Baiting

Originally Posted By: Uncle MikeOriginally Posted By: Mainah22-250Mike, our Maineiac outdoors buddy josh took a 63 pounder either last season or the season before. I call him Dogzilla, things huge, he's got a picture of it up on his Facebook. Things bigger than him.
I remember that one from a few years ago. I saw the picture on mainehunters.com. A BEAST for sure! That one wasnt living off of field mice and grasshoppers.
Was that the one shot in VT?
 

Scalloper, I have been anxious to hear how the hunting has been for you this winter. I know you were all prepared to hunt from the cabins and had high hopes. Sometimes it seems things just don't go as expected for some unknown reason, and I know you have put in the long hours and hard work to make it productive.

Just curious what you might attribute to the low success rate this year?

DoubleUp and I both had hopes of putting a few more on the ground. He and I both have one each to our credit. Last year he took 17 if I am correct. I was getting quite a bit of trail camera activity throughout the summer, but in winter the activity just seemed to have dried up. I would have thought winter activity would be better since I have kept the bait site active all year long.

Look on the bright side, you have taken three more coyotes than I have this winter. LOL.

 
Originally Posted By: 6mm06
Scalloper, I have been anxious to hear how the hunting has been for you this winter. I know you were all prepared to hunt from the cabins and had high hopes. Sometimes it seems things just don't go as expected for some unknown reason, and I know you have put in the long hours and hard work to make it productive.

Just curious what you might attribute to the low success rate this year?

DoubleUp and I both had hopes of putting a few more on the ground. He and I both have one each to our credit. Last year he took 17 if I am correct. I was getting quite a bit of trail camera activity throughout the summer, but in winter the activity just seemed to have dried up. I would have thought winter activity would be better since I have kept the bait site active all year long.

Look on the bright side, you have taken three more coyotes than I have this winter. LOL.


Its far easier to hunt from my own bed then in a cabin/blind on cold nights LOL. But that does sum it up. I would check the camera and baits then wait them out. I would get photos all times of the day and night so it was just a waiting game. At times they were very bold coming across large blueberry feilds during the day and other times they would come in to 1-200 yds and bark,yip and carry on but would not come to the bait. They knew I was there. They never sease to amaze me.
 

Yep. They are amazing. I've never heard anyone say a coyote is stupid!

Amen to hunting from a cabin on cold nights. It is indeed easier said than done.
 
Originally Posted By: ScalloperOriginally Posted By: pmackOne of three that I have seen. My son shot this last year. A NY contest had one this year at 53, took the big dog bounty.

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I must say thats one of the largest I have seen. Great job. Many 50-70 lb coyotes are being held by 1 hand LOL. Man thats a beautie

Thanks Scalloper, story is kinda of neat. I was watching a lane in an orchard and my son was on the down wind side watching an open field. They came across field and after he shot I heard it crash going through the orchard. We looked but couldn't find any blood or anything, ground was frozen and no snow. I sent him and my other son back next morning and they were going nuts when they found it. I couldn't believe the size when I got home from work. The trapper who I give my furs (not this one) skinned it and said it was the largest nicest furred up coyote he had ever seen is 30 years of trapping.


Here's a thread on big coyotes. On page 4 is an article about an 81 pound coyote. It was shot in 1995 within 3 miles of my house.

http://www.predatormastersforums.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=273771&page=4

 
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Originally Posted By: ScalloperOriginally Posted By: Uncle MikeOriginally Posted By: Mainah22-250Mike, our Maineiac outdoors buddy josh took a 63 pounder either last season or the season before. I call him Dogzilla, things huge, he's got a picture of it up on his Facebook. Things bigger than him.
I remember that one from a few years ago. I saw the picture on mainehunters.com. A BEAST for sure! That one wasnt living off of field mice and grasshoppers.
Was that the one shot in VT?
No, I heard that that one may have bee a hoax. This one was shot in Biddeford by a guy from Kennebunk.
 
not even a coyote track in the area for over 2 weeks.Had one big bobcat in lastnight and the night before.A smaller cat was in as well.Cats up the ying yang but nothing else.Last year had coyotes like crazy and killed 5,plus 2 fox.I guess killing a bunch thins down the population,wich I guess is the whole point of what we do.Predator control.I killed 11 coyotes between trapping and shooting in one small area.I got permission from a friend to use his remote cabin next winter.Nice setup and I cant wait.
 

J.Mark, that remote cabin sounds very nice. Hopefully you will have a great season next winter.

The night of the 14th, I had quite a bit of activity at the bait site.

A bobcat showed up at 9:16 PM. It lingered until just before 3:00 AM. It ate some of the calf, and also carried off a dead rooster I placed there earlier that day. Bobcat season is out here, so it's just fun to watch it.

I got some really good video of this cat and will upload it to YouTube later, then post it.

Just before 1:00 AM, a coyote showed up. He was nervous, smelled around a lot, but didn't touch the bait. Hopefully he will be back.

A skunk and possum also showed up, so it seems a lot of critters were out and about.

The trail camera I have mounted low to the ground on a stake and up close to the bait is really paying off for some great footage. Seems that everything is curious about the camera and comes up to it to take a better look.

Here are some photos extracted from trail camera videos.

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Well after alot of hard work and many hours I belive I got one of the main deer killers working the deer yard. I hunted the baitpile I have in the deer yarding area yesterday for 6 hrs and produced this nice male (35.1 lbs). There was also a female there too. She came in 1 time after I droped the male, but stayed back for 1 hr barking, houling and carring on.
My son is 6'2". I realy thought this coyote was over 40 lbs but it was not.

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I have found that the first time a coyote trips the camera it spooks him pretty good. However on a bait,they get use to it, but this can take quite a while.I put a bushnel on vidio on a trail going to a bait several years ago.The first grey fox to come spooked away the first day.The next time they were very spooked by the infared but soon didnt care although they always looked.The first coyote tore out of there the second the IR came on and never came back.For this reason I havn't been useing my cameras were im hunting.I have had wolves take 9-12 days to get use to the camera before daring to hit a bait.I have lots of wolf pictures and vidios including one picture with 8 wolves in it.
 
J.Mark
I compleatly agree. I see the same thing using cameras on my bear stands and deer stands. It may not bother them all but it bothers most even when I put the cameras up as high as I can reach they spook.
 
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Most of the coyotes I have monitored seem to be more afraid of something up high than they do something lower to the ground. The coyotes always notice the cameras and IR lights, but when they are in a tree or high, they seem to not like it. One coyote came up to a trail camera I had mounted about a foot off the ground, put his nose and eye to it, and then turned my sensor sideways that was mounted directly above the camera.

As well, I have found coyotes to be very much individuals in that some don't seem to mind the lights or camera, while others are nervous over them.
 
I have had similar responses with coyotes and cameras, seems all of them look at the IR light.

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no IR light in the daytime though, I was home waiting for a package for work this morning and my wife looked out and saw one standing where the bait had been. We had been away for the weekend and all the guns were in the safe. Before I could get one out, the coyote was moving away and dropped down behind the pond dam. Just a few seconds it came busting back over like it's rear was on fire and checked out, no chance for a good shot. It was doing the high speed zig zag and I would have been shooting the way it went. I figured maybe it saw me, heard me open the door, wasn't sure but figured I wouldn't be seeing that one anytime soon again. In about 30 minutes, the alarm sounded and my wife I and both figured buzzards but there she was, 9:40 (camera is off an hour cause of daylight savings time).

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This time the .243 was out and loaded and I eased the door open when my wife signaled she was looking the other way. By the time I got the gun out and up she was walking away but the 80gr soft point found a spot right behind the front leg and unfortunaely the opposite shoulder as well. Tennis ball exit. It flattened the coyote but I was totally caught off guard when it got back to it's feet and started off with no heart or lungs period. I sent another round down range but missed. She had only gone about 10 yds over the hill and piled up. Weighed her at 27 lbs, another one bites the dust. The cheapo drive way alarm got another one, we weren't even expecting to see this one back for a while, if it was the same one from a half hour earlier. 100 yd shot.

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Weekender,

Nice going on the coyote. They can be tough sometimes.

Are you referring to the Driveway Patrol sensor as the one you used?
 
The sensor is one I borrowed from my wife, that she was actually using on the driveway. I still haven't ordered one for the bait pile but need to so I can return hers. Looks very similar to yours but not exactly the same.
 
Bait site has been quite active for the past few days, both during daylight hours and after dark. Regular appearances by fox, bobcat and at least a couple different coyotes. Despite all I have taken this winter, heard a chorus the other night that sounded like at least a half dozen in the surrounding hills. Was just about to post some “before” videos of live appearances, but last night got some more action.

Not sure if it qualifies as a double, but had two on the ground before the sun came up. First one came in around 10:30 for a couple dash and grabs, no shot offerings so he got a pass. Came back again an hour later, not so lucky this time. Wasn’t totally sure of the hit at the time, so decided to wait for morning before going out for a look. My Chamberlain went off again at 5 am, raced to the scope, and was surprised to see another yote coming in for a meal. Here’s the aftermath:

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Amazing how tough these animals are. Both hits were with .223 55 gr V-Max, right in the boiler room, yet each one managed to get up one time and hobble a (very short) distance. Also surprised to see the second one practically stepped over the dead body of the first (one the way in). Not nearly the quality of the video that 6-06 has done, but here’s a clip of the second shot…


 
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