Scouting trip

[Frogman]

I went this morning (1/13/10) to scout a new coyote hunting area.  The land owner and I spent about 5 hours today walking and atv'ing his farm.  He said he hears coyotes just about every evening up the holler from his house and has seen several while feeding his livestock..  We rode his atv to the top of the hill and started walking out a very long wooded ridge.  There were quite a few coyote tracks in the snow.  Our weather has been in the teens here at night and only in the 20s during the day for a couple of weeks.  We had about 8 inches of snow on the ground.  It is supposed to start warming up and got up to 35 today. 

When we got near the head of the holler to our right we found signs that something had made a kill on the flat below us to our right. 



Some blood and signs of a struggle.



Then some hair, a deer had been killed but we couldn't see the deer??



More signs of a struggle.





Some tracks in the snow . . .



Then down over the hill on the next flat . . .





More tracks . . .











A gut pile . . .



And the culprits even left their calling card . . .




I'm looking forward to getting back out there for a hunt!! 

Jim

[coyote101]

A great series of pictures Jim. Thanks, now get out there and slay 'em.

Pat

[HaMeR]

Bait pile!!

[John_NY]

I sure hope you get em. Looking forward to seeing some pics of the dead culprits.

John

[FinsnFur]

Yeah looks like a bait station to me

[JohnP]

The pictures sure do tell the story.  Good luck in your pursuit.

[Silencer]

I think thats a good spot to hunt, looks like ya got a little bit of sign there.........    

[SCcoyotehunter]

Thats a pretty good size doe too. That just shows the damage they can do.
Good luck.

[Frogman]

Hey guys,

I got a friend to go back out to call that area where we found the doe kill (1/14/10).  The farmer invited us to come back the next morning if we wanted.  I wanted to get back in there while the snow was still on.  The weather report was calling for a warming trend so I figured we should get back out there right away.  I expected the coyotes to be back on that kill overnight??  So I got up at 4:30, my buddy arrived at 5:30 and we heaeded to the farm arriving about 6:15.  We had a long uphill hike to get close to the area where the carcass was.  We did our first stand several hundred yards back out the ridge from the carcass at about 7:15am.  Here are a few photos . . .

First stand . . .





On the first stand I set up about 100 yards  out the ridge toward the carcass from my friend who was going to do the calling.  I was still several hundred yards back from the carcass.  After 45 minutes of howling and distress we froze out (temp was 9 degrees that morning) and moved closer to the carcass for a second stand.  


Second stand . . .





We spent about 30 minutes on this stand with a similar setup.  After some howls and some fawn distress we moved on and headed for the deer carcass.  I was surprised to see that the carcass had not been fed on overnight??  Maybe the scent the farmer and I had left the day before kept the coyotes off the carcass??





We left the carcass, climbed back up two flats to the top of the ridge and headed on out to ridge beyond the the carcass to try another stand.  That's when we came across fresh coyote tracks .  Apparently we had two coyotes coming in during our second stand.  We just didn't stay on stand long enough.  







These tracks were probably 400 yards from where we had set up for the second stand.  Bummer??!!

We did one more stand and decided to call it a day.



In the whole time we were calling we never heard a response or saw a coyote.  We did find some large bobcat tracks and several older coyote tracks.  It was a great day to be out after it warmed up a little.  There was little or no wind.  You could see really well with the snow on.  It's just frustrating that we didn't get a shot.  My expectations had been really high for this spot.  Oh well, we will try it again soon.  Maybe do a night hunt??

Jim

[FinsnFur]

I think that happens a lot on our side of the drink. Coyotes show up and we move to a different stand in the process.
Eastern Coyotes are shy.

Thanks for bringing us along

[Bills Custom Calls]

Looks good for hunt there anytime of the year

In My Opinion I think I would use a fawn distress to call them coyotes in whenever you hunted that area

It seems the pack is big enough that a deer is a pretty easy kill for them

[HaMeR]

I like what Bill said. And wait a couple weeks 1st so they have that 1st deer ate up.

[pitw]

   I was surprised to see that the carcass had not been fed on overnight??  Maybe the scent the farmer and I had left the day before kept the coyotes off the carcass??

I see that one all the time up here.  On the highway a deer gets hit and no one touch's it, they eat it all.  If it's pulled off the road and touched by humans it can be a week or more before they'll pick it apart.

In the whole time we were calling we never heard a response or saw a coyote.  

Jim

I shoot more coyotes I don't hear than ones I do.

[coyotehunter_1]

Looks good for hunt there anytime of the year

In My Opinion I think I would use a fawn distress to call them coyotes in whenever you hunted that area

It seems the pack is big enough that a deer is a pretty easy kill for them

Bill... I agree,

Where there is evidence of deer killed by coyotes, I expect more than one coyote to come in when using a fawn or deer bleat.

Over the years I’ve killed a few coyotes off deer, live deer not dead ones. Most of those coyotes were pretty big ones, in the 35-45 pound neighborhood. Around here several coyotes will jump a deer then one will take off after it. When being chased, deer have a tendency to run in circles. One coyote will make the circle and then drop off, another coyote will then take over, continuing the chase. This goes on until the deer tires enough for the kill. One or more of the coyotes will grab the deer by the neck, others the rear. The deer goes down, it’s soon over.  The biggest coyote I've ever seen was chasing a young doe, that one won’t bother any more.