Baiting

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this one came in following a 8 pt buck I rattled in. 80.5 yards with Savage 220 3' fusion sabot.
 
That’s very good shooting with the sabot. Are you shooting a 12 or 20 ga? Apparently it is pretty accurate to make a good shot at that distance.
 
I was lucky, purchased almost 4 cases of the ammo for 35$/ case(before the Chinese and dems released a disease to alter a presidential election). A friend and his nephew and I all shoot them.
 
I see the debate on the "Hunting in the East" Forum being consolidated back into the "Predator Hunting" Forum. I have no dogs in that fight, but will say, that I didn't frequent that forum much. Having the eastern folks posting in the Predator Hunting forum, I may catch their posts, and, I do enjoy reading about hunting across the U.S. and abroad for that matter. Lots of Eastern baiters here, and I love the posts on different tactics, regs, and operations out east.
I say all this, because, I see the "Baiting" Forum was also moved back to just a thread in the Predator Hunting forum. This means that enough new topic posts, and the Baiting thread will be on page 3,4, or 10. Having to go looking for the thread to post is a bit aggravating. Just looking for thoughts from the baiters here. I'm pretty good at adapting to change, and do really enjoy the new format and it's ease of navigation and photo posting, but, I think the Baiting thread should have at least remained a Forum.
Thoughts?
 
I am reminded of the 4th response to Cougar Jim's request for a baiting forum way back 13 years ago in 2010. Here is the quote: "Jim, welcome to the forums. You have not seen a thread regarding baiting because very few predator hunters use bait. There would be very few posts in a specific forum. There is an occasional post about baiting once a year or so, just doesn't seem to be much interest. When there is such a post it seems to be on a ranch where they drag out dead cows or sheep and pile them up. For most of us baiting is too restrictive. As a rule we like to run and gun.ymmv."

So for the next 13 years the baiting thread was treated like the red-headed stepchild of coyote hunting. It did at least get a sticky in that process. As of today the thread that nobody would be interested in has over 8,000 replies and 17 million views. Finally last spring, SnowmanMo (thank you Mo) made the move to actually finally give baiting a forum of its own. So that lasted a total of about 6 months. Where there is no vision, the people perish.
 
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In areas with denser human populations, think "hobby" farms. Baiting and shooting specific animals seems to be more acceptable. Snares,traps have received a lot of misinformation/press. State game departments HAVE NOT helped in regard to the anti agenda. Baiting/shooting is more efficient time wise, than random calling a couple 40 acre setups inside a 3-7 square mile coyote territory.
 
Baiting needs it’s on forum, or at least a “sticky” forum at the top of another forum. The baiting forum has been going strong for many years, surpassing all initial expectations, and has had an amazing amount of good discussion of tactics etc, photos, videos and members that never argue or get into shoving matches. This forum has a good bunch of dedicated members.

There are two forums where I hang out 90% of the time - Night Calling and Baiting.

To Admin: please reinstate the baiting forum as it was, either its own forum or a sticky. If I have to search pages of topics to find it, I will most likely just quit. The forums have been in decline for some time now and I’ll admit my interest has been waning due to little member activity. We don’t need to further the decline. The guys on the baiting forum have developed a real brotherhood and we would like to keep it that way.
 
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I see the debate on the "Hunting in the East" Forum being consolidated back into the "Predator Hunting" Forum. I have no dogs in that fight, but will say, that I didn't frequent that forum much. Having the eastern folks posting in the Predator Hunting forum, I may catch their posts, and, I do enjoy reading about hunting across the U.S. and abroad for that matter. Lots of Eastern baiters here, and I love the posts on different tactics, regs, and operations out east.
I say all this, because, I see the "Baiting" Forum was also moved back to just a thread in the Predator Hunting forum. This means that enough new topic posts, and the Baiting thread will be on page 3,4, or 10. Having to go looking for the thread to post is a bit aggravating. Just looking for thoughts from the baiters here. I'm pretty good at adapting to change, and do really enjoy the new format and it's ease of navigation and photo posting, but, I think the Baiting thread should have at least remained a Forum.
Thoughts?

I think a subforum or a sticky is definitely a fair compromise. I'm not a baiter but I understand that its definitely got its place with a specific way thats successful for guys in their part of the world.

Several things has to be worked through this new migration and with the scale of this project things can easily get overlooked or not thought completely through.

Hang in there guys and be patient with us but also voice your opinions, its you guys that come here day after day to post stories, tactics and everything else is what keeps us afloat.
 
Kino, years ago we asked for a baiting forum or sticky. We got a sticky. The forum really took off. Great content. Valuable information shared. Not long ago we finally got a dedicated forum. Progress. Now we are back to square one, after all the success we have had and enjoyed. As I mentioned, we have a real brotherhood in the baiting forum that is rarely seen in many of the others. I think we all realize that admin can sometimes change things without realizing what they are doing and with no ill intent. We appreciate your effort in reminding them of the importance of this.
 
I would label my bait sites as hybrids, as I will advertise(call using pup sounds) the first night bait is setup. Later as breeding(baits can slow up because of the chasing happening) time rolls around, I start advertising again using female talk. Any night I'm out and I believe coyote are nearby, traveling or hunting, I will call using a squeaker(especially if I know other callers are working the area).
 
I do something similar Spot. I only run one bait site here behind my home. The field is a couple of hundred acres. I have killed a few just calling here when I know one or more are in the area, but mostly I just keep the bait pile going all year. I haven't seen or shot one here since June. Most of the coyotes I get here will start showing from late December and run right on into May. What I wanted to add is that during that time frame, I try to make a few howls about once a week. Generally I just open a window in my office which faces the bait pile and do some howls with a mouth call or e-call. Generally I don't do more than 3 or 4 howls. On a few occasions coyotes have come charging out of the woods and I've killed them from the office. Mostly though what I have found is that they will often show up anywhere from an hour to three hours after those howls.

That causes me to believe that a lot of coyotes come to calling stands way after hunters have left. They are extremely curious but also very cautious. I think callers educate a lot more coyotes than they can begin to imagine. It would be cool to call a place and then leave a Trail camera there and see what shows up hours later. Of course nobody calling is going to sit on one stand for three hours. Most of us will give it a few minutes and move on to find more aggressive coyotes which is certainly understandable, but I do believe they can come hours after we're gone.
 
Good stuff right here from spot and DU. Some time ago we discussed baiting sites or "landscapes" in the sense of coyotes developing a sense of hostile landscapes. In other words, having a bait site in the same spot for years and years, do or could coyotes develop a danger sense to that area, and even further, pass that onto young pups as they raise them...avoid that area.
The "hybrid" baiting concept could be effective...good stuff! Thanks for that insight spot and DU!
P.S. We have our sub forum back!!!! Thanks BoD's.
bait
 
I had one show up for one day when my wife collected some bait. He come in 3 or 4 times that night and once the next day, then nothing since. Of course I didn't get there until the night after...
It was a purdy good gut pile the "hammer" nailed.

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Mostly though what I have found is that they will often show up anywhere from an hour to three hours after those howls.

That causes me to believe that a lot of coyotes come to calling stands way after hunters have left. They are extremely curious but also very cautious. I think callers educate a lot more coyotes than they can begin to imagine. It would be cool to call a place and then leave a Trail camera there and see what shows up hours later. Of course nobody calling is going to sit on one stand for three hours. Most of us will give it a few minutes and move on to find more aggressive coyotes which is certainly understandable, but I do believe they can come hours after we're gone.
Bait sites give you a great opportunity to observe habits, Owen. Never thought they would respond hours after a stand, but why not? Never say never. No way would I sit that long, however. I'm not that patient, also because I have enough territory to move on, like you said, to more fertile grounds, but I almost always sit 10 minutes after calling, sometimes longer if the stand warrants. If I were hunting smaller tracts, I'd sure stay longer.
In other words, having a bait site in the same spot for years and years, do or could coyotes develop a danger sense to that area, and even further, pass that onto young pups as they raise them...avoid that area.
Primarily a caller, however always make a stand or two on any dead critter or gut pile we come across if possible and one of my favorite setups is overlooking a permanent dead pit or on roadways in the area surrounding. Various calls often stir the pot, so to speak as SSS stated above, especially when conditions prevent setup overlooking the pit. Only a couple other callers hunt this ranch and I haven't seen any indication of coyotes avoiding that area. I'm sure that some coyotes become educated, and agree that pups learn from their parents.
I had one show up for one day when my wife collected some bait. He come in 3 or 4 times that night and once the next day, then nothing since.
It was a purdy good gut pile the "hammer" nailed.
Nice buck! We have so many birds down here that gut piles and carcasses don't last more than a couple of days unless something like a cow or larger exotic.
 
Now that’s a buck right there !!!

A coyote hit the bait last night. Couldn’t hunt tonight due to family Thanksgiving time, but I plan / hope to be in the shack tomorrow night.
 
I have several locations I bait the same way each of the last 4 years, been a minimum of 7 off each every winter. These locations are at/near territory intersections of family groups. I found these spots by checking and tracking sign, summer observations, scratching pads,talking to landowners and noting howling. I try hard to take good shots(no survivors), biggest mistake I made was killing one out of a group of 5 that came in together. The rest would circle the blind, after assembling(howls,hips,barks) about 1/2 mile away. After several sits and checking tracks, realized what wind direction I needed to get into the blind and still not get winded when they approached. Than got a break, as one (older female) came in just before a storm front. Killed her, next night good wind. Heard the pack rally again, so I used a female howl a couple times. First one appeared shortly, not interested in the bait. Killed it. 2 more came in to the bait an hour later. Killed one. Other ran off into timber, same place they had come from. I howled once, it came out ran right to the one at the bait circled a couple times and stopped(bad choice).
 
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