Coyote Attacks !

This thread hits (figuratively) close to home. I live in a 'burb, a bit like I envision White Plains to be but probably a little more rural. We know that coyotes have moved into the area several years ago. Behind our house and beyond a couple of other houses behind us is a large tract of undeveloped watershed land feeding a series of public reservoirs. We have heard packs of coyotes howling back in those woods at night for a few years.

Two nights ago I heard howling that was a LOT louder, and from the front side of the house. I went to the front door and opened it to get a directional on where the howling was centered, and it stopped ... instantly. My best guess is that they were IN my front yard, close enough to hear the door open.

My wife is a small woman. We will soon have custody of her granddaughter, also small. And we already have custody of the granddaughter's toy poodle. I do not want my womenfolk attacked by coyotes, and I don't want my granddaughter's pet to become coyote snacks. As far as I know there is no season for coyotes here, but I hope (and will try to verify) that if they are in the yard and pose an immediate threat that I would be legally allowed to shoot them.

But ... I am not a hunter. Aside from some mil-surps in calibers like .30-06 and 8mm Mauser, all I have for rifles is a couple of .22s. Just .22LR, not .22 Magnum.

Is there a .22LR round that at ranges not longer than 50 yards (and probably a little closer) would be reliable for taking a coyote? I can't really afford to buy any new firearms right now, but if I really need to get a .22 Magnum I'll sell a handgun or two to make it happen.

Advice appreciated, but please don't go beyond my realities. I am not going to be popping off a 5.56 AR-15 "varmint rifle" or anything of that nature in a residential neighborhood. The choice is: make do with a .22LR that I already have, by judicious choice of ammo ... or take the plunge for a .22 Magnum.
 
well, here in canada there is a season. Unless you have livestock or are protecting yourself. I always say that with dangerous varmints, "shoot, burn, burry" (that especially goes with the cougars the <...> hippies got introduced in my home town area)
The 22lr has probably taken several hundred thousand coyotes over the years. Wouldnt be my first choice, but would work in your situation. Just use a good bullet, and make it a head shot. A 22 mag would be alot better or a 17hmr
 
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Advice appreciated, but please don't go beyond my realities. I am not going to be popping off a 5.56 AR-15 "varmint rifle" or anything of that nature in a residential neighborhood. The choice is: make do with a .22LR that I already have, by judicious choice of ammo ... or take the plunge for a .22 Magnum.
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First, you aren't the first person to live in coyote country. ALL of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and many other western states have had coyotes longer than people. We learn to live with them, and realize that only precious few will ever attempt to attack a person.

My guess would be that you're family is about 100x more likely to be struck by lightning, at midnight on a full moon than to be attacked by coyotes. A yound girl should be supervised when outside anyway.

The poodle is a different story, and coyotes do kill small domestic animals for food and/or territorial reasons.

Coyotes are very adaptable, and smart. Don't fool yourself into thinking you can eliminate enough to ever make a difference in their numbers. The only thing you can do it possibly kill a few, which should put more fear into other ones about being too close to your home.

For a .22 LR, I'd find some CCI Velocitor ammo to use. It's reasonably accurate, and very powerful as far as .22 LR ammo goes. Shoot them through the chest, just behind the shoulder. They may or may not run off a ways, but they'll die quickly if you do that.

If you can't find Velocitor .22 LR ammo, then get some mini-mags hollow point ammo. It's widely available, and should serve well enough for the purpose.

I'm not in any way an advocate of hunting coyotes with any rimfire round, but a fella does what he has to do to solve an issue.

I see coyotes in my neighborhood quite often. Lots of kids, and lots of pets in the general area. No kids have been attacked here, and only a relatively few pets have disappeared (mostly cats).

Coyotes aren't as dangerous as many folks make them out to be.

Daryl
 
Living in the middle of the woods has its dis-advantages. One being, the yotes have woke me up several times in the last month.:rolleyes:
Last year I shot 3 in the yard, this year 4.
I've noticed they seem to get braver and braver.

Last month, right before dark, there was a fawn carrying on down in the raven behind the house. Knew something was wrong with it as the sounds it was making would stand your hair on end. I grabbed the shotgun, ran out back towards the ravine. I fully expected to see dogs chasing the deer as this is a dumping ground for unwanted dogs.
I never made it out of the yard before the fawn ran into the yard with a yote on its heels. I killed the yote and the fawn escaped. Went down in the ravine thinking maybe yote's had downed fawns mom. Saw two more yotes running up the hill but couldn't get shots at them. Hopefully fawn met back up with mom.

We have small grandchildren that are never un-supervised when outside. If wife and g-kids are outside, wife's usually carrying and the dogs are with them. Yote's are predators of opportunity and will take the easiest prey possible. Don't give it to them.

If you've got yotes in your neighborhood, they are there for a reason, food. Take the food source away, yotes will move on.
 
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We have them here, but I've seen more bear than coyotes personally.
Friends of mine with farms say they are a constant, they say they will ruin younger calves....but I've only seen one with my own eyes, so I don't know the habits.

It loped across the road in front of me and looked extremely nasty..alot larger than I had thought. I wouldn't trust that thing around kids at any cost.
Not saying I would trust a strange dog either....but this was different.
 
If you've got yotes in your neighborhood, they are there for a reason, food. Take the food source away, yotes will move on.
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I live on the edge of town, and it's hard to remove pets that neighbors let out at night. Personally, I don't care either way. If the pets get eaten, then the owners should have kept them inside.

Coyotes here are very fearful of man, and don't attack people. I have a LOT of experience calling them in with mouth blown calls, and when they realize a human is there, they're gone. I've had them within a foot of so of me on several occasions.

Not saying I would trust a strange dog either....but this was different.
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If a coyote and a stray dog were in my yard, and I were to shoot one or the other, it would be the stray dog; every time.

When I was a kid, we lived in a fairly remote area. Dad raised chickens, quail, pheasants, and such. There were coyotes pretty much everywhere in the area, and dogs that people let loose at night.

In the three years we lived there, my dad killed 21 dogs, and 1 coyote. This year alone, I've drawn my carry handgun twice on agressive dogs that threatened me in my own yard.

My mother has a couple of miniature donkeys, only a mile or two from the above mentioned place where dad shot all the dogs. There are still coyotes all over there, evidenced by the couple I've had to eliminate, and the fact that one can hear them from her porch on any evening. The coyotes don't bother her donkeys though; it's the neighbor's pit bull that I'll be forced to eliminate sooner or later.

Sad but true.

Daryl
 
Donkeys will the boots to dogs too... One night my huntin' dogs ran a hog thru a pasture of cattle with a "watch donkey".... He headed off the dogs and had whooped the snot out of one before it made it to the fence.:D
Brent
 
Two summers ago, my neighbor’s wife called me to say there was a wolf in their back yard and that she was taking pictures of it as proof. I went over there and discovered a yote, sprawled out in the grandkid’s sandbox.

I called D.E.C. and told them it must be rabid, because it had no fear of me. The conservation officer on the phone told me to give it space and not to bother it. But, before they could get a guy over there, it disappeared into the woods.

Later that afternoon, it showed on my back patio. That was his last stop. Later, a D.E.C. officer came by and recovered the carcass. About two months later I called to ask about the results of the rabies test. I was surprised to learn that the tests were inconclusive, because they need to do certain tests on the brain.

In this case, the parts they needed to test were missing. So, a word to the wise. If you’re going to take one that you think is rabid, don’t use a 45 ACP to atomize its skull at point blank range. A spine shot will do just as well and then they’ll be able to test the yote properly.
 
If you've got yotes in your neighborhood, they are there for a reason, food. Take the food source away, yotes will move on.
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Yeah but remove all the coyotes and you'll have a vermin run.
The coyotes up here are faily decent sized but, like bears, their winter coats always make them look bigger. They don't really seem to be that put off by people. My german shepard and husky/wolf on the other hand do an awesome job of controlling the coyote population on my property. I had one walk too close to the house last week only to get very quickly chased away.
 
Yeah but remove all the coyote and you'll have a vermin run
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Don't think you need to eliminate yotes, just keep population in check.
Thats not being done in these parts.

The more yotes in the area, the more brave they'll get. It's a basic food/survival thing.

Since pelt prices are as much as non-existant, people don't trap like they used to. In many area's there's no natural coyote predator. It's up to people to keep the yote population balanced or yote attacks/rabies will increase.

Some of the counties around here have started paying a small bounty on any yote carcass turned in to DNR.

My german shepard and husky/wolf mix on the other hand do an awesome job of controlling the coyote population on my property
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I'd make sure they were out together patroling.

A farmer where I used to rabbit hunt had an Irish Wolfhound killed by a pack of yotes. Farmers wife saw attack but by the time she got the shotgun, Wolfhound had to be put down.
I've got a Shephard thats very large(138lbs) compared to the average US standards. I don't want him fending off a pack of hungry yotes by himself. If that would happen and he survived, don't think I'd want the vet bills.
I can call him off of anything else but once he winds a yote he's on it. Makes me mad as hell.
If I let him out at night or walk him in the woods, he has a shock collar on for that reason.
 
I've heard Llamas will do the same when put in with sheep. Any Llama experts out there?
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Not an expert, but we have llamas in with the ranch's small flock of sheep. Both roam a 40 acre field, and there are yotes a'plenty in the area. We haven't lost a lamb to yotes in over 20 years.

Canines and camelids have been sworn enemies since time began, but when you work with a llama, it's hard to imagine that such an inoffensive creature could be a threat to a predator. Still, they almost always win any encounter. Well, male llamas do have a really nasty set of fighting teeth, but they usually just stomp them. The teeth are usually reserved for other male llamas.
 
Thanks for the Llama info. Capt. Charlie.
Around here you'd probably have to paint a hunter orange X on the Llama's side to keep some deer poacher from mistaking it for a deer.:eek:

Used to be a guy that had property running along 33 between Lancaster and Logan that used to paint an X on the sides of his donkey. First time I saw it I bout wrecked the truck.
 
I'd make sure they were out together patroling.

A farmer where I used to rabbit hunt had an Irish Wolfhound killed by a pack of yotes. Farmers wife saw attack but by the time she got the shotgun, Wolfhound had to be put down.
I've got a Shephard thats very large(138lbs) compared to the average US standards. I don't want him fending off a pack of hungry yotes by himself. If that would happen and he survived, don't think I'd want the vet bills.
I can call him off of anything else but once he winds a yote he's on it. Makes me mad as hell.
If I let him out at night or walk him in the woods, he has a shock collar on for that reason.
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Yeah my shepard is a healthy 115 or so right now and my wolfdog is sitting around 135. They never go anywhere without each other. The husky/wolf has such a strong pack mentality he hates to even go outside without the shepard and I with him. I agree it would be foolish to just let them have the run of the town as packs of coyotes have been known to take down anything. I've never had a group larger than three around my house but i know they're out there. The boys never stray far from the house either and I also have an electric fence to keep them from running too far at night. I never leave them out at night for fear of lions. The dogs work great for the occasional coyote or bear though and unfortunately skunk :(
 
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