Ramblings and Such From Hunting Coyote

DSheetz said:
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.
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Bears are protected here. But there was a #5 McBride set out there.
 
They might tell you that there aren't any of that type of animals around your area, but the problem just quietly goes away and the killing stops. And that is what you are needing to take place, the killing to stop, and you don't need to be involved in how, when, or what, took place, just that it did.
 
DSheetz said:
They might tell you that there aren't any of that type of animals around your area, but the problem just quietly goes away and the killing stops. And that is what you are needing to take place, the killing to stop, and you don't need to be involved in how, when, or what, took place, just that it did.
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I recently transferred to West Texas from SE NM as a professional predator control agent and have been surprised by the number of bears in this area.
Officially, there aren't many, but folks don't talk about it openly.
The penalties for killing one , even if they are preying on livestock, is very high.
The ranchers and hands I've dealt with all say that even a conversation about bear predation with the State guys will yield strong threats of prosecution if a bear is killed.
So…as Dave said, the problems just seem to disappear.

In the past, the rule of thumb was "Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up. Now, it's "Shut Up, Shoot, Shovel, and Shut Up."

If a bear carcass is discovered, the first thing that the investigators will do is get a search warrant for the cell phone companies to determine what phones were in the area at the time of the kill. Then they start looking at each phone holder.

For the ranchers, it's a lose-lose situation. For predator control folks, it's the same.
You hate to see the killing, knowing that the ranchers are going to have to pay the price, and you knowing that there is nothing you can do to help.

Ed
 
It appears to me that every place you go to has its own subtle changes. I can be out north of town and in just a few miles the lay of the land has changed, some rolling plans, some pine ridges and some rough deep draws. Then I can go the other direction toward the mountains and the changes happen in less distance, deep canyons with creeks running in them choked with willows, steep hills, rough rocks and cliffs, pine timber and meadows beside the creeks in places. These all play a part in where you will set up to call or set traps and snares. It also will play a role in what sounds you will use in calling. In the planes you have jack rabbits and a larger variety of cotton tails and different species of birds. but you also have deer, antelope, sheep cows ect. to use those sounds. In the high country you will not have these animals at some times of the year so there won't be the need of want to use some of those sounds as they are out of place, so will elicit the wrong type of response from the predators and the predators will be in different locations during the winter in the high country. In the high country you have a smaller type of cotton tail and snowshoe hares that actually sound different then the jack rabbits and the smaller cotton tails sound different than their larger cousins down lower. Time of the year can and does change the sounds in nature in large differences and location changes those sounds as well all things a person might want to consider when out enjoying the world. Well, I went out calling today and didn't call in any coyotes, or I went out and had the best day calling I've ever had. What were the differences that played a part in what kind of day calling I had? A front moving in, or out the sounds I used, the time of year, my selection of set ups, the amount of moisture in the air, affecting the way my sound carries, the amount of volume I used the length of time spent at the stands. Has anyone noticed when the deer and other critters have been up feeding the last several days? Did you notice a correlation with when the moon was up and the feeding patterns of the deer and antelope ect. it has been up during the day now for a while and very dark at night. To me it's all just interesting to pay attention to all of these things.
 
As I have said before I don't pay as much attention to the stage of the moon as I do to the time of its rise and setting. It's what the animals do at these times that I look at and use to my advantage. All due to reading an article on sea urchins several years back that got me to wondering if the other animals did the same as they did and adjusted their feeding times to match that of the moon rise and set times. Subtle changes in our environment that we as humans don't really notice much any longer because we have changed our environment to the point that we don't have to depend on those things like we did in the past, to survive. Thank You windypants for sharing your observations with us. Years ago, I was around and visited with indigenous people that still paid attention to those types of things.to survive. It was kind of spooky at times they would just appear out of nowhere without any sounds, animals being disturbed, or different odors being detected, totally amazing me. I'm sure glad they liked me they were and are still respected by me, if they had wanted to, I would not have been any challenge for them to take me out of their environment.
 
I watch The Weather Channel out of Atlanta Georga it has my local weather forecast for seven days on it plus I have my local weather on my cell phone now that I can get reception for it in most places. it has up to date temperatures, wind speeds and direction as well as the humidity, moon rise and set times, seven-day forecast. I used to have NOAA on my two way, and we have a NOAA channel on am and fm radio stations here. The weather is so important in doing control work, just calling, trapping for pleasure and any other outdoor activities.
 
Well let me tell ya... I was runnin snares in the rain this week lookin for dead coyotes on my 4 wheeler and drove up on a boar hog in the 225-250# range caught on the snout in a 3/32 with break away. Oh man ****ed aint the word for it, there was this big fight going on under 20' away and dang my trusty Remington 22mag rifle is on empty chamber..... Boom he breaks loose I fire off behind last rib and he hits the next scuddle hole and Ive got him again In a snare but his adrenalin was above measure and it popped and off he went. BTW these boars eat just as many lambs as coyotes. Ok conclusion of all this was I'm gonna change out my dispatch artillery to a more practical and safer weapon for these close range encounters without being overkill. Happens to be a gun show going on right now so off I go. Let me tell ya this prices are sooo high you cant imagin and it started at the door admission price. I was looking for maybe a lever 357, 45 long colt, 44 mag but a single shot H&R or CVA if fine with me. No sir not there but there were thousands of guns and the majority was big case configs. I did find an old school Burris 6x18ao,dot+fine hair, bit the bullet and bought it. Made in the USA. Gentle men review your insurance if youve listed your things in contents because all things shooting related are 3x to 5x higher than just a few years back. I saw used well built 22LR's going for $800.. I'll just carry my Dirty Harry style 357 pis tole or my 308 over 12ga.. Heck maybe both too much may be better than not enough.
 
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DSheetz said:
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.
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Dave,

Have you found the siren to be effective to trigger a response at times of the year when they seem to be less willing to vocalize back?

Thanks, Dale
 

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