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Coyotes are efficient deer killers

Am late to the party here but let me add my two cents, having trapped my way through college in the 70's when fox were $65 in Minnesota and we got $100 for beautiful Montana "western" coyotes. The big white bellies were in huge demand as furriers would dye spots (rosettes) on the white fur and sell jackets as bobcat! I have trapped and hunted coyotes from San Diego County to Georgia and TN and also most western states in the last 55 years. I have always said, coyotes are 3 times as hard to catch as fox. Coyotes are more cautious, taller, walk or tramp the set less. Bobcats are a breeze, curiosity kills cats.

Coyotes are equal-opportunity killers. They love fawns! Coyotes will kill alone, family groups, pairs (especially sheep in August in the West when pups are getting lethal). Coyotes have expanded nationally, just not in TN and have clobbered red fox populations in mosts states. I attended the National Trappers Association annual convention in Sioux Falls, SD this past summer and asked around to alot of guys from different states about fox populations coming back and to a man they all said coyotes have decimated the populations. Here in Cumberland County I haven't caught a grey fox in years and 30 some years ago they were common as were reds. Reds will den close to farms, barns, people to keep their kits away from coyotes.

40 years ago there were alot more denning sites available in the fox country of SD, Iowa, MN, ND, WI but now fence rows are almost a thing of the past with GPS technology in farming technique and practices. Hunters will not significantly cut back coyotes. Good coyote long-line trappers who trap vast ranches in Texas never have to worry about the population being hurt the following year. Guys I know who consistently catch a couple hundred coyotes a year snaring never worry about hurting themselves the following year. Coyotes adapt and move, migrate and follow food sources. They kill what ever they come across, turkey polts, voles, mice, rats, rabbits, fawns are the end product of a nose that is 1,000 times better than your pet dog.
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megalomaniac said:
The only time in TN you want to reduce fawning cover and degrade habitat is if you are focused on the velvet hunt. Does get the best habitat all summer long, and if that is your place, the bachelor groups will be elsewhere. But during the rut, the bucks are going where there is COVER, DOES, and FOOD. During hunting season but outside the rut, bucks focus on SECLUSION (from hunters and other deer).
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Couldn't agree more. Since we cut a lot of timber and allowed it to grow back thick (since 2020), we may have few bucks using the property in summer (they are hanging around the edges), but we've got a growing number of does and fawns (which we are trying to promote, as our doe population was wiped out by a neighboring Earn-A-Buck program). Yet during the season, around the rut, the property will be flooded with older bucks as they seek all those does. We will go from less than 10 total bucks photographed in summer to 60+ during October through December.
 
Throwing this out there…was listening to gamekeepers podcast today and the guest they had on there was a wildlife biologist who didnt spend a lot of time focusing on predator mgmt. Was saying this mainly because a lot of the properties he goes to for consults have too many deer (doe) on the landscape. Also tied to this thought was that if you can properly manage the early successional plant community you'll in turn provide more brood cover and fawning cover for deer and turkeys. Now, I will shoot every coyote I see and I hunt them after season often but, just thought that was interesting and it may not be directly related just an interesting idea.
 
WTNBowHunter said:
Throwing this out there…was listening to gamekeepers podcast today and the guest they had on there was a wildlife biologist who didnt spend a lot of time focusing on predator mgmt. Was saying this mainly because a lot of the properties he goes to for consults have too many deer (doe) on the landscape. Also tied to this thought was that if you can properly manage the early successional plant community you'll in turn provide more brood cover and fawning cover for deer and turkeys. Now, I will shoot every coyote I see and I hunt them after season often but, just thought that was interesting and it may not be directly related just an interesting idea.
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WTNBowHunter...I listened to the same podcast and heard the same comment recently. I actually had to rewind because I thought I must have misunderstood?
While I'm no fan of the coyote...in reality I understand what the guy is saying. As a land manager he has many clients who simply wont kill enough does...so his focus is more on the habitat and improving available native food sources and the coyotes will just do what they do. (he also mentioned having a 300 miles radius he manages properties in so extensive trapping is probably unrealistic for him). Interesting podcast.
 
WTNBowHunter said:
Throwing this out there…was listening to gamekeepers podcast today and the guest they had on there was a wildlife biologist who didnt spend a lot of time focusing on predator mgmt. Was saying this mainly because a lot of the properties he goes to for consults have too many deer (doe) on the landscape. Also tied to this thought was that if you can properly manage the early successional plant community you'll in turn provide more brood cover and fawning cover for deer and turkeys. Now, I will shoot every coyote I see and I hunt them after season often but, just thought that was interesting and it may not be directly related just an interesting idea.
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Haven't heard the podcast, but I tend to agree. I don't think I've ever added a predator control mission into any management plan I've ever written. Why? Because it's so difficult to produce a noticeable impact. Not that I'm discounting the impact a good predator control program can reap, but that it's so hard to do so. Instead, I'm going to focus on getting a client to produce as much good fawning cover as possible. In essence, reduce the level of impact the coyote population can have on the fawn population through great hiding cover.
 
I just bought a used FoxPro this week. My old caller the remote went bad and it is so old that you can't get a replacement. Going to give it a try. There used to be an East Tennessee Predator hunting club. Jake Martenis was the leader but he has moved away to Montana now.

Normally I don't hunt the coyotes to reduce their numbers, I trap them. My landowner has free running dogs (which I hate). I can't take the chance on catching one of them, or I would lose my rights to hunt and fish. Honestly, I think free running domestic dogs are just as much of a hazzard to wildlife as coyotes.

At the end of August, I put out four bushels of apples for the deer and other critters, mostly to see what was around. Sure the deer ate them up quickly. Then the COYOTES ate them! LOTS of pictures of the coyotes running around with an apple in its mouth.

On the other side of the property, the apples were ignored until this gigantic black bear had his way with them. Needed to get the bait out of there 10 days prior anyway, and the critters cleaned them all up. :)
 
If you want to speed up the learning curve to lightening fast, look up Torry Cooks (founder of MFK calls) podcasts on coyote calling. what calls to use and when depending on the season.

There's a lot of art to coyote calling (that I have not mastered yet), but you can really pick up the basics and become quite effective in removing them. But it's a year round thing, not just a month after deer season ends. The cool thing is, certain tactics become even more effective at different times of the year. (ie locating howls in the dark during denning season, then sneaking in to within 100y of their den (Mar/ April) and challenging them. or pups in distress in May). Its way more interactive than just blowing prey distress calls and hoping they show up.
 
WTNBowHunter said:
Throwing this out there…was listening to gamekeepers podcast today and the guest they had on there was a wildlife biologist who didnt spend a lot of time focusing on predator mgmt. Was saying this mainly because a lot of the properties he goes to for consults have too many deer (doe) on the landscape. Also tied to this thought was that if you can properly manage the early successional plant community you'll in turn provide more brood cover and fawning cover for deer and turkeys. Now, I will shoot every coyote I see and I hunt them after season often but, just thought that was interesting and it may not be directly related just an interesting idea.
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I would agree with him.

If you have no desire to shoot does or manage herd dynamics and just want to hunt and shoot a buck or two, coyotes will keep the population in check for you.

Personally, we enjoy shooting does and I have 8 folks who cannot hunt any longer I keep supplied in venison. Before the great distemper outbreak that wiped out the coyotes we had 3 years ago, we simply could not afford to shoot ANY does. Our fawn recruitment hovered between 10 and 20% for over a decade. After distemper wiped all of them out, we made the conscious effort to eradicate any new dogs moving back in. Trapping, calling, everything it takes short of poisoning them. Fawn recruitment rates increased to 50% the following year, stayed there again last year, and so far it appears I'm going to be in the 40% range this year. I want the deer population to remain stable, so we killed 4 does 2 years ago, and killed 8 last year. I'm expecting to kill 10-12 this year. I should have killed more, but I am being very cautious about making sure I don't overharvest. All the does go to humans to eat instead of letting the coyotes eat them all.
 
Shoot every one you can. Just think. If you can check traps daily it just increases your hunting time. 24 traps set 24 hrs creates a lot of hunting. There is a forum called Trapperman that is full of information snd helpful people
 
Question for the yote shooters....when you kill a yote, do you just let it lay there or do you move it?

Just curious....I have missed two and don't know what I would do if it went down. I might keep head and boil a skull.
 
doubleridge and megalomaniac, we are in that exact position described at the farm we hunt. we have a group of great guys that by all standards, the downside is that some of them just dont want to kill a doe and 'fool with the work' after they harvest the animal.
 
Antler Daddy said:
Question for the yote shooters....when you kill a yote, do you just let it lay there or do you move it?

Just curious....I have missed two and don't know what I would do if it went down. I might keep head and boil a skull.
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I used to drag them out but have not in quite a few years. I just leave them lay.
 
BSK said:
Here's an odd question: I've always heard (and seen in trail-camera data) that coyotes are major predators of fox. And usually, your fox population is an indicator of your coyote population, as in lots of coyotes means few foxes. Lots of foxes means few coyote. However, over the last couple of years, my local fox population has been exploding, even though my coyote population appears stable or even rising. I get a LOT of coyotes on trail-cam. Yet at the same time, I'm now getting entire families of foxes on cam, and I mean ever single night.

Thoughts?
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I've always have heard the same thing. We now have a decent population of foxes. I went years without seeing any and we see them hard to say regularly but we see them a lot with out own eyes and on cameras. And Our coyote population is probably as high as ever.

I am a trophy hunter by definition. But will always kill a coyote whenever I get a chance. But I know several people that will not "mess" up a deer hunt to kill a coyote. And that's not a good thing at all.

I know trapping is popular now for turkeys especially, but the deer hunters that don't turkey hunt need to try to trap as well.
 
Antler Daddy said:
Question for the yote shooters....when you kill a yote, do you just let it lay there or do you move it?

Just curious....I have missed two and don't know what I would do if it went down. I might keep head and boil a skull.
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I leave them lay. Sometimes they will even attract another.
 
My neighbor claims you can soak cotton balls in bacon grease and drop them around. That coyotes can't digest it and it will wipe them out. Anybody ever heard of such? I've killed so many at my house this year that I don't hear or see any here at the house anymore.
 
PickettSFHunter said:
My neighbor claims you can soak cotton balls in bacon grease and drop them around. That coyotes can't digest it and it will wipe them out. Anybody ever heard of such? I've killed so many at my house this year that I don't hear or see any here at the house anymore.
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Cut up sponges and soak in grease. Works better. Will kill your neighbors roaming dogs as well, so be careful
 

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