Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints How Many Eastern Coyote Hunters Do We Have On This Board?

just wondering if we have folks here who are serious coyote hunters and live in one of our mid or eastern states. in my area i have numerous fields from 5 to 120 acres, surrounded by woods (mostly river bottoms, oak, thickets, etc.) thanks

There seems to actually be quite a few....I know one guy here "aalf" pounds them pretty hard and he lives in some God-awful place like Wisconsin or Illinois...

I hunt in Tennessee and Georgia. Every year I say that I am going to hunt coyotes after deer season is over and every year I spend most of late winter/early spring on the water, bass fishing.

"No hunting here."

In Western, CT and Eastern, NY.

That's what a farmer just said to me today. I used to hunt chucks and crows there. No he does not need me.

He said he has deer there and he hunts them himself!

The coyote has ruined hunting!

"The coyote has ruined hunting!"

I'm puzzled by this statement, hunting coyotes has opened alot of gates for me...

The farmland in the New England area and Eastern NY has corn and hay for a crop. The livestock is primarily milk cows.

The Eastern woodchuck was very common in pastures from when I started hunting them in the 50's. About 7 or 8 years ago the coyotes came here. There never were any coyotes here. We did have the red and gray fox.

The woodchucks were out there in the fields and it was great hunting, it required good shooting and they were quite easy to spot as we walked the beautiful land. It was common to get a half dozen or far more on part day hunt.

The chucks are gone. The only ones left are living under some farmers shed.

These coyotes have ruined the best Eastern rifle shooting sport!

"The Chuck Hunter" by Paul C. Estey

The farmer wanted me there to kill the chucks. The coyote has killed them. The farmer does not 'need' me there now. The farmer I talked to hunts the deer there himself.

Savage 99
If your farmer reads up on coyote fawn predatation studies in the East or just pays attention to number of fawns he will likely change his mind about needing you.Honest it is a good point for gaining permission with some.
Frank

The farmer I talked to is the 45 yo son of the owner I knew from the late 1950's. I met the old timer on this farm last fall and we talked about old times. We both have a 1957 vintage M70 varmint rifle and I loaded ammo for him then. He told me that he had just seen 24 deer together on his land on the other side of the highway.

I went back today as it was sunny and dry for a January day. His son was there and told me that he was in Florida.

His son does not need me there.

Its not worth making a big deal out of it there as the chucks are gone.

I try to get out and bust as many as possible. We've not experienced much of a winter yet. The ground has not even been frozen for more than a two-day period. Typically, they don't respond good to calls until late January here(for me anyway). I've killed three so far this year and hope to hit double digits in February. My time seems to be more and more limited these days. Three young kids and lots of their activities to attend. I wouldn't trade it though...

I really need to become a serious coyote hunter. Dogs have taken over my hunting grounds. The state of NH has become over-run with dogs. I don't know anybody who hunts or traps for coyotes. 2010 deer season I was able to see at least 3 deer on any given day that I went to my favorite spots. That year hunters were shooting at a pack of 5 dogs with no hits. I never saw them. 2011 deer season I saw "0" deer but plenty of coyote tracks that were running deer. Another hunter who has permission to hunt the same property put trail camers out. He has some nice pictures of deer running by the camera and a damn big dog right behind them.

I've purchased a call and I'm getting my new Tikka T3 223 set-up to start busting these dogs. They're killing our deer. The land owner tells me everytime he finds a hide down back. Today is mild but we've got 20 to 30 mph winds. Here is the end of January and we hardly have any snow. Good for the deer because they haven't got any acorn or beechnut. They can wonder and feed on other browse.

Ken

Ditto.
Some of the state forests land in CT are void of deer. We do have bear, some moose and coyotes. I saw one two years ago bleated, he stopped behind a tree and disappeared. We put out a deer carcass on private land and hunted once. My son went back two weeks later and not a trace, small hair trail. We're setting out another carcass today near our home. We can walk to the woods and back in no time. We know the yotes are around. The police see them in the town when patrolling in the evening and early morning. Dog and cat hunting!

I hunt on the Eastern Shore of Va, and have been on the same leases for 8 years. Until this season, I have never seen any evidence of a coyote. One day while deer hunting, I was watching a group of 4 does. I had about ten minutes of shooting light left and decided to take the biggest one. I got her in my scope and then they all took off like gangbusters! 2 seconds later, a pair of coyotes came screaming down the trail after them. Absolutely no chance for a shot.

I confirmed with the local game warden, and he told me that they were coming down from Maryland, using the rail road tracks as a travel corridore. 3-5 years and they will be all over the place, he said.

The season ended on the 7th and we have been trying to call one in, but still haven't seen one yet.

I'm kinda looking fwd to hunting them, as predator hunting is a blast. On the other hand, I'm wondering how hard they will impact deer and turkey in our areas. Time will tell.

Savage 99, thanks for the explanation. I'm here in Oklahoma, we're overun with coyotes and deer. I have a feeling that when your coyote population gets high enough, they will go after calves, then they will "need" you again.

You hit the nail on the head for my area (E. central OH), too, Savage 99. You described very well the experience of walking/hunting the beautiful old-style family farms, and I grew up on one. Paul Estey is my "Godfather" of groundhog hunting. It's not just the coyotes (allegedly) taking out the groundhogs, it's also unchecked urban sprawl and changing farming habits, e.g. a "honey hole" I secured a couple years back was the next year heavily tiled, had the fence rows bulldozed out, and planted mostly in corn; they don't even rotate with soybeans every year, which is much more conducive to groundhogs thriving.
Back to the original question: Coyotes, although fairly numerous in other parts of my state, vary in population in my county; they're still fairly rare in my area. Although I'm geared-up for them, (most around here are big coy-dogs and wolf-gene mixes), but most of those Berger and NBT bullets coming out of my varmint rifles go into groundhogs, instead.

I consider myself a fox hunter that occasionally gets lucky and kills a yote. They are here, just not in great numbers and there are enough guys hunting them at night and with hounds that they really aren't the problem they are in other areas. Now up at my camp is a different story. Way too many yotes in the ADK.

Central Iowa hunter right here

thanks men. i was beginning to wonder if i was the only guy on this board hunting them.

Central MO coyote hunter here. Loads of fun...

I hunt and trap coyotes in north central NH. It's tough going, as we are long on forest, short on open spaces of any kind. I just shake my head when I hear you western guys talkin 'bout seein' 'em comin' in from hundreds of yards away! So I don't get so many, but I'm addicted.

I grew up in IL.

Hunting dogs in the east and mid-west is a whole other ball game. Especially on the east coast IMO. You get some dogs in those areas, and they are a true trophy.


Travis