shooting coyotes

H

Hardy

New member
Here in upstate south carolina, we are now and fairly recently been invaded by coyotes. You can shoot them w/out licence or season. I live in pretty much country where you hear them out on the ridge. I told my wife if she walks her shizsu they might take the lil fellow away! my understanding is that they like rats and rodents but in winter they come for pets. I don't hear neighbors up on the ridge getting too upset about them but let their dogs bark at them. Just yesterday they came at dusk down into my valley. I want to shoot one w/ c/b pistol but know that might be tough. But gonna try anyway either at dawn or dusk. OK you westerners--you know them better than us---What you got to say about these lil wolves we don't know too much about?
WBH
 
They will kill & eat small dogs running loose and especially cats. Medium to large dogs are pretty much off the hook but depending on the size and number of coyotes in a pack "medium" can vary. I'd use something more effective like a rifle or 3" 12 ga with #4 buck or you will merely educate the 'yote. They often run a 100yds and stop to look back and that is your chance to pop them with a scoped rifle. A lot of western pickups have a rifle in the gun rack in the window just for that purpose (for coyotes in the cattle or sheep pastures). It is usually a varmint caliber (22 centerfire).
 
Coyotes are certainly problems for sure.
There are everywhere here in Florida, I can hear them at night back in the forest with their pups. They make unusual sounds.

Best story: they are terrible on cattle here in Florida. Friend of mine heard that a donkey is the natural enemy of coyotes, so he gets one and puts it in the field with one of his small herds.
The cows take off running and break down 3 fences and trample two fields before they stopped running. Hmm, guess it works.
It's a lot more funny when you hear an old southern boy tell it.

Shoot as many as possible.
But, they have a strange genetic thing, that if a female goes missing from a group, the other females produce an extra litter of pups. Man, those things are crazy bad.

OJW
 
Years ago, I bought a house in a new development area in Laguna Hills, CA. There were nothing but hills then. After we moved in, my wife's cat went missing. My buddy and I went out to look for our pet, and found at least a dozen flee collars with name tags up the hill, and animal bones everywhere. In California, we encroach upon their habitat more than they do ours, so we put up with them.
 
I wouldn't say that we encroach on the coyote's territory more in California. I'm in a major urban area and we've got them too. My buddy tried to shoo off one that was following him into a public building with his baton and it grabbed the baton and played tug of war with him. It had absolutely no fear of humans.

I know that coyotes are also running around in Los Angeles city.
 
Coyotes should all die of lead poisoning. That said, any pistol is a poor choice to deliver said poison.

You really need something that delivers 100 yard accuracy. Great reason to buy an AR! An accurate AR is perfect coyote medicine.
 
Always, Open Season !!!

I've seen what a Coyote can do to a Fox, Cat and even a Dog. They can gang up on them and although It's not fair by our measure, it's life. More and more, they are moving in and it's shoot on sight. ...... ;)


Be Safe !!!
 
Yup, coyotes are great pack hunters. You might see them alone, but usually run in groups up to a dozen. In Chula Vista (south San Diego County near the border), they are in every small canyon in every subdivision. Our last house there backed up to a major canyon overlooking a huge subdivision and we had a pack on either side of the canyon. As far as I know, they don't dig which is good.

And they're small... like beagle small. They're not like wolves. A HUGE coyote still would be smaller than a small lab.

Where I lived, they were a necessary part of the ecosystem to keep the rabbits and mice in check.
 
I've killed them with #2 lead out of a 30" barreled 1897 Winchester.
A .32-20, .25-20 or .218 Bee in an 1892 Winchester or Marlin 1894CL is an ideal coyote rifle too- married up with a nice 4x or 6x scope. A nice little .22 Hornet is also ideal.

I've got some 12ga brass hulls loaded with 90grs. of Fg blackpowder, and 1 1/8 oz of #2 nickel plated shot. I figure this load is the Quigley shotgun load. :D *evil smile*
 
Coyotes

I grew up in Oregon and spent a great deal of time bounty hunting coyotes. They are smart and wary and take some patience to hunt. I recently read that biologist are now observing that coyotes are taking on the hunting tactics of wolves especially since the demise of the wolf. That is, they are beginning to hunt in packs and pulling down bigger animals than was their past practice.

We found the best way to hunt them is to get a good vantage point (high ground on a ridge, etc.) and sit motionless, back-to-back with another hunter, guns at the ready (kind of like hunting turkeys) because any movement will send them running. Put an electronic preadator call (rabbit works the best) between you and keep a sharp eye. The will be standing right in front of you before you know they are there. Rifle, pistol or shotgun will work but a short rifle always worked best for me, especially if your field of fire is 50+ yards. My favorite for this hunt was always an old Remington 32/20 pump saddle gun with open sights that belonged to my mother.

As with anything in nature, they will continue reproduce in proportion to the food available. You need to thin them out a bit or they will just become more of a problem. They make a fun and rewarding hunt. Good luck!
 
In defense of coyotes. They are blamed for a lot of cattle damage theat they don't do.

A friend was losing calves to coyotes so he set up a blind over a dead calf. Killed 6 town dogs, did not see a coyote.

The first dog that appeared was a beautiful Irish setter. He started to get out of the blind to run it off and the dog threatened him and got very defensive over the calf. He shot him and hung his collar on the fence.

I ran over 300 cow calf pairs in a former life. I have watched 50 charolais cows sleeping with their very young calves while a small pack of coyotes played among the herd. They were even jumping on the cow's backs and not disturbing the cows at all. This same herd would go nuts if my old basset hound even got close to the fence.
 
Andy...

...Your mention of the .218 Bee brought back some memories.

It was a favorite of my Uncle. He liked it because it was fast and flat.

Kind of odd because he lived in PA in the mountains. Lot of trees and not much shooting past a hundred yards. I think he used it in plowed fields for varmints.

My other uncle used a .25-20.

Thanks for the memories.
 
In the east the coyotes appear to be bigger than they are out west. I have over the yrs seen two dead road kill coyotes in NWFL and they certainly looked like they weighed in 40Lbs range. The last one was very gray which is different from the smaller black ones I saw in illinois southwest of Chicago a few yrs ago. There is some claim that the eastern coyotes may have genes in them from the smaller wolves of south eastern canada. The south eastern united states use to have a small wolf called the red wolf and maybe some of their genes have remained in the coyote populations. What ever gun you use should be capable of inflicting substantial tissue damage so they did not run off wounded and recover to plague you again. A bunch of them ate all of the pears off my southern barlett pear trees last summer. I will eventually get the older type of white english bulldog (in 17th century england were called Shepherds Mastiff) to deal with them. Such dogs these days are hard to find.
 
Coyotes will breed with dogs given the chance. Here in Texas it's hard to find a pure blood coyote anymore. I've seen some wild canines who looked kinda like a German Shepard Coyote cross??? You can kill one with a handgun but the closer they are and the better a shot you are the more likely you are to kill one. In the Winter they can have a nice pelt. If you know how to tan leather they make a nice 'throw' or nice trim on a coat.
 
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