Baiting


That was an exceptional night, Spot. Week, you seem to have them lining up for you.

I stayed at the shack the last two nights. Night before last I turned the security camera monitor on to just take a look, and a coyote was crossing the field beyond the bait, maybe 120 yards out. I couldn’t get ready for a shot before it was gone. It didnt come to the bait. I suspect it is the female that got away when I got that blonde male recently. Looks like we have a solid week of rain in the forecast, so hard to say when I will be able to hunt again. I will end it up in late March, so don’t have much longer to hunt.



 
Weekender- Need to send that one an offer
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Spotstalkshoot- Sounds like a great night. Did you put bait out for them or are they just attracted to the farmstead critters? Sounds like a good deed and a public service.
 
Number 5 just hit the ground. Chickens wondered down the closer bait station and he came in from the Left and started sneaking around the hens. Obviously a transient male because he looked shocked when he stumbled on the bait pile, did a quick loop and came back at it with a sneaky approach under a low hanging limb. Picked him out with the day scope and put one 22 caliber 40gr Vmax in boiler room. He stubled about 10 yards mortally wounded before crumpling in the open.

Large blockhead male. The weim chewed on him a little for good measure.

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Keep it up guys.

No way for me to run a bait sight, but I appreciate the posts of efforts and successes, along with the trials & tribulations.
 
I could run a site but don’t want woken in the middle if the night. Tehe and for sure it would not go over well with Suz!! Anyhow, keep em coming as Alf said.
 

Alf, sorry to hear you can’t run a bait site, but glad to have you tune in. This forum has been going strong for quite a while. Lots of good guys here and never a word of anger or dispute. We enjoy sharing methods and tactics as well as successes.

Jmeddy, glad to have you aboard too. You definitely get awakened all hours of the night when bait hunting, and more often than not it’s by something other than a coyote. Possums, skunks, raccoons and fox have been my main visitors.
 
Like a few others here, I'm able to shoot over my bait site from my home. I can't say that my wife is always happy about it, but she didn't like the coyotes killing the Canada geese that she practically hand raised. That was 12 years ago when I declared war on them here and set up my bait pile. Since I began, baiting I've killed 158 here behind my home. Some were called but most were baited. I average out to about 14/15 per year on the bait. I'm way behind this year with only 5 out of this field. I keep the bait site going all year using mostly fried chicken scraps from a local restaurant, and the occasional roadkill deer. Most of my time is spent calling now since we have many thousands of acres that farmers and hunting clubs beg us to call.

When I first started baiting, I had fractured my back and couldn't do much. In fact, my wife would have to help me load them up to carry away, and she would even wake me up when the alarm went off since her hearing is better than mine. That got old for her pretty quickly. So, the usual routine here is that coyotes show up around 3 or 4 in the morning when they first start coming. I just keep trail cams on the bait site and check the cards about every day.

I've learned that almost without fail, the coyotes will come back earlier and earlier during the night. Now when I go to bed I just turn the alarms off. I also have a Tactacam Reveal set up that sends me a picture when an animal visits, but I have it set for 7 P.M to 11:59 P.M. I don't want my phone going off during the night. Now I generally get a shot at them between 10 P.M. and 12:00 A.M. Shooting suppressed, my wife seldom hears the rifle go off, so it all works out pretty well.
 
LOL Thanks guys! Everyone around here is used to the routine. When the gun gets shoved out the door, the dogs self kennel. I walk over and give the wife a shake, say coyote and she covers her ears...really need to look at getting a supressor for the gun. The wife doesn't need it (joke). I have a very understanding spouse.

@weekender Thanks for the compliment on the pup. He's a tracking fool. Really good nose and more than game. I think he's developed a preference for the more lively ones but they all get a fair shake. Fur and feathers!

ETA- He's not hard on the birds. Just meant he's developed into a dual purpose pup.
 
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I don’t have the opportunity to shoot from my house due to neighbors close by in the community. My farm is one mile by road from my house to the farm gate, so it’s not a problem to go down there often. I used to go almost daily to pull SD cards from two cameras I operate at the bait site. Now I rely on a cell camera (Tactacam Reveal) and don’t have to go every day. I still operate the other two cameras set to video.

My bait site has been a learning experience and work in progress since 2011. Members here have contributed to my education in bits and pieces as well as my own ideas. I have it just about perfected now. It has been a lot of enjoyment with experimentation over the years, and it’s rewarding to see it all come together with finding success. The biggest issue I have is a lower number of coyotes than many on here have. I can’t kill what I can’t see. Nonetheless, the joy of hunting from the shack has been going strong for 11 seasons now.
 
I honestly don't know when I started baitng, at least 15 yrs ago. It has been an adventure and a rabbit hole for sure. When I started, it was a full moon, snow, and a pair of binoculars. Over the years, we started the motion sensors, digital NV, an additional bait site, onto thermal, then live feed camera, not to mention all the trail cams...on and on. My best season ever in those years was 19 coyotes.

I shoot off a bench on my front porch. Both of my kids would participate in the action, and have since grown up and gone. That in itself, takes just a little steam out of it for me, but, I still go strong. They were always a big help with the roadkill deer, always easier with a couple guys for lifting and transport.

I will admit, my sensors get turned off from time to time, when I get snuggly cozy in bed some nights. The wife could care less about the beepers and the gun shots, does not even hear them anymore in the middle of the night. In fact, most evenings prior to bed time, she is the one yelling "beeper" when the sensors go off. It's all a great time and a way to hunt 24/7 when you can't get out calling.

Now, I have aspirations of some kind of mobile baiting unit. This has been discussed here at some length, but, just another bit deeper down the rabbit hole. This year has basically been a bust. I think I only have 3 or 4 on the board for this season and an antler hole in my boot. LOL.

Stay after em guys and keep the ideas flowing!!

bait

ETA: Just added an AGM Taipan TM19-384 scanner to the arsenal.
 
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I'm not sure if this one counts as baiting. I have some old bait in the area, and I shot it while it was trotting towards my chicken/duck pen.

This is number 6 for me in 2023.

 
Nice shot Coyote Thumper. Good to see the locals getting thinned out
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I'd consider a coyote checking the hen house as a baiting coyote. Chickens bring everything in for a closer look. 2 of my 5 (2023) coyotes have been after the free ranging hens. No video on either of those as I'm in a hurry to putting a stop to the predation.

The bait sites give the coyotes something else to work over and the chickens aren't always tripping the motion alarms when they're 85 and 160 yards out.
 

Thumper, I thought I detected some heavy breathing there. LOL. Just kidding. We all do it. I even talk to myself sometimes.

Bait, I really enjoyed hearing about your baiting experiences. Those years with the young’ens helping are priceless and something you won’t ever forget. Sounds like you too have run the gauntlet with experiments.

I remember discussing the mobile hunting shack. That is still on my to-do list.
 
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