Yotes!

[VixChix]

At one of the properties I hunt I've been hearing coyotes almost every time I'm out. They respond like crazy when they hear the distant train whistle. Tonight it sounded like a larger horde than usual and they were on the same end of the farm as I was on.

When I lived out west I heard them regularly but after moving to Ontario it was years before I heard them again. If we were camping I would tell my friends to wake me up if they heard coyotes so I wouldn't miss it. Now, I hear them more often then I like. I also find yote poop with deer hair in it.

The recent post by Fuelguy about being pursued by coyotes while he was hauling out his deer makes me feel quite uncomfortable about their presence. This feeling is totally new to me, as I always believed them to be shy. I think I need to buy a varmit rifle!

Anyone else noticing that there are more than usual or more active than usual?

[Norlander]

I've been hearing coyotes almost daily when I'm hunting too, Vix.
I'm in central Ontario. In WMU 56 where our camp is, we need wolf tags to shoot wolves and coyotes. I went to the MNR office in Minden after bagging a buck opening morning of the rifle season for deer and picked up two tags.
With the addition of the gut pile of a doe I took on the second day, I thought I might get a look at some yotes from my whack shack. They didn't find the leftovers from the two deer for a couple of days, but on Thursday everything was gone. I'm not sure if it was coyotes or ravens that feasted on the guts.
We're hearing more coyotes this year than we have in five or six years when the yote population was really high.
Hopefully I'll get a whack at one or two over the next few weeks.
As for a varmint rifle, my next one will be a Tikka T3 Lite stainless lefty in either .22-250 or .223. I hear Ruger is coming out with a left-handed short action M77 Hawkeye, so that might be a consideration as well.
I'm looking forward to doing some coyote calling after the rifle deer hunt - between bow hunts for deer with my Excal Vixen.
Jerry

[Fishn-Hunter]

I have noticed the yotes have been alot more vocal and active lately in my area, I think it could be because of all the gut piles and the scent of blood trails in the woods from gun season.
Fishn-Hunter

[fuel80guy]

A few mornings after my encounter i hunted the same stand which i had previously taken my buck from on an evening sit.
I had barely gotten setup when you guessed it 2 yotes came strolling by my stand but i couldnt get them to stop.I tried to get them to return with a mouse squeek but no luck.
About 1 hour later another pair of yotes came wondering by from the same direction this time i was able to stop them but unfortunately they saw me draw my compound grrrr.I know i would have had one if i had my exocet .
These 4 coyotes were coming from a night of feeding on a gut pile of another deer my brother had taken with his exomax cause they werent to hungry looking.
I talked to another hunter and he told me that other properties that he has near mine are also full of yotes.
Point is these landowners are getting sick of them and the ones who wont allow hunting are suddenly asking us to come and shoot the varmints.
Im begging Santa claus for a varmint rifle this christmas

[Doe Master]

Doesn`t your husband have some long distance coyote medicine . If not I`m sure you know someone close by with a rifle .

[hikerman]

The last deer I shoot back Oct 10. I was going to get a buddy to help me drag it out. But for the first time I heard the coyoties yipping. So I didn't want to take the chance, lucky it wasn't to big. Stll took me a hour what is normally a ten minute walk.

Well werth it though!

[Mike P]

Coyotes are really becoming a problem here in Southern Ohio Vix. And they are becoming more brazen with every passing day.

We have a lot of them up at the farm, but those yotes act like yotes. They see a human and they take off at warp speed.

The coyotes that I am more concerned with are the ones around the house here where I hunt the "neighborhood." These coyotes do not take off when they see a human. They have become "urbanized" and this is a disaster with a lit fuse.

I live in a private development with thirty or so other homes. The smallest lot is five acres and the largest is around forty acres with most somewhere in between. For the most part, it is all wooded. And it is great deer habitat.

It is even better coyote habitat. We used to have homeowners here with cats that lived outside. We no longer do. We used to have homeowners that let their dogs out unattended. That also is a thing of the past. The yotes have seen to that. And if you hit a deer and do not retrieve it within two hours after the shot, the coyotes will find it.

The point I am making Vix is that you probably are seeing an increase in coyote activity in your area. All that has happened in my neighborhood has taken place in the last twelve years. If you think you are seeing more activity now, just give it a few years.

There is an upside. Hunting coyotes is a total hoot! Get yourself a varmit rifle (I use a 22-250) and have some fun. Do a google search and you will find some great sites with everything you need to know about hunting them.

I think you will find success if you copy some of the techniques used that you will read about. I find that coyotes are really smart and a tough quarry. But they respond so well to calling that I actually find them easier then deer when I hunt them at the farm.

If I hunted them in the neighborhood I fear I might just become the hunted. They are so smart that I am sure they now key off and check treestand locations knowing there might be a big meal available via misplaced shots.

p.s. If you get into hunting them don't spend any money on those twenty dollar or more varmit decoys. I didn't figure this out until I spent like sixty bucks buying another one every time a yote ran off with one in his mouth and me not even able to get a shot off. I now use what ever brown children's stuffed animal I can find for the least amount of money. The yotes don't seem to mind. They steal them just as well as the twenty dollar ones.

[xhunter]

Same here, every time I am out in the wood, I heard coyote. Heard rabbit distress sound too.

I will hunt them after deer season.

[schnarrfuss]

Lots a yotes at the farm I hunt as well. They are much more vocal this year then other years. Not sure why though.

[MADMAX2]

Norlander I hunt the Moores falls area just wondering do the yotes move the wolf out or vis-versa?

[Mike P]

Norlander I hunt the Moores falls area just wondering do the yotes move the wolf out or vis-versa?

Where there are wolves, there are no coyotes. The wolves have them for lunch.

[Cossack]

The predators eliminate their competition. Where thee are 'yotes there are no fox, where there are wolves, no 'yotes. Last fox I was hereabouts, before the coyotes moved in, was denned up on my rifle range within 100 yards of the house. I found him on my ski trail, killed and frozen stiff. The coyotes ran him up and down the trail biting him repeatedly. The carcass was there most of the winter, the coyotes marked it with their urine A buddy snared a coyote on his property, the wolves literally tore it to shreds.
As for those urbane 'yotes Mike, looks like you need a 22 cal pellet gun. Aim for the gut, they self-dispose that way.

[GA.crossbowhunt]

thier not to bad down were i hunt yet. but its a matter of time before they are. my grilfrined has some propety a ltittle west of were we live and they have them thick as thiefs. her brother tells me to kill them when i go with her dad. as for the varmint i have a good one an ar-15 its set for 1500 yards and it will reach them with no problem

[OneShot]

A good indication we have way too many yotes around is the lack of pheasants and rabbits.

A good friend had a 2 acre enclosure for training his field trial beagles in.
It was prepared as close to a rabbit hunters dream with tons of piles of brush to house the critters as possible.

Several times a year he would cull the herd and I got a choice to fresh rabbit dinner; and release---but most often i would release dozens at a farm leased by our group to try and get some hunting and training time for my beagle Roger.

More times than I would like to say- NO rabbits for "Roger" to practise on!

That is when it seemed it was time to buy a 17 HMR Remington!

Dang does it work excellent on them dogs!!!!!!!

oneshot.........

[ch312]

A good indication we have way too many yotes around is the lack of pheasants and rabbits.

id have to disagree with that one to a certain extent.

i hunted the same land for 10 years or more and there wasnt a single coyote around until the 6th or 7th year we hunted there. there was always a decent population of cottontails and jacks around. when we started noticing coyote sign the fox population was wiped out. but, the rabbit population exploded and stayed very high until we were no longer permitted to hunt there (grandparents were renting, moved out).

i did some research on it and it appears that if things go like they should, wildlife populations will regulate themselves. a lot of coyotes will eat up all the food, but then most of the yotes will move on due to lack of food allowing the small game populations to rebound.

at one point there were at least 4 adult yotes in that somewhat small bush and they did absolutely no major damage to any of the small game populations EXCEPT for the raccoons.

coyotes typically wont take on a healthy deer. they go for the old, sick, or already dead. natures way of taking care of business