Do any of you hunt farmland owned by old timers? We got permission to hunt a ton of land surrounding our home for deer. He wants them all gone due to crop damage. However, we have a big pack of coyotes in the area and he won't let us kill them and if he catches us we are off the land. We have about 15 acres of our own woods that we're trying to get them, but it proves difficult when surrounded by his 100s. (We worry about our calves). Now to actually pattern a deer is near impossible...am I the only one to have a crazy farmer like this?! Any tips to try and figure these deer out with a pack with approximately 10 dogs is in the area?
I’ve never asked the farmer whose land I hunt on here in Kentucky about coyotes, but I do know he hates the deer. He wants as many deer killed as possible, so it stands to reason that he would think of coyotes as allies. Just the knowledge that they help thin the herd is enough to keep me from shooting them here even though there are tons of them and I see them all the time. I’ve had ‘yotes ruin a couple of sits but they haven’t had any significant impact on my ability to kill deer here and I haven’t noticed any real change in deer movement patterns that I would attribute to coyotes.
Many farmers are that way, they like the coyotes because they eat mice and voles. So no, you aren’t the only one that knows a “crazy” farmer. I don’t have much to offer as far as hunting deer that are afraid of them. I’ve seen coyotes chase deer several times, but for the most part the deer where I’m at only pay attention to them if they can see one close to them, they pay their howling no concern if a decent distance away from them. I actually shot a nice buck several years ago that I’d have never seen if a coyote hadn’t bumped it out of its bed and pushed it towards me. It can go either way.
I only call him crazy with good intentions. He's a family friend as my mom graduated with him and we've known him forever. We want to protect our farm, he wants to protect the yotes. Then I just attributed the coyotes to unpatternable deer.
I don't trust a coyote. I can't understand why anyone would want to keep coyotes. Bet he won't keep cockroaches in his kitchen. FWIW, my parents lived in Los Angeles. They heard of stories where pets went missing. Dad said he would see them trotting along the freeways when he went to work. Getting rid of all coyotes is like nailing a piece of Jello to the wall.
We are on our land, it opens this upcoming weekend. But our chunk is small compared to all his surrounding it.
