol !
 
Originally Posted By: swampwalkerBest thing to do in my opinion, is not marry yourself to that pack. I don’t care what tactic and sounds one comes up with, once coyotes know that they’re being hunted, the gig is up. You called to them 6-8 times in the last year and mentioned others call to the same pack. That’s way to much pressure for one area. Any call that they hear is automatically arousing suspicion.







That's basically what I've deduced. The minute they hear any sound they're on high alert and looking for the wind. This past Saturday when I went out locating, I found a pack that was on a highly pressured farm during the winter from dog running, and trapping, but not calling, and their response to the FoxPro was far unlike any response the pack around my house has ever given me. They didn't yip and howl, they were screaming back at Group Yip Howl, which tells me they haven't heard that sound a million times. They reacted as if another pack was infiltrating their territory.

[beeep], I remember a time during the winter when I was calling for fox near my local pack's territory (I've called many fox in there) and I heard Group Yip Howl playing, then I heard it directly behind me, and there was a truck on the road, just letting it scream from the passenger window about 1,000 yards away. The coyotes had already been howling from Platinum Grey Fox, but they didn't respond to the truck.

Other than sitting and waiting, or trapping, I'm not sure how else to bag on the coyotes around me. I know where they're coming into the farmer's field near me, though. They've got tracks beat down under his electric fence. I'm sure if I spent countless hours just sitting out there I could drop one. I mean, the farmer was raking hay one day, spotted a coyote, and stopped and took a few pictures of it with his cell phone. It didn't run or anything, just kept mousing.
 
Quote: I know where they're coming into the farmer's field near me, though. They've got tracks beat down under his electric fence.

Snares
 
Originally Posted By: reloader326I’d definitely set a trail camera at that fence crossing and find out what time they are crossing.

That's a good idea, and for some reason I never considered it. Probably because so many people are allowed to hunt that field.
 
Originally Posted By: reloader326Yeah, I'd give that a shot, let us know what you find out.
Have you ever gotten a pictures of the coyotes behind your house?

The only picture directly behind my house was when they came into the backyard last year around 4pm. My wife snapped a photo with her cell phone through the screen before I took a rushed shot at them.

They have about 1,000 acres to travel year round. 300 of those acres were timbered and are so thick it's impassable, like coyote, deer, and fox heaven. The rest of the acres have creeks and are mostly vacant with two 90 acre open fields on the northern end.
 
Why do these coyotes only have 1,000 acres to travel? Typical coyote home ranges may have from 5 - 25 square MILES. If food and the other necessary requirements are readily available the home ranges will be smaller, if food, water, cover, ect. is limited larger home ranges are required. Even a small home range is many times larger than the 1,000 acres you mentioned.
 
Originally Posted By: GCWhy do these coyotes only have 1,000 acres to travel? Typical coyote home ranges may have from 5 - 25 square MILES. If food and the other necessary requirements are readily available the home ranges will be smaller, if food, water, cover, ect. is limited larger home ranges are required. Even a small home range is many times larger than the 1,000 acres you mentioned.

They have far more areas to travel, but then it becomes a question of why would they? From January/February until roughly November, they're in these 1,000 acres, and I would put money on them almost never leaving. They have an over abundance of water,food, and shelter, with almost no human contact. It doesn't mean they don't do it, but when given risk assessment, why would they?

So, these coyotes are living the life in their current location. Once rifle deer season comes in, that's when I notice I don't hear them, nor can I find tracks. However, like I said, there's 300 acres in their territory that's impassable to humans due to the condition of the land. There are tree tops piled everywhere, and thick jagger bushes grown up everywhere. I've ventured into there in the winter and came across coyote tracks, but I can't get very far, and it usually takes an hour to travel 100 yards or less, with climbing and crawling, and re-navigating paths.

So, it's not that they can't go any further, I just don't think they have to. Until, like I said, rifle deer season when the Pittsburgh guys come up to their properties and start tromping around, hunting deer. That's the only time of year they have human contact on the majority of that land. Each of us in the area owns plots of land from 20-90-300 acres, and there are only 3 homes close to the proximity of these coyotes. Most of the homes in my area all sit closer to the road, and there are large parcels unoccupied the majority of the year.

Also, the archery hunters in my area run cameras everywhere year round. They have thousands, upon thousands of pictures of these coyotes in the exact same location. Over, and over again.

EDIT: I know to the guys out west 1,000 acres is nothing. But here, it's a lot, and especially if it's unoccupied. Our large game land near me is 9,500 acres, and even it's broken all up with homes, private parcels, and state/township roads. If our land here isn't agricultural, it's towns or residential neighborhoods.
 
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