Almost had a Coyote in my lap this morning...

[roundball]

Saw my first Coyote in the wild and it was up close at 15yds when I first saw it...wasn’t able to get off a shot but it was an experience just the same.
Decided to try the oak ridge I deer hunt because I’ve seen turkeys in that area in past years after acorns in the fall.
No idea if they were in that area in the spring, but my other place seemed dead.

I’m sitting down leaning against a big pine tree in a “V” shaped natural blind I first built years ago, and adding brush to it every year, my only visibility is the 45* front opening because the sides are higher than my head when I’m sitting down.
It’s very early, right after first poor/low light, and all of a sudden from the right side of the blind, what I first thought was a Gray Fox appeared trotting right across in front of me not 15 steps in front of my boots...moving from right to left, quartering up and away to the front left.

First thought was “pretty Gray Fox after some breakfast”, but as it’s moving away giving me glimpses between trees, red flags start popping up as I’m processing details in a rush of a few seconds:
Tail doesn’t seem quite as full & bushy as a fox...
Is that body higher up off the ground / legs longer than a fox...
That body seems a bit longer than a fox...
Then got a look at the longer snout and it hit me...that’s a Coyote !!

I instinctively started to raise the Flintlock but at the same moment realized he was already trotting out around 40yds and by the time I got on him, he’d be at 50yds...the .28ga #6s wouldn’t get it done.

I dropped the Flintlock back across my lap, grabbed the box call to make a few hen yelps just on the remote chance that it might turn him to double back a little closer...he did turn left 90* and look back but kept right on that fast walk / trot that dogs do.
(Insulting...even Coyotes apparently don’t think I sound very convincing...LOL)

SUMMARY;
1) I noticed 3-4 years ago I wasn’t seeing the turkeys I normally saw on that property.
2) Then a couple years ago I had gone scouting one day and came across two spots where something had caught / eaten a turkey...just in that one scouting walk I found 2 spots...began to seriously suspect Coyotes.
3) Then last November deer hunting one morning and all of a sudden what had to be a pack of Coyotes opened up yipping / yapping / howling in the thick regrowth / clearcut area 75yds from me, then shut right off after 30-45 seconds.
(the Coyotes pack call to hunt)
4) Now today, hunting right there, I about had a Coyote in my lap...breeze must have been right because he never knew I was there.

If I’d have had the 20ga with the bigger load of #4s...(or a rifle of course)...I’d have shot him...and if a frog had wings...anyhow...kind of helped make a beautiful uneventful morning at least different.

 

[jeffdrown]

Got this one the other day with 20 gage BP. Keep at it ..your day will come soon ! Good luck

 

[crockett]

I wonder if there are a lot more coyotes around than imagined. The local Fish & Game folks where I live did a few tests with baited areas to see how many foxes, etc showed up and way more coyotes than they realized.

 

[roundball]

I wonder if there are a lot more coyotes around than imagined. The local Fish & Game folks where I live did a few tests with baited areas to see how many foxes, etc showed up and way more coyotes than they realized.

Coyote population is taking over...destroying quail, turkey, rabbit populations and killing new born fawns...a pack of Coyotes is to fawns that the larger wolves are to elk / moose.
They're a very stealthy reclusive hunter and are not seen often...no question there's plenty more.

 

[Trench]

I didn't realize coyote's were new to your neck of the woods. Yup, they like to eat other critters and we're noticing less fawn during the spring here in Indiana.

 

[roundball]

Not new to the state in general at all...just finally began reaching the more obvious nuisance level badly during the past few years on the little property I hunt...

 

[Macon Due]

Yeah, around here not many rabbits due to coyotes and Hawks! used to see a hawk once in a while now maybe 4-5 at a time.
Macon

 

[Skychief]

Roundball, are you handy with snares? :idunno:

Seriously, Skychief.

 

[hanshi]

I lived in Ga. for over 60 years and can't even count the coyotes I've seen. Shot one once while deer hunting but other than that never shot another. You'd think there wouldn't be many deer because of them; but the deer are still thick as fleas. Twelve is the yearly limit. You could always count on seeing coyotes and armadillos down there.

Off the subject but bobcats were commonly seen during deer season. I killed two with an old .45 percussion H&A underhammer.

 

[roundball]

Roundball, are you handy with snares? :idunno:
Seriously, Skychief.

I snared my Wife 45 years ago if that counts...LOL.

No, I know what snares are, and leg hold traps, etc, but have never fooled with them

 

[VEARL]

Here in Oklahoma, we have always had a large number of coyotes.
I drop one every time I see one. Has really helped our deer population. Also noted that the bunny population has rebounded somewhat.
A 50 CAL roundball does put a hurt on them. Hides used to bring some profit, but not anymore.
Still it's fun to call them in to you and take your shot.

 

[Stumpkiller]

I wonder if there are a lot more coyotes around than imagined. The local Fish & Game folks where I live did a few tests with baited areas to see how many foxes, etc showed up and way more coyotes than they realized.

In 2009 my neighbor shot 42 along a powerline right-of-way that crosses my property. There are a TON of coyotes locally. Every deer season I see more coyotes than deer. I've seen as many as six at one time in single file following a scent trail after a deer.

And, being a chicken and sheep raiser: "Thou shall not pass". I don't hunt coyotes. I kill coyotes. Mercilessly, and without regard to clean kill vs. "Hail Mary" long or running shots that might only wound. That is the only animal besides mosquitoes I treat as such.

I have a scoped single-shot .223 Rem and, if I see a coyote from my back deck, I will shoot regardless or range or speed. From my tree stand while deer hunting with a bow I have nailed almost a dozen with a broadhead in the seven years I have lived on this property. That's not counting the ones that "jumped the string" and I missed entirely as they dodged the arrow.

 

[Trench]

We're seeing less does with two fawns in trail during the spring and summer in Indiana and it's being attributed to the coyote population. I'm starting to consider taking your approach to the matter.

 

[roundball]

I'll definitely kill every one I get a chance to...this one would have been dead if I'd known at the moment I saw him he was in fact a Coyote when he was in range.
The whole time I was processing what I was seeing in that low light, he was covering yardage with that fast walk/trot and was out of range for .28ga #6s by the time my brain said 'Coyote'.
First one I'd ever seen up close in the wild and will know better in the future.

 

[Hoyt]

Need to keep your eyes peeled when sounding like lunch.

I know of two instances where coyotes bit turkey hunters this yr.

One was in Kentucky and a coyote jumped on a guy calling turkeys and bit him on his upper arm and the other one in Maine..just about the same circumstances. Bit on upper arm..both yotes got away.

This is the Maine story...

MACHIAS, Maine ”” Opening day of turkey season turned out to be a bit more than Bill Robinson had in mind Monday when he set out his decoy at dawn’s first light.

“I’ll never forget looking up and seeing a jaw full of teeth coming at me,” Robinson said Tuesday, the day after being attacked and bitten on the right arm by a coyote. The wild canine sprang while the Maine Guide was hunkered down in the brush, using a mouth-call to lure a turkey into the open while hunting on private property near the Washington County community of Cooper.

“I had placed my turkey decoy in a field in front of me and then positioned myself in some cover,” said Robinson, 39, who lives in Edmunds Township, near Dennysville. “It was about 10 minutes after dawn, and right beside me was a short, thick spruce tree that had grown so thick you couldn’t see through it. That coyote came up the edge of the field and was one side of that tree, with me on the other.

“The distance involved was only about four feet,” Robinson said. “But that tree was so thick that he couldn’t see me, and I couldn’t see him. He was determined to have turkey for breakfast and was also determined that the sound he heard was a hen turkey.”

Robinson said the coyote “came in high,” a hunting maneuver designed to ensure his feathered prey couldn’t fly off.

“When he bit down on my upper arm, he went through four layers ”” a heavy jacket, a sweatshirt, a long-sleeve shirt and a T-shirt,” he said. “As I peeled off each layer there were two holes in each one. When I got to my arm, it was just burning and bleeding out of two holes.”

Once the coyote realized it had jumped a human, not a hen, it sprinted away.

“It turned and ran 100 miles an hour across that field,” Robinson said. “It was as shocked and surprised to see me, as I was to see it. I took a shot at it, but it was too far off by then. I turned it around for a second when I hit him in the haunch with a few pellets from my turkey load, just to say goodbye.”

Robinson packed up and headed to the nearby home of a friend, Joe Gardner, who is a district game warden. Gardner examined and took pictures of the wound before counseling Robinson to seek medical attention at the Down East Community Hospital in Machias, where he began a two-week regimen of precautionary rabies vaccine injections.

Robinson was given seven shots Monday, four in his right arm, where he was bitten, and three in his left. There are, he said, many more shots in his near future.

“I walked into that hospital with one sore arm and left with two,” he said Tuesday. “But I don’t blame the coyote. It was doing what coyotes do, hunting. My guess is that coyote was perfectly healthy and was not rabid. He was big, probably 50 pounds. I’m just glad it didn’t grab my neck.”

So is Gardner, who has been friends with Robinson since they were boys.

“That was a first-time event for me,” said Gardner, who patrols the Pembroke area. “I’ve heard people tell stories about coyotes coming into an area where they are calling turkeys, but then running off when they realize what they’re hearing are hunters, not turkeys. I told Bill that he must be really good at calling turkeys.”

A Maine Guide for eight years, Robinson said he’ll be turkey hunting again soon.

“I’ll be a little more prepared next time, in terms of not positioning myself where there’s a blind spot,” he said. “It was a freak thing. And an unforgettable thing.”

 

[roundball]

Uhmmm...hadn't thought of that.

What I have decided to try after turkey closes in a week, is go back there with .20ga / #4s or .40cal rifle...set up a predator motion decoy I have about 25yds in front of that blind, and drop in a rabbit in distress predator tape...see if I can snag it or one of its brothers/sisters.

I'll give up some range by taking the .62cal smoothbore but that coyote never stopped moving and a rifle might actually be a handicap

 

[hanshi]

I don't think coyotes are in danger of going extinct.

 

[hawk]

good on you for choosin' your shot well, alot for the brain to digest in so little time ....he's lucky you weren't loaded with prb! can you hunt rifle down there? might pack that .40 iffin' you can!

 

[roundball]

can you hunt rifle down there? might pack that .40 iffin' you can!

Yes...and I'm back and forth trying to decide on the .40cal .vs. the .20ga right now.
I'm hunting thick woods...judging from the other day that Coyote never slowed down once, was always on the move, only seeing glimpses of him in and out of trees, etc.

I'd give up some range not using the rifle, but assuming he comes in to the motion decoy at 25yds, he'll be in .20ga shotgun range anyway.
And with him in & out of tress the shotgun seems like it would give me a better chance of at least knocking him down.

If I go smooth, I have to decide on #4s or #2s...better penetration with #2s but a reduced pellet count in the medium bore .20ga compared to #4s.

 

[hawk]

"If I go smooth, I have to decide on #4s or #2s...better penetration with #2s but a reduced pellet count in the medium bore .20ga compared to #4s."


OH NO! Hope we haven't got you thinking about a 10 ga coyote shottin' gun LOL...it would solve the medium bore de-lema though... :wink: