Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Trapping Wondering how to dispatch trapped coyote

I am wondering how most guys dispatch a trapped coyote when you plan on keeping/selling fur.
I assume a .22 to either the head or maybe lungs? Either way leaves a hole, hopefully just one.
Reason I ask, is that I am retiring, and want to take up coyote trapping here in Illinois (for now).
I've dabbled in trapping for many years, but never too "serious".My job prevented me from spending the time required to run a line.
I'm not planning on getting rich for sure. Looking at it more as a hobby and a way to get some exercise and enjoy the outdoors.
Also, Minnesota Trapline Products seems like good people what little I've dealt with them in the past, so probably get some stuff from them.
Anyway, just wondering how you guys dispatch a coyote. Thanks for the advice.

22 in the ear from the side, stick a wad of paper towel in the ear to absorb blood. I tried wrapping them on the nose and stepping on their chest like I did for fox but coyotes are more tenacious and it ended up looking like I was trying to do a jig on them.

Skulls used to be sellable and worth messing with.so I usually shot them very carefully in the neck with a CB.

Choke pole and a noose.

Evnin guys gals. When we were trapping them we used to carry an old axe handle with that round ball looking thing off of a horse harness (shaves maybe) anyway get a pole or something on his neck & stand on it so ya don't get bit!!!! Those buggers can wreck a good pair of rubbers in a blink. Don't ask I was young once (stupid). Rap him between the eyes once reall smart. It will only bruise on the inside a little & they won't dock your fur. Hope that helps. Bill out. 🐾👣🇨🇦

Bill Are you talking of the ball off the top of the post that goes over the collar ?Cheers NC

I've utilized a CB to the head and eventually went to the lungs to which did not solve my aggravation with blood all over everything.

Switched to catch pole around the neck, guess you need a better catch pole than my homemade one as I can dispatch a fox and a bobcat easily with it but never a coyote. So, went to standing on the chest, evidently 165# isn't quite enough to accomplish it in a timely manner.

Now, after gaining control with the catch pole I use my trapping hammer to quickly take care of the issue, with this method I find that a mess while skinning is far less common.

Mornin, ya North country I think that's it. Used to know what parts of a harness were called! I'm blaming it on age. I'm pretty sure I'm headed for dementia, I can leave a room & go for something I need, and .................. have a good weekend I'm out. 🐾👣🇨🇦

hames......

Ones I am familiar with are pretty heavy?

Thanks for the ideas. Didnt think about a "choke pole" but not sure I want to tote one around.
Thanks for the input.

Evnin!!! I new you'd let us know huntsman22. Thanks. Bill out. 🐾👣🇨🇦

I only trap for the benefit of my areas turkeys and better fawn recruitment, so seeing that I don't do anything with the yotes except fertilize the "daisies" I use a .22 caliber pellet rifle and that's between the eyes. They never move. Act like they've been struck by lightening

I have always used a 22 or 22 short. Draw an imaginary X between the eyes and ears and shoot just over the X. They will bleed but typically coyotes need to be washed after fleshing anyway. Add a shot of Woolite to the bath you give them and they will really look good.
MN Trapline Products is EXCELLENT to deal with. Great people that know what they are doing and have incredibly fast shipping. You can't go wrong with them. Try their MB-550's for coyotes and that is all you will ever use again.

I use a gallon zip tie bag and carefully slip it over the coyotes head while they sleep. Then I take a soda straw and suck the excess air out of the bag and zip it shut. It helps if you club them first.-Mike

I used to just hold out whichever 22 rifle I happen to have with me and right up to their face until they bit hold of it. It makes for a very muffled pop and they melt like warm jello.

I use my little trapping shovel and hit them across the nose and it stuns them. I lay them on their back, lay their chin out in front of them and hit them hard across the throat with the edge of the shovel. If their legs snap straight out stiff on the 3rd swat, they are dead. If not hit them again. Take your shovel and poke them in the eye and if they blink they need tuned up a little more. Seems if you shoot anything in the head it ruins the skull and the animal just gained 2 quart of blood to leak out. Till last year, I never carried a gun on the line. Killed everything cept beaver with the shovel. NOTE... Do note use Mohawk bullets on head shots on beaver. We point blanked a beaver and threw it in the boat and took off up the river. All of a sudden the beav is standing up in the middle of the boat so we shot it again... dead... till it got up again. When we skinned it it had 5 of the Mohawk bullets on top of the skull and the skull was not cracked. Ray

Subsonic 22 to the lungs, never had a fur buyer mention it, if so there are other problems. Head shots bleed too much and the thump and stomp method is for azzholes and it causes so much trauma under the skin that it isn’t worth saving a 22 cal hole over

the .22 hole is not going to affect pelt value. However, the blood from a shot coyote can be extensive and messy, and I find it's just easier to dispatch without shooting.

I started using the following method when I trapped on a military base that did not allow me to carry a firearm.

1. smack them over the nose with a tile spade, doesn't have to be too hard, just stuns them for about 10 seconds
2. while stunned, hit them hard right down the forehead with my all-steel remake trowel. Will knock them out long enough to do a chest compression (I once had one stone dead after this step).
3. chest compression. Push down firmly on the chest over the heart, behind the elbow with your boot and pull up with the back legs. No stomping, just use your body weight to push down. You can feel the heart beat with your boot and feel it stop. Then hold another moment to be sure.

and then another moment after that, before you take the trap off his foot and he's free to recover during the remake....

I have killed hundreds of coyotes with the thump and stomp. Little kids hickory baseball bat to the bridge of the nose - not hard, just stun them. Stomp a couple of time on the ribcage, right behind the front leg. Dead. Quick and painless with no mess. I have no idea why a trapper would contaminate a canine set with blood when you don't need to.

Either you've never done it, or if you tried to do it and just don't know how.

Oh, I've done my share....
Just telling 'those who've never done it, or just don't know how', to better be sure he's really, really dead.....

When I was a child I had a fox “come to” in my hands after my first tap and stomp. Just a light tap on the nose put him out and I did one heel stomp behind the leg. I guess that wasn’t enough, as he started writhing on the short trip back to the truck. I got both hands around his neck and quickly banged his head on the pickup and then put my heel back on the chest until I felt the heart quit beating.

As much as I love killing coyotes, stomping on their chest just doesn't seem appealing to me, nor does what I suspect the sound they make when you do it.

.22 LR right through the chest for me. You get some blood, but I wash them anyhow to de flea them and get al the dirt and grime out of the fur.

I have had a few instances where I forgot ammo or for whatever reason I couldn't shoot them and came up with creative ways to make them die, including choking by hand and heaving rocks, which I'm honestly not too proud of.

These days I prefer snares anyhow. The occasional foot catch happens, so I still carry a .22 rifle with me. I am not a serious trapper though. Just a dabbler.

Yep, .22 short in the ear. No holes in the fur.

Anyone use acetone with a syringe mounted on a pole ?

I never seen a coyote that would let you get a profile of them in the trap, keep their eyes right on yours.

The pic below is always how I find yotes when I walk up to them. Of course I don't sell fur or trap for the live market. I trap for "my" deer herd, so it really doesn't matter if there's holes or not. For what its worth, I dispatch them with a .22 caliber pellet rifle.

This is what my dad taught me and what I still do 95% of the time. I have tried .22s but don't like the blood in my catch circle. While I can admit it's not the most glorious thing to do to a critter, it's damn effective when done correctly.

Yeah a good old smack on the head does it. Make sure he's dead and not unconscious. Don't want him waking up in your trapping basket or vehicle.

22 LR HP in the heart. They tip right over. I don't like skinning headshots

If you want no holes in pelts, the Lee Stienmeyer death ray choke pole is the answer. 22 short in heart and lung area for me as I have a market for all skulls.

22 shorts are what I used.

Seems like solid advice.

Hell, I started forgetting what I went for 30 years ago, but I can still find my way home, mostly !!!!!

I long ago gave up any tricky ways of killing trapped animals, be they coyotes, fox, coons or whatever. A standard velocity .22 bullet above and between they eyes and they are done. I've never had an excessive amount of blood to deal with and I've never had one come back to life on me as I've heard a couple of stories from some of the whomp 'em and stomp 'em fans.

My brother has trapped, skinned and sold hundreds of coyotes. They all get shot with a 22 rim fire, between the eyes. He washes all of the hides so a little blood is not a big deal to him.

A good coyote set can be a little tough for my crippled a s s to make and maintain.
I don't want to contaminate it with blood if I don't have to.

A catch pole to choke their sorry a sses out with works good.
After they give up on a short lived fight with the catch pole you can stand on their chest til they are dead enough to suit you.

Or you can cinch the catch pole down on them and go check other traps in the area and go back in a bit to a dead yote

I made me a choke pole and when I didn't want to contaminate my site, I would use the choke pole to drag the live coyote away from the site and then either shoot it or tape it.

I trapped coyotes professionally from 1988 to 2002 when we left eastern Washington and moved to Alaska. I did year round coyote work, so much of the year I wasn't concerned with fur, just dead coyotes. It did give me the opportunity to try all the above mentioned methods. I always came back to a CB short or CB long to the head or heart. Blood spilled is minimal, death is quick and fur damage is non existent. Fur buyers do not care about one 22 caliber hole in the head or in the chest.

I tried 22 LR HV hollow points early in my career and found they produced a lot more blood than the CBs. Subsonics were not common back then and even the standard velocity 22 LR tended to produce more blood than the lowly CBs.

I used the heart stomp for a couple years but after having one really tough, old, battle scarred coyote that just wouldn't give it up, I quit using that method. After trying them, I found choke poles just took too much time for me to mess with so I only used them to release non target catches, like bobcats out of season.

I never found a little blood in the set area to be a deterrent to future catches. My best set ever, I got eleven coyotes in the same set and same trap over the course of the fur season. The trap had almost no dye or wax left on it by coyote number four but kept catching. It was on a wheat ranch I nor anyone else had never trapped, and was between a huge apple orchard and a cattle ranch. Coyotes were thick that year and especially thick in that area. I would scoop up any small puddles of blood and get them away from the immediate set area but a few drops never caused me any issues.

The CB to the heart is pretty impressive when done properly. I always waited for them to get into a position where they had the trapped foot extended, opening up the chest area and allowing an easy heart shot. It would put them down right now and death was almost as fast as a CB to the forehead. Sometimes it would take a few minutes of them dancing around to get that shot. When I was long lining, doing 175-250 miles a day on several large ranches, I didn't have time to wait for the heart shot so almost always resorted to the CB to the forehead.

I agree with the above and 160’s comments. The guys at Mn Trapline and their products/service are second to none.
When trapping or snaring and a live coyote at hand a single .22 hole does not affect much and with a stitch or two after skinning before put up you won’t be docked much. I’m not a skull guy so bang end of story. As mentioned a bit of cleaning soap on the desirous ones and maybe a borax rub and your good to go.
Today with the fur market as is.. do what you will to dispatch.
Get after them, won’t be long now and they’ll be showing rub.

Osky

22 LR or Short.
In the head, behind the ear, if that shot is not available, between the eyes angled down a bit to get er in the brain.
They are a coyote, but we should dispatch them as humanly as possible, IMO.
Not a bunny hugger by any means, done my share of wacking things.
Good luck

Finally, nothing but common sense. I guess we North Country boys think alike. Looking through this thread all I could think was there's sure a lot of kid stuff here. At least a few suggestions from people who have never BTDT.

I trapped a lot of coyotes here in MT and I always used a little RG pistol with 22 subsonics in the ear hole or just a good crack on the top of the base of the snout with a club. Always worked for me.

I am surprised at the number of trappers responding to this
post. Great thread OP.

I always carried a 22LR handgun when I trapped. The coyotes were left in the woods to rot, but the small hole in the head didn't seem to hurt the fox values.

I usually rig a chain around their legs & lower them slowly into a large pool of water in which I’ve released at least three hungry sharks.

If money is no object, sharks with lasers attached to their heads.

.22 Short HP tight in the armpit.

I was never docked for a 22 hole in the head.

You could always read them some selected passages from this blog. If that doesn't kill them outright, they will probably commit suicide.

Just shoot the SOB....22 between the eyes!

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

THIS Rio7

I am with Yoder 22 short HP right behind shoulder. Usually skin them out with little blood, one hole in no exit.

Choke pole with rachet system or a 22 short just behind the ear.

Pretty much how I do it. I’ve never been concerned about the skull. Get there, dispatch, remake and move on as quick as possible.
If allowed and the terrain is right learn to use snares ,dispatch will rarely be an issue nor will blood be a mess when skinning.

Yes MTP is a great source for gear.

Osky

I trap coyotes in SC and fur isn't all that desirable but my sole desire to trap is to offset the depredation on the fawns and turkeys where I hunt. When I catch I use a 22 cal pellet rifle with a shot between the eyes. Turns the lights out real quick.

I shoot them with a subsonic hollow point right behind the shoulder. Very little blood loss at the catch circle.

readonly,
you apparently don't know huntsman22 very well if you think he's never or don't know how to kill a coyote....

That man's probably killed more coyotes than mange and parvo combined......

I have trapped very little and then only rabbits. But thinking about it, I've always had a 22 with me. If I somehow had to deal with a coyote I would have been a 22 to the head. Don't really care much about the hide, I wouldn't attempt to sell them I don't think. But a 22 in the head, well placed, is the most humane death I can think of. These days I do have a mod 16 Smith in 32 long I load with 90gr cast bullet's. Probably would use it just to be different! I can see no reason to make a coyote suffer dying just because it's a coyote!