The Firearms Forum banner

Coyote hunting

2K views 11 replies 11 participants last post by  68c15 
#1 ·
I can see hunting the dog when it is a nuisance to you, but why else would you want to kill the yotee. Do you keep the hide? I know you don't eat it. What other reasons would there be for yotee hunting?
 
#2 ·
A lot probably depends on where you live. Here in town, they're a menace to kids and pets, but we're not allowed to shoot them - go figure. Out in the more rural communities, they attack pets, children and livestock, but they also control rabbits, which helps to keep the rattlesnake population in check. Out there I'd say leave them alone unless they're sniffing around the chicken coop. Further out, we have organized annual hunts to thin them out before the antelope whelp in the Spring, just to improve the game harvest in antelope season.

On the other hand, there is a market for the hides, though I can't see why. It's a ratty-looking fur on the hoof, and I can't imagine it getting better once it's separated from its deceased owner. I've seen a few really good looking 'yotes, but most look like mangy shepherd mixes.
 
#8 ·
I've seen a few really good looking 'yotes, but most look like mangy shepherd mixes.
It's those in town that look good here. They are well fed. Out in the desert they are small, scrawny and near death, but those around us look like big house dogs. I have seen them walking down the sidewalk in the middle of the day and it just looks like someones dog got loose. You can hear them every night gathering at the end of a wash. They line up search style and walk up the wash yipping. When they get to the base of the hills they go quiet. They have cornered all the bunnies and are now having dinner.

I got in trouble on the local community forum during a debate about having large dogs for saying there is a reason why all the lost pets posted are chihuahuas and cats. The coyotes, hawks, and bobcats are borderline obese here. Apparently that was insensitive.
 
#3 ·
I've kept a few good furs, but for the most part I can sell them...might not make a lot but it pays for the ammo.
One main reason I got into yote wackin' for the most part was for the reason I lost "several" good Deer kills to them as far as the meat.
Most of all the Rabbits around here are far and few between. The Quail have vanished as well as the Grouse and what Pheasants there was left.
The Turkey in this neck of the woods are thinning out as well. The Deer constantly remain "skiddish".
Coyotes will kill about anything they think they can take down and all the do is hunt...their predators.
Around here, if they were far and few in between I may not hunt them as much as I do. But for the last few years, the "war" on them is on.
In 2007 I took a NICE 12 point with a compound with a 24" "inside" spread.

I shot it with my PSE compound about 1/2 hour before sunset. Tracked it as my shot was just a bit back and the second arrow was as well.
Tracked it till dark and even went and got a decent light and came back.
After losing the blood trail I decided to come back first light and begin tracking it.
50-75 yards where I left off the night before, I found what was left of it.
That being...it's head, rack and one part of it's front quarter and couldn't even get a cape mount on what was left.
The coyotes basically stripped all the meat from it. Only found one of two of my arrows but losing the meat was the worst part as it "was" a nice big mature buck.
I kill any coyote I possibly can and with a lot of support from every neighbor around me. They have lost all sorts of pets and lambs as well.
I have NO mercy on a coyote.
 
#4 ·
Way back when (60s) I was in college in Kansas I used to hunt with a Deputy Sheriff who loved to hunt the yotes. He and his friends would load a bunch of kennels in the back of his pick up truck, load up the greyhounds, and have ropes to their doors draped up to the cap of the truck. Then they would drive the prairie, talking back on forth on CB radios until a yote jumped up. A short chase in the trucks and then the hounds would be released and we would follow across hill and dale. I can still see that pack of greyhounds streaking across the prairie behind those yotes. When they caught up to the yote the lead dog would grab it's hind leg and flip it in the air. Often the grass hid the dogs, but you would find them by seeing the yote flying in the air. When it landed every dog grabbed a piece and held the yote until we got there. They would dispatch it with a metal rod through the head as a gun shot would deafen the hounds. The tails would be brought in for a $5.00 bounty paid by the state (?) or local farmers association. If you have ever seen a coyote up close you would appreciate they are true predators. (Although the greyhounds were truly a ruff and tumble looking group. Picture the exact opposite of a loving lap dog.) My god those dogs were fast.
Mammal Vertebrate Canidae Wolf Facial expression
 
#5 ·
The same reason that alligators are hunted in the south. These animals are predators, and there fore must be controlled. I have hunted yotes, but don't anymore. I have no problems with those that do.
 
#6 ·
Oh I have no problems either. My son just asked about them and hunting them. I just didnt know what people did with them after. We have no bounty gor them here. I dont know of anyone looking for the hide. So I just was wondering what was done after. I dont want to kill it for no reason. They dont bother us here. I actually have 2 that come by every 2 years or so and camp out in my small woods for the winter. They haven't messed with my dog yet, so until they do I cant see why I would bother them if they leave us alone. Until then tho...
 
#7 ·
A coyote hide makes very nice trim on a jacket or many make a very nice jacket..

I have a question about the second comment that 'leaving the coyote helps control the rabbit'--that I understand. Then he says that controlling the rabbit controls the rattler.. So I guess the rabbit is rattler food or is there more to it.

I spent 65 and 66 in TEX and most of those folks (W of San Antonio) thought that a good rattler was a dead one.

TEX cause I was told at that time, that they sent the a55 to Washington??
 
#9 ·
I hunted them all the time in Kansas before I joined the Navy and stayed in California. I sold them to a middleman for anywhere from $25 - $50. The winter time they had nice full coats and most were in good shape. The biggest I ever saw was in Beverly Hills, grown big fat and happy off of rich peoples cats and poodles. I would shoot them if only to help increase the rabbit population so I could hunt more rabbits.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rawright54
#11 ·
Coyotes eat up Deer Fawns when there is an abundance of them and will even take down large animals. Killing and keeping there numbers down is important. Plus there a dangerous animal when they get to close to people and livestock. There is a happy medium because you never want it eliminate the coyote from the ecosystem it's a tuff balance but better to focus on population then just not worry about it.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top