How to deter coyotes

[the old grind]

.. The experts claim that if you kill a couple yotes they just breed at a higher rate and the population stays the same. Ed

Has to be understood in a scale of time and territory, as pressured populations of many species bear this out.

Two coyotes may become ten or more, but take more than a year to do so. (time for a season of foals/calves/lambs/kids to outgrow their vulnerability to solo or pair attacks and join in 'herd' defenses?)

Open country where pack territories overlap makes them harder to 'clean up' vs in the gaps between suburbs of more populous areas. (plenty of rabbits in the yard due to effective hunting/trapping pressure?)

Wherever coyotes appear they should be considered 'here to stay', becoming part of the local ecology. (True, you can't get 'em all, but finally something you can actually hunt with an AR-15 vs dots on paper. )

Too many folks here (So MI's 'shotgun zone' during deer season) think that their center fires aren't allowed the rest of the year and won't hunt them. Fox & coyote are 'open' to hunt here from July 15 to Apr 15 with small game license, trapping Oct thru Feb with fur handlers license. Caliber/Gauge not specified except during firearm deer season. (rimfire and daytime hunting only, then)

From MIDNR: "Raccoon and Coyote may be taken on private property by a property owner or designee all year if they are doing or about to do damage on private property. A license or written permit is not needed."

Your word against someone's on that 'threat/damage' bit.

btw, 32 snares set ~1 mi from here and fingers crossed that we'll have another night in the fur shed soon with lots of coffee to guzzle and 'blood on our hands' if we can skin 'em out before they freeze stiff.

 

[the old grind]

Got 2 small 'yotes Friday morning. (on right in pic, 1 M, 1 F) Had to skin 'em that night to prevent freezing in the shop. w/o time to hang & drain out they tend to be messy (lotsa red around the head) by the time they're fleshed out, boraxed, & stretched. (not my catch or my job this time )

Two 'yotes running on my patch/pond but no snares set here. ('cages' in barn, 'dog-proofs' on shore) Tracks on the big line are all fox so snares were reset smaller & lower but not moved from runs. Sub-zero temps Fri & Sat (-10 Sat) kept 'em down but rising to teens tonight, so hoping they'll be hungry enough by now to get out & scrounge for mice/voles & rabbits. (canines don't store fat like 'coons, so have to stay fed)

Wouldn't bother y'all with this, but I sorta promised a weekend report.

 

[jrclark]

Maybe a dumb question but how do you distinguish a coyote from a dog? Sent from my iPhone 2.0 using TractorByNet

I don't hunt them, but consider them fairly easy to distinguish. However, there are so many stories of people losing dogs because someone else didn't take a second look. I met a ranch hand who lost a dog because someone thought it was a coyote. Shame too, his dog was awesome.

 

[Ford850]

Fox & coyote are 'open' to hunt here from July 15 to Apr 15 with small game license, trapping Oct thru Feb with fur handlers license. Caliber/Gauge not specified except during firearm deer season. (rimfire and daytime hunting only, then)

I don't think fox are included in that July-April coyote season.

 

[jlgurr]

Got 2 small 'yotes Friday morning. (on right in pic, 1 M, 1 F) Had to skin 'em that night to prevent freezing in the shop. w/o time to hang & drain out they tend to be messy (lotsa red around the head) by the time they're fleshed out, boraxed, & stretched. (not my catch or my job this time )

Other than its really cold there, why wouldn't you just bury them. Are their pelts worth the trouble of skinning them? Not second guessing, just curious because I'd never heard they were worth keeping.

Sent from my iPhone 2.0 using TractorByNet

 

[TheSpoon]

Other than its really cold there, why wouldn't you just bury them. Are their pelts worth the trouble of skinning them? Not second guessing, just curious because I'd never heard they were worth keeping.

Sent from my iPhone 2.0 using TractorByNet

Anywhere from $5-$30 here, depending on quality I believe.

 

[the old grind]

Anywhere from $5-$30 here, depending on quality I believe.

Three seasons ago we turned in $40 & $50 coyotes and $30 & $40 fox, but Russia and the far East are major markets for furs. Local buyers are still active but foreign sales are all but nonexistent with their withering economies. Last two winters you'd have been lucky to get $10-$12 for the best 'coons or canines you had. I'm mostly nuisance trapping 365 & the pal for fur during legal seasons, but we overlap/share hardware, work, territory, and catch as a 'team'.

I don't think fox are included in that July-April coyote season.

I'd bet you're right about that just tend to think of them together since my primary 'nuisance window' (peaks in Spring) can be as narrow as my friends fur season but they overlap some, so we're on the same page with critters 6 or so mos a year. My fox & coyotes are usually shot at night (no NV needed with snow & overcast) over bait with .22 Magnum, but also usually during fur season, so are rarely 'wasted'.

Here's a warm weather runt 'coon that raided corn from a turkey dusting bowl behind the pond (Rem 597, ATN 390) a gray, and a red (CZ 452 LUX) shot over bait w/o NV:

Grays around here run big, reds small-med, and these are typical of sizes we shoot/trap.

 

[westcliffe01]

I have skinned a few coyotes and to me it absolutely is not worth the work. The skin is quite thin and attached pretty strong and if you are doing the whole hog (nose, ears eyelids, gums, paw pads etc, it is a heck of a lot of work.

I have resorted to shooting them and then tossing them where I don't want their buddies showing up next.