Some coyotes this week...

DAA

Well-Known Member
I don't usually kill coyote this time of year. But, I had an opportunity to spend the whole week learning from two of the best in the business and no way was I passing up that chance. They are full time professional predator control guys, with decades of professional experience each, working out of Gillette, Wyoming. They kill coyotes for a living, to protect livestock.

That is a completely different deal than recreational calling. It's a helluva lot harder to find and kill specific coyotes, in specific places, at specific times, than it is to just kill "a" coyote, wherever, whenever. There aren't very many coyotes at all where we were hunting, in and around sheep pastures. Because these guys are working year round to make damn sure there are as few coyotes as possible in the area. But, you can't ever get them all. And this time of year, the coyotes are denning and the baby lambs are in the pastures, a bad combination... I saw enough coyote killed lambs this week. Most not even fed on, just killed and left. When that is happening, it's these guys job to make it stop and they take their work very, very seriously. Their approach is utterly professional, nothing the least bit recreational about it. And this time of year, with lambs in the pasture, they pretty much work non-stop, every waking minute of the day.

So, I considered it quite the privilege, that I was invited to come spend the week learning from them. They can't afford to have a rookie screw anything up and I was glad they considered me seasoned enough to be trusted not to screw anything up. And, I didn't.

Anyway... We hunted our guts out. Up at 4 or 5 AM every morning, not getting back to the casa till around midnight every night. Killed coyotes every day, but we sure worked for them. Like I say, we weren't out just looking for any old coyote, wherever we could find them. We were targeting lamb killers in the areas the killing was taking place. And, while, like I said, I don't typically kill them this time of year, I got a lot of satisfaction out of first finding the offending coyotes, then coming up with a plan, then moving in and executing the plan to call them in and kill them.

We also set traps for one and called in an airplane to aerial gun another one that we couldn't call in. As well as doing the grunt work of finding the dens after killing the adults.

Anyway... I packed a rifle all except one morning, when I decided to carry my camera on two stands instead. All these pictures are from just those two stands.

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This is one of the dogs that my friends use to bring coyotes in close and help find dens this time of year.

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Watching the dogs work the coyotes was the highlight of the whole trip. Just a very cool thing to watch!


More coyote pics, notice the blue left eye on this female. Only the second blue eyed coyote I've ever seen.

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I learned a lot this week. I stayed at one of my friends house and we ate, drank, talked, slept, hunted and worked coyotes non-stop the whole week. I was soaking in knowledge like a sponge the whole time. I've got some new tricks up my sleeve. No doubt my game is going to be improved this coming season.

- DAA
 

DAA

Well-Known Member
There had to be some knowledge that you were able to share with them.

A little bit, maybe. Mostly about rifles, accuracy, performance, hot rod wildcats, stuff like that. But even there, I was learning too. They both run suppressed rigs and I see myself going that route now too.



And this whole time I thought You were the biggest hot shot coyote killer of the West already!

:D

Not even close! I'm very, very average. Just a garden variety recreational caller, not any better at it than thousands of others. Lots and lots and lots of guys that know more and have more skills than I do.

- DAA
 

DAA

Well-Known Member
How's that work with the dogs? Do they chase the coyotes, or are they bait?

Kinda like bait. The basics of it, you set up near a denning pair of coyotes and use coyote vocalizations to get their attention and bring them close enough for a look. The dogs range out and about, looking for coyotes. When the dogs and the coyotes see each other, the dogs engage them. Preferably without actual contact, to avoid getting hurt. But the dogs will chase after the coyotes and the coyotes, very predictably, will eventually turn around to fight the dogs. The dogs then run back towards us with the coyotes chasing them.

This dog fight goes round and round sometimes. With lots of chasing back and forth, howling, screaming, barking, snarling and posturing going on. It's just neater than heck to watch! While all this is going on, it's amazing to what degree the coyotes will totally ignore us, if they ever even become aware of us. They just get locked in on the dogs.

The main point, is to get both coyotes involved. Just calling, without the dogs, more often than not you are going to get just the male or just the female. Or, if you do get both to come in, it's less likely they both line up to allow killing them both, or the second one runs off after the first one gets shot.

With the coyotes fully engaged in the dog fight, and super well trained dogs that know exactly what they are doing, the dogs will work the pair of coyotes until both are in a good position to get shot. And, after shooting the first one, usually, the dogs can continue to work the other and get it shot too, if need be. To the point of - and I saw this myself - the second coyote fleeing the scene and disappearing over the next ridge, the dogs pursue it, engage it, and get it to chase them right back to where we are waiting.

I just googled "coyote decoy dog video" and there are a ton of youtube vids showing this in action. This one is a short clip that shows a lot of the kind of stuff I saw this week:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IEGm-xGWyaE

Note - the guy that made that video is a total doosh bag and I would not piss on him if he were on fire, but the vid is short and sweet and shows the kind of action I was trying to describe above.

- DAA
 

thefirstzukman

Finding Utah
Supporting Member
You lucky sucker, I am so jealous. My next dog will be trained to hunt Coyotes... I know a couple people who use them and they can make the difference in those hard hit areas. Tony Teebe is a dick, my only interaction has been on the phone and on forums and I'm sure you have been privileged to have more interaction.
 

sixstringsteve

Well-Known Member
Location
UT
@ 1:36 in the video, it looks like one coyote is trying to eat the other while it's still alive.

[video]https://youtu.be/IEGm-xGWyaE?t=1m36s[/video]
 

DAA

Well-Known Member
Nawww... Just typical predator striking predator that's showing weakness behavior. I think all predators will quickly turn on one of their own that gets hurt. And killing it wouldn't surprise me, but that's not "food" behavior in the slightest. Once you have seen a few coyotes kill and eat, you'll never have any doubt about that intention! Put it this way, if that coyote had any interest in eating the other one, it would have been, instead of just snapping at it - and not waiting for it to be dead to start chowing down. It would have been running around pulling out intestine by the yard and gulping it down.

- DAA
 
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