Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

It's the time of the year that breeding season is slipping into denning season . Most of the females that are going to be are heavy with pups . We know that breeding season isn't a time frame set in stone . I have taken fox pups (kits ) as early as March 3rd already born and in the den hole . I have taken coyote pups here as early as the 8th . of April born and in the den hole . They both have a gestation period of around 60 days , 60 -63 days on average . Now is starting to be the first busy time of the year for the control worker with the calving season in full swing , The lambing season here normally starts about May 12th . We know that the predators tend to take the easy route to feed their young of the year and so often that puts them at odds with humans as the easy to take is our young of the year livestock , antelope and deer are also big on that list . I talk of the coyote and fox because they were my primary targets at this time of the year . Well at all times of the year for me . But there are so many other predators that affect the wild life as well badgers , skunks , coons , possums feral cats ect. all take their fair share of the years young . I am sure that feral hogs where they are do a ton of damage to our wild life and the environment as well . We are the guardians of our resources and we owe it to ourselves to learn about and do our part to protect our wild life as we can . So then back to the pupping season . I always enjoyed the denning season as for me that is when I could do the most at controlling the predator populations in one days time . I have been told and called a heart less ba2g0s for taking the pups , but for me I looked at it as they were going to grow into adults for the most of them . And the reason that the adults were being a problem and killing young livestock . I have seen many times where people would kill an adult coyote leaving another to kill to feed the pups , and that coyote would find a helper to help raise the pups . I have seen where both , or in some cases three coyote , were raising the pups and were killed , the den not taken leaving the pups to fend for themselves till other coyote would adopt them , move them to their area . Sure a few of the pups would die of starvation others would live on grass , insects and even cow manure and be stunted if they weren't adopted . Not a very kind way to be treated by humans but if we didn't see it it's okay . I preferred to go ahead and take the den and be sure that they were taken out of the equation . I have taken dens that only had 3 pups but I have taken dens with 13 pups also . I have taken dens that had pups of 2 ages by two different female and dens that were split up with pups in two different holes many yards apart with just a small trail running between the two holes . I have known of a guy that took the pups and didn't take the adults and lost several lambs the next night , I can't say for sure but I think it was revenge killing by the adults for the loss of their pups .
 
So I know a guy that found a den and could hear the pups down in the hole. He wanted to remove the pups so he wiggled his skinny butt down in the hole, with his arms stretched out leading the way, and he started feeling around for the pups with his hands. Got one pup and pulled it out. Went in to try to get another and as he was feeling around for another pup, he felt what seemed to be a leg of an adult coyote, still in the den.
Well, he about shat himself and as quickly as he could he backed out, and went to get a shovel and then began to dig about where he thought she was, and as he broke through into the den from above, the female finally came running out.

You ever have that happen Dave.

Just listening to the story first hand about brought me to tears from laughter. I can only imagine the thought that went through his mind as he realized that the female was still in the den while he was wedged in the only escape hole she had.
 
Yes I have had the female adult in the den a few times . I use barbed wire with a loop in the end of it . Make a crank in the wire and twist it to get it to run into the hole straighten the crank out and put another one farther back in the wire as I feed it into the hole . I straighten the wire good and put it behind me straight between some trap steaks to keep it from walking and tangling in things . Normally 15 feet of wire for a coyote den is plenty . You can tell when it has tangled in the fur as it binds up and gets hard to turn or stops turning completely . When you have an adult in it they pull back into the hole pretty hard . That's where my 22 revolver comes into play . I seldom didn't have my gun belt on . It has a fixed blade knife and plier on it . A small pen light in my pocket was a must . The last few years I used the large gas cartages from the USDA in the dens first . They are 1 1/2 inch in diameter and about 14 inches in length , You put a fuse in them punch a few hole down the sides . I dig some dirt to plug the hole with fill the hole till I can just fit my hand with the cartridge in it into the hole light the fuse and push it in the hole as far as I can plug the hole and set back for half an hour or so then wire the pups out . It's been a long time since I thought that I wanted to raise any pups . The ones I've been around didn't seem to loose the wild streak and eventually ran away . The ones that I've seen in pens just paced all of the time as if to say I want my freedom . My work truck is pretty full of stuff and has the nick name of the flea mobile when I go out . My wife and kids refuse to ride in it to this day .
 
I shot a coyote out in a hay field one morning she was over 250 yards and I hit her a little far back . She flopped down jumped up and spun around a few times then lined out and ran , dropped into an irrigation ditch . I walked over and in the ditch was a twenty four inch culvert twenty feet long they used to get equipment across to the next field . She was laying in the middle of the culvert , I looked at her for a minute or so then crawled in grabbed her foot and backed out dragging her with me . When I stood up I had a flash thought she could have turned around before I could have gotten out of there , if she had still been alive . Another thoughtless mistake that wouldn't be repeated . Bet your friend won't either I suspect his eyes were the size of dinner plates and his heart rate was sky high .
 
I really start to enjoy our weather and how unpredictable it is in mid March .We can and have had some deep wet snows till early May . By the 15th of March the western blue birds are normally arriving here followed by the meadow larks a couple of weeks latter . near the first week in April we will see the grass starting to green up in the draws and the southern hills and the canada geese will be pairing up getting ready to nest and have the years young . The red fox may be starting to have their kits by now , I've found most of the fox dens on south facing hills and cut banks of draws here . The coyote have decided by now where they will have their dens and raise their pups , I have taken a couple of dens by this time of the year in past seasons but mostly they start to pup here at the end of April . According to my notes , and memory the earlier the coyote has pups the older she was . It seems that the younger ones didn't cycle as early as the older more experienced females . Hum nature works in mysterious ways again giving the younger a better chance at keeping their young alive . Some of the smaller ranchers have started to lamb in January hoping to have bigger lambs in the fall but most of them will start to lamb the middle of May , Calving is winding down in my area now . My world is coming back to life again now and putting on a new set of clothing fresh and green the dried browns and yellows are disappearing , the fox and coyote are looking pretty ragged by now as are several of the other animals . AH renewal , we didn't have a severe cold winter it just seemed to come early so seemed to be a long one this year , could it be because I'm getting older that I notice it more ? At any rate I'm enjoying the greening up of my world .
 
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D S

Where do you hold on a broadside coyote ?
I've shinned a few but I never thought to cut one open to see where the heart is, compared to the front leg.
The internet has it all over the place.

Hal
 
I like to hit them behind the front leg and down a little lower then centered from top to bottom of the chest cavity . Coyote are like most other four legged animals their organs tend to be lower in the body cavity then we would think thanks to the forces of gravity . I like a good hollow point bullet that transfers all of it energy inside of the coyote and has little if any fragments exiting . Most of my broad side shots they just go stiff legged and tip over from the hydraulic shock . I like to use Sierra 55 grain game king bullets and tend not to use any target bullets for my predator hunting for that reason . They have a large opening and a thin jacket designed to open up , or nearly explode , after they penetrate into the body of the animal . If I am using my 40 cal or 9mm pistol I like to use the hydroshock two bullets they normally exit but mushroom well and do a lot of internal damage leaving a quarter sized exit hole . They make a nice chart for the organ placement of deer , antelope and elk that pretty much looks like the organ placement of coyote fox and bobcats if you can visualize it in a smaller scale for the predators . I hope that this will be of some help to you . Dave
 
In the spring of 2016 , well late winter really here , April , early May . I got a call from a friend telling me he had coyote bothering his cows that were calving . He had heard them howling and had caught sight of them at great distances . I told him I would be down in the morning to the pasture where he was calving . I got down to his place and came in from the top side of that pasture in the dark the following morning . I parked in a low spot on the under side of the hills crest went through a saddle to the side of the hill over looking the calving pasture . I picked my way down hill to some large boulders and started glassing the area . I was there for maybe half an hour when off a mile or so I heard a long low howl , I knew that area as it came from where I had taken a den the year before the new coyote had came to the old denning area as is pretty common . The new occupants liked the area the same as many other generation had for their denning area . Any way after the long low howl there was a lone higher pitched reply . then in a few minutes I heard the yipping and kyi yies of two coyote getting together. I looked in their direction and pretty soon saw a pair of coyote move down off of a hill side and onto a two track road trotting in the direction of the calving pasture . by now it was getting shooting light , I just watched them coming crawl under the fence and into the pasture with the cows and wander around in amongst the cows . I howled one long lone howl , they stopped looked my way then in no particular hurry they started my direction . At that time I saw a truck heading in the direction of the pasture , feeding time , The two coyote headed up the hill hit the fence line at a low spot and laid down facing the truck . Cell phones are one good invention , I got my phone out called the rancher just as he was getting to the gate to enter into the pasture . I told him when you get out of your truck to open the gate take your rifle with you as about 200 yards and in front of you to your right are your pair of coyote laying in a low spot by the fence . Where the hell are you was his reply , I told him I'm in the boulder field up hill from you and just behind where the coyote are . out of shooting range where I'll be safe . He stepped out of his truck laid his rifle over the hood and fired one shot , one coyote jumped up and ran the other died laying where it thought it was hidden . I told him I would go get my truck and come down to set up the fence line with snares . The next morning I had the female in a snare so after that I followed the two track back to where I had heard the pair get together the day before . It took me a couple of hours of walking till I found the den , there were several pups out playing in the sun and grass around the den hole seven in total . And a herd of cattle that calmed down to finish calving with out coyote running through them .
 
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Over the years I have noticed that the coyote tend to find something in an area that they like generation after generation . I have taken dens out of an area and the next year there will be another pair denning in the same area . A few times I have taken pups out of the same hole in a rock pile more then one year in a row . That is one reason that I tried not to destroy the den hole and to remove all of the traces of my being there from it . It takes time and walking most of the time to figure out where they are denned so if you are careful and make notes of where they denned this year it saves you a lot of time and effort in the future . There was a company called Geo mapping that I found when I was at a three day training one year . They could take your GPS readings and make a satellite picture with them marked on it for you . So one fall when I had some slack time I went around the biggest ranch marked all of the boundry lines and all of the dens I had taken over the years . They had three different parcels of land separated by several miles close to 70,000 acres in all . So then when I sent the readings in I ended up with three maps with every thing marked on them an X with an F or a C marked the dens . I knew where the dens were and that there were areas that the coyote denned and other areas where the fox denned seldom did the fox and coyote den in the same areas . It was impressive for me to be able to see the dens and their relationship to the travel routes , food bases , and watering areas . I then could see the relationship of one area to another area that they liked and new ones would come into year after year . So for the casual hunter if you have had sucess at this stand site last year you can try that site this year or next year and figure that you will stand a good chance of sucess there again during the same time of the year . I have also noticed that so much depends on where the water is even for the prey animals and the live stock but the young of the predators may not be as close to the water as you might think it depends a lot on ease of access to the water not necessarily close proximity to it . Where you have a stream , river , lake or stock pond , you will find an area that the animals will come to it to drink . They will use one side over the rest one trail over another is used they tend to come out of one draw over the others . They may all be used but one gets more travel then the others when you look at the whole lay of the land you can find the reason for this . After a while of studying this you will start to put together the reason for this then when you go to a new area you just seem to have a feel for where these areas are just by having seen it in the past and learning what it is that the animals are looking for in the better places to call home . Like we may look at the proximity to schools , stores ect. when we buy a home when we have young children but once we have raised them we will look for different reasons to buy a home , the animals will do the same type of home shopping under the changes that occur in their lives , it's just under a more condensed time frame . Twelve months time for them verse several years for humans .
 
I don't know if anybody finds a den around here where I live ( western Washington) . Would be interesting to have someone with your skill sets work the area. Be tough though with all the broken up private land and gated timber land. Every once in a while I'll hear some shots at night and pretty sure it's coyote hunters using night vision. But haven't heard for a while but could be shooting suppressed
 
The land ownership can be a huge problem . The first den that I took I tracked them back from where they were killing lambs for several miles . Coyote are like people in that they have foot prints that you can tell from others once you get used to looking at them , especially when they don't have any toes on the right front foot , missing toes or feet or a leg that isn't working properly . I'm thinking there are still some Wild life Services guys working in your part of the world that will be doing some denning . Denning for me was an enjoyable part of the work you got to see a lot of things because you traveled on foot long distances at times and were very quiet while doing so . Just being out and observing the world while tracking and listening .
 
For those of us that need glass' to see well or may have had corrective laics we need to take a look at the distances where we have good vision . So when we use our pistols with open sights we need to be able to see the front sight clearly to get it aligned correctly . But in order to correctly use a scoped rifle we need see the reticle and know that we have the parallax adjusted correctly or we may not be hitting consistently and grouping well . So then when we get our eyes checked and have the prescriptions written for our glass' or contact lens we can ask that we have clear vision at the correct range to be able to see our sights and recitals clearly and focused properly for our use . I have and also have known others that couldn't see well at these ranges and found that grouping well was difficult at best , no it wasn't the scopes fault , the screws and other affecting components were torqued correctly ect. . It was my glass' needed to be adjusted for use at the correct distances . Kind of the same thing as having poor quality glass in your other optics , then wondering why are my eyes tired , my neck mussels are tense and I have this dull head ach after glassing for a while , you need to have the correct lens for your glass' they are after all another tool in your kit and should be good ones as well . Yup more ramblings but some thoughts that may not have been thought about by some .
 
In todays world of hunters there is much talk of scent control . What exactly is scent control , what is it that causes scent what do we need to do in our efforts to control the odors that we get on our bodies clothing and foot wear are some of the things that we need to think about . Over the years the odors that all of the animals are being exposed to have changed with the number of people that are out in their world and what these people are exposed to now as compared to just 40 or 50 years ago . As the population and numbers of people getting out into the areas that the animals used to have to themselves has increased so have the different odors the animals are exposed to on a daily basis . They see , smell and hear automobiles on a daily basis today . They see people every day now in most of their home range on the farms and ranches . There are areas that they don't see people or traffic daily but do on a some what regular basis it is now common for them to see smell and hear human activity . A lot of the animals aren't harassed or bothered by people very often in most areas , just at some times of the year and they get used to it being that way . My grandparents would winter their cattle down in the low land by the river , but they summered their cattle in the high country . Every fall near September the cattle would gather near the gates going to the low country ready to trail down to their winter range . In the spring and early summer the first part of June the cattle knew it was time to head back to the mountains for the summer . You could turn them out and just follow along behind them , the older cows that had made the trip would lead the younger ones to their different pastures in the fall and spring . The animals that aren't livestock have also learned about human habits and you can see it in the way that they react to the changes in the seasons and how they are taught to react to the changing seasons and amount of human activity as well as to how we react to them at different times of the year . In the areas that they are shot at nearly every time that they are seen they become leery of humans , but in the areas where they are pretty much ignored except for in the fall during hunting season they aren't upset at seeing humans till fall hunting seasons . We teach them how to react to our presence and at what times of the year to become very cautious of it . We teach them to or not to react to seeing , hearing or smelling us and at what times of the year we will be hunting them . The young of the year during the spring and summer months , for the most part haven't been taught to fear us yet , so they are curious about the new sight , sound and smell of us , where the older ones have seen , heard and smelled us before and have learned to use caution around us . Controlling our amount of body odors as well as the other smells that we are exposed to will in the end be to our benefit . Keeping ourselves clean , keeping our clothing clean . fueling our truck in the evening before we go out the next morning , not smoking and chewing tobacco products can be helpful the types of foods we eat can all cause us to have body odors . We all have our habits and foods that we eat that cause us to smell the way that we do it is a matter of how important that is to each of us as to how we look at it and the steps that we take to control it . For the most of us it isn't a matter of our life or death as to how we control our body odor . It might be a matter as to how successful our hunting is depending on where we chose to hunt , the time of the year , the amount of pressure in that area and how much body odor we have that we are spreading at the time we are out .
 
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