atsah
Elite Member
Yeah, kinda like humans except they are more evil.
Agreed..
Yeah, kinda like humans except they are more evil.
This seems amazingly challenging and I am impressed people are able to sit entirely still for 30 minutes while hunting.Most of the time, when they bust you, you'll never even know they were coming in, as they will be long gone before you ever see them.
I agree but there are situations where the population gets out of control or they do what they they do best - they are opportunity hunters. So if you have venerable livestock like my neighbors baby goats & chickens unprotected...well. I also notice here Housing is recently built on old hunting grounds and people are freaked out because the coyotes still hunt. Only the prey has changed from pocket gophers to pocket dogs. What did they expectI appreciate that the coyotes help control the mice and pocket gophers.
I hear the coyotes every evening. I see them weekly. I have never had a valid reason to shoot a coyote and I never will. They provide a valued service - like the hawks and owls.
Might be a little difficult to digest a diamond studded collar.Only the prey has changed from pocket gophers to pocket dogs.
That sheds a different light on what they say about "finding a diamond in the rough"...Might be a little difficult to digest a diamond studded collar.![]()
I know we have cougars. A couple hunters and their dogs routinely hunt them in an area about five miles west of me.
Several years ago - a commotion on my front porch. Open the door - in waltz a couple hunting dogs. Over to the wood stove - plop down and immediately go to sleep. So......fill a pan with water, they were both thirsty. Both had heavy leather collars and shiny brass name tags.
Called and found they belonged to a hunter who lived in the Newport area - about 50 miles north of me. He had been cougar hunting in an area about five miles west of me. He and his hunting partner drove back down and retrieved the dogs. The dogs got lost - chasing a cougar. Went to the nearest house for help.
They had a cougar in the back of their pickup. Stretched out - it covered the entire length of the bed of the pickup.
I immediately became a whole lot more careful on my nightly walks around the yard and outbuildings. I also quit my nightly walks to the far west end of the property. Half a mile west of my house.
Same story here in southern MO. We didn't have bears, now we have a season. We have cougar but not in great numbers, but I've seen tracks (more than 5" wide), deer kills and seen glimpses a few times. We had one a few years ago killing goats and the farmer live trapped a 140# young male and drove it to MDC.My state's official stance stance is that there are no cougars here. They admit that an occasional one will pass through as do black bears. 20 years ago, I had a cougar in my yard on 3 separate occasions, once chasing my dog right to me. I called DNR and asked if I could shoot it and they said yes and asked me to let them know if I did so they could study it. I never got the chance to take it. Talked to the old woman down the road who owned the country store and she said she had seen a mama and her cubs drinking from her pond on many instances. You hear of other people occasionally seeing them but nobody ever believes them for some reason. 40 years ago we barely had any deer left and certainly no turkey. Now, our deer and turkey population is massive. No doubt the large predator population will come back as well. We JUST now finally got a season on bobcat. This will be the first year and I hope to be one of the few hunters who get to harvest one.
Unless your dog's job is to take out coyotes as necessary. Livestock Guardians for exampleLast year I started to have problems, they were trying to lure my dogs to the bush line so I shot one, the important part in my opinion is to leave it where it falls so the other know what's up, yes it is a waist which I am not in favor of but that may prevents you from having to kill more from that pack... they have a big territory so usually they only show up around the same time every year. For me it's August to December... My weapon of choice is a 17 hmr... the issue with bating is they will most likely show up at night. Predators call is a effective method. I agree that if there is no reason to kill them let it be but if you have a dog or cats and you have a coyote around it is a question of time before they make a move on them, personally I ratter be proactive and save my dog.