Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Predators and Varmints crash course in 'yote hunting

Hey guys,

We've been noticing gradually declining numbers of deer where we hunt & i shot a coyote while deer hunting. I just found out that last nite a horse got chewed up pretty good on an adjoining piece of property & the neighbors lost a dog a couple of months ago.

i know coyote hunting is a big deal out west, but i didn't know they were a problem here in MI.

Can somebody get me pointed in the right direction? Do you hunt them in the am ? pm? dark? like whitetail? i'm clueless.

thanks

davey

Horse?? I've never heard of yotes goin after horses. Might be something a tad bigger! But Check your state regs. Hunting at night is the best but illegal in some states. Calling can be good all day on good cold days, mornings are ok but Evenings are better.

I don't know how to post a picture but I just got an e-mail from a buddy who shot one last night that is almost as big as he is. It is HUGE!
GWN

Kilncats, Yotes, will attack smaller horses and foals. There's a county here in Mid. Tn. that had posted a bounty on Yotes, that was being paid for by the horse owners assoc. in that county. This after having older horses attacked and foals killed.

Davey,
For starters I can tell you what works in Minnesota. Get a shotgun and a dying rabbit call. I would try setting up a blind around where your neighbors horse got attacked. Trying calling around sunset. They seem to eat stray cats and dogs to. It is cold business this time of year. Pretty soon they will start mating then it gets easier.
Good Luck GWN

Out west, I've had the best results calling in the early A.M. Stay upwind and call a series ever 2-3 min., less as time drags on. Don't wear any smelly deodorants and don't step into oil at the gas station, take scent precautions. Wear camo, facemask and tape off shiney rifle barrels etc. If nothing shows after 15min, move on and make another stand elsewhere. Its kinda like bass fishing, you'll have great days, good days and poor days calling 'yotes.

MtnHtr

I lived in Nebraska for 10 years and called them in with turkey calls. If you can yelp like a young hen lost in the forest, they will come in. Works on bobcats too.

Rabbit calls only work if rabbits are plentiful and something the yotes are eating. Idaho rabbit populations are low. I find spot and stalk hunting with howlers work better. Work slow, get a yote howling and use your binos more than your eyes.

I hunt a lot with diaphram calls for Elk and turkeys. If you can master them, you can make about any sound. Listen to some cats and mimic the sounds. Coyotes love cats. I've seen a coyote run to the sounds of two tom cats in a stand off (if you've ever heard that sound)

I have also used a fawn/doe bleap sound to call them in the river bottoms of Nebraska, where whitetail fawns were common.

Remember, you call in a yote and miss him, you now have an educated coyote on your hands. He will be twice as hard to bring in again. Bring him close and make the shot count.

Coyote hunting is a real challenge. I find it the best training one can do for hunting big game.

CM

Sorry, wasn't sayin they wouldn't. In CO. alot of people would see a yote around a carcass and just assume they did it. But nine times out a ten it was bears that did the actually attacking and killing. I'm sure if yotes get hungry enough or find they can get get an easy meal they will do just about anything. But as far as house or yard pets go, yotes luv em.

While not particularly sporting, hauling a gut pile to the field behind the barn is a great tactic in Minnesota. One guy I know runs an extension cord to the loft and watches TV using earphones.

If you�re short on gut piles, just about anything free that you can fit into a bucket from the local poultry or livestock slaughterhouse will work fine � coyotes aren�t particular.

Thanks for all the guidance , guys.

I'm getting an education, from what i understand it's legal to shoot them here in mi after dark with a spotlight with a rimfire, other wise the normal 1/2 hr before sunrise & 1/2 hr after sunset rule is applicable.

i also just spoke with another neighbor who just lost a batch of puppies...said he knew they were yotes as just the guts were ate out of them.

thanks again for all the insight, i'll let everybody know how we did this weekend.

1 more question...what do you do with them after you shoot them? Use them for bait ?

davey

"Use them for bait ?"

Hmmm...good question. I know that works for raccoons...

I know alot of the ranchers around here hangem up on their fences. They say it will keep other coyotes away. But I dont know about that. But Ive shot quite a few and left them lay and made return trips and never saw another yote around the carcass.

Depending on time of year and the local market, you can sell them.

Pick up a copy of Fur, Fish, and Game it will usually tell you what they are worth and where.

Davey, I'm no coyote hunter, though I've killed one while deer hunting. In fact, I believe a pack had set up camp behind one of my favorite stands! Thus, I wanted to eliminate them from that area.

A buddy who's heavily into the varmint thing advised me that getting a remote control caller with extension speakers would be the best for me at my stage of introduction, and added that if I could rig up a squirrel tail or even a piece of light material like silk or something sheer, so that I could yank on a string and make it "dance," the yotes would abandon their usual caution when they zeroed in on what they thought was an injured meal-to-be. I see some battery powered things like this in Cabelas or Bass Pro catalogs, and I'm thinking about getting one of those too, now that deer season's gone.

Like I said, I'm a rank beginner and wannabe at this coyote hunting, so would appreciate any input from the experienced myself. Just wanted to add what my buddy has told me to do.

BTW, he warned me that they have better noses than deer, and if they scent you, you'll not likely see them. Also, since I've no intention of being 'sporting' about hunting these yotes, I've thought about going by the grocery store and getting some chicken or whatever else kind of entrails I can find and setting them out on a regular basis, so as to condition them to feasting on them, and THEN climb a tree or take a stand downwind. I think that oughta' work, too. FWIW???

Small amounts of bait will not make your hunting any more effective than if you went without. If you would like to bait and it is legal for you to do so, a large carcass pile can be very effective. The idea is that there is enough bait there that it can't be cleaned up in one sitting thus conditioning them to return and allowing for the # of interested animals to increase. Some of the best coyote hunting/trapping I have ever had has been in close proximity to dead range cows. Coyote carcasses are the anti-bait - don't bother with that one. As to what to do with them either sell them in the round to a fur buyer or learn to properly put them up and sell them for a much greater profit.

You hunt yotes at night useing a light and red lens off your scope so you can keep a bead on him till he comes close enough to kill him. I bought my light, a Night Hunter 170 from www.tufflights.com. It works great and has its own carrying bag and battery/charger lasts around 1 1/2 hours, steady burn, and has a bps battery power saver that makes it last even longer.......better than all those (cheap) crap lights i Bought before..................rick

It seems to me that you should buy a couple videos on coyote hunting. They will show you more in pictures than we can probably ever tell you over the board here.