Thank you for your estimation. Yes this is in Tennessee some trapping around here but not a whole lot but yeah I hunt where there are cows so he was probably eating the cow patties. Thank you again.
Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
- Thread starter DSheetz
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Bill: The USDA Wildlife Services biologist, your local DVM or game warden would probably be better at giving you an age estimate on the coyotes in your area especially ones like in your picture if you happened to keep its skull for them to look at it. The story behind your coyote would be very interesting to hear if only it could have told it they are a fascinating animal. I spent a lot of years hunting down and killing the ones that caused trouble and got to see some interesting things along the way as well as enjoying the learning about them but there are those that are far better at some of it then I could ever hope to be. Along with the challenge of finding specific animals, I enjoyed learning and observing them there is no animal, in my humble opinion, better suited at surviving then they are. You are welcome, for what little help I could be.
Your answer I believe was very accurate. I've only been hunting coyotes for two years and they are very smart and evasive. That one was just dumb luck. It's not like I'm some kind of coyote slayer or targeted that specific animal.
If you did or didn't target a specific animal just getting one like that animal is no small feat. For a coyote to have gone through what that animal did in its lifetime and to have survived that long is in its self-interesting. Most of the coyotes I have seen were smart some of the younger ones just hadn't learned to be cautious yet. Normally by the time they are two years old they have learned to be cautious, so they then are a challenge. Just seeing one of that age group is a challenge in itself. So many times, I have seen them come in and lay down, set or stand still not moving and just blend in well with their surroundings acting as if they feel something just isn't quite right. They often act a lot like a cat and move only small amounts at any time, peaking around the edge of something or over the top of some ground cover, maybe just looking through some weeds or brush. Here we have some very open country and I have seen them use every low area and draw to get closer, you can see them drop into a draw out half a mile or more then not catch but slight glimpses of them again as they move in towards you before they just appear standing on the edge of a cut bank. It's interesting to see a coyote lay down in a cow trail with its head on its paws and not move, here some of the cow trails are worn pretty deep as when the grass and sod are broken the wind and water wash the soil away, they will lay and hide from aircraft or come to a call and just observe the call from a distance in any low place but they tend to just kind of disappear in a cow trail where they can see you or what it is that they want to see. I don't know how many times I have located coyotes for the aircraft and watched those coyotes just drop like they had been shot when they heard the aircraft, both helicopters and fixed wing. I have to admire, or respect, them for some of the things that they do.
I got a call from a rancher one evening that I had never worked for before asking me if I would be able to hunt some coyotes for him. I wasn't overly busy at the time so I said that I could and arranged to meet with him a couple of days later. We met and he showed me around and told me which pastures he was having the most problems in. I started by walking some of the draws and trails in the worst hit pasture. Finding male and female tracks in the trails and bottom of a couple of draws coming and going to the east. I figured out they were living in some pine ridges in a pasture next to the one they were killing in. I went over to it and sat up my first calling stand, it was about 9:00 in the morning by that time maybe 9:30, I howled once and saw her jump up from the top of a small knob with some pine trees on it she ran hard towards me stopped at around 100 yards. She showed that she had produced 8 pups. I went up to where she had been laying looked around 360 degrees and to the east was a small open meadow with a hole in it. When I got over to the hole in the fresh dug dirt were coyote tracks of male and female sized tracks but also puppy sized tracks and they had started to mash the grass down around the hole as well as some small puppy droppings. I left it alone because I also wanted the male. I went over to a small hill with a cut bank shaded by pines and set up. I just sat and looked for maybe 20 minutes in a small saddle to my west I saw just some ear tips and a head looking in my direction. That told me he was aware of me being there. He was out probably 300 yards and I was maybe 200 yards from the den. I did two half howls and two quick barks he jumped up but just stood there his ears turned in my direction. I had a 223 running 55 grain Serria hollow points at 2900 fps mv so I wanted him closer. I let out a few puppy squeals he charged my way. I hit him at 50 feet at the most in the chest. I then went and took the den of 8 puppies, another Memorial Day den. For several years it seems that it was my tradition to take a den of puppies on Memorial Day.
windypants
Well-Known Member
It's BA-ACK! 40-50mph winds and 2-3 feet of snow expected.
It's springtime in the Rocky Mountains windypants, we have the wind and are in the 40's for high temps, only supposed to get snow flurries. It's been at least 30 years since I have seen this much snow in a year but like you, we have been getting deeper snows in the spring storms as well as in the fall storms. Stay warm, dry and safe.
windypants
Well-Known Member
Ill look at the bright side—this is the kind of storm that creates character trees for building with!
Bucklowery
Well-Known Member
Same here Buck!
Guys I'm not a fan of 80-degree temps. I don't like -zero temps but I don't mind cooler temps. I never did get used to higher humidity either, they told me that I would, but it didn't happen. Today it was 19 percent humidity here in the 40's and windy but my wife and I worked in the yard most of the day. Being at 4500 + feet elevation you can get a sun burn pretty fast if you don't take care not to. On this type of days, you can find fox and coyotes laying on the downwind hill sides in the sun taking a nap. I've been known to do that myself, get in the sun out of the wind on a grassy hill side glassing the country, fresh air and a few miles on the feet and the next thing you know you have had a power nap with the meadow larks singing you a song. One thing about this time of the year is that we don't have mosquitoes, and deer flies we do have ticks that are out now, and it seems there are more diseases being transmitted by them in our world today than ever before. Good and bad wherever you are it's a matter of finding the silver lining in the clouds.
windypants
Well-Known Member
Matthew 17:20. I'm going to need a little faith!
. Still snowing.
. Still snowing.
