New to predator hunting NEED HELP ASAP!

SethUsmc0311

New member
I am sorry for the long winded post but i need help ASAP!

So i am very new to coyote hunting. I have been on all types of websites and forums trying to get tips and tricks to help improve the odds. My problem is that my family owns a high fenced exotic hunting ranch in Normangee Texas. We have blackbuck, scimitar oryx, axis, fallow, watusi and red stag. When my dad first bought the property it had 2 100 acre high fenced sections that shared a fence. We would ride the fence line and find digs under the fence. I started making my own snares and had some good success with that. We probably caught 5 or so coyotes with my snares in those digs. So we thought we had a good plan for controlling them. Well we have now not had any digs under the fence but we have animals dropping left and right. So clearly some of them have been living on the property. We also put up these blinking red predator deterrents that are solar powered and since doing that the digs have stopped.

I have walked 70% (the other 30% is not accessible due to the thick thick yaupon) of that property and found tracks and areas that look like dens and put camera out to triangulate where they are staying. I have an issue with where all these areas are. They are deep in the thick yaupon trees where you can’t see 5 feet in front of you. The property has a lot of open field areas and pine groves as well as cedar groves. But there are creek beds that are surrounded by that thick yaupon. So i am not able to set up a stand or anything and i would be within 10-15 yards of any animal that comes through there with zero visibility. So i have been trying to call them into the more open areas that still have some cover for them to feel safer. I have multiple coyotes on camera at different areas of the property. We have also recently taken out the dividing fence that separates the two 100 acre areas. So i am on here seeking advice and tips form y’all to try and formulate a better game plan.

My gear i am using is 6.8SPC AR15 with an ATN X-Sight. As well as a gen3 PVS14. I use the pvs 14 to help spot at night and then can transition to the night scope on the rifle to get a shot.(is spotlighting more effective for spotting them) I have been using a western rivers game stalker. I have been treating all my clothes in dead down wind scent cover as well as using coon urine to cover any scent. I am in a tower blind that overlooks a field and has visibility on the tree line. I have been putting the call in the field (roughly 300 yards long by 200 yards wide) at the base of a tree in the middle of the field. I will blast the call for about 5-10 seconds and then stop. i do that about every 5-10 minutes. I have not had any luck. So me and my dad also went hog hunting on another piece of the property that isn’t high fenced we then took the hog carcass to the field and gutted it and then set up that same night. We are in the stand at about sundown and will sit there until we can’t stay awake any more (around 12-2am). We have still had no luck and no sightings. The closest i came so far was i went out spotlighting for coons and bobcat and fox. I came up to this hilltop shack that i know a fox lives under and shot a fox and right before i shot the fox i heard an animal crying noise that was for sure in distress. It was so foggy and dark i could see anything. I headed back out the next morning at daybreak and found an axis fawn had been killed the whole hind quarters had been eaten. There were tracks all over the area. I put a trial camera aimed at the carcass and nothing else came back. I walked all the draws around there to see if something had crossed over or had a den but no luck.

What am i missing? I am afraid that because they have an endless buffet of animals they are not wanting to be called in. I am open to any and all help y’all can provide. If my gear is wrong or my tactics are wrong or anything at all. We are losing thousands of dollars each time an animal is killed. We are also open to having someone that is experienced come out and hunt them for free as long as they don’t mind me or my dad coming along to try and learn a few things.
 
Learn to trap, snares and footholds work 24/7. Drag a dead ungulate into thick brush and set snares in all the paths in. You need to keep at it. Calling is only so effective, it is easy for coyotes to pattern you also and can become very scares after a few days of calling on such a small piece of property.. You are already experiencing them sticking to the very thickest terrain. Setting up on a killed critter with night vision of some sort and just shooting with no calling.
 
Last edited:

I am sure more experienced callers than myself will chime in with some good advice, but I am thinking that bait hunting could perhaps produce. If you have some means of staying the night, like a small camper or shed to stay in, something with a bunk where you can get some rest, then that potentially could work. You can use battery operated driveway sensors to alert you when something is on the bait. Let trail cameras determine when they are hitting the bait and hunt accordingly.

I have done quite a bit of bait hunting from a storage building on the farm and have taken several coyotes that way. Calling them here is more difficult, but also bait hunting requires effort and work to keep the site baited and checking cameras. The baiting thread is a good place to hang out and learn how people are successfully doing it.
 
So this is the list of animals that have been taken down that are not yearlings.

5 fallow does
2 scimitar oryx
1 blackbuck male
at least 4 axis does.

Then that's on top of the countless yearlings.

On one occasion my grandparents saw the carcass of a axis doe and then the next day the whole carcass was gone. which is out of character for coyotes i thought. Thats more of a cat tendency to drag the kill off to eat later.
 
Originally Posted By: 6mm06
I am sure more experienced callers than myself will chime in with some good advice, but I am thinking that bait hunting could perhaps produce. If you have some means of staying the night, like a small camper or shed to stay in, something with a bunk where you can get some rest, then that potentially could work. You can use battery operated driveway sensors to alert you when something is on the bait. Let trail cameras determine when they are hitting the bait and hunt accordingly.

I have done quite a bit of bait hunting from a storage building on the farm and have taken several coyotes that way. Calling them here is more difficult, but also bait hunting requires effort and work to keep the site baited and checking cameras. The baiting thread is a good place to hang out and learn how people are successfully doing it.


That is a good idea. We have an old shack up on a little hill that overlooks where a few carcass have been found.
 
Originally Posted By: AWSLearn to trap, snares and footholds work 24/7. Drag a dead ungulate into thick brush and set snares in all the paths in. You need to keep at it. Calling is only so effective, it is easy for coyotes to pattern you also and can become very scares after a few days of calling on such a small piece of property.. You are already experiencing them sticking to the very thickest terrain. Setting up on a killed critter with night vision of some sort and just shooting with no calling.

Thanks for the advice. I will start doing some research on trapping.
 
Oryx are pretty big and from what I've read (no personal experience) pretty dang tough. Supposedly they know exactly what those scimitar horns are good for. You sure coyotes are your problem?
 
GC

We have seen the tracks for coyotes that doesn't mean it couldn't be something else that took down those oryx. And yes they are pretty [beeep] tough. We know we have bobcat and grey fox and coyotes. I have done research and can't think of any bobcat that would be big enough to take an oryx down. And i am not sure of any cougars or anything like that around. Now a high fence ranch about 10 miles away did have some caged exotic cats i believe that they had cougar or panther. They had a 8 escape some freaking how (don't ask me why they even had them no idea) but of the 8 6 are confirmed dead the other two are still out there. But we haven't seen any cat tracks big enough to make us think it was something else. We though more likely it was a couple coyotes taking down the oryx. The oryx stay pretty well together most to the time they are very protective of their young. So the best we could figure was the herd took off and a couple coyotes split the herd and isolated one or tow and took one down. we have now put out 6 more cameras in the main areas that the animals hang out in to try and figure out what's going on. But we do have multiple coyotes on camera and we know they are more likely responsible for the smaller animals and axis being killed.
 
Back
Top