The people who do control work for a living do it because they love to . When you work for the Gov. they pay starting around 26000.00 a year . but they also furnish a truck and supplies such as lure , snares ect. that help with the cost of doing this work . You still furnish your rifle and ammo , scopes ect. . You will have a retirement plan and insurance . But you will still be in the poverty level group of workers and that is why most of them work a couple of jobs like guiding hunters during their vacations . Their wives or significant others work as well . In a lot of states the people who work for any of the game departments don't get much better pay if they make any better wages . They do it because they love what they do or they move on to other types of work . My son studied to be a fisheries biologist but when he went to work at a fish hatchery he soon found that the pay wasn't enough so now works as a teacher with special education students has the same retirement and health insurance but about 3 times the wages . I did it for piece work paid per coyote killed furnished all of my own supplies and truck but got gas from the ranchers I worked for . There was no retirement or insurance plan so I worked two jobs one that had insurance and a retirement plan and had a lot better pay scale just so that I could afford to do what I truly loved to , animal control with coyote as my specialty . There were those that knew how hard it was to make a living at it and then there were those that would try to get you to do the work and do every thing they could to keep from paying you , that word got passed around and they would end up not being able to get control work done for them so paid a higher price in the end in livestock loss's . I do the best that I can to help those people that are trying to make a living at control work and to become proficient so they can get the problem taken care of as fast as they can because the longer it takes them to get it done the more it costs them . When I educate an animal and someone else has to come in to kill it , it takes them time and money to do so thus taking money from them and their family . That's a part so many people don't see . If I make killers it hurts the land owners pocket book if I make problem animals for them it costs them in the end not me till they tell me not to come back . I went to a predator board meeting one evening when we had a new guy that we had sent to a few ranches . 4 ranchers showed up with complaints about the new guy . They all said that he was using their ranches as his play ground bringing people with him and not letting them know in advance , he was guiding others to call coyote for them and didn't get them killed but got paid for them to hunt , just running around and making smarter coyote not getting as many killed as he should while learning , maybe what he should have already known . He was ask not to be allowed back on their property . These people look at their ranch as their back yard as I would also if it were my ranch . He didn't last long as a control worker .
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
- Thread starter DSheetz
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The time is drawing near for the adult coyote to start training the pups of this year to kill . In my area at the end of August or early in September they would move the pups in close to the sheep herds and then start taking the pups out hunting with them . That's when the pups will act like a pack of feral dogs and go into a killing frenzy with the lambs I have seen them kill 20 - 30 lambs in a night . So I hoped to have them thinned out long before this time of the year . Some times they will travel a long ways just to find a herd of sheep though so having the fences set up with my snares was a must for me at this time of the season . When you need to call pups I find that they are a little skittish at this age so coyote vocalizations should be non aggressive and low key . The puppy squeaks and squeals work good with them if you haven't burned them out on it as will the other animal distress sounds used in moderation . Tracking was a must for me at this time so that I knew where they were laying up for the day and where they were coming in from . Often once I found where they were staying I called for the helicopter so that they could be taken care of fast to limit the number of kills and the cost to the producer .
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How big are the lambs normally at that time of the year?
They are half grown by now weighing more then a yearling mule deer . Not as fast and closer to the ground they will be bedded on a hill or slight rise and only run a short way in the dark with more numbers of them then deer or antelope , 75-100 lbs . , they learn to get them by the throat doing this but till they do a lot will be caught any place they can get hold of . The back end , flanks ect. is where they start learning first . Once they learn to get them by the wind pipe a lamb doesn't last long .
It really doesn't make any difference if you are out there doing your best to control coyote or just out there to enjoy hunting them , every coyote has a truck load of information that they are trying to tell you . It's your choice weather or not you choose to let them . They start letting you learn from them the moment that you know of their presence . If they howl or bark before you even see them they are telling you what is on their mind with what they say to your calls . When they come in to your calling they are telling you things about themselves in the way they are reacting as they approach . What is it that a coyote is telling you if they stand out there barking and doing short howls at you in plain sight of you . What is it they are telling you if they just slip in and stand or set and watch you from a distance . If they lay down and just look at you they are letting you know something about themselves . If they lay down and are looking all around they are also saying something about what they are feeling . If they just charge right in with out saying anything they are telling you something also . If they come in some then stop and wait then move some more stop and wait they are telling you something . I spent years observing them doing all of these things and have my thoughts on what it is that they are saying when they do these things . I have shared my thoughts about them in my writings and experiences . When you spend every minute that you can out there with the coyote that you can , you can't help but to let them teach you something of themselves , but when you are open to letting them teaching you , you to will have your thoughts on what they are telling you and a books worth of things to say about what you have enjoyed doing if you just open your mind to them . Heck I may understand or think I do , understand them more then I do people I darn sure enjoy the coyote's company a lot . Get out there and learn from them for your self while you can if that's what your looking to do , don't just live vicariously by watching other hunt them or tell of their experiences , the best you can .
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Why does it matter to me how many pups a coyote had this time of the year ? The number of pups that a coyote has by it's self doesn't tell me as much as when I keep track of several coyote and the number of pups they have had . When you look at the numbers of several coyote and the number of pups averaged between them then the story they tell is quite different . It not only tells you the health of each coyote but also tells you of the health of the area that they are living in . I can only visit their area but they live there every day 24 - 7 . If they are having large litters then I know that there is room to carry more coyote so they have a good food base , the health of the individual coyote is good , they have plenty of food , there isn't an over abundance of other coyote at that time if they are having large litters , the health of the prey animals is pretty good . they aren't badly infested with internal parasites or external ones either , to the point that they can't carry pups . It's all information that I like to know so that I can figure out what the area holds for me to be hunting . It costs time and money to hunt them and if they aren't there you are wasting both so it's best to find a place that has them to spend both your time and money . And tracking is also a part of the information chain that tells me the same type of information . Locating them by getting them to talk is another part of that chain but when the timing is off they may just sit and not talk so then if you have kept track of what the litter sizes were then you can figure out pretty much if you have large or small numbers of coyote to work with even if your just out there for fun hunts and not doing control work . If your having larger litters and doing control work then you are doing a good job as they can have larger litters to fill in the gaps that you have created . It's all related no matter your reason for hunting the coyote it pays for you to know how many are in your area .
You know I was down in Wydamoming last weekend, place called Cody….I did some asking around, asked if any of those wydamomites seen a rascal named Dave Sheetz…….lots of confused looks….some of the responses were…
We got clean Sheetz
We got dirty Sheetz
We got white Sheetz
We got Dark Sheetz
We got short Sheetz
We got long Sheetz
We even got 3 Sheetz to the wind….but we never seen a Dave Sheetz….
I figured he was like a unicorn, everyone has heard of him, but no one has ever seen him!
We got clean Sheetz
We got dirty Sheetz
We got white Sheetz
We got Dark Sheetz
We got short Sheetz
We got long Sheetz
We even got 3 Sheetz to the wind….but we never seen a Dave Sheetz….
I figured he was like a unicorn, everyone has heard of him, but no one has ever seen him!
You should have gone on down to Thermop and looked up Mike Clamenti the retired police chief or Claytin Ferrell a guide on the river for fishing they could have told you what a bad guy they know named dave sheetz . Big dave was what they called me dirty dave was a pipe fitter , clean dave was a millwright 3 sheetz was me a long time ago and cricket was me a long long time ago in a whole different world ,stinky also , was what I got called when I had coyote all over me . I haven't been to Cody since 2000 . We been wondering if you went on vacation or just missing .
Ha ha ha lmao Dave you never fail to entertain, seriously, jokingly always a treat…… 
Reemty , You have to have fun some times . Some people called me Coyote Dave . but the guys from south of the border called Mr. coyote because it scared the h=-0 out of them when I called coyote too close to them I'm not sure but I think they thought I was a skin walker when I would howl .
In 1998 I was doing some European starling control at a power plant . I made some marks on the beams and handrails where they were roosting so then I would count the number or birds setting in those areas and then multiply that by the number of feet that they were roosting on . I figured that there were between 150,000 and 200,000 birds roosting every night . So then I had some non lethal methods that I was using to try and get them to stop roosting at the plant one of them was called a Bird-X . You could set it up to make random sounds at random intervals that would play on up to 4 speakers spread out over the area . It also had some ultrasonic sounds that it played randomly as well . The company scheduled a shut down on that unit for maintenance and I never gave it a thought about the bird-x . I got a call from the shift supervisor asking me to come explain to one of the contract crews what the weird sounds were as they were from South America and had some different beliefs about the world . They had been sent up on the unit to remove some asbestos insulation but when the bird-x went off they were convinced that there were some evil spirts at play up there and refused to stay or work up there . It took me awhile and a translator to talk them into coming with me and the translator so that I could show them what the sounds were and that I would make the sounds ( evil spirts ) go away . Hind sight is almost 20-20 . In our world the companies want as much profit as they can get at the cost of people that don't know about the hidden dangers of what they are doing but that have different beliefs about the world then we do . I hadn't been around these type of people in nearly 40 years so just didn't think much about what they would think of all this new stuff and experiences . You can take them out of the jungle but not the jungle out of them . Another life lesson .
In 2006 I was calling coyote in some badlands type country . I was on one ranch and calling into a neighboring ranch ( I did have permission on both ranches ) . I got set up in some rocks on a large hill with the sun to my left and back and was calling into some rough deep draws . Out around a thousand yards I saw some movement as a coyote ran out the end of a draw then started my way . I hadn't been calling more then 5 minutes and was using fawn blats on my hand call that day as it was mid June and the antelope fawns were being born . As I watched the coyote coming in behind me I heard a low murmuring growl , then off to my left another . I had never felt uncomfortable when I was calling before . Yes I had been startled by animals running by from behind me and by animals jumping down beside of me . I even had a lion in the rocks above me as I left a cave , that I had traps set in , and darn sure didn't feel good about any of it . But these two low murmuring cats just plain made me nervous they were coming from behind and from two directions and I had a coyote coming from the front that I needed to get as it was feeding it's kids on lamb . The coyote stopped out about two hundred yards I rushed the shot and went over it it bolted toward me then stopped at 75 yards I got my stuff in a group and got her that time . I didn't ever see the cats or hear them again I figure that they didn't much care for what ever it was that made loud booming noises and figured it just wasn't worth the effort to pursue it farther . I have seldom been nervous when I'm out in the field but that for sure was one of those times .
I think that would make anyone nervous! Definately would've raised my BP lol! Over the years I've had many game animals close enough to literally touch but nothing that would eat me. Especially 2 of them together. Would have been a potentially very dangerous situation for sure.
