Cyanide Guns were all over N.W. Colorado and eastern Utah when I was a kid Government trappers put them out. the gun was a 1/2" 2 piece they drove the bottom piece in the ground and the top piece was the gun which held a .45 acp with a Cyanide capsule looked like a rat shot round they would wrap a piece of rag around the top and bait it, Coyote would bite the rag and the gun would go off in their mouth, they were dangerous as Hell, killed a lot of town dogs, and few people that tripped or stepped on one while walking, most of them had a yellow and black sign close by to warn people they were close to one. Colorado Wool Growers Ass. trappers put a lot of Cyanide guns out also. life was different back then. Rio7
I think there's lots of myth with the difference in the blank fired cyanide "coyote getter" and the more modern M-44 in use today.
I never heard of one fired by a 45acp blank. Have seen some photos of a much smaller caliber blank used in those though.
Either device works the same way... A coyote grabs the bait swab and pulls it, and the cyanide capsule is triggered into it's mouth. You'll find the animal dead right there... either way. About all that had changed is the firing mechanism is now spring loaded and puts a "puff" of cyanide dust into the coyotes mouth.
I've heard tall tales about the blank fired device my entire life. My grandad, and my dad worked in the oilfield, and would come home with all kinds of tall tales related to seeing the signage....
"A guy better carry a pocketknife out here and be ready to cut his own leg off if he steps on one. He has 10 seconds to do the amputation before he dies."
"A guy I heard of in the next town got his foot blown off by one of those coyote blank fired devices... the poison killed him anyway."
And on and on... Never found any documentation of facts though.
You have to be certified on the M-44 devices now. Lots of classroom and procedure involved, but it's still not a total cure for coyotes by any stretch.
What people usually don't know is that back in the old days, before the EPA, Compound 1080 accounted for 80% of coyote control. They would put compound 1080 on meat, or carcasses, and coyotes or anything else that feasted would be found right there. Large collateral damage footprint...When the EPA banned that, coyote population went basically unchecked. Still does.
