Anyone predator hunt?

Anyone coyote hunt or predator hunt? If so, where do you hunt? Been predator hunting for a couple years now. Its taking over my deer hunting a little bit. lol

 

I shoot them if I see them, coyotes can destroy turkey, pheasant and deer fawn populations so they are on my hit list. I havent had much success calling them in. Most have been targets of opportunity.

 

Out here in the east its hard to call during the day so we go at night. Would love to go hunt out west during the day where you can shoot 300 yards plus! We used to have a bunch of turkeys on the place I hunt and now we are down to a handful of hens and jakes so they might have thinned the turkeys out.

 

The last couple years Ive started seeing more turkey, and pheasant. I'd like to say Im helping...at least I hope so. We still have a lot of coyotes but they only seem to come out at night.

 

A few years ago i was into calling Yotes pretty heavy.
My local area is loaded with them, but the only place I can hunt them is over an hour away.
I always went at first light, and only used mouth calls, both open and closed reed. I always liked Sceery calls, as they are my originals. I always felt you can get more "feeling" with a mouth call.
My setup always consisted of a lone hen turkey decoy as well as a Mojo critter with turkey wing feathers on the whip. Seemed to work well. Called in several bobcats as well and a couple fishers, but I can't shoot them here.
Learning curve was steep when I started, as internet wasn't invented yet and everything was self taught. Screwed up a lot and learned from mistakes.
Lots of fun and gets you out of the house. March was always my favorite time to go.
Called this blondie in a few Marches ago. Shot at 40 yards with a .54 Lyman with a round ball as she was eyeballing my decoy. She was a very healthy 40 pounds.
Good Times!

 

I totally agree on the learning curve. We started with the red lights and cheap electronic calls and now have moved to all night vision stuff. We screwed up on so many and educated them a bit before "kind of" figuring it out. I've always thought the same thing with the mouth calls as well. The electronic calls just aren't as realistic. One thing I've learned is when shooting for fun the day before hunting turn the power back down on the scope! Lol and wow that's a cool firearm to kill an animal with.

 

I hunt some in central VA. I have been a hand full of times. I see them but haven't had the chance to seal the deal.

 

Love calling animals in. These were all killed within 500 yards of each other over the last few years. I usually shoot 5 or 6 in an average year.














I shoot a few bobcats as well, but usually let them walk as the hides are poor.




Even get in on the big predators too.

 

@Predator Strikeforce

 

Nice! do you get the skulls bleached?

 

Some, but not many.

 

I'd take a bobcat skull if you ever wanted to get rid of it I like bleaching my own stuff its cheaper in the long run.

 

Around 1980 we were getting $40 (I think) for a decent winter coyote pelt. Federal minimum wage at the time was $3.10. In inflation adjusted dollars those $40 pelts were equivalent to around $124 today. So we hunted the hell out of them! Paid for lots of beer, girls, and performance car parts. Now I only chase them on a few cattle and wheat ranches where we hunt to help keep their numbers down. It doesn't do a bit of good though. The lesson from the many many decades of government sponsored eradication programs that included trapping, poisoning, and bountys is that coyotes are highly adaptable and the only thing that really controls their populations is the rise and fall of their prey populations.

Edit - and apparently wolves. About the only "benefit" I can find for the wolf expansion into my old stomping grounds is they quickly clean out the coyotes. But I'll take 1,000 coyotes over ten wolves any day. Any day.

 

just means more targets to shoot at...to me...

 

Looks like you guys are having great success out there! Save a fawn and shoot a yote!!!!

 

The ones around central VA are super smart. We have a tough time with them on the regular!!

 

Been out with a friend a few times to call in coyotes with no luck. They aren't dumb animals. Last trip, I had a dog in sight but it was late at night and I couldn't confirm my target. Didn't want to drop a locals dog so we tried to track it down. 10 minutes later it started yelling from the direction it had left in.

Been wanting to do boar as well but hunting is limited in this area. I don't get too much free time to make it happen.

 

Id take a boar hunt any day...

 

They honestly are I must saw. Hopefully, I can finally connect with yote this year.

 

Are you using night vision, thermal, lights or day time?