Coyote

[Ridgewalker]

Some of you old timers give me a schooling. I passed up a shot at a half grown coyote that was down in the woods behind the house the other day.

It would have been easy to tag him as he was there until I drove him off with a few near misses using a .22 loaded with CB caps.

Should I have downed him? I am at the age where if I don't eat it I won't shoot it. I don't want him hanging around the house maybe getting after my yapper house-dogs thou.

I guess I gave him a warning and the next time I see him he is fair game but still... I guess I am getting too soft hearted in my old age.

 

[TripleR]

If it makes you uncomfortable, I wouldn't do it, life is too short.

 

[Elcid76]

Coyotes probably provide more to the community than many humans. I only shoot when they cross the line and enter my space. Can you imagine what the rodent population would grow to if coyotes were gone....

 

[Thomas]

TripleR...nail it on the head.


Elcid76.
"Coyotes probably provide more to the community than many humans."

Ain't that the truth!!!

 

[MWRR]

I respect your view on not shooting the coyote pup. I probably would have passed up the shot as well.

When I was a teenager we used to spend a few weedends every fall/winter hunting rabbits here on the family farm, but since the expansion of coyotes in the area our rabbit population has went down to zero. I have built brush piles, planted food plots and tried to improve the habit but to no avail. I have a great beagle that hasn't seen a rabbit since our last trip to Missouri.

I have shot more coyotes than I can count but I still see coyotes on a regular basis. I just wish they would leave a couple of rabbits for my beagle to run.

 

[MWRR]

Speaking of Coyotes. Did any of you see the segment on TV of the first documented case of coyotes killing an adult human (Taylor Mitchell)? I think it occurred in 2006 on some island in the far northeast area just outside of U.S. (Canada).

 

[nybirdman]

Sorry' no coyotes get a pass here.They have decimated the turkey population here.Tough on the deer fawns in the spring also.The hound hunters in the area kill hundreds every year..we still have lots of coyotes.

 

[TripleR]

I respect your view on not shooting the coyote pup. I probably would have passed up the shot as well.

When I was a teenager we used to spend a few weedends every fall/winter hunting rabbits here on the family farm, but since the expansion of coyotes in the area our rabbit population has went down to zero. I have built brush piles, planted food plots and tried to improve the habit but to no avail. I have a great beagle that hasn't seen a rabbit since our last trip to Missouri.

I have shot more coyotes than I can count but I still see coyotes on a regular basis. I just wish they would leave a couple of rabbits for my beagle to run.

In my part of Missouri, we are pretty much in the same situation. We have several hundred acres on different locations with mixed cover and rarely see a rabbit. Growing up, nearly everyone hunted rabbits, but now I don't know of any.

Just to make myself clear, I am not opposed to shooting coyotes, my point is that if a person is uncomfortable doing so, don't as there really is no imperative to. When my father in law bought some of our farms, he had trappers come in to get rid of "undesirable" varmints and come back for several years.

We seem to have an inexhaustible supply and no longer even bother.

 

[dusty3030]

Do what you feel right, no argument there.
Me, I shoot all coyotes on sight around my place. Bobcats and foxes get a pass.

 

[Bigfoot62]

I used to let them walk, but no more.

Last Wednesday, I shot a large male. 10:30 am. Broad daylight, and in the middle of an open pasture. He had one of my nanny goats on the ground. I had also lost three kids in the previous couple of days.