Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote
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windypants
Well-Known Member
I found another coyote den this morning. It's at the edge of a strip of thorn brush on a high ridge facing SE. I saw four pups and what looked to be the female. That makes three dens that I've found and three more that i don't know exactly where they are. This is the area where I got 28 coyotes last winter, and it looks like there are going to be just as many around this year. It's amazing how their population can thrive in spite of a high mortality.
According to a study done in the 60's by the USDA and Collage Station Texas you have to kill at least 75 percent of the years pups just to keep the numbers even. On a normal year here, I could take every coyote in my area that was killing livestock and have a break in the problems from the end of June till the end of August. Near the end of August, I would start seeing signs of them moving into the area to fill the vacuum that I created. In years like we have had for the last 3 or 4 years, with lower prey numbers and lower predator numbers they have been constantly moving to fill the areas that have been vacated. Windypants; you are seeing the same type of movements up in your area as well. You are seeing the same type of coyote pup numbers as I have talked about before when the prey base was down, or when the adult coyote numbers were higher, pup numbers of four to five pups per litter being born to the pairs that have filled in the places where you took out the breeding pairs who had been dominate in your area. In the 80's some of the people would tell you that you needed to slow down and let the coyotes have their pups, raise them and disperse so that you would have coyotes to hunt and trap the following fall and winter I personally never found that I ran short of coyotes more than just a few months in the summer when I was in need of a slowdown and a break in the work load. With you having the ability to observe the adults and their young of the year You have one of the best learning experiences and opportunities that could ever be presented to a person, yup I might be a little envious of the opportunity you have been given. No not really, I am truly happy you have been given the chance to see what I myself have enjoyed before and could just tell others about, so that you too can share your experiences with the rest of us! We have been blessed with the chance to have the time and ability to enjoy the coyote in its world and how they adapt to the changing world that they live in! Gotta love it!
windypants
Well-Known Member
Im thoroughly enjoying this stage of my life. I had the opportunity to sell my 29 year sawmill business three years ago, and for the first time since I was a young buck I have the time to do this stuff. I'm 60 and am very fortunate to still have my health and the ability to run the ridges and enjoy His creation. And for the first time I have an either sex elk permit for this area, so I'm also scouting for elk. I saw about 20 bulls this morning including an impressive 7-pointer. I've lived and hunted in Montana all my life and never shot anything bigger than a small rag horn, so I'm excited about this opportunity! And really looking forward to coyote season.
It is such a pleasure isn't! I am now 68 and needed to retire in 2017. As a young person I had the opportunity to get out and do it. So many of us abused ourselves when we were younger and at the stage in life when we aren't working hard every day to raise a family, we aren't able to get out as much as we would like, fortunately I was able to when I was younger. While I enjoy a good piece of elk, I don't want to hunt them any longer, I've had my chance to in my earlier days and completely enjoyed it. So today I enjoy, as you do, also just getting out to watch them. I have in the past been asked where to find elk by others that didn't get out and do their own scouting, but I have also been told don't you think it's cheating for you to hunt elk because you already know where they are. I also have been told it wasn't sportsman like to stalk in and shoot them when they were bedded and didn't know I was anywhere close to them. I had to smile, shake my head and say it's not my fault you aren't a hunter, I'm a predator like the predators that I hunt. It makes me happy to hear about others that are able to get out and about to do their scouting and make observations as there are so very many like you that aren't to a point, or place where they can. and they get to by the things that you and I talk of doing. Thank You and please continue to share with the rest of us.
I was setting to look at a web site that sells parts and accessories for AR's. They had a muzzle break for an AR-10 that was threaded on the outside of it for a sound redirection device. So, me being me and it costs less than 45.00 dollars verse's 250.00 dollars for a barrel tuner, I ordered it to see how it looked. It was made in the United States looks good and I didn't have to take much off of the base to get it timed correctly. Now I will just machine the weight that will screw on it, leaving the muzzle break in working condition and screwing back over the barrel with marks so that I will know where it was set and then test drive it to see if it does indeed make a difference in the group size. I will do what most of the tuners say they do and make it weigh 4 ounces but first I will test the rifle with just the break then put the weight on it and test it. All of my loads will be as close to the same as I can make them for my 6.5 Creedmoor, 39 grains of Varget, 95 grain V-Max bullets seated to an overall length of 2.670 giving me .062 jump to the lands. My neck tension is set at .004. I am running Remington 9 1/2 primers. Sometime this week I should have the weight machined for the break. It's all for fun and curiosity at this time.
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This is what came with the break, I ordered it from a place called JustRails. you can see the shinny end of the break where I machined it to time it, but it came with a crush washer or a jam nut to time it with. The break that I made for the 6.5 Creedmoor a couple of weeks ago calmed the recoil a lot, but it wasn't too bad in the first place, I was wondering about changing the grouping when I machined the first one now, I am wondering how this one will change it as well as how it will change with a tuner. I am sure that the sound will be more, but it shouldn't kick up a lot of dirt and dust as it flows to the sides not the bottom, the one that I built has ports on the top and sides but not the bottom. I have seen some pretty similar to it for sale. If nothing else, I will have found out something about what I have been wondering it would do for it. A few years ago, I built a break for my 6.5 x 284 Norma the same design as the one I just built for the Creedmoor, and it tamed its recoil enough for me to see my hits with it. That one had five holes on the top and five holes on each side that were 3/16 " in diameter, the first ones were at 90 degrees but the rest of them were at 15 degrees to the back of the break toward the rifle barrel. I figured that the first ones being at 90 degrees would help block the other holes gas flow but that the ones at 15 degrees would calm the recoil. I have curiosity attacks often and always have, so in a few more years I should be in hog heaven if I get Alzheimer's that way, I can ask questions about the same thing and get answers all day long, yup I'm a little mean hearted. but I like to have some fun with things too.
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Talking a little about den site location.
Fox don't seem to care where they den.
Last year driving home from work I had to slow down to avoid from running over a fox
and the four little gray fur balls following her.
The next day I located her den. It was in a colvert on a approach leading to a old gravel pit.
The den was only about 12' from the white line on a little used county paved road.
The fox family stayed there for a week or ten days. By that time the little fox lost all their gray fur and were red.
Years ago I was driving down a dirt county road. The road turned and headed down a hill. Out the side window I spotted a pup fox watching from his den. I could have touched him with a broom stick.
The den was located in a bank, on the inside corner of the road.
When I was a kid, I heard a story about a local sheep rancher
who had gathered his herd of sheep and put them in a small pasture next to a pen where he docked the lambs.
While working the lambs he looked out into the small pasture and spotted a pup fox in the middle of his sheep. His blood pressure jumped a tad 
Turns out there was a fox den in the middle of his small pasture.
Hal
Fox don't seem to care where they den.
Last year driving home from work I had to slow down to avoid from running over a fox
and the four little gray fur balls following her.The next day I located her den. It was in a colvert on a approach leading to a old gravel pit.
The den was only about 12' from the white line on a little used county paved road.
The fox family stayed there for a week or ten days. By that time the little fox lost all their gray fur and were red.
Years ago I was driving down a dirt county road. The road turned and headed down a hill. Out the side window I spotted a pup fox watching from his den. I could have touched him with a broom stick.
The den was located in a bank, on the inside corner of the road.
When I was a kid, I heard a story about a local sheep rancher
who had gathered his herd of sheep and put them in a small pasture next to a pen where he docked the lambs.
While working the lambs he looked out into the small pasture and spotted a pup fox
in the middle of his sheep. His blood pressure jumped a tad Turns out there was a fox den in the middle of his small pasture.
Hal
Straight Shooter
Well-Known Member
Exactly
Yes I have taken red fox dens from some strange places, culverts, pipes, rock piles, out of prairie dog holes in the middle of a flat pasture. They tend to move the kits when the hole gets dirty, and they aren't a clean animal. They drag all sorts of dead things back to the den. I got a call one time from a guy that told me he had a coyote problem, when I got there and was looking things over I noticed that a lot of his lambs had about half of their tails missing. Red fox were chasing the lambs and grabbing them by the tails, and the tails would pop off. Another time a guy called me and said he had something strange making an unusual sound in the pasture behind his house, he had never heard a red fox bark before, I got four nearly full-grown kits and the mom, no more strange sounds.
They have a lot of muzzle devices, some American made some not but if a person is just experimenting before they lay out a lot of money you can play with some of these to find out what style will do what then buy one of the same or nearly the same design built by someone else and have your smith install it.
