I spent a lot of years hunting coyote up on the mountains at and above 7000 feet elevation . At these heights the soil isn't really developed well and in places you only have a course sand and gravel with little actual fine soil so that finding real tracks isn't easy . There are places that tracks are easy to see along creeks and in some areas the gumbo type of soil is the prevalent soil type . You will have some areas that it seems like there is no bottom to the boggy areas once you break through the sod and root system of the plants you can be very stuck and need to place rocks dead trees , sage brush ect. under your tires to be able to get back of firm ground again . If you can find a way to get a jack to stay so you can get the tires up enough to get something under them . I got a call one afternoon from a lady friend telling me I saw Josh , my son , stuck at such and such road he's going to need you to come and help get him pulled out . I drove out there and he was stuck tight . As he had tried to cross a small creek about 4 feet wide his front wheels sank in so deep that his back tires were just barely touching the ground and the frame of his truck was on hard dry ground at the edge of the creek . It didn't look like any kind of a problem to cross this area as it just looked like a damp area but under the surface it was just a fine slime and water with dry ground on each side of it . I have been driving and it looks like just some grass and weeds growing in the bottom of a small draw but in the very bottom is a deep washed out place just wide enough for a tire to fall in with sides nearly straight down and maybe two feet deep . It will nearly throw you off of your 4wheeler when you hit that and will if you are going very fast , or if you drop one sides wheels in it going down along side of them they tip over with you . They are well hidden in the grass and weeds , yellow clover here grows well in these areas and might be 4 feet tall and the prairie grass gets tall in the bottoms of the draws where the snow piles in them and the rain water runs down enough to give them more water . It's an interesting country with a lot of different things to see no matter where you go in the United States there will be things to see in one area that you won't see in another part of it . The area that I live in isn't just flat or rolling hills you will often have deep draws that you can't get down into or back out of easily but the smaller animals take advantage of them like we do our roads traveling long distances out of sight . When your hunting you may see an animal out at 1000 yards and if you are calling they may disappear for long periods of time down in these areas while coming into you and then just pop up in front of you at a few yards if you don't take into consideration these conditions when you are setting up to call .
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
- Thread starter DSheetz
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This morning as I read the news on my computer there was an article about coyote attacks in a park in Vancouver . They said that they had 30 coyote attacks in the last few months . In the years from 1977 - 2015 there were only 367 coyote attacks in both the U.S. and Canada combined . A Shelly Alexander ( a coyote expert lol ) said there were several reasons behind the increase one of which was the coyote have been eating illegal drugs . She also said that the homeless population have moved in and pushed the coyote out of their home ranges as well as they have been being fed by well meaning people . Imagine that people being blamed for coyote attacks by feeding them , Here in Wyoming we had a similar incident in a smaller town south east of where I live . There is a rail road home base as well as an Army National Guard base there . A young coyote was coming around and at lunch time some of the people would throw food out toward it . As time went by it started loosing it's fear of people and would come in closer to them and eat what they were giving it . Eventually it got to the place where it would cautiously take food from peoples hands . I'm guessing that these people thought they were doing some thing not so bad and they may have even thought they were helping the poor old coyote pup from starving to death . They weren't educated as to what coyote do and how they live so I can't say they were being bad people but they sure weren't doing that coyote any favors . As fall rolled in the coyote had became an every day visitor and was used to being fed by hand . One day as the feeding ritual went on some body decided they may be able to pet it and reached out in a grabbing motion it reacted as a coyote would and bit this persons hand bad enough that they had to go to the E R . Well when you go to the E R in Wyoming it's the law that bites by dogs are reported to the local law enforcement . So now you have the L E doing their job and they call in the Fish and Game dept. as it's a coyote they in turn call in the U.S.D.A. wild life services guys who come and kill the coyote send it's head to the lab to be tested for rabies as that is what the law says must be done . All of this could have been avoided but because some , uneducated in the ways of coyote , well meaning people thought they were doing some thing cute , unusual , and feeding an animal in need . Every year here in the Yellow Stone Park and towns all around the U.S. there are examples of animals being put to death because of people not knowing what they really are doing causing the animals more harm then good by trying to be kind to them . Killing them with kindness ! And ignorance learn all that you can about the animals you intend to help or that you intend to hunt ! Don't cause them to have to be killed because of your actions please . I've taken more lives then I had to because of well meaning people not knowing better and causing animals to do things that they normally wouldn't . Feeding deer , ducks and geese may be fun and entertaining to you but in reality is doing more harm then good to them .
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You are absolutely right. I can't say that I'm surprised when I seen it was Vancouver. From what I've read, seen, heard, they are really leaning to the tree hugger side of game management and not common sense. It sounds like we should all use extreme caution when hunting coyote now since they may be all methed up lol. May explain some of their paranoia when they come in lol.
Airedale56
Well-Known Member
Dave,
I remember the coyote incident in Guernsey.
I was stationed in Wheatland 2000-2008.
One of my friends on the railroad told me about it.
I remember the coyote incident in Guernsey.
I was stationed in Wheatland 2000-2008.
One of my friends on the railroad told me about it.
D
Deleted member 115360
Guest
Just wanna give an update:
I'm having a bunch of luck right now with prey distress. Rabbit and fawn are working really well right now, creating hard chargers. I've called up 4 since Thursday with one or the other. Happy hunting gentlemen.
I'm having a bunch of luck right now with prey distress. Rabbit and fawn are working really well right now, creating hard chargers. I've called up 4 since Thursday with one or the other. Happy hunting gentlemen.
Airedale56
Well-Known Member
Pups or adults?
Yes as many have said it is getting that time of the year when the untrained coyote are going to start responding to animal distress calls . The pups should be nearly the size of the adults . The teeth being new and sharp and their ears will be thinner still are two easy ways to tell pups quickly .
Bucklowery
Well-Known Member
This is so true Mr. Sheets. A many of unsuspecting people have caused a lot of grief for wild animals. For several years I worked for the state catching alligators and quite a few were problems because they were being fed most on purpose but some just by I knowledgeable people leaving fish guts and heads at the boat launch
Some of those people learned the hard way others caused some unsuspecting person up for harm later on
Thanks
Buck
Yes Buck , It is so often that people just don't know what their actions will cause for others to deal with . But I have also found that there are people that you can try to teach that just will not listen to you and will go ahead and make those mistakes after being told it is a mistake and why it isn't what they should be doing . My Grand parents had a lot of old sayings about life in general and one of them was you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink . I can tell people how they are screwing up with calling and hunting coyote also but that doesn't mean they will listen even though I learned it mostly by making the same mistakes I am trying to help them avoid , as there weren't very many people and there sure wasn't the means to learn from , when I started out doing it .
People being people is an interesting thing to watch , and can be frustrating as well , but it's just the way that the human race is wired and I'm not the person that will be able to change that . Over the years , as I worked as a welder , mechanic and machinist , multi trade mechanic is what they called us , I noticed that most people could only do one job with any kind of what you could call proficiency and often many of them weren't much more then just average or so at any of it as they were there just because of the pay being better and a chance to work one shift instead of a rotating shift . In other words they were just drifting through life trying to take the path of least resistance and not really giving a dam as to being really good at any thing in life even at home they didn't work at life any differently . Some of them thought that they were already more knowledgeable then people that had spent a life time doing things and being good craftsmen so they missed out on the learning from them . Others tried too hard to learn things making things harder then they really were so they too missed out on being able to learn because they had an inner block put there by themselves and over thinking things . But for the most part most of them just didn't want to be any thing more then just mediocre at any thing in life . Now and then you would come across a person that had natural tendencies that leaned toward the mechanical side and ended up being very proficient at the different crafts and truly enjoyed what they were doing , they were the exception not the rule and that is the way I have noticed life is for the most part no matter what it is that you are doing in life . If you look at the things going on in our world today and really look at the people involved you can see the same human nature at play , it was that way back in 1975 and farther back most people just wanted to drift through life and not be bothered by other things then day to day happenings . Mom told me that I was born older then my years and never was a kid and that she felt sorry for me never being a kid but didn't know how to teach me to be one . Ok I'm done with my bitch back to life with the coyote lol !
A few days ago I had an interesting conversation with a guy . He started by saying there's no f 8975 way you can tell where your bullet is going to hit at out past 400 yards then continued on to say you can't tell me where your bullet will hit shooting up or down hill either . I smiled shook my head and said well your probably correct for you but I can take you out with my 6.5x284 and show you a group of 10 shots at 600 you can cover with that coffee cup and do the same up or down hill . I know where my shots will go and I'm not going to say that you aren't correct for you . He continued on telling me I was full of it . I just smiled and said well ok if you say so but maybe you need to go to a shooting school some where and see what they have to offer you then walked off . I didn't see any need to talk farther with this guy as it would just be wasting my breath and time .
I reload for my rifles and pistols . I do things to my brass that a lot of people don't , but not as much as the B R guys do they are a whole different breed of person but I have learned from them about some of the things you can do when reloading to improve your accuracy . I have learned some of the things that they do when loading their rounds and seating their bullets . I studied on what they do with their rifles as well to make them shoot better and I think that the most of us here have done the same thing as it's kind of an addiction to us to make good clean kill shots consistently on smaller targets and at times extended ranges , maybe at steep angles up or down hill . We tend to be people that might be just a little O C D ( ANAL RETENTIVE ) as my daughter says I am about shooting while asking me to help her shoot her pistol like I do mine . I think that most of us here are not ever quite satisfied and think that we can and probably do make improvements to all of our skills and equipment as we learn more going forward in life . It sure isn't the same shooting world today as it was back in the 60's and early 70's the equipment and all the related accessories have had so many improvements made in just the last 20 or so years . Even back then there was a select group of people that were into precision shooting and were studying and experimenting to advance the art as there are today and we can reap the benefits of their labors if we so choose . It's a wonderous world out there to be explored isn't it .
When I was maybe 9 or 10 years old I used to hang out around an older guy , maybe in his early 70's , asking him all kinds of questions about how do you do this or that why does this work that way and all sorts of other things most likely being a real pain to him but he had patience with me and explained things to me . One day he said you like to learn things that most kids your age aren't even slightly interested in let me tell you the most important thing that I have ever learned in my whole life . If you want to learn any thing find the best person at what it is you want to learn and see if they will teach you about it . I have found that to work very well for me and have been blessed to be able to work with , hang out and visit with many very knowledgeable people in many differing areas of life . In the field of predator control over the years I have worked with and been friends with people from local , state and federal levels from biologists . veterinarians to field workers . In todays world it is easier to find people then it was in the past who are willing to teach you about differing things , but it also is easier to find a ton of misinformation out there as well . But sorting it out is part of what keeps life interesting isn't it ?
