Chicken coop and pen is on edge of a plot. I roll up inGator tonight and there are 7 turkey poults, bigger than chickens. I turned off Gator and they just stood there 10 ft from the coop. I got out 10 yrds from them and they just slowly walked away. 5 more days to doe hunt, nice to see any game in that plot.
this is in WI. You know how you can tell? It's pretty. I don't know about the yote regs. My buddy the landowner is a big 'yote hunter in Illinois, but I don't really have time nor interest in hunting them. There's not that many up there, I've been running cams up there for 11 years and I don't think I've gotten 10 total on camera. These 5 (there's another one just off camera) appear to be a family and I have only had them on cams 2x in a month, and I've got almost the whole 40 covered. My buddy has hunted them a few times over the years up there and never seen one. I've gotten almost as many wolves as yotes on cam up there.
agreed, I said as much when I posted a set of pics about a month ago...we have wolves up there, too. These would be smallish for wolves but huge for yotes, but there is a lot of hybridization in eastern wolves and yotes. Who knows? I don't have the visceral 'kill all wild canines' impulse. They are there, but not in huge numbers, they only show up occasionally on camera. We walk the property pretty regularly, I'd say almost monthly except for February and maybe June/July (too many ticks) and I think we've only found one or two deer carcass that looked like a big predator/scavenger had been at it. If I saw a yote chasing a deer I'd probably take it down if a clean shot presented itself, but I'm not going out of my way to exterminate them. My buddy is a different story. He likes coyote hunting as much as he does deer hunting.
in most places 'yotes are the devil when it comes to fawn predation, bears also take a good number where present, then of course wolves do a huge number on both young and adult deer, fawns havnt a chance... I'll kill a coyote every chance I get, I despise them ... we now have bobcats locally and I wonder just how much of an impact they will have when combine with damn coyotes .... I enjoy hunting coyotes, used to trap them when I had time .. a buddy of mine was picked to trap a local gamebird habitat area several years back, 1200 acres, he took 25 coyotes off the place the first year, 22 the next... they dont allow coyote hunting there per se, but you can take one while deer hunting if you can ... this is where he caught a bobcat while trapping, the DNR came out with a CO to help in its release, it was a female that was caught just a hundred yards from where I had a stand tree I hunted from .... this is Porter County, In. .......
I keep hearing about this 19 year repeat moon cycle causing a bifurcated rut (two rut seasons). In 2005 there were two peak ruts - late october and again around Thanksgiving. I was not hunting in 2005 and still in high school. Any veterans have thoughts, experience, and perspective on this? I need to drop PTO and this prediction has me scratching my head a bit. A couple of article below discussing this. https://www.onxmaps.com/hunt/blog/2024-rut-predictions https://www.eveningtribune.com/stor...ct-deer-hunting-this-fall-season/72387501007/
Quantico Marine Base did a fawn mortality study. One year they tracked nearly 30 fawns. None survived and most all were killed by coyotes. I hunted for over 20 yrs on that base and about 2015ish we all started noticing coyotes increasing....the deer kill dropped by 40% and has never recovered.
there is the main rut, depending on where one is at usually starting late Oct. running thru Nov.... peak's around mid Nov..... most does are bred during that time frame... Does will continue to cycle every 28 days or so until bred or their breeding season ends... Ive seen does being bred in late Dec. ... does around here can be bred into February which then gives a late fawn drop ... those are the fawns I see still holding spots into Nov, small when compared to those bred during the main breeding time... some will not survive the winter ...
That rut is the same general time frame every year. Wildlife biologists have proved this extensively by back dating fetuses from dead pregnant does to the dates of conception. Most conception dates, varying slightly based upon geographic location, are within the first two weeks of November. The moon phase may slightly affect activity during legal light hours, but the actual dates vary so insignificantly that is a moot point. Unseasonable weather may also be a contributing factor. If hunters are experiencing a slow rut, it is most likely because they are not sitting where the deer are. Hunt less, scout more and kill more. Start the video at the 2:36 mark and watch to the 8:00 mark.
Thank you. I try to remain in the "keep it simple" camp, but it never fails where I begin reading too much and allowing myself to over think.
I believe most does that are bred late in the season are often doe fawns that come into heat when they reach a certain weight-leading to a "secondary rut". It's a good sign when doe fawns are breeding in the fall/winter. A few does may not get bred their first cycle and also contribute to a secondary rut.
Problem is you can't casually kill them. They need to be wiped out or they will increase their pup production. That said worse thing done here was a Fisher stock. I'll take coyote over Fisher hands down. I NEVER ,NEVER found deer / turkey parts in my blinds nor ladder stands until the fisher arrived. I'm talking wings ,tails,legs , whole fawn and half adult with legs. Talked to nieghbor and they've seen just 5 adult doe on their 100 acres this year. We use to have massive herds. Dumb hunters,coyote,and Fisher.
Oh the blind is done, save a few tweeks needed. Door way was a true "cluster" due to sloping land. I ended up digging to Chine to make a sunken door " well" then dug a drain away. Last rain storm before back wall install was a wet soggy mess. Now I'm truely rain and bug proof. At least once I finish attaching screening. Not prettiest I've ever made but I used up a lot of scape wood, tarps and land scape barrier. Used up a lot of the wood son gave me from his farm house remodeling. It will also dbl. as a garden tool shed.
