Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

[trapper1954]

When the fur prices are down a lot of people, it seems, tend to not be as particular about putting up their fur as when the prices are high. But for me it meant that I needed to get the best price I could for my fur. So that meant I needed to be even more picky about putting my fur up, cleaning it and stretching it, sewing up any holes getting the burs, mud and blood out. I skinned mine carefully, I used air and a sports ball needle sharpened to a point to air then up like a balloon by inserting it under the skin of the legs and pumping them up gently. Made my cuts up the back legs and wrists then pealed it down to the head and carefully made the ear cuts eye cuts and around the lips. Then I turned them fur side out put them in my old wringer type washer and washed them with a milder detergent, I have used Dawn dish soap in a pinch, and cold water then rinsed them in clean water after hand wringing them out. I would wring them by hand again then hang them by the nose in a cool place, not cold enough for them to freeze, let then drip dry for a day then turn them fur side in and put them on my wooden stretchers snug them tight but not quite tight as I were stretching them and use my curved needle with mint green dental floss, so the tanner would know it was sewn up and not ruin it, use a running stich to close the holes if I had any. Pull it tight and stretch it then if I needed to clean any excess fat off of the skin. I tucked the front legs in to the leg holes for ease of pulling them out latter. I then hung them up by the nose again till it was time to turn them fur side out when the skin felt good and dry to the touch not sticky. I had holes drilled in the end of my stretchers so they would fit onto headless nails to hang them on bent at an upward angle. Thats when the combing and deburring started the burs would be softened by washing the fur and make it easier to get them out of the fur without breaking the fur. Would you rather have a nice new shiny silver dollar or an old dull worn one that has been carried around for years in someone's pocket? If I'm going to get 5.00 tops for my fur that is the best, I want all of my furs to look their best in hopes of getting the best the buyer will pay. After a few times the buyer will know what you do and will be able to see you and expect that you are doing as well as you can and that you give a s607 about handling your fur so he will do you the best that he can.

skinned a 26# tom yesterday

 

[DSheetz]

What does he measure from tip of nose to base of tail trapper?

 

[DSheetz]

In about 1985 I was denning for some fox that had been killing new lambs, you can tell it's fox by tracks or by older lambs having half a tail missing. When the lambs get older, they run and a little red will grab the tail and it will come off where they bite it. Anyway, I tracked the vixen back to the fence line going into the neighbor's farmland. So, I went back to my truck drove to their house got out and went to the door to knock on it all the while keeping an eye on a smaller red healer dog, as I knocked at the door it sat down beside my feet, so I let him sniff my hand gave him a few pats. I guy came to the door I introduced myself and told him what I was doing, he told me sure go ahead and take the fox den but make sure I didn't miss any of them, then he said didn't Red bite you he didn't even bark at you h098 he even bites me. I said no he didn't even act like he wanted to bite me he even wanted me to pet him. I was around that dog for several years after that as the guy asked me to trap on him and that dog never did bite me or bark at me.

 

[Straight Shooter]

OA Bill Austin female howler with a critter call standard on one of my homegrown lanyards. This is my standard set of calls when Denning. The howler does several different sounds when you have the time to play with it not just howls deer blats antelope blats rabbit squalls, injured coyote yelps, barks, ect. . The critter call standard is a versatile call as well, this one is probably 40 or more years old. It was a gift from an older den hunter that I was learning from. I put the reed that I liked the sound of that came with it as it had three reeds and two reed blocks, and the reed hasn't been changed since. When I'm denning, I might be out for most of the day and cover several miles walking so for me personally, I like to travel lite not carrying more than the essentials. But if you look at my truck it appears to be a real mess with a lot of things even a zip-lock bag with TP in it but everything has a use and a place.

Dave, I have had my crit'r call for about 30 years. It goes everywhere with me and is one of my favorite calls. Still has the original reed. A couple of years ago when I met you at the restaurant I was on my way to the trapper's convention in Lusk. I sat and chatted with Major Boddicker for a while when I was there. Wow, has that guy had some experiences in his life. Also, many years ago when I started howling I used Bill Austin's male howler. That was the hardest howler I ever tried to blow. I didn't have enough wind to make it work. I still have it, but I don't know why. I always wanted to be able to make a magpie sound because that is a great confirmation sound for a coyote coming in. I guess I should have had Major Boddicker teach me that. He can make about any sound imaginable.

 

[DSheetz]

Straight Shooter; I haven't met Major Boddicker myself, but I have boughten his calls for a lot of years and I buy reed material from him. I have watched some of his tapes a lot of years ago and he is amazing with how he can make his calls talk. There are so very many really talented people out there. I am a fan of some of the open reed calls and love to just set and play with them out on a hill side at times trying to imitate sounds in nature. I have always watched the magpies when they come to the call, they tend to attract predators then tattle on them. Nature tells a person so much when we take the time to look, listen and be observant.

 

[HRM Johnny]

What a trap line dog can do for you. Walt is marking where a coyote had marked. A lot of the people that have been doing coyote work for a while will recognize the type of place, he is marking but people new to the job might not think about it as being a place that coyotes will mark. Notice that it's a small sage brush standing out of the rest behind it, It's also on the downwind side of a slight trail in the grass. Just up wind is a fence line that is woven wire with two strands of barbed wire on top of it and a dig under it. The coyotes have dug under it here and use it to cross from one pasture to the other. An ideal place for whatever you decide to use. Traps set at the backing bush they are marking, an M-44 set on that side of the trail nearby or a snare in the hole under the fence, all three even. If you look at the picture closely you can see the slight trail by the grass being gone and clear snow where Walts left feet are just inside of the trail.

Thanks Dave. Good stuff for guys like me who don't know sh*&%$t yet.

 

[trapper1954]

What does he measure from tip of nose to base of tail trapper?

Gosh I didnt measure it and the hides in the freezer, gonna deal with the carcass today for bait.

 

[unclebob]

What a trap line dog can do for you. Walt is marking where a coyote had marked. A lot of the people that have been doing coyote work for a while will recognize the type of place, he is marking but people new to the job might not think about it as being a place that coyotes will mark. Notice that it's a small sage brush standing out of the rest behind it, It's also on the downwind side of a slight trail in the grass. Just up wind is a fence line that is woven wire with two strands of barbed wire on top of it and a dig under it. The coyotes have dug under it here and use it to cross from one pasture to the other. An ideal place for whatever you decide to use. Traps set at the backing bush they are marking, an M-44 set on that side of the trail nearby or a snare in the hole under the fence, all three even. If you look at the picture closely you can see the slight trail by the grass being gone and clear snow where Walts left feet are just inside of the trail.

I came across your posts a few months ago and started reading and really enjoyed them, then decided to go back to where these started and read it from the beginning and I'm up to about page 70
I live on the edge of the Ozark Mountains in central ARkansas so where I hunt is a lot different than where you live and usually if I see a coyote it is accidental but I see them on my trail cameras all the time
I hope all of you keep sharing and teaching us about hunting and trapping.

 

[Donmiller]

I , like most on here enjoy hunting coyote , according to my wife too much . When I first started hunting and trapping coyote the first year I had an old dog coyote with out toes on his right front foot . I tried all winter to get him without success . In the spring the county trapper ask me if I wanted to den hunt with him as he had a call , from the neighbor of the ranch I had been trapping on , to get some coyote that were killing lambs . We went out in the morning and started tracking them , sure enough one of them had a square right front foot . We tracked them most of the day finding them in yet another ranchers pasture to the west of where they were killing . They were making a six mile round trip to kill lambs and feed their pups . Merlyn laid down facing the main draw and had me lay down facing a smaller side draw facing east . When Merlyn let out a few puppy squeals , using a med critter call the old dog ran out of the draw in front of me stopping about 20 feet in front of me , I swear you could see anger in his big yellow eyes . I was at that time shooting a new chambering the 17 Remington with the only ammo offerings a 25 gr hp running 4200 fpmv . I got excited and pushed the trigger thus hitting him in the left shoulder as he was spinning I got one in his rib cage and he dropped . I found that I had my square footed challenge and a new addiction We took 8 pups from that den the killing stopped and I learned a lot .

Most of my coyote kills have been by happenstance. It sure doesn't take long for for any kind of a hunt to turn into a coyote hunt when I spot one.
Hunting waterfowl on the San Juan river in NM my buddy and I had several ducks in a make shift blind. As we were getting up to leave a coyote made the fatal mistake of trying to leave at about 20 feet. We both hit him.
I don't know if he was curious or could smell the ducks and figured he could snatch one.

 

[HRM Johnny]

Most of my coyote kills have been by happenstance. It sure doesn't take long for for any kind of a hunt to turn into a coyote hunt when I spot one.
Hunting waterfowl on the San Juan river in NM my buddy and I had several ducks in a make shift blind. As we were getting up to leave a coyote made the fatal mistake of trying to leave at about 20 feet. We both hit him.
I don't know if he was curious or could smell the ducks and figured he could snatch one.

Thanks for the story.

 

[DSheetz]

On Memorial Day 1991 I sat up on this ridge to locate coyotes, it was denning season and I wanted to get a good idea where the dens were located without doing a lot of walking in the rough draws, so being lazy or maybe working smarter not harder, I got my siren out set it up put my ear protection on and ran it. As I shut it down and removed my earmuffs, I could hear two groups of pups talking, some over in a small canyon directly to my front and another group way off to my right-hand side in the badlands, it sounded like they were the older ones and close to an artesian well. So, I went for the younger group in the canyon first, It took me around 45 minutes to get where I wanted to set up and howl for mom or dad. I did a loud shrill half howl and a couple of shrill quick barks. Two coyotes showed up one at about 75 yards and one close to 150 yards. I shot the close one and the far one ran but I did some hurt coyote squalls it stopped turned toward me and ran in my way head low back hunched up hackles bristling, and tail tucked. I shot it. then found the den hole close to where she had been. I got seven pups from that den, gathered all my stuff and drug it to my truck and went for the second group of pups. Knowing where the well was and the roads in that area helps a ton. It took over an hour to get close and park in a saddle hiding my truck then walking to a good place for a setup to call. I started that morning running my siren at close to six AM it was now getting close to noon, but I hoped to get a response from at least one adult near the den, so I used just one long lone howl and sat waiting, out maybe a quarter of a mile one coyote stood up from the top of a little hill. I watched and waited for probably 20 or 30 minutes then just let out a couple of howls two barks and another howl, nothing aggressive just kind of well I'm here is anyone else kind of thing, I heard you earlier today I just wanted to come visit. The coyote slowly came down off of the hill into the draw and disappeared. In a few minutes it showed up out about a hundred yards with another coyote, and they stood there staring my direction. I shot the one on the left side the one on the right side didn't break it just stood there so I dropped it as well. I will never know why this coyote reacted that way it was the only coyote I ever had that did that. I walked down to the hill where the first coyote was on the small hill and could see the den with the dirt and grass all mashed down from the pups playing. With the adults and pups, I took nineteen coyotes that day. I had to go through the rancher's driveway on my way out, so I stopped by to show and tell, his oldest daughter was there with her little French Bull dog, it ran over to me sniffed at me then ran off stopped stood there barking and being aggressive toward me. That's the only dog that has ever reacted that way toward me, it never did get over it and to the day it died acted like it hated me. The rancher laughed at me and said Jade thinks you're a coyote. He always laughed and said that's the only animal I know of that doesn't like you.

 

[trapper1954]

On Memorial Day 1991 I sat up on this ridge to locate coyotes, it was denning season and I wanted to get a good idea where the dens were located without doing a lot of walking in the rough draws, so being lazy or maybe working smarter not harder, I got my siren out set it up put my ear protection on and ran it. As I shut it down and removed my earmuffs, I could hear two groups of pups talking, some over in a small canyon directly to my front and another group way off to my right-hand side in the badlands, it sounded like they were the older ones and close to an artesian well. So, I went for the younger group in the canyon first, It took me around 45 minutes to get where I wanted to set up and howl for mom or dad. I did a loud shrill half howl and a couple of shrill quick barks. Two coyotes showed up one at about 75 yards and one close to 150 yards. I shot the close one and the far one ran but I did some hurt coyote squalls it stopped turned toward me and ran in my way head low back hunched up hackles bristling, and tail tucked. I shot it. then found the den hole close to where she had been. I got seven pups from that den, gathered all my stuff and drug it to my truck and went for the second group of pups. Knowing where the well was and the roads in that area helps a ton. It took over an hour to get close and park in a saddle hiding my truck then walking to a good place for a setup to call. I started that morning running my siren at close to six AM it was now getting close to noon, but I hoped to get a response from at least one adult near the den, so I used just one long lone howl and sat waiting, out maybe a quarter of a mile one coyote stood up from the top of a little hill. I watched and waited for probably 20 or 30 minutes then just let out a couple of howls two barks and another howl, nothing aggressive just kind of well I'm here is anyone else kind of thing, I heard you earlier today I just wanted to come visit. The coyote slowly came down off of the hill into the draw and disappeared. In a few minutes it showed up out about a hundred yards with another coyote, and they stood there staring my direction. I shot the one on the left side the one on the right side didn't break it just stood there so I dropped it as well. I will never know why this coyote reacted that way it was the only coyote I ever had that did that. I walked down to the hill where the first coyote was on the small hill and could see the den with the dirt and grass all mashed down from the pups playing. With the adults and pups, I took nineteen coyotes that day. I had to go through the rancher's driveway on my way out, so I stopped by to show and tell, his oldest daughter was there with her little French Bull dog, it ran over to me sniffed at me then ran off stopped stood there barking and being aggressive toward me. That's the only dog that has ever reacted that way toward me, it never did get over it and to the day it died acted like it hated me. The rancher laughed at me and said Jade thinks you're a coyote. He always laughed and said that's the only animal I know of that doesn't like you.

You turned things around for that rancher. People dont comprehend how many things die to feed the pups, starts out with a real good ewe dead and the heart and lungs is all thats been taken, pups are just starting their solid diet, buzzards get the rest, tomorrow will be a repeat and so on. which brings to mind a sheep place I was on once and several things happened there that I still ponder on. A replacement ewe was killed 100yds from the house and I was called and there by 7am and that ewe was wrecked out. I found one shoulder 50' away the other 30' away the carcass looked like a tractor shredder had run over it. Hard ground no tracks, found a ,1, coyote dropping 100 yds away. Then a few days later I was helping the lady move the sheep to another pasture and saw an old ewe lagging way behind and her head was cocked like something was wrong. I caught her and threw her down and her milk bag was gone,,,jerked right off... And in a few days a 110# long yearling buck sheep caught and killed on the spot where it stood head twisted horns planted, 25# meat eaten. all on the same place. I took 4 coyotes and 10 red fox off for them but wasn't satisfied I'd gotten the killer.. I took the photos of that wrecked out ewe over to the gov. trapper district office in Uvalde and asked for their opinion and they said if it were further west it would be a bear kill but where I was working they couldnt say.

 

[DSheetz]

I would have been looking for a bear on the first kill. They pull them apart pretty good, breaking the necks often as they grab and twist it. I got called one time to meet a rancher up on the mountain he said he had a coyote problem. We met and went to look at the kills he said it's kind of strange all of them have their heads missing. As we were looking at the first one there were a lot of coyote tracks around it and the buzzards had been feeding on it. the second one was pretty much a repeat of the first, they both were in marshy grassy areas but had good moist soil for prints. At both kill sites there were some smallish prints that looked kind of like a barefooted person had been there walking around. The third one was in drier dusty ground with some good bear prints and black hair from a bear all of them had been eaten on by coyotes scavenging as well as buzzards. when the bear was killed a day later it was a smaller female with tags, she was a transplant from the Yellowstone Park that had been causing problems there. Sometimes you just move your problem around for someone else to deal with.

 

[DSheetz]

As with everything else It took me at least one viewing of different kills to be able to tell what probably killed them, and it being explained to me what I was looking at and what to actually be looking for. Lion kills look different then black bear kills, but grizzly kills look different than the others. Some of them it is just some subtle differences, some of them are pretty drastic. They all are hard to tell after a while of being scavenged on by several other species and being exposed to the elements, hot sunny days take their toll fast. There was a time that I was supposed to go to 3 days of refresher and new training a year. Not a bad thing.