NOT a hunter, yotes in my yard

S

skizzums

New member
hey fellas/ladies.....
i don't hunt. nothing against it, just not for me. i have exceptions though, would off a boar and a good edible bird(turkey?), but that's besides the point. just not a hunter and nobody in my yankee family is either, so just not something i can do with a clean conscience unless ima eat it, which i don't have the means for food storage. but please know i have the upmost repect for hunters that eat their game and even those who donate and even those who don't.

i had an oppossum that would constatly dig through my trash, every night, and leave ahuge mess all over my driveway. him and the squirrells apparently worked together to get a good sized hole chewed into the top of the can for easy in & out access and the mess was every freaking night. so i grabbed a silenced mossberg 702 plinker and filed the possum with 5-6 .22's while it was esaping up a tree, made contact with every shot and it droppped DRT, problem solved right? well.....i already felt bad for ventilating it, bu then to make matters worse, i have this adorable infant possum wandering in my driveway the next morning just sceaming it's little heart out, apparently looking for mommy. so i had to put the infant in a zip-lock bag and give it a good headshot to put it out of it's misery. that was the first and last "kill" for me.

fast-forward rwo years. i live in a subdivion, not tight spaced and private, each plot close to an acre. i have no houses behind me for many hundrd of yards with dense forest. my wife and i have 3 indoor/outdoor cats, small children playing in our woods at all times and neighbors have a couple free-roam anmials themselves. two mornings ago, right sunrise, there were two coyotes in my backyard. i was standing on the porch, about 16+ feet high, and lo and behold. two coyotes making their way from the left side of my house headed toward the woods behid my house. the first coyote was at the treeline and only caught a quick glimps. then second was right freaking next to me, maybe 3 feet to my left and at the bottom of my deck. it didn't register at first, i just though...hey someones dogs fgot out, but i quickly realized what i was looking at. this coyote was very tall, at least taller than i had imagined a coyote and thin and graceul. what made me second guess it was the dark brown coat, almost like a black bear with a small white patch in the middle. its fur was thin but not mangy and you could see it's black skin on it's face.

i started yelling, whistling as load as possible and this animal wouldn't even aknowledge me. just keep its head low scanning back and forth as it slowly made its way to the tree line. i have always heard coyotes in the woods, but this was my first encounter.

so my dillemia, should i leave it be? or run the risk of losing my domestic animals? how common for coyotess to go after cats(my cats re slightly wild, fast nd quick to run up a tree)? do my cats stand a chance if my yard becomes a regular route for these beasts, my cats also do not stay confined to my yard, they also enjoy those woods every chance they can get. if i feel these yotes pose a threat to my pets or even my child and the other very young neighborhood kids? should i KILL it f encountered agin?

my back deck is 2 stories up and my yard is about 100 yards from my closest neighbor on the left, not close at all to neighbor on the right. and at least 400+ yards from the house behind my property. since i will be shooting at an extreme downward angle, surrounded by dense woods, my neighbors are of little concern.

am i within my rights to kill this animal? there are no restricted seasons here, but i am in a residential zoned area. could i claim a threat to my animals? or if i let it be, will it likely not cause me any future issue? what would you do?

sorry for the long post. i just felt i needed to get my full situation acrossed. if ou took the time to read the whole thing. i would love some suggestions. if the answer is baiting and killing, walk me through tha process please. even though i grew up in Michigan with some of the largest most amazing wildlife in the untied states, i was never taught to hunt as a young in'
 
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I won't tell you what to do about them. But, I will tell you that the coyotes are up to no good. Small dogs and cats are prey for them and if they were frequenting my yard...I would find some way to get rid of them and that would probably mean dispatching them, in some manner.
 
You need to get some lime and dig a deep hole at the back of your property. Coyotes should be afraid of people. The anicronyn is SSS which stands for Shoot, Shovel and Shutup. If you go to the authorities you will be opening a big can of worms unless you can prove your skill and have a health problem due to coyotes.

Example....I have a crazy cat lady across the street. She has been investigated and the diseased cats and skunks she feeds have been deemed a community health hazard so I can legally shoot them with specially prepared shot capsuls.
 
i agree, the authorties will be left out of this venture.

i have my preferred short range rifle next to my back door with headphones on the buttstock in case of another encounter. i am not going to stalk or bait ATM unless i see more and i believe my ard as become part of the regulr route. my question is......if i see them again, using my wooded yard as a pass through. that will probably likely mean that they are going to keep doing it, right? and if so, should i throuw out raw meat and try to bait so i can make a kill? or will baiting them just multiply my problem if i can't connect with a kill?

if i feel like they are becoming a nuisance, how do i bait? what are their normal hours? it seemed that these two yotes were headed back to the "den" for the day since i caught them right at sunrise (around 0615-0620). it was astonishing to me that i was yelling and whistling and the paid me no mind, not even a glance, which concerns me even more. the only coyote was laess than 10 feet to my left, except i was about 12 feet up on my deck.

since i can't be outside every morning at those times, should i toss out meat and see if it disappears to find out if they are till coming through? or is that going to make matters worse, kinda like feeding a stray cat, and make so i can never get rid of them uness i can get lucky enough to have a shot. is there another way to figure out if they are more populus around my house than i think?

if this is much ado about nothing, i'll just drop it. but if they could become a danger to my pets/kids and neighbrs pets/babies.....i'll have no qualms with centerfire euthanasia. worrying too much? helping my community? or making things worse?

if i need to kill, help me out with their general foraging times and good stinky baits to reel them in. or just tell me to go back to bed
 
seriously, i ws amazed. it was literal feet from me. luckily i was on higher ground. i yelled as loud as i could "HEY.....HEY.....HEEEEYY!!!!!". nothing. head low and forward,turning left to right as if looking for food. so i then starting doing the "baseball park" whistle, at this point he was getting farther away, no even a glance toward my direction, almost like he was deaf. he was trotting on his tip-toes, gracefulle and quietly. much taller than i had envisioned a coyote to be, although very slender. thinner type hair, with not uch hair on face, with his black skin showing from snout to around his eyes. i googled pics of coyotes because i didn't want to shoot someones strange breed of dog, and there were very fey yotes that shared this ones characteristics. i always imagines yotes to be tanish gold, but this one was dark in color.

this pic is pretty much identical to what i saw, except the hair was a litle thinner and he had a small whate patch on his chest. the other coyote was already into the tree line so i didnt get a good look. is it normal for them to have a small white patch on hest like a dog?

 
They are waaayyy too comfortable around your place. I can't recommend what you should do but if it was me, "get rid" of them. I grew up with chickens and at dawn, dusk, or night, I always walked around with a H&R .410 single shot. I killed a couple yotes and a ton of foxes with that shotgun. The last yote I killed was while deer hunting in lower SC and had a yote come out the size of yearling. My dad was in the same field and he saw me shoot him right dead center of the rib cage. I know it wasn't a good shot on my part. He ended up running off. I met up with my dad and he thought I wanted to go get him. I told him the buzzards can have him. Tame dogs and cats and even small children could be prey to a yote depending on the size. The farmer that lives next to me had a yote drag a 30# pig off. Do you have a bow or crossbow? At least that would limit the amount of noise and not disturb the neighbors.
 
If your subdivision is outside of city limits in Georgia, shooting is legal.

I've only seen coyotes in west Texas, not yet here in south Georgia. The coloration you describe is therefore strange-appearing to me.

Check Georgia game laws about shooting coyotes. From what little I know, they're fair game at any time of year. Maybe some restriction on shooting them at night. But the regulations have been loosened in recent years.

Small pets are considered by coyotes to be yum-yum good. Attacks on small children have happened, but rarely.

I found this: http://www.eregulations.com/georgia/hunting/small-game/
 
Coyote attacks on small children seems to becoming a more common occurrence, especially where coyotes are more populated and getting used to humans.

There has also been coyote attacks on adults even though they are not that common, there was an 18 year old girl killed in Canada by two coyotes several years back.

I can tell you for a fact if the coyotes are getting that close to you they are getting way to comfortable with being around humans, if I was in your shoes I would dispatch them.
 
Thanks guys, ill stay prepared to shoot. Shooting a possum didn't bother me, it was having to shoot the babies. I'll no qualms shooting this or these yotes. It is legal, I may have a slight legal issue shooting less than 500 ft from my neighbors house, but the threshold is close and its only the house to my right which is anywhere near me. My neighbors hear me pop off a few shots a month anyway, and never give me hassles. If any trouble comes from it, ill claim it had my cat cornered so something. I'll put out a couple pieces of meat and see if they disappear over the night, and if so I guess ill have to find a place to post up for a couple nights and wait it out. I'll stay ready. Thanks guys.
 
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If you are in good standing with your neighbors, give them a heads up on what you are wanting to do. Especially if they have small children and/or pets.
 
Coyotes are a rural-urban interface problem and need to be dealt with. Go ahead and shoot all you find on your property, there are plenty more out there. If you hear one or two yipping at dusk, there are at least six more.

They have lost their fear of human scent and need to have their genetic memory renewed. Coyotes in farm country know better than to appear within rifle range of the farmhouse, not so in the suburbs.

I lost four cats in one year. Between adoption fees, shots, vet exams, etc., there was about $200 in each of them before the coyotes nabbed them. Neighbors lost a few, as well, and one had her little toy mutt snatched out of the yard right in front of her. I'll bet around $1000 worth of pets was getting devoured in our little two-street plat every year. Your neighbors won't squawk.

Your county animal control people will do nothing, it's up to the landowners.

Poisons and traps are not appropriate for the suburbs, it's shoot and shovel. I would leave the dead one lay overnight for bait.

Do put a .22 round in the head of your dead coyote before interment, they're pretty tough.
 
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I can give you a 100% guarantee a couple pieces of meat put out will disappear. Just not likely to be down Wiley's neck. Pepe, Rocky, your cat, the neighbour's cat, birds assorted and host of other beasties will jump on it.
If you want Wiley to go away(he won't but you can try), for Pete's sake don't feed him. Wiley is an opportunistic feeder, just like Yogi. Remove the food source and any place he or she can build a nest. As in close up any holes under garages, etc.
 
Coyotes are nothing more than predators, and they will not hesitate to kill/eat anything they deem as lower in the food chain than itself. Anything. As a deer hunter, I am keenly aware of how many fawns are killed every year by coyotes. I kill EVERY coyote that gives me the opportunity. As a conservationist, it is my duty to do so. Just my two cents...
 
like i said, my neighbor's won't be alerted by a gunshot here and there. i sometimes pop off a few shots here and there when i get a new gun, changing scopes, testing equipment like firing pin changes etc. they have never mentioned it before and i am in my legal rights as long as i stay on the far side of my house rather than the side right next to them. georgia has some pretty lax shooting rules. as long as 250 ft from a rez and (i believe) 500 feet rom any road, your good. i still don't be a nuisance though since we all have to live here and when i first bought the house their dogs were so feaking annoying(like midnight to 6am every single night) and i had to constantly harp on them unil i finially got animal control involved. so i would rather just not get on their bad side, but a shot or two doesn't seem to arrouse suspicion.

the point of my thread was this: should i just keep an eye out and hope they don't commonly use my yard as a pass-thru? or should i actively hunt them?; as in bait and stalk until i know they have been taken care of? i do't want to bait and then have my yard become a coyote's pack hangout.....but conversly i don't want to just hope they don't come back when i have my pets or kids outside.

whhat would you do? how likely is it that my yard is a common stomping ground for them? my yard has some of the only actual woods in my subdivision and it cuts through to a large wooded power easement, which is where i assume they were headed to den up for the day. i am thinnking my yard is maybe the ONLY convenient route from the easement to the neighborhoods where they can hunt trash and pets and maybe i should be proactive. or is there another way to just make them steer clear of my property by setting up some type of detterent perimieter? if such exsists.

like i said, no issue putting a piece of lead in one or two, but don't want to make things worse than they would have been in the process. r am i just worrying about nothing since this is my first encounter, maybe the are pretty uncommon here in general, i have lived in this house for almost six years now and besides hearing some howling in certain months i have never been formally introduced til a couple days ago

thanks
 
If it's legal and safe to shoot them, then there is no reason not to and no reason for the infamous "SSS". :rolleyes:

If it's illegal and unsafe to do so, you may be bringing more bad down on you than any two coyotes could. Last thing I would do is to bait them and accustom them and other animals to coming to your backyard for food.
 
skizzums

If you take a shotgun for a walk from your place and walk the power easement they may move on to someplace else but once you stop walking they will be back.

This is what I do for our cabin tract and my parents place. I hunt them. Up at the cabin I have had them poop on the deck while I was inside and there was more then one. At my parents place they would come up to the fence and the stupid dogs would put their heads through the fence for a nose sniff and the coyotes would bite the dogs ears off. At my parents place I installed an electric fence on the outside of the wire fence to keep the yotes back.

When I go visit my parents I take a walk down the ditch bank to where the dens are and if I see yotes I cull. This ditch bank is the same place where I shoot cans and bottles floating in the ditch so in any case I get some moving target practice. I do not want to kill all the yotes as they tend to keep the California Grey Squirrel in check.

The dens are in culverts that have not been used for irrigation in 30 years so even if I do not see anything I bounce a few rounds through the culverts and it seems to make a difference.
 
Oh no you have every right to be worried. Especially if you have pets or kids. I'd keep a rifle, shotgun (depending on distance), or pistol close to a window or door so you can get to it quickly and take care of them. The house I grew up in SC, we always kept a .243 (later became my rifle) right by the front door. I had to kill a bunch of foxes, wild dogs, armadillos (PITA), and occationally a yote. If you are worried about kids getting to it, make sure they have been taught the basics of firearm safety.
 
I agree with post #13 that Kilimanjaro posted.

It's pretty much on the money, however I live in Missouri farm country and on rare occasions I've had coyotes that's not had the proper education stumble into my yard through the gap south of my barn.

I have a small house dog that's my buddy, he goes out and chores with me so I always make sure I'm armed.

I do educate them, most do not live long enough to pass on to their pack mates their mistakes.

I'm an avid coyote hunter, I truly enjoy introducing them to rule 223.
 
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