I'm only 13 pages in…this is probably the best storyline/hunting Threads I've ever read, on any Forum!
Thanks for the lessons, stories and experiences fellas!
Thanks for the lessons, stories and experiences fellas!
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Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
- Thread starter DSheetz
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HRM Johnny
Well-Known Member
I agree with you 100%
Keep reading, it gets better lol and it's been a great ride so far!
M1A1ABRAMS
Well-Known Member
Daves Diary. 
M1A1ABRAMS
Well-Known Member
Waiting on his book of "Ramblings and Such" by Dave ________
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But you already have the free copy of it. With the cold front coming in and hanging around the predators should be hungry and looking around more now. Yesterday Walt and I took a little road trip out north of town, it was calm and got sunny the temp. was 28 F, about 2:00 in the afternoon there were around a hundred antelope bedded down on some hay meadows, just enjoying the afternoon sun. Most of them were yearlings or doe's I only saw a couple of younger bucks with them. Walt forgot to wipe his feet after his excursion and got muddy paw prints on his console seat, I will have to clean it before the wife sees it or I will get informed of being not so smart for letting him out in the muddy areas lol. The moon was going to set around 5:00 P.M. and a few of the critters were getting up to start their feeding for the evening but for the most part they were just laying around. Our rabbit population is making a comeback and that is a good thing. The plane flew and I didn't see any new coyote tracks in the snow, not even the digger was out they might have gotten her. Funny thing they haven't learned how not to leave tracks in the snow for the aircraft to follow. We were out one cold snowy morning probably 25 years ago and the helicopter pilot got on a set of tracks, we were following them, and I told him those are bobcat tracks. He asked me how I would know that. I said because they are wandering all over the place and not lined out like a coyote does. He called BS so we followed them till we saw the critter running from us, it was a nice big old blue backed tom. We did get 11 coyotes that day in a valley that had a huge prairie dog town in it covering a couple of square miles. I still can't call coyotes that aren't there to be called but Walt has a ton of fun while I'm trying to, and I enjoy watching him doing his thing checking everything out, he probably covers a mile at every stand and doesn't get more than 50 or so yards from me.
HRM Johnny
Well-Known Member
windypants
Well-Known Member
Looks like they've been using this rock pile den. Is that unusual for this time of year? Do they use dens for shelter outside of denning season?
Fox do so more than coyotes do but when the weather turns cold, and it gets windy coyotes will use holes to get in out of the weather. Bobcats will as well use holes, and they don't always have kittens in the spring of the year. What did it smell like at this time of the year the female fox will smell kind of strong and a little skunky as they cycle, and the male fox will have a stronger musky smell. The female, and male coyotes will also have a stronger smell more like wet dog at this time of year and should be starting to pair up and getting ready to set up their areas, territories. The female and sometimes the younger male coyotes will be getting the urge to find a suitable den hole at this time of year as well. I did take a wet female and her pups one time on the 8th of April so if you count back 60-64 days that puts her being bred close to this time of year and she was an older female probably 4-5 years old so she would have been looking at finding a good den hole by now as well. The mothering instinct causes them to do strange things but then we had a pretty open winter to this point then the artic front moved in and hit hard and fast which makes them do different things too. But yes, they do use holes for shelter from the cold as well as the hot dry weather of late summer.
I have watched coyote, fox and bobcats lay on the downwind side of a hill out of the wind curled up in the snow absorbing the heat from the sun sleeping. Just a darker spot in the white snow, the spot and stalk predator hunters on here often take advantage of that this time of year. I have watched bobcats lay on the south facing rock bluffs in small patches of dry dirt sunning themselves and just looking down in the draws below them. their whole body still except for their tails, they just don't seem to be able to keep from moving it. I spotted one doing that one morning and decided to see how close I could get to him. I circled around so that I was down wind and behind it slipped up the back side of the rise that was on the northern side of the bluff. moved in on him and quietly slipped up to the top of the rock ledge, it was lying about five feet below me in the sun when I looked down. He never knew what hit him and I got 350.00 for his pelt. That was my game that I started playing when I was a kid to see how close I could get to bedded deer before I spooked them. Then I started with predators to see how close I could get to them. I worked with a guy one time that said he wanted me to take him deer hunting, so I told him I would put him on a nice buck in its bed so he could shoot it before it knew he was there, he said that's not being a sports man, I said no that's being a hunter. A few days later he said I've been watching you; you don't make hardly any noise when you walk, you don't brush up against things, you pick your feet up to step, but you put them down gently and don't make noise as you do and you make it look like you aren't putting any effort into being quiet as you do. A lifetime of practicing to be quiet as I move like the hunter- gathers did. Exposure to the little people all played into it, conscious effort leads to unconscious doing it.
windypants
Well-Known Member
Thanks Dave! There were two coyotes laying on the hill above here. I tried to pick the female but got a young male. I think they were probably both pups of the year. I didn't smell the den, but it was definitely coyote tracks going in. The weather had been really nice until this storm blew through. I think they are going to have a harder winter since I don't see much vole sign in the grass. They've had it really easy the last couple of winters with a booming vole population. This one was chewing on an antelope head.
It's so hard to pick the females when they are the young of this year and are both small. That makes good sense for them to be using a hole being younger and hungrier. Our vole population goes in cycles here the same as our rabbit populations do the rabbits are finally coming back here the jack rabbits, snowshoe and all the different varieties of cotton tails. I see more white-tailed jack rabbits still then the black tailed ones. for some reason I like the black tailed jacks better they just look better to me. It's coming the time when they will be talking more and responding to non-aggressive vocalizations as well as the female invitation calls and the squeaks and chirps of a female in heat. Some shorter howls and not very many barks. I am a proponent of using the sounds that they will be using at the different times of year. I know that curiosity killed the cat, but it has in my experience killed less coyotes then then matching the sounds correctly to fit in with what they feel comfortable with at this time. Yes, you will get some responders to out of season sounds but over the years its been better for me to use the sounds of the season but then I had the need to kill troublemakers and to be selective about who died first then clean up what was left by others was also a priority.
